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This is a cautionary tale my friends. I think I might also share it with my students.
There once was a lady who lived in a land far away. This woman’s favorite snack was popcorn. She would make it at home on her stove nearly every day.
“It is a cheap and healthy snack”, she told her family, friends, and students. She always reminded them, “just be sure to leave off the butter, cheese, and artificial flavors!”
All was well, until one day she was munching away on her popcorn while watching a movie at home.
CRUNCH!
She bit down hard on a popcorn kernel when she wasn’t looking! There was a little blood and a sore tooth, but everything seemed to be fine after an aspirin and a lot of sleep.
Until one day she was eating lunch with friends at her new favorite restaurant, called Citrus (post on that later!), and she bit into a piece of freshly made bread. It was as soft as a cloud and yet she heard another, CRUNCH!
This time she looked down and found a while chunk of what appeared to be a shiny white bowl or plate. However, after feeling a new POKE on her tongue she deduced that this pearly chunk was from her very own molar, all the way at the back of her mouth. The same one that had a filling in it- the filling must have been keeping the tooth together after the popcorn incident!
For the next few days she felt pain and worry every time she tried to eat something. Would her filling come out? Would the cold or heat from the food make her tooth hurt as bad as the time before?
Thankfully the beautiful dentist came to her rescue! This dentist happened to be the mother of one of the woman’s students from last year AND she spoke English. The dentist said that while replacing the filling and remolding the tooth was very difficult, after about an hour she was able to fix it with only a little pain and blood left as evidence.
Another bright side to this story is that this fabulous dentist was very affordable because she was living in Venezuela (less than $20 US)!
The moral of this story is: be very careful of what you eat.
Teaching Wanderlust 
Ouch!! I’m so glad you got it fixed though. I had a similar thing happen to me at the beginning of the year – I had this tooth that had been loose for about 20 years to the point where it kind of just dislodged to the side and I could forget about it. Then when I was eating crunchy fries one day (see the difference bere? You eating lovely healthy stuff; Me eating crap as always) I heard a big CRUNCH and suddenly my whole mouth was filled with blood. The tooth had finally come out in a really disgusting way. Luckily I didn’t need to go to the dentist or anything. You were still so lucky though. 🙂 I’ll be careful next time I’m eating popcorn.
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Ouch! I’m glad you finally got rid of the annoying tooth. Now I might be more likely to eat french fries (or at least some healthy homemade sweet potato wedges) instead of popcorn now that I’ve been slightly traumatized by it!
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THAT IS FRIGHTENING. I used to have frequent nightmares about something happening to my teeth.
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I agree Jen! I too have had nightmares about breaking my teeth. I never really thought it would happen since my dentists have all told me that I have very healthy teeth. I might be eating less popcorn for a good while until I can forget what the pain was like for the past week. Sigh.
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Hi Amanda
I was wondering if you could tell me how you feel about staying in Venezuela as of today, I’m between going to Mexico and Venezuela. Any insight is helpful. Thanks!
And thank god for the dentist!
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Hi Gaby,
I love my school, I get paid well, and I know where to find the thinks I need…most of the time. With the currency difficulties I would just make sure that the you will get paid the majority of your salary in dollars. At the end of this school year I will have been in Venezuela for four years, so while stuff is wearing on me now, I think a contract of two years should be fine. Be sure to read about packing for Venezuela before you go. Also check out “why I stay in Venezuela” because it is still relevant for me. Good luck with your decision and be sure to share your final decision!
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