11:20

11:20 is a time I look forward to with bated breath every single day. 11:20 will make or break the rest of my day. 11:20 can be the best part of the day, or the worst part of the day. The rest of the day depends on 11:20. I depend on 11:20. 

11:20 is lunchtime. 

During the morning hours as I teach, I look up at the clock endlessly watching time move by ever so slowly. I am always starving, and I am always praying for a good lunch. We have to eat with the kids, which are rather annoying, but most of the time I don't even care because I'm too consumed with the goodness (or repulsed) by the food that I'm hoovering into my mouth.

Lunchtime used to be even more of a gamble, before I figured out there was a lunchtime menu. One of my kiddos is from Denmark, so they always send an English copy to my class for her. (Why would they send an English menu for a girl from Denmark you ask? I asked the same thing, and was met with blank stares and confused grins.) I started to make a copy for myself, so that I could find out what the second half of the day would entail. If lunch is good, I'm happy and the rest of the day goes smoothly. If lunch is bad, I curse Korea in my head and make my kids lives miserable. Yep, that's how much I love food. That's how much I look forward to eating. That's how I make it through the days with the little Korean terrors. 

However, the menu ended up being quite the guessing game, and rarely correct. Just the other day the lunch menu read:

  -RICE-KIMCHI-MEAT PANCAKE-FRUIT

Now I don't know about the rest of the world, but I'm kind of keen on my pancakes being meatless. And the FRUIT they so falsely advertise is usually a small slice of apple, or a third of a banana. Hardly a servings worth. I have to bank on the good days of lunch because when it's bad, it's so, so bad. 

Sometimes lunch is amazing. They serve us pork with steamed veggies and potatoes, plus rice of course. A few weeks ago they served this pumpkin dish that was absolutely divine. Spaghetti and meatball day is always a good day. Sometimes they make potato and corn purees, which remind me of my host mom's cooking in Spain, and she made amazing purees. 

But alas, there are too many days that go wrong because of lunch. There are too many horrid looks exchanged with my co-worker. Today I had a particularly horrifying experience that brought me again back to my days in Spain. The menu said FRUIT, like most days. I was hoping for a banana or some tomatoes. But what was actually there, to my disbelief, was a wonderful fruit salad COVERED in mayonnaise. I couldn't even hold in my shock. I turned to a friend and said, "why on Earth would they ruin such a perfectly good fruit salad by putting mayo on it?!” 

Most days I look down to realize that everything on my plate is either yellow or white. I realize that I am eating an insane amount of carbs, and that I would sell a kid on the black market for some meat. I'm not trying to sound ungrateful; I realize these ladies work hard to feed the entire school. And their jobs consist of cooking and cleaning up for a bunch of brats, and ungrateful foreigners like me. But I can't help but wish that a little more nutrition went into these lunches, for the kids really, not for ol' picky me. Koreans will go to great lengths to tell you how nutritious their foods are. But I'm sorry, between meat pancakes, mayonnaise fruit salads, and white rice.....what I'm seeing is a lot of clogged arteries, cottage cheese asses, and carb overload. Put some damn color in the lunches! 

I suppose I should be more thankful that I get a lunch at all. I picture my mother standing over her desk gnawing on a power bar. Or my father sucking on peppermint and butterscotch candies all day long. Or even my brother who rotates between the same three restaurants every single week on his lunch breaks. 

If there is one thing that lunchtime has taught me in Korea, it's to mind my p's and q's like the polite young lady I am. I've realized that I have incredible will power to force myself to eat something without gagging. I also remember to always smile at the lunch ladies, and say thank you when I'm bringing in my tray. Even if I'm thinking, 'thank you for the mystery meat pancake, the fruit salad with the side of lard, and also thank you for the hour I'll be spending on the treadmill later'.  

:)