When was the LAST time you tried something for the FIRST time?

My sabbatical has been all about firsts. My first time to Spain, first time to Asia, first ride on a bullet train…and the list goes on. When I told people that I was taking a sabbatical from work, they all asked if I had to study something. My answer was a polite "No, I am a lawyer, not a teacher" and assumed everyone knew that lawyers were already pretty smart with all of our self-imposed reading and required continuing legal education.
Turns out, however, my sabbatical was a learning experience. I learned about new cultures, new religions and new foods. I awakened my senses. Learning is more than what you read in books. You need to hear it, see it, smell it, touch it, to understand what it is made of. Back at home I fall into the old familiar routines, but is that really living, or is it just existing?
All of this leads me to the background for my latest experience: eating my first grasshopper. I had never even heard of Angkor Wat until we decided to meet some friends at the end of my husband's business trip to Asia. Sally is well-traveled, having been to over 130 countries, and since she had not been to Cambodia, we decided we would meet in Phnom Penh. From there, we took a 10 passenger van (that had seats for 16) as a mini-bus to Siem Reap where Angkor is located. The five hour ride turned into seven due to heavy traffic and stand-stills due to construction crews. (They were working on a Sunday.) The clay road was hot and dusty, so much so that our driver had to stop twice to clean out the van's air filter. Everything was covered with a red dust. The van was red, kid's clothes were red, the playground equipment was red.

 
At our second stop, we browsed the roadside food stand. Set up high on a table away from the dusty road was a large silver wok that smelled delicious. Inside the vat was a stir-fry concoction of green onions, red chiles, and a sweet, sticky sauce. My friend bought a bag of these crunchy delicacies, and I was shocked to find out they were fried grasshoppers.

I watched in horror as my friend ate one after another, bragging to us how good they were. One by one everyone in our group was eating fried grasshoppers. They were all so brave, weren't they? Or maybe….they really tasted good after all?

Why not, I thought as I took one, pulled off the head and put the meaty body on my tounge. The spices were intriguing. I bit off a small piece and it tasted something like a roasted almond. Just at that moment our van driver honked for us to return to the van. I swallowed my small piece in a gulp, discarding the rest of the body on the dusty, red ground. We were back on the road again, and I had just eaten my FIRST grasshopper!