At 3:45pm today, Monica yelled, from her desk, "Chelsey, let's go to the restaurant. There is food there!" (AKA: the school cafeteria. I love when she calls it "the restaurant!")
Anyhow, when we got to the cafeteria, we were met by a small old grandmother who was standing with her arms wrapped proudly around her 2nd grade grandson. She welcomed us and motioned towards a table full of the most delicious homemade Korean food! Yes, SHE had made everything herself! Why you ask? Well, it's a dying tradition for a grandparent to prepare something special (food or juice) to celebrate her grandchild's participatation in his or her first big school related event. The big event, in this case, is FIELD DAY, which is on Friday! But for this grandmother, preparing a feast fit for a king was her way of celebrating!
She had made octopus, pajung, japjeh, gogi, rice, potato jung, shrimp and vegetable curry, oysters, clams, and all sorts of other yummies I don't know the names of! Even after all 25 teachers dished up, there was more leftover! Oh and she also prepared a whole bunch of exotic fruits for our dessert!
(pics were taken with my iphone) Not too shabby, huh?!
Unfortunatley, this grandmother's intentions for this very large meal were a bit twisted. You see, Korean's believe that when a gift is given, you should return the gesture by giving a gift back to the giver. Monica told me that the little boys teacher was not happy about this meal... because it meant that she would need to give special treatment to the young boy. She would now be expected to stay after school to tutor the young boy, and to give him extra attention during classtime.
Whatever happened to just plain giving without the expectation of receiving something in return?! Regardless of grandma's intentions, I was beyond impressed with her cooking skills! It was some of the best Korean food I've ever tasted! And lucky for me, the little boy isn't one of my students, so I don't have to worry!
Thanks for the feast Grandma!
