Tepan-yucky

The fact of the matter is, if our trip had been even 2 weeks earlier I would not have felt up to going. I am having many more good days now though sites and smells still effect me and I am pretty careful about when and what I eat to keep from getting sick. The Taiwanese people are a very kind people for the most part and gift giving seems to be a big part of their culture. Ever since Nathan started working with people from there -clear back before Kennedy was born he would bring home gifts for me- and occasionally even our children, from their Taiwan partners or clients. In January we received a package out of the blue from the girlfriend of someone Nathan had worked with. It was an outfit for Kenna and Kohen and a purse for Aly and some other thoughtful things. A very sweet gesture. 

Anyway when people that Nathan works with found out his wife was coming with him this trip they all began inviting me to go to their business dinners with them. I apologized sincerely to Nathan but told him there was no way my stomach was up to the task of eating unfamiliar foods and if I don't eat the food offense could very easily be taken. Nathan was able to get me out of everything except one lunch. The people responsible for our recent package insisted on taking us out to lunch to a Tepanyaki style place. I dreaded it all week.  

Things got off to a bad start when I was already hungry and we arrived at the restaurant where reservations had been made and imagine that, they had no record of it and all 3 tables were being used by bigger parties than ours, obviously we'd been bumped. We proceeded to wait for more than an hour while I grew closer and closer to being sick. When we were finally seated the food I had waited so long for proved to be one hideous dish after another. Poor Nathan, trying to protect me would whisper frantically under his breath to me, "Do Not Eat That! I'm telling you, if I can't eat it you can't!" Good thing the cooking was loud or we'd never have gotten away with that. 

As the dishes grew weirder and kept coming one after another endlessly- so much yucky food!- Nathan's whisperings became more desperate, "I'm so sorry honey!...You can have whatever you want for dinner!...Just don't look at it!" One of the dishes was Cod and might have been okay had it not been swimming in what looked like blood water. After about 6 gross courses they brought out the lobster and threw them on the stove. Um, they totally started moving involuntarily all over the place. It was the most stomach turning part of the lunch. Nathan took some video though they had slowed to about half the initial movement, it's about 20 seconds and it's...yuck. It's funny though at the end it shows our hosts saying hi and totally oblivious to the torture they were putting me through.

By the end of the bazillion course meal Nathan and I were having a hard time keeping a straight face about things. This was the only picture I let him take of me because I was afraid that our hosts would see I was being sarcastic and be offended. Though I don't know how they could've missed that I couldn't choke down hardly any of it, I guess I did get pretty good with the earnest pushing of food around my plate. I'd like to say this lunch proves just how much I love my husband. I was sick to my stomach the rest of the day and I would only endure an afternoon like that for him.