I'm dragging myself four hours southward today to meet a friend I haven't seen in six years who is visiting the country but can't make it to my city (I offered since she lives in a country with an exploitative af work culture and only has 5 or 6 days in Europe).
This morning she reached out to ask if there was anything I didn't eat since they were about to go shopping for tomorrow's breakfast, and I said no.
Then I remembered that this was the same question she asked me the very first time I met her when she was still the friend of a friend who was helping me settle in a new place.
That night, we went for dinner with a group of her friends, and they randomly started ordering stuff, and I wasn't paying too much attention, since I was jetlagged and barely spoke the local language (I still don't speak it much, but my friend and I both speak Chinese).
We ended up with a table full of all kinds of dishes, and I was about to dig in when I realized that half of the stuff was... organs. Liver, kidney, brain, stomach, intestines. They had also ordered what I already knew was one of my least favorite dishes in the world: congealed pig blood. Lots of cartilage dishes, too.
I should have anticipated this, since I had lived in China and was used to people ordering stuff that wasn't exactly my thing. But I had also lived mainly in Beijing, where people may order one or two organ dishes, but the rest of the food in Northern China still tends to be pretty tame overall. Now I was in full-blown organ-blood-and-cartilage-lover country.
There was zero malice, either -- No "haha the European lady said she likes to eat everything, let's show her!!!" My friends just ordered what they liked to eat and were genuinely puzzled when I told them organs weren't my favorite.
Anyway, I just remembered this story, and now I'm a little worried what I'll be having for breakfast tomorrow.
C’mon Sister Sage, don’t just inform him of the problem. Tell him how to fix* it.
*there is actually no good controlled clinical trial evidence that prostate massage alleviates symptoms of urinary tract dysfunction arising from BPH despite the above article from 2009 recommending further study.
i can’t get over the fact that during season one of the boys, Antony Starr had to bend at a 45 degree angle to use the bathroom because the costume is designed to keep his posture straight and had no pants zipper, yet they gave him arm zips 😭😭😭😭
Source audio below. Was crying with laughter listening to this. A really interesting podcast btw!