Today, due to random flucuations in the Space/Time Continuum, I ate my lunch at the same time as the school bus drivers for the first time in well over a year.
I was sitting by Mr. Park, the Director's husband and I had asked him to write in hangeul the name of my new favourite dish: dried radish leaves refried in dwenjang sauce.
시레기 조림 (Shiraegi joreom) This stuff is my new crack heroin.
I had returned to mindlessly stuffing my face with this nectar of the Gods, happily letting the bus driver's thick saturi (dialect) waft over my head, when the words 'waygookin' (foreigner) and 'Ireland-uh' snagged my attention.
It seems they had noticed my appetite and started to ask Mr.Park about me:
"Where is she from?"
"Ireland. The one beside the UK." (Not to be confused with the 'other' Ireland, which is further north, has a volcano and is known to the rest of us as 'Iceland'.)
"She seems to be eating Korean food well."
To this, Mr. Park beamed and announced in the tones of a proud parent:
"Oh yes! She eats Korean food well every day! She is almost a Korean!"
I felt like a five year old in a sandbox whose mum is announcing to all the other mums, "Well MY daughter eats ALL her vegetables!"
And all the while I ate my Shiraegi joreom and tried to look like I didn't understand.
I was sitting by Mr. Park, the Director's husband and I had asked him to write in hangeul the name of my new favourite dish: dried radish leaves refried in dwenjang sauce.
시레기 조림 (Shiraegi joreom) This stuff is my new crack heroin.
I had returned to mindlessly stuffing my face with this nectar of the Gods, happily letting the bus driver's thick saturi (dialect) waft over my head, when the words 'waygookin' (foreigner) and 'Ireland-uh' snagged my attention.
It seems they had noticed my appetite and started to ask Mr.Park about me:
"Where is she from?"
"Ireland. The one beside the UK." (Not to be confused with the 'other' Ireland, which is further north, has a volcano and is known to the rest of us as 'Iceland'.)
"She seems to be eating Korean food well."
To this, Mr. Park beamed and announced in the tones of a proud parent:
"Oh yes! She eats Korean food well every day! She is almost a Korean!"
I felt like a five year old in a sandbox whose mum is announcing to all the other mums, "Well MY daughter eats ALL her vegetables!"
And all the while I ate my Shiraegi joreom and tried to look like I didn't understand.
