I'm wide awake, it's the middle of the night...

My Spanish class forces me to do cultural activities every now and then, to help me become a more well-rounded person, I guess. Jordan and I decided to go to El Salvador Restaurante yesterday, because they apparently had a legendary food I needed to try, and I figured, Hey! Food=culture. Good plan!

So we went to this little hole-in-the-wall restaurant, and man. The atmosphere was sweet. Half the tables were legit booths, and the other half were the kind of cheap white tables you put on your patio.There were El Salvadorian decorations plastering the walls, in a weird-but-charming way, and the owner's kid/nephew/cousin was sitting in the corner, wearing an apron and coloring.

We ordered our food from a woman who spoke rapid-fire Spanish. I mostly understood what she was saying, and gave really good two- to three-word answers to her questions. All the while, I questioned myself: Was anything I learned in Spanish real? Do I sound like a total and complete idiot right now? Is anything I'm saying coherent or remotely grammatically correct, or am I just stringing together unrelated words in an unforgivable Spanish accent?

Apparently we did all right, because our food got to us, and I was so excited to devour it. We order "pupusas," which is Spanish for "a corn tortilla injected with the most delicious cheese, meat, and vegetables you've ever had in your mouth before." It also came with this shredded cabbage stuff that had been...marinated...in sauce. It was a lot better than it sounds.

After our happy mealtime, we got home, and within a half hour, my stomach said, "Dria. You made a bad choice today." And it proceeded to violently surrender its contents.

I suppose this means I had food poisoning. I was, in fact, food poisoned. Can you say it like that? Should it be hyphenated? I've never really understood what the term means. When people say, "Dude, yesterday sucked. I got food poisoning," do they really mean, "Yesterday I went to a shady 'authentic' restaurant and had the most amazing food ever, which I later threw up and now I never want to think about that place again, ever"?

Perhaps I'll never know what that phrase means, or if I was finally able to be an unwilling participant. I do know that I deserve extra credit on that Spanish assignment.