I walked into the lounge today and was met with a delicious spread of tacos, enchiladas, tamales, queso, and three kinds of homemade salsa: hot, hotter, and set-your-mouth-on-fire.
I took samples of quite a few things, and after I had finished what was on my plate, I contemplated going back for more. I was sitting across from Ms. M (who also happens to be Hispanic) who seemed to be enjoying a cup of soup of some sort. When I asked her what it was, she said it was called "menudo" and that it was delicious.
So I went and got some.
It looked more like a stew than a soup. I ate quite a few bites since it was tasty, but after a while, the consistency of the unidentifiable meat started to bother me so I discreetly threw the rest of it away.
Ten minutes later, when I was back in my portable chatting with three other staff members, I asked my aide (also Hispanic) if she had tried the "menudo".
"The menudo? Do you know what's in that?" she looked at me skeptically.
"Um. No....."
"It's cow's stomach!" She couldn't stop giggling.
Another staff member shook my hand and congratulated me on my "bravery" ("I've never known a white person to go near the stuff!" she claimed).
My aide made me an honorary "brown person" (and she's allowed to say stuff like that because she's Hispanic...)
Then the speech pathologist made me this badge, which I wore with pride for the rest of the day:
Note to self: bring a Spanish-English dictionary to the next Cinco de Mayo potluck!
