How to Eat Fried Worms

Pop it in, crunch, and swallow!!!

Yes, that's right, I ate a fried worm. It's all the rage in Thailand, I hear. These actually smelled a lot like peanuts, and they were so fried they reminded me of pork rinds.

A missionary who has lived in Thailand for 13 years actually spoke last Tuesday at the BCM. His message basically dealt with the idea that sometimes what God calls us to do is going to be unfamiliar and uncomfortable. And he also emphasized how God has called us to love people. Which is where the fried worms came in. Loving people means respecting their culture, and sometimes that can mean eating the food they offer you. When he offered a sample of the worms to all of the students at the BCM, almost everyone surged forward to try a worm.

Now, normally, I don't think I would have eaten one. I figure, I can wait to eat worms until I'm actually in a country where that's a common practice. However, I remembered a guy I've met from Thailand and decided, you know what? I'll eat a worm. I'll be brave and try something new and then I can tell him!

Well, I did tell him, and come to find out, he's never eaten a worm before. He said as far as bugs go, all he's ever eaten were ants.

Last night, I had a grand adventure: I went to a frat formal. (It was on a boat!!!) Apparently, 'formal' actually meant formal and not semi-formal so I was one of two girls not wearing a floor-length dress (mine only went just below my knee), but the two of us ended up sitting at the same table for dinner. And coincidentally, our dresses were the same color. Also, I don't have any elegant jackets so...I just didn't bring one. Luckily, dinner was inside, but dancing was not. I didn't dance much.

Even after eating a worm last Tuesday, I found I gagged on a large clump of fat in a bite of meat. I couldn't convince myself to swallow it. I had to leave and chunk it in a trash can in the restroom. So that was that. Awkward girl in a not-formal-enough dress with a mouthful of fatty meat. So classy.

If I were more of a lady, this may have bothered me. However, I am not a lady. I am a girl, so it serves as an entertaining story.

I definitely enjoyed myself.