story my dad would be proud of

So, if you know my food preferences at all, you'll be surprised by this story (maybe not if you know my personality at all, though). Yesterday, a student in my fourth hour (the class right before my lunch) brought in a bag of home-grown habeñeros. He was giving them to other students to watch them squirm from the heat. He then asked me to make a deal with him. If I ate one, he said, he would then be quiet the entire hour (he normally is a talker). I told him that I would reverse the order: if he was quiet I would eat one. He was quiet, so I took the one he selected for me, I bit it in half, and then bit off the other half from the stem. I now know that most people would simply swallow it at that point, but not I. I proceeded to chew it up in my mouth. FIRE! I have never experienced such a flame of spice in my life (and hope to never again). The power of the wallop was so intense, it cause a gag reflex in me and I almost threw up. I held it in, happened to have some Gatorade, washed it all down (yes, I did swallow it), and then proceeded to put more Gatorade in my mouth in order to take down some of the residual heat. It didn't work that well. Thankfully, lunch was just a couple minutes after I chewed it up, so I was able to get some relief while at lunch (temperature-wise, heat makes the burning flame up worse). What helped it calm down most? Just some iced tea. Yeah, I was surprised. So, I made a deal, lived up to it, paid for it, but at least the student was quiet all hour, right?