A night out with the Koreans

"Kate Teacher," you may be wondering, "how have you lost weight even though you go out for lunch and dinner every day?" Well, dear reader, it's because I live in a country that is anti-cheese. Your cheese-stuffed, deep-fat fried Enchilada only exists in one restaurant in a city of 3.5 million people, and you literally have to be classified by the U. S. Government as not a threat in order to access the nearest Taco Bell.

Today I went to dinner with three of my favorite Korean teachers, Yuria (who is considering a new English name: Annabelle or Autumn), Alice (who is considering a new English name: Summer), and Alex (who likes her androgynous English name). They were fighting over where to go and asked my opinion, so I played dumb foreigner and went where they told me--down a set of stairs so narrow I had to turn to the side and jump down the last 3 feet. When I did, every single eye of 30 high school boys was on me. Yeah, I'm kind of a big deal. (This is me pretending to be a rock star, again.)

So we all sit down, they order, and we're so tired we basically just look at each other the five minutes it takes for our order to arrive: chumchee kimchi jiggae. It's a boiling hot, spicy soup that has chumchee (Tuna fish), kimchi (fermented cabbage), tofu, onion, green onion, peppers (spicy: red and green), and weird mushrooms that I still avoid. While we were waiting for our sticky rice (sticky rice = love), a waiter knocked over a stand that had probably 200 stainless steel cups, and they went scattering across the floor. The guy was obviously embarrassed, but the sound was probably the coolest thing I've heard. $13.50 later (for the four of us), we were all full but still went for coffee across the street.

Korea really is my speed. After talking about the "fun" of English, I speed walked back home the 1+ mile, with just enough time before bed to post in my blog about my wonderful dinner and to watch a Pirate movie. I love my life.