The rumbling in my tummy....

Oh merciful heavens....

Every day my school brings lunch in for all of the teachers. We don't have to pay a dime (or a won, I guess) for it, which is so great. The only catch is, it's Korean food. Now, as I mentioned in my previous post, Korean food is great... some of the time.

When the bell rang for lunch this afternoon, I rushed into the break room ready for whatever would be put in front of me; I was starving. I opened my lunch box (they serve lunch in these little wooden boxes) and much to my disgusted surprise I saw a fish lying on the bottom of the box, and it was looking at me. The eyes were still in its fully attached and cooked head. I covered my mouth to surpress the gagging urge, but then I looked at the second half of the box to find a pile of minnows looking at me. Minnows. Heads, fins, tails, eyes, everything.

Sweet God in heaven.

The other teachers in the room eagerly dug into their meals with chopsticks and spoons, while I sat there trying not to look at the little guys in the box in front of me. They looked like they were just waiting to be eaten; the look of the terror of death was still plastered on their faces. If the other teachers can do it, I can do it. I took a deep breath, stabbed the big fish with one of my chopsticks, and brought it to my mouth. OK. Not bad. I took another bite, still refusing to look down at the box. Two bites down, about 20 to go. I looked at the pile of cold, dead minnows. OK. You can do it. I scooped up three or four in my spoon and bit into the little, lifeless bodies. And then I thought about what I was eating....

I slammed the box shut, ran out of the break room, and made it to the bathroom just in the nick of time. Lesson learned: Do not think about what I'm eating while eating it. Just chew, swallow, and leave.