The Orange Incident

  You know you always read about all those things, where they joke about them remembering something dumb they did back when they were young, and then they kind of cringe on the spot. You know what's even worse? It's when you did something extra ordinarily dumb when you're an adult, and it kept on replaying it in your head. Mine would be the orange incident.

  I've always thought I had pretty good table manners, just like how I thought I am taller than the average male. Those sentiment unfortunately, as I learnt, only applies to Malaysia. When I left Malaysia, I am average at best for height, maybe even slightly below average, and my table manners are apparently "bad".

  This was last year, and I had quite recently been criticised for my "hands on" method on eating chicken thighs. Apparently, unless you're in your own home, or at McDonald's (or the equivalent), you aren't suppose to use your hands to eat. One is supposed to use a fork and knife to get to those hard to reach places in-between the bones part of the chicken thigh. My lack of experience with the table knife was really showing. I think I spent almost an hour just working on the thigh, and my wrist was already super tired.

  Fast forward some time, I was at the Giantess' brother's place, the whole family is there, they're ordering Indian food. "Oh no, technically this is a house right? Does that mean I can use my hands? But wait, everyone else is here too! What should I get??!!" At the end, I purposely got something that doesn't require hands (those pre-cut meat dishes). Hoho, I'm a genius. That's when, they served... sliced oranges.

  I've always eaten fruits with my hands (except maybe dragon fruit, those thing stains), so at the time, I was super panicky. Do I use my hands for these?! I waited for someone to take one... yes they used their hands! But how do they eat it? Do they eat it the same method as I do? By just going down on it? Its super impolite to stare at someone eating oranges, so I decided to wing it. I tried this really strange method of eating. It is completely ineffective, messy, and ugly to look at, BUT it minimizes the amount of hand touching. I've only took 2 slices before I gave up.

  Later she made fun of me on how I ate oranges. Ah man, I must have made an absolute fool of myself in front of everyone. That entire event kept on replaying in my head ever since then, and I cringe every time. It's horrible aghhhhhhhh--

 __________________________

  Right now, exams are approaching, there's things to do at work, and assignments are piling up. It's going to be extremely stressful from now (or yesterday specifically). I'm already having headaches. The mid-term "break" is coming. I use quotation because:

1. It's only 2 days long
2. Those 2 days will be spent studying for the exams and finishing up all the assignments

  So it's not really a break is it? 

  Wish me luck, for it's gonna be super tough from now on.

Figure 48.1: Two snails chillin'