Over the food poisoning

Dear Mom and Dad,

I hope you had a great Thanksgiving despite my absence. I sure did miss the tradicional homecooked food, but don't fret; I didn't go hungry. I am feeling much better and was even able to enjoy some wine yesterday. Charlie is now recovering from food poisoning himself.  I think today he will almost be fully recovered. Don't worry, I nursed him back to health as he did for me. He's a lot more functioning when he's sick then I am. We ate out for two meals yesterday. (Surprised by Charlie's willingness to splurge.) The first meal we had was at a cute little Italian restuarant. Pizza is huge here. It's probably because it's so cheap to make, and Charlie says  they have the biggest profit margin from it. I was ready for a glass of wine at this point, so before we sat down we asked the server if they had wine because we didn't see it on the outside window. He said yes, but later we realized that one of the staff members quickly went to the nearest liquor store to purchase our request. It's amazing what they will do here to aquire customers. Here is a photo of us after dinner. (Charlie puked shortly after.)

For dinner, we dinned at a cute little sushi place. I was skeptical at first, not wanting another round of sickness. I was pleasently surprised by the quality and service. It's only been opened for three weeks and the place actually had a proper chef. Most places have a server, who doubles as the "chef." Charlie and I split a platter of sushi to enjoy multiple rolls. Of course, we had dessert: fried ice cream. It was phenominal! Here we are enjoying ourselves. (Charlie kept this meal down.)

We moved hostels to one with a TV. Charlie is enjoying this because they do have English channels for him to watch while he recovers. I like it because it's next to the ice cream store. :) We made dinner yesterday, and for the life of us, we CAN'T figure out how to make white rice. It may be the hardest thing to cook properly. It's either too crunchy and not cooked all the way through or it's sheer baby food mush. I WILL figure this out before I leave. There was an Asian in the kitchen watching me make food and asked to sample the stir-fry vegetables. The second he put it in his mouth he ran to spit it out and acted as if I gave him battery acid. His response was "needs more salt" then rolls his eyes. Dude, chill out. I didn't even ask for your opinion, and thank goodness you didn't try the rice because you really would have been offended. How rude.

We went go-carting here, which was a blast until we almost died. No joke. The carts are able to go on the main roads as well as dirt paths, which makes them perfect for touring all the waterfalls in the area. Well, as we were finishing up our safe three hour drive, we go through one last tunnel through the mountains. For whatever reason, this tunnel didn't have any lights to light up the path and our carts don't have lights. Fifty feet into the tunnel we realize we can't see a thing, and there's no way to turn around in a one way hole without lights. I start screaming and quickly panick. My first thought was a semi was going to come up from behind us, not see us, and blast us into a million pieces. Just as I was about to get out and press myself against the wall of the tunnel and run/feel my way out, take the $3,000 cart cost, a bus came up behind us and lit up the path for Charlie to drive out. Who the hell makes tunnels without lights? Especially when we went through 10 other ones just fine and the last a death trap. The least they could have done is make a warning sign about this one.  No more motorized vehicles for us.

We are going white water rafting today! Super excited.

Love always,

Matti Jo