....I think I might puke! My boss has been so generous and has been buying me dinner at this little restaurant on the first floor of our building, but every time we go, she orders the EXACT SAME THING! White rice with mushrooms (that are strings, not anything like you've ever seen in America), soy bean sprouts, dried seaweed, an egg, and I think there might be one or two more veggies on it but I can't remember at the moment. I ate it four times last week, and I had it again last night. Seriously the smell is starting to make me feel nauseous. I know that she didn't buy Tayla dinner every night, so maybe she just wants to make sure I eat. I've been bringing food that I've kept in my big school bag with me, but maybe she just assumes that I don't bring dinner, so then she wants to buy it for me. I'm not really sure, but I think my solution to this dinner problem is to make more of a show about me bringing my own food. So here's my plan for tonight: I'm bringing a salad and an apple for dinner so I think when I get to work I'll say something like this, "Mrs. Kim, where's the fridge? I want to put my dinner in there so it stays cold." Genius, right?? I thought so, too.
So, as I was figuring out how to solve this dilemma, I realized that I was seriously lacking in the food department, so I ventured on down to Lotte Mart to grab some groceries. On my way, I also noticed that I was starting to run low on won (the Korean currency). Luckily, I know how to shop on a budget, so off to the store I went. I grabbed some sweet potatoes (YAY!! I basically lived off these last winter in LA), a cucumber (or so I thought), red onions (which only came in a pack of 5 - Lord knows when I'll eat five onions before they go bad), and a few other things. It's also been my goal to make my apartment a little more homey and cozy. My friends put candles in empty wine bottles and it looked pretty cool, so I picked up some candles and the cheapest bottle of wine I could find - about $1.50 in U.S. currency. I heard Korean wine was bad, and I knew that buying cheap wine was definitely a gamble, but I became accustomed to spending no more than $2 on wine, thanks to the good 'ol Two Buck Check at Trader Joe's in L.A. So in my mind, I didn't think it could be THAT bad.
When I got home, I decided to try a little sip of this bargain wine. Let's just say that calling it alcoholic grape juice is being generous. This is probably the nastiest stuff I've ever had in my entire life. So I quickly put that away. Then, I began to chop my veggies - tomatoes, onions, carrot, and my cucumber. Except, when I cut into my "cucumber," I noticed there were no seeds. I tried a bite and yep, I accidentally got zucchini instead. That's one of the problems of not being able to read Korean in a store that, for 95% of the items, are listed only in Korean. After I chopped up my veggies, I stuck them in a bowl and drizzled on some Balsamic Vinaigrette. Salad dressing seems to be non-existent here, and let's just say finding any kind of vinegar was a project. The bottle I got was the only one that had "Balsamic Vinaigrette" written in English, so clearly that was the obvious choice for me. I added in some pepper and salt, but it still tasted like it needed something else - I didn't want it to be drenched in the balsamic. So as I'm looking around my sparse kitchen, what do I see but my $1.50 bottle of wine. PERFECT - I stuck a little bit in a pan, cooked the alcohol out of it, and drizzled that on top of my veggie medley. It added a little sweetness to the bitterness of the balsamic. Wow, I was so proud of myself for figuring that out. Plus, it got rid of some of the nasty wine that I'm now stuck with - I'm contemplating just pouring it down the drain, but maybe I'll think of some other way to cook with it so I think I'll hold onto it for a while.
Anyways, on a separate note, I had my first full night of teaching last night totally on my own. I got a new class of beginner students and they are so precious. I have a couple students in there who I'm already in love with. I'm still figuring out how the school works, so there were a couple frantic moments last night - especially when I forgot I was getting a new class and completely spaced (1) looking at the new books they're reading and (2) writing down their weekly homework. Luckily, the book was only 16 pages long so I didn't really need to prepare anything for it. As for the homework, I look at this as more of a projected timeline as opposed to a definitive schedule. I think I was able to escape both blunders without causing the front desk to totally hate me.
On another note, I might be running a half marathon out here mid-November. I met a lady at church who was telling me about it, so she Facebook-ed the info to me and I think I'm going to sign up!!
Anyways, I must run - I have to sub for another teacher who's sick and I still need to grade some papers. Lots of love!!
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