Phenomenon

I witnessed a Korean phenomenon at my school on Monday. This post comes from the scroutinizing stares/looooong looks from Koreans to Foreigners that we have experienced MANY times!

As we gathered in the cafeteria for lunch, I took my metal tray with the proper holes in it - 2 big one for soup and rice, 2 small ones for meat, and 1 smaller one for various types of kimchi, and a pair of metal chopsticks and a metal spoon. This is our first year to eat in cafeterias as last year we ate our meals on our own. It sure cuts down the cost of food this year, but EVERYONE, sometimes up to 300 people, watch the 1 and only foreigner as they dish up their plate. and many months ago, i learned to take absolutley EVERYTHING that they were serving - regardless of eating it or not. It simply cut back on the comments/questions I would receive while trying to muster up the courage to eat the whole baby octopus in red pepper paste.

anyway, when i dished up my tray and sat down with some Korean teachers that I hadn't met...there it was. the phenomenon.

A Korean woman did not take any soup.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is the making of a Korean soap opera in plain site!

Honestly, a whole realm of questions/criticizing statements that had been fired at me over the past 7.5 months went through my head:

'why didn't you take any soup?'
'don't you like soup?'
'you should eat soup if you're feeling bad'
'you should eat soup - it's good for health!'
'you should eat soup - it's good for...making babies/curing cancer/man health/.......'
'i will get you some soup'
'you have to eat soup'
'don't you like soup with seaweed/baby crab/octopus/squid/eggs/all of the above?'
'you should try some'
'you HAVE to eat some'....

but, i restrained myself. I wanted to yell out 'THIS KOREAN WOMAN HAS NO SOUP!' so everyone would run and fuss and make a big deal about what she had decided NOT to eat, as any full grown adult woman is usually allowed to decide.

But, I kept my mouth shut. or rather - full - of my own soup, instead.