Sick of Rice!!!!

Thai’s love their rice – they eat it with everything and for every meal, which means I do the same. I eat fried rice, steamed rice, boiled rice, sticky rice, sweet rice, rice soup, rice with veggies, rice with fruit, rice with pork, chicken, or fish. I eat rice sitting on the floor, at the table, at my house, at restaurants, schools, and market shops. I eat rice in my lap, from a bowl, with a spoon; I eat rice out of bamboo leaves, from sugarcane stocks, in globs with my fingers. I eat rice out of bags, boxes, buckets, bowls, and various to go containers. Running from rice simply does me no good – I went to the market in search of a riceless lunch, found a succulent looking pineapple all sliced and ready to go; I go out my 20 bhat ordered up the slice of heaven . . . and the merchant unwrapped it and plopped it on a bed of . . . you guessed it – RICE!!!! My dreams are fluffy and white (you’re thinking cottony clouds – I’m thinking bowls of rice). My days are one helping after another and my lessons all revolve around being able to discuss the latest and greatest with yours truly, rice. I am so sick of the stuff I could spit, but people here simply do not eat without a helping of rice. Try as I might, creating a meal devoid of rice, for a Thai, is equivalent to not having cooked at all. Rice, Rice, and more Rice – I am sick of stinking RICE.