I have been adopted by a second grade teacher at my school— at least for the next 2 months. This is the family that took me to the temples, the park, and to see that horrible movie 2012 that I had to pretend I liked because they all loved it and kept asking if California really looks like that. I said yes, minus the giant earth cracks and tsunamis. After the movie, we went out for dim sum and noodle soup, both of which are eaten with chopsticks. Our table was right in front of the restaurant’s TV, so most of the people were staring in my direction for the duration of our meal.
The dim sum fell apart immediately once I grabbed (stabbed) it with my chopsticks, creating a messy pile of meat and veggies on the table. I gathered the hot filling into a napkin and moved onto the noodle soup. Trying to eat slimy noodles with metal chopsticks is like trying to round up fifty slithery snakes with one stick, and then put them in your mouth. I splattered and burned myself a dozen times, with the restaurant audience watching me instead of the TV.
Most of what I do with this family revolves around food, which is not a problem. Last night I taught them how to make pizza. They picked me up at my apartment and we went to Home Plus to buy the ingredients. I said we needed sauce, and they took me to the ketchup aisle. I asked what they like on their pizza and they said ham, corn, and sweet potato, so that’s what we bought. The mom bought octopus, but luckily she didn’t ask to put that on the pizza too. Turns out, a pizza lesson is not a small affair in the Korean home, because they invited another family over for dinner, and suddenly the pressure was on. I immediately forgot how to make the dough, how hot the oven should be in Celsius, or how long to bake it for. I dropped the rolling pin and got flour all over the place, couldn’t open the tomato sauce jar, and my eyes started watering profusely while cutting the onions. I meegooked my way around the kitchen, and it wasn’t long until the pizza was hot and bubbly right out of the oven. We served the guests and I watched as they tried to eat it with chopsticks. First they’d rip it apart, then gather the toppings and cheese onto a small section of crust, but it would slide off on the way to their mouth. It took about 20 minutes to eat one slice. Who’s laughing now?!?
There are also new pictures of friends, some of my students who put on a great English play, and the little suburb of Ulsan called Eonyang here
Pizza with chopsticks? Seriously?