Taco Thursday

There is no such thing as summer vacation in Korea. At least not for a lot of kids. And for those kids, at least not in the endless afternoons full of snacking and boredom, kids wandering the neighborhood aimlessly, crumpled summer reading list at the bottom of a trampled backpack sort of way. As my co-teacher put it, parents see summer vacation as an opportunity for kids to get ahead. After all, getting ahead is the driving force behind the Korean education system. So, instead of skateboarding around the mall, hoping to get invited to someone's house with a pool, or sitting idly in front of the television, many Korean children are attending classes, camps, and tutoring sessions through July and August. I had spent the last 4 weeks preparing for English summer camp. One week at each of my schools. I was unsure what to expect, but I assumed it wasn't supposed to be the bobbing for apples, making lanyards sort of summer camp. So, while I included a higher proportion of games, songs, and videos into my lesson plans, I made sure to keep clear learning objectives throughout.

I was pleasantly surprised then this past Monday when I started camp at my main school. Already unstressed because I was only responsible for 1/4 of the week's activities, I relaxed even more to find that the atmosphere resemebeled...well, summer camp.
I immedietely cut out the boring vocabulary worksheets (orginially designed to take up time anyway). Throughout the week we designed outfits for Lady Gaga, painted pieces of recycled "folk art" and made recipes for disgusting sandwiches. And today, after giving a rather enlightening powerpoint presentation on American food, I itroduced the taco. Of course, they are familiar with this infamous Mexican food, but I thought I'd explain it better. In fact, the taco is mentioned at one point or another in every text book, though the recipe in the book says to cook the meat in tomato sauce. I did my best to show the morph from traditional Mexican street food turned American favorite. Natuarlly I mentioned Taco Bell (no, they don't have Taco Bell here) and tried my best to explain its value in the taco world. I showed them a commercial from the 90s of Shaq's Taco Neck syndrome. Then... we made tacos!!

I was in charge of the recipe and all the cooking was left to the students. They all proved to be pretty steady with a knife as they chopped piles of onions and bell peppers to cook witht the ground beef. Things continuing smoothly as the beef was added to vegetables in the frying pan. I circulated and added spices to the meat while the students stirred away and began passed around the tortillas. I thought we had this one in the bag. All that was left was to chopt the lettuce and tomato to top off the tacos. But, instead of chopping in up into toppings, each group began preparing a communal salad with the vegetables. It finally made sense why there were cucumbers on each of the tables. And thousand island dressing. Koreans and their communal side dishes. Oh well, I guess it will be beef burritos with a side salad.

Now, you can blame me for forgetting the hot sauce at home, but I know Koreans by now and I'm going to bet that they would have squirted ketchup and mustard on their tacos with or without the Tapatio. I watched in nervous amusement as they piled on the beef and condiments. If that's as gross as it looks, I will be responsible for soiling the taco's good name in the eyes of a room full of Koreans. I focused on the humor in it to avoid the guilt. At the very least they were impressed by my folding skills. Since most of them put so much meat on their tortillas I had to fold them burrito style to keep it together.

One of the students presented me with one of the meat pockets and I was eager to taste it, see how badly we'd messed these things up. I prayed that if nothing else, the meat came out decently seasoned, since techinically that was my only hand in the preparation. Then she quickly took it back, evidently having forgotten to add the ketchup, and re-presented it to me. Well, if I came here thinking we were going to enjoy authentic mexican food in the basement kitchen at a Korean middle school, it was my mistake. I took a bite. Not half-bad. though some bites tasted more like a sloppy joe then a taco, the meat had the right flavor and the tortilla- well, a tortilla is a tortilla. And everyone seemed happy as they dug into their salads with chopsticks, stuggled to keep the filling inside their "tacos," and sipped soda from communal bowls. (Then again, what student wouldn't be happy to be cooking and eating instead of studying). We had Koreanized the taco. And, having just given a presentation on how the US had effectively Americanized the taco in the exact same way, I felt I'd learned a lesson if no one else had.

And so, it isn't so terrible in Korea that the teachers and students alike can't wish that everyday were summer vacation just like home.

Baskin Robbins uniting cultures around the world

This past Sunday I went to lunch with a co-worker from my main school. It took nearly a whole semester for me to be invited to a teacher's house, and she isn't even an English teacher. Actually she's more of an academic director. From what I gather a counselor/development coordinator. She invited me to lunch with her family and I accepted. When the day came, I have to admit I was less than excited. Her English is not great and I resented spending my free day trying to communicate and fill awkward silences. I have to do that everyday at work. But, I was happily surprised with the day I spent with her and her family. It turns out her 19 year old son attended High School in Indiana and is fluent in English. I felt bad at his parent's unending requests for him to translate everything, but was relieved that the day wouldn't be spent in frustration and smiles of defeat when meaning was lost. We joined her parents and brother and sister-in-law for a duck lunch at a restaurant where I learned that her father is a former English professor and her brother possesses decent English skills as well. Of course, I was shocked at the amount of food brought to the table. I wonder if the day will come when I am not flabbergasted when they bring in the stone pots of stew to finish the feast. It's always just as my legs are starting to go numb from sitting on the floor and I'm tugging at the waist of my shorts.

After lunch, we went to my co-worker's parents' home to have a celebration for her mother's birthday. Her father showed me his photo album of his time in the United States with his colleagues. I saw him at Harvard University, by the Golden Gate Bridge, and at the Grand Canyon. Then he showed me his study. His section of Nathaniel Hawthorne was impressive and later explained when I saw the copy of the book he had written (in Korean) about the author. After that he led me to his wife's sewing room. In here the walls were full of fabric stuffed animals that she had sewn. They were actually quite interesting and in the back of my mind I was hoping she would offer me one to keep.. Though she didn't end up giving me a stuffed bird, she did present me with one of her latest projects- a doll that she was sewing for UNICEF. Someone explained that each purchase goes to vaccinating a child in Africa. She wanted me to have one and she would put on the UNICEF website that it was adopted by me. Finally the grandfather showed me his golf room. At first I was just shocked that their apartment home had space enough for a sewing room, let alone a tennis room, but one has never seen so many tennis shirts in one closet! That's pretty much all there was aside from the tennis rackets propped in the corner. When we returned to the living room the others were chuckling and I gathered they were laughing at the grandfather dragging me around the apartment. "There is nothing to see," they translated with smiles.

But I begged to differ. There was plenty to see! And plently to eat. The pound cake I had brought as a gift and a watermelon were sliced up and put on the table as the candles were lit on the ice cream cake. It was from Baskin Robbins, and much to my delight, it was mint chocolate chip! It thrilled me that there I sat in an apartment in Korea, celebrating a near stangers 70-odd birthday, sharing my all-time favorite cake and the exact same birthday cake I used to eat every year at my own grandparents' house.