Nibs

Last year when I began traveling I kept finding little yellow post-it notes in my stuff. On the notes were written sweet messages from my mother. Well, she did it again. This year though she didn't hide notes in my bags. She hid packs of delicious licorice Nibs.

Nibs are tied for my favorite candy ever behind Scores bars. My mom, knowing all about my sweet tooth, placed the Nibs inside zip locks and crammed them into various places in my stuff. The first one I found was inside a pair of dress shoes. The next one was between folded clothes on top of my bag and the last one was between more clothes on the bottom of my bag.

Upon finding the first bag I immediately opened it and tried to convey my excitement to Huyen. Huyen has a bigger sweet tooth than me and I thought she was going to devour the bag before I could. I cautiously offered her a Nib and waited for her jubilant reaction...which never came. Huyen instead looked like she just ate a bug. She said, "I don't like this. It's like eating rubber." As much as I was surprised she didn't share my love of Nibs, I was equally elated. That meant I could eat the whole bag for myself!!!!

As I stuffed the Nibs into my mouth (I can't just eat one at a time) I began to think about an HBO documentary my father and I watched while I was home. The documentary was called Gangja Queen and was about Corby, an Australian girl who is imprisoned in Bali for smuggling in a huge bag of marijuana. As the HBO website explains: "...the documentary explores numerous explanations for the appearance of the drugs in Corby's bag. Did this seemingly average young woman actually commit the crime for which she is accused? Did one of her family members put the marijuana in her bag without (or with) her knowing? Was there a connection to the Australian neighbor who grew pot on his property? Or was Schapelle simply the unlucky victim of a domestic drug-running operation?"

I'm pretty sure smuggling Nibs into Vietnam isn't illegal, but man, my Mom sure would have felt really guilty had a licorice sniffing dog began barking at me while going through customs.