tea diaries ~~~~~ groooooovy

Hey everyone. :)

So yesterday I went into work with my host mother, who works at the International Convention Center here, which is one of the most massive and elaborate buildings I have ever seen. She is the head pasty chef, and I got to play around with dough, weigh dough, cut 1000 bananas off of their stalks, mold dough, stuff dough with cream, fling dough at the other workers (heheh) and putting dough in the oven. I know that if this whole English teacher thing doesn't work out, I've got a baker's job all set up.

My favorite part (and you other ETAs will appreciate this) is when I got to stand out in the serving line during lunch and dinner. During lunch I was giving out supa (watermelon) and I was only supposed to give two pieces, but of course you'd get the old ladies who weren't satisfied with their watermelon and pointed out the one they wanted, or just reached their grubby little crinkled hands into the bucket and served themselves. Then you'd get the ones who'd come up with these big pleading eyes and and ask for three pieces instead, or like 15 pieces for their entire table. I was under strict orders to give only two pieces, but of course they didn't listen. They'd come in packs to intimidate me, the foreigner with next to no Korean skills mysteriously wearing a chef's hat. (Yeah, I got the whole thing - big hat, shirt and apron. Stylin. Pictures soon to come in the Flickr account (link to the right). But yeah, it was even worse with the bananas. I got really good at saying andeyo!! (stop it) and han-man (only one!) but of course they'd come with their toothy grins anyhow. We used to pester the ajjimas (Korean name for aunt, also implying a married woman over 35-40 or so) who worked at our dining hall in Orientation for more watermelon or spicy chicken or whatever (the best stuff was always guarded and dished out in portions). We'd make up these elaborate distract-and-grab plots. Now I know how they feel. ;) But really, it was a lot of fun ... and since they didn't understand English I could play around all I wanted.

AJJIMA: "Oh [five] Supa Chuseyo!" (this is her like third time to the watermelon patch)
ME: "Ohhhhoo! look at you! Back for more. Andeyo! You've had your fill."
AJJIMA: [unintelligible Korean gibberish}
ME: "Well, it's no use, you're just going to grab them anyway. Okay, I give up. It's fruit, it's good for you, eat up my friend."
AJJIMA: [toothy grin]

a word on tea: the convention center didn't serve any, but my host mother made some while we were doing food prep in the morning. score. i'm now officially a major iced tea fan.