Wednesday, December 12, 2007

school food

I eat well at work. There is snack time in the morning from 9:30 'til 10, as the children finish arriving (well, most of them). The snack varies day to day. Some of the ones I can think of are:
yogurt: in the plastic cups - strawberry, green tea (SO GOOD!); drinkable in a little plastic tube (I normally freeze them to eat as frozen yogurt) - strawberry
muffins: some sort of bright yellow pumpkin muffin
rice cakes: made with sticky rice, soya sauce, honey, and a few other grain type things added
ddukboki: rice cake dish (made with a soy sauce base rather than the normal spicy red pepper base sauce)
fried baby potatoes
steamed sweet potatoes
Along with the snack, there is always either milk or juice. The kids all have a cup to use. The Korean helper does all of the work - dishes out the snack, pours the drinks, washes the dishes (there is a sink in the corner of every classroom). I have my helper of the day help her by handing the dishes and cups out.
Then lunch is eaten in the cafeteria on the 5th floor. My class eats lunch at 11:30. I think about 5 classes are in there at the same time. My Korean co-teacher sets the table for the kids while I have the kids washing their hands and getting ready. That way it is all ready for them to start eating by the time we get there. Lunch is usually typical Korean fare of rice, kimchi, some sort of soup, and a meat dish. Generally, and unfortunately for me, some sort of fish dish is involved. Every once in a while they have a totally different kind of lunch, such as spaghetti. Last Friday we had spaghetti and cream of mushroom soup. Not the best spaghetti I've had, but a nice break from the fishy dishes and kimchi. There is also a nice green salad for the teachers.
The afternoon break is during my super elite power class (I have the most advanced class, though they are still only 7 years old). That snack consists of juice and some snacky thing such as cookies, muffins, steamed pizza bread pocket thingies, yogurt, etc.
The afternoon snack juice is usually fairly interesting. They come in little individual sealed cups or foil packs with straws. So far, in two weeks, I haven't had the same kind twice. Today's juice was a mixture of several fruits and vegetables. I forget what all was in it. I've had apple-carrot juice, grapefruit juice, some sort of orange juice mixture, kiwi-celery juice, etc.

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