Sir, Why are you taking my marmalade?

I arrived home Friday night after a five-day trip to Thailand. The purpose of this trip was for medical evacuation due to a needed surgery. I arrived last Sunday after a detour though London...this will come into play later on. My first medical visit was on Monday. I go in for my appointment, which begins with an ultrasound. Well oddly enough, the purpose of going all the way to Thailand appears to have well disappeared. The polyp that required the medical evac had magically disappeared. Well even though this was no longer present, something was causing my body to act so abnormally. Further hormone tests were done only to show that everything was normal......but there not. The doctor decided to put me on medication to see if it would correct the previous issue otherwise I would have to come back and at that point surgery could be an option...........uh go back to Thailand......why not that was a quick 12 hour flight.
After this news I only had 3 more days in the country so I tried to make the most of what I had. I spent one day traveling up and down their rapid transit system checking out all the monuments, shopping areas and historical sites. The next day I went to lunch with several previous PCV's who currently work and live in Bangkok. It was a great time. Funny though, they seemed more interested in why a Bulgarian PCV was sent all the way to Thailand for treatment but happy to have me just the same. One of the attendees was an original Thailand 1 PCV. At that time, volunteers actually served in the city of Bangkok. Later that day I went to their version of China town and then took an accidental boat ride up and down the canal at sunset. Turned out to be one of the best parts of my trip. On my last day I had planned to see the massive outdoor market in the center of Bangkok, except it really isn’t very lively during the week. I decided to go and see the Grand Palace. This was the perfect day to go since just before my arrival in country the King's sister had died and this was the day of her funeral, so it was very active around the palace and I didn’t have to pay to get in. The Grand Palace was amazing. Temples and shrines covered in gold, jewels, and marble. Everything was so beautiful. The main structure housed an emerald shrine of Buddha. No one could take pictures inside or wear shoes. Everyone was silent and spent this time in prayer or meditation. This was the end of my Far East trip and headed back to the airport that night.
When going through security I was put in a bit of a negative mood. I had purchased marmalade for another PCV and had it in my suitcase. Well when I went through security they saw it on the x ray. It was removed from my baggage and thrown away. Normally I would have just said whatever and went on......but I actually argued with the guy taking it from me. I had originally bought the marmalade in advance incase I didn’t have time on my flight back through London, not only that but this stuff wasn’t cheep. I found myself trying to get the guy to let me keep it, explaining that I had brought it into his airport why the heck wouldn’t he allow me to take it out. Finally he had enough of my ranting and just threw it away in front of me. What I wanted to say but didn’t was that he was taking a jar of marmalade from me but somehow had no problem with the straight pin on my coat, the razor in my carry on or the flowers I had purchased containing foreign seeds that I would be taking into another country........but I'm glad we got rid of the dangerous marmalade, who knows what I could do with that on board.
After landing in Sofia I decided to take the 6:30 train back to my town. While in the car, I started chatting with the conductor about the usual and then he asked me randomly if I wanted to ride up with the drivers of the train.....well heck yeah I want to. So for about 30 min or so I was hanging out with the drivers making small talk. Later I had my picture with them but I'm sure they werent as excited as I was..........anything to amuse the American.
Well that was my trip to Thailand in a nutshell.