I'll start by saying, I brought my iphone to lunch today to snap some pictures of what lunchtime is like around my school. I picked it up and snapped a picture of my plate. Okk laughed and said, "Chelsey! That's not interesting. Why are you taking that picture?!" I'll let you decide if you think it's interesting or not! I, for one, do! :)
So, there are 2 lunch shifts in my school's cafeteria. The first is for 1st, 2nd and 3rd graders. The second is for 4th, 5th and 6th graders. I go to both, depending on the day! Today was the 2nd lunch:
When we get to the cafeteria, we stand in this long line of students.
Sometimes we cut to the front of the line, because we're teachers and WE CAN!
It's here that we're greeted by the cooks who dish up our food onto metal trays.
It's always kimchi, a type of meat or fish, a vegetable, rice, and soup....
E.V.E.R.Y.D.A.Y.
Some kids like it while others don't! Unfortunately they don't have a choice! ...and every morsel should be eaten before they can get up from the table!
Here it is folks... today's lunch! Eeekkk...
Top left: Duk Bokgi (rice cakes, small bird eggs, and fried fish powder in red sauce) YUK!
Middle: Hard beans mixed with pecans in a brown sugary sauce. Strange, but edible!
Top right: It's where the kimchi goes. The teachers have their own bowl of kimchi that tastes better than the students, and I hadn't dished up yet... hence the empty bowl.
Bottom left: Sticky white rice with yellow seeds. Goes right to the thighs! Ugh!
Bottom right: Soup with tiny mushrooms, green onions and garlic. Today's saving grace!
American teachers, be happy you're not a Korean teacher!
Teachers here HAVE TO SIT AND EAT LUNCH WITH THEIR CLASSROOM STUDENTS!
Heyran (front left) is one of the 5th grade teachers at my school.
When you're all finished, you bring your tray here where you dump any last pieces of food into this metal funnel. Then you stack your tray, throw your spoon in a bowl, and place your chopsticks in the buckets.
Then it's off to the barley water station where you fill up a metal cup with hot barely water, swish it around in your mouth to loosen the food stuck in your teeth, swallow and stack your cup in the bin.
...and that's how it's done over here at good ol'e Dae Gyo Elementary School!