Below, a video of me in Northern Thailand, half-drunk on rice wine and trying deep fried bugs at the local market.

I love eating weird stuff. Love it.

Kangaroos. Caribou. Big bugs. Beating snake hearts. One of my favorite things about traveling is trying strange new foods — foods that the locals will eat usually to gross out a foreigner — that’s the stuff I seek out. It makes life more interesting and helps get me out of my travel routines.

While living in Japan as a university student, I once ventured alone into a small Fugu specialty restaurant and dared to order a seven course meal where every dish was a piece of the deadly blowfish prepared differently. When my tongue started to feel numb, I presumed it was the poison working its way into my bloodstream and I was admittedly, slightly nervous. Eventually (and thankfully) I realized it was just a reaction with the spicy sauce in one of the dishes.

(enjoying purple ooze in southern Vietnam)

While in Vietnam, Kim and I studied episodes of Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations on slow motion to find the names and addresses of the more wild restaurants he visited. We ended up repeating his entire trip to Hanoi, including a visit to The Eel Restaurant, where all 130 main dishes are made with eel.

When I worked three summers as a desert survival instructor in southern Utah, and experimenting with primitive traps and snares, I tried a number of things that I’d rather forget, including some small animals that aren’t normally considered food (see picture above)

Here in Labrador, I recently purchased a small game license at the local hunting/clothing/craft/lingere/adult store (one quirk about living in small town Labrador…). I’ve already tried porcupine and beaver, both of which are widely eaten by the Innu people in this area. I had also been planning on cooking two muskrats that a local dropped off at the house, but the meat smelled a little funky, so I chucked them. I’m sure it won’t be the last strange thing here at the end of the world in Labrador.

Updates

I’ve totally lost momentum on Personal Power II. My busy day-to-day life has taken over. The good news is, I am reclaiming my “Personal Power” starting tomorrow.

And… Success!  I am officially debt free — 100% debt free. Student loan, credit card, gone! That’s seven grand debt paid off since I’ve started work in Labrador. I’ve even got a few bucks in my savings account for the first time since having one of those Leo the Lion Kids accounts. Now it’s time to start saving for Project 2010.