Oops, did I do that?

Starving after having taught a a whole morning of Halloween lessons, which included reaching into a black plastic bag and feeling brains, eyeballs, and fingers (noodles, grapes, and peppers), I hurry down to the teachers room for lunch this fine Friday afternoon.

I walk in and every one is seated around our large round table. The vice principle and principle are also seated, so I bow and greet out of respect. The principle says: "I Love you, Lana!" "Much, much, much!" What am I to say? I say my "I love you too." wondering if it's at all possible he doesn't understand the meaning of the phrase. He does, though, and follows up with a, "Because you're so beautiful." I awkwardly thank him and proceed through the lunch line. A lot of my favorites are being served so I'm super psyched.

I wanted a little bit more of the mixed vegetables because they are absolutely amazing and get up for seconds. After scooping them onto my tray, I turn around to return to me seat right behind the food. Unfortunately, I don't make it back to my seat before knocking over the entire metal container of rice. Now let me mention, this thing is not small nor light. Awesome. Somehow I was lucky enough to have most the rice stay inside the container rather than all over the floor, which would have made this embarrassing moment ten times worse.

My co-teacher asks me if I'm okay and I say yes, pick up the container and return it to the cart. With a a face the color of a tomato, I then return to my seat. There are about 13 other teachers at the table, all of which look down at their trays, not knowing what else to do. Most can't speak English, so they wouldn't know what to say and the others are just too damn embarrassed for me to even acknowledge what happened.

The reason I'm blogging about today's lunch isn't because it's it's extremely out of the ordinary, but quite the opposite. It embodies the awkwardness of every lunch at my school and while it's a bit extreme of an example, this is always the strangest part of my day. I really want to eat, but don't want to face the silence, comments about my appearance, and stolen stares. It's no ones fault that lunch is this weird. If I could speak conversational Korean, things would be a lot different, but I don't, so...boo.

Anyway, I'm not complaining; It's more funny than anything else. You know what's also funny? This pumpkin named Wilson that I carved with my last class of the day.