Good Morning Starshine! The Earth Says Hello!

So I haven't written for a month and a half. About that.

After my November post, I had a week of mid-service medicals with the staj up in Rabat - Parasite free! - then headed back to site for a week. I then departed for my jaunt up and over the Atlantic for three weeks. While in America, I vowed to completely remove myself from all responsibility in Morocco, which happened to include this here blog, and become an absolute glutton. Mission more than accomplished as I've seemed to gain somewhere in the neighbourhood of 10-15 pounds. Life was wonderful, if not sluggish, but now I'm back and ready to story-tell. So, please make sure your seat backs and tray tables are in their upright and locked position and here we goooooo.

While en route to America for the holidays - snuggled up in my plastic-wrapped, economy-class, Air-Canadian blankie - sugar plums, grande lattes, corn dogs, and bacon-related breakfasts danced in my head. The glory of these calorific products multiplied in tastiness exponentially with my expectations beginning to brim over with promise of parades, fireworks, and pure jubilation hitting the tongue with every bite. Turns out, my memory exaggerated. Just a little.

The following is a list of munchies that totally lived up to the hype. And those that, unfortunately, did not reach my unsurmountable expectations..

Those that more than made the grade:

- Corn Dogs. Okay folks, I'm just calling 'em as I see 'em. I know you're probably tempted to judge my corn-bread-coated-mystery-meat-on-a-stick pick here as it's not exactly haute cuisine, but seriously, it was freaking DELICIOUS.
- Pork Wonton Nachos. Shredded pig. Lotsa (technical measurement) cheese. On deep fried wonton skins. Um. Duh. Yes, please.
- Seafood. All. Of. It. It makes me really sad my little town only has sardines. One day a week. Of questionable quality.
- Berrrrrries! Blackberries, Blueberries, Strawberries, Rasberries. I had them like for every meal. On cereal, pancakes, salads, sauces, desserts. It was a berry-tastic occasion.
- A Baja Chicken Chalupa. This I had at 2am, post bar-hopping and pool-playing. I don't think it would have tasted as good sober, thus an exception.
- Bratwurst. Do I even need to justify?
- Movie popcorn. I don't know if Paula Dean called ahead to verify the quality and quantity of butter involved, but God bless her parents if she did. Glorious.
- Mushrooms. Corn. Asparagus.
- Cannolis. My god.

Those that failed to impress (aka: those my brain lied to me about for 16 months):

- Starbucks fancy-schamcy-half-calf-no-foam-double-stuffed-extra-hot-saucy-mcsaucy-caramel-toffee-crisp-whip-cream-bad-ass-mama-jamma-venti-whatevers. Seriously, their coffee is good, but like, I couldn't deal with anything bigger than a tall and with more sugar than whatever I put in it myself. It was gag-inducing. Which is astonishing, as I LOVED this shit before leaving for Morocco. Looks like I'm luckily back to buying a buck cup of coffee and not a $5 one.
- Most fast food. Del Taco Burritos? Meh. McDonald's Cheeseburger? Cardboard. Jack in the Box Chicken Sandwich? Stomach Ache. Any and all french fries? Greasy and way too salty. The stand alone exception was the In-n-out Double-Double. Mmmm. Well that and the aforementioned corn dog. God bless the corn dog.
- Red Bull. What the hell was I thinking drinking this stuff before?
- Bud Light. I repeat. What the hell?
- Pizza. Pretty much any take-out pizza. They were gross. All of them. Hard. Bland. Doughy. Greasy. Disgusting. It almost made me sad. But then I had a 'gourmet' one at a swanky Italian place my parents love so much and it restored my faith in the art of the pizza. You give me artichoke hearts, sundried tomatoes, and extra mozzarella on just about anything and I'll testify my faith.
- Cupcakes. Are we over them yet?

I could continue, but I digress. And I did get the new Anthony Bourdain book for Christmas (Medium Raw, go out and buy it), so I suppose I can blame him for my culinary (ha, a significant portion is fast food, not exactly culinary-ific) monologue.

I shall be back to work soon so shall have more Peace Corps related updates sooner than later, I'm sure. In the meantime, you might find me posting random (apologies if unwelcome) anecdotes from my time away. Otherwise, I'm happy to be home with Jeter!

Ps. Artichokes are back in season in Sedona-miz, yay!!