Hey there blogland! Right now I am in the car with my parents on the way to Massachusetts for little sister's graduation. What better time for the next "Curiosities" guest blogger? So without further ago I give you the fabulous Ashley from Kiwis and Cocktails. Enjoy!"Curiosity Didn’t almost Kill the cat, but It did make her Hallucinate."First, I am honored and happy that
Cee asked me to be a guest poster. This is MY VERY FIRST Guest post! I picked my brain apart trying to think of a story from my life that illustrated the theme of "Curiosity". I am a curious person by nature, but this particular episode in my life taught me a lesson: Listen to people when they suggest you should not eat something.
I studied abroad in New Zealand during my college years. I lived in dorm style flat. I had 5 other flatmates: A boy from Germany (VERY VERY CUTE), Boy from Kenya, Girl from America (Grew up in Philly, but went to college in VT), Boy from America (Colorado I think), Kiwi girl (from NZ) who had a shaved head. The Kenyan and the Kiwi had already lived in this same flat for a year before the rest of us arrived for that semester. They had just said goodbye to 4 other international students. There was also an RA for the whole dorm flat building. His name was
Ragu. Yes, like the spaghetti sauce. I don’t think NZ has
Ragu sauce, so this was only funny to us Americans.
Now,
Ragu was a bit of the “supplier” around campus if you know what I mean. Well, in case you don’t know what I mean- He sold the herbs. Something to note, some of the students at this University were 17 and some were in their mid to late twenties, depending on their programs and studies. I had a few “older” students in my flat.
Regu was not only the “dealer”, but he was also “OLD” in comparison. Looking back, he was probably like 26. My Kiwi flatmate was a huge
stoner. All the time. I kind of assumed it was legal or decriminalized there, since she did it so much. I mean, the drinking age is 18, so this sounded plausible?
After I met my Kiwi boyfriend, I stayed at his house sometimes. In the beginning, he would drop me off at my flat at 7:30 AM on his way to work. My first class was not until 10:30 on most mornings, so I would go back to bed when he dropped me off! Sometimes I would watch my American shows on my laptop while lying in my dorm twin size bed (some smart American kids networked the shows-t his was before the day when you could go to
abc.com or
hulu.)
After dating my kiwi boyfriend for a while, he taught me how to drive his “spare car”. They drive on the other side of the road over there and the steering wheel is on the other side too. Learning this is feat within itself. I would go to turn on the blinker, and the windshield wipers would start going! But, this car was the same YEAR as me. Ya, no wonder my boyfriend let me use it! It was worth $200.00 tops! (In my opinion) Oh, did I mention it was not only a standard, but it HAD A CHOKE to start it! Like, from the olden days. I grew up learning to drive a stick shift, but it was hard getting used to the stick on the left of me instead of the right. Also, I had to put fluids in it every day after driving it. On the mornings I drove myself to school in the car he called “The Great White” because it was white, I would get up slowly and make my breakfast. I loved going through all his food cabinets and eating lots of food. Sometimes , I would get up, get a bowl of ice cream (NZ ice cream is VERY creamy and different) and go back to bed for a bit. It was still that stage where you don’t want to be Miss Piggy around your new boyfriend? You know? So, I Just decided to be a closet eater and eat all the food that I had seen in the cabinets since I started going to his house. And, I always woke up starving because I
didn’t eat a lot of dinner around him. You know- trying to impress? I was young and dumb, what can I say?
One night , the boyfriend and I were going through one of his cabinets looking for some papers. Well, he was looking, I was being nosy. I saw this beautiful tin on the shelf. I asked him what was in the tin. He looked at me and told me the tin was his flatmates’. Boyfriend rented out a room in his house to his workmate who needed a place to stay. He opened up the tin, and I saw cookies!! Then, boyfriend put them back on the shelf and told me they were NOT cookies I wanted to eat.
Hm. Weird.
A week or so goes by, and I was looking in the cabinet for food before going to school. I opened up that tin and took 2 cookies. I wrapped them in a napkin and tossed them in the front of my book bag.
A couple weeks pass. Boyfriend dropped me off at school early in the morning. I was going back to bed before my class. First, I dumped out my book bag looking for my cell phone. OH, damn it! I forgot about those cookies! They were broken! I stuffed a few pieces in my mouth…just to get rid of the mess. I know- who does that? I was so sanitary.
I went to bed.
I dreamed very weird things.
I woke up and attempted to go to the bathroom. I could barely walk. I had to walk down the flat hall with my hands on the walls. My other flatmates were up getting ready for school. They knew I had come home that morning and asked if I was drunk. I had NO idea what was going on. I thought my shaved head roommate was trying to make out with me. She was not. I thought my Kenyan roommate was speaking a different language to me. He was not. The rooms were spinning. I was seeing birds- I was ducking. I was hallucinating.
I went back to bed and skipped my first class. There was no way I could go like this!I got up for my next class. I met 2 of my fellow American classmates for the walk over to our NZ Politics class. I told the two boys about the cookies and how it was a mistake. And, I was scared. Not that this part of the story is entirely relevant, but one of my classmates I confessed to is the nephew of a previous American President. (Speaking of, I think he
unfriended me from
Facebook!) No one at school really knew "who" he was, but if any dummy looked at his full name, it was pretty damn obvious. Well, I did. I figured it out after meeting him for 2 days, but I am just smart like that and I know my stuff! And, we were in TWO politics classes together in a country that hated American politics at the time! Oh, that part was fun…especially when high on cookies!
It was a rough morning/day for me, and everyone knew it from taking a two second look at me!
The best part, or maybe worse, is when I convinced the RA,
Ragu, that America sent me over to investigate him, and I worked for the American DEA. Yes, I did. I accused him of his antics in front of A LOT of people, and discussed my DEA agenda for a good 30 minutes.
I
didn’t show my face in that flat complex for weeks. I hid at boyfriend’s house and only went to campus for classes, then immediately left.
On the very last day of school , I apologized to good ole
Regu. I told him I would send any future American
stoners his way when they arrived on campus.
That was the end of my herbal cookie days, and my curiosity of crusty old baked goods in pretty tins. I ended up telling my boyfriend what happened a long time after. His response, "I told you, you didn't want to eat THOSE cookies.
haha. How were they?"
I love this story because it is so college...one of my friends actually ate a brownie she thought was "special" once but turns out it was just an overpriced brownie a frat was selling as a fundraiser. Thanks Ashley!
