Food-a-palooza

This is NOT a food blog, I promise. I have not the lexical wherewithal to describe cuisine and its taste in any more detail than "It was super yummy" and "Dude, it was awesome!" However, I can't help but share some images of the foodgasms I experienced this day.

First off, my boss's wife, who also works at the school as the Head of the Kindergarten Dept., took me out to lunch today. She apologized for not having done so earlier when I arrived and explained that the end of the month (which gets quite hectic) was keeping her from doing duties of the cordial nature. So, she took me out to lunch right around the corner form the school...to a Shabu Shabu joint.

Know what's better than Shabu Shabu? All You Can Eat Shabu Shabu.

BAM!

Know what's better than A.Y.C.E. Shabu Shabu that includes seafood (shrimp, baby squid, clams etc) as well as another side of the room that serves Chinese food? It all costs $14 per person. I would love/hate to see the damage Mike Liu could do here. So, yeah, this was a nice welcome to the school's staff :-)

Dinner was also super awesome (that's just a combo of my cuisine descriptor vocab). Today was the formal last day of the teacher I'm replacing at the school. She's a great educator and I've learned a lot from shadowing her these last couple of weeks. She's off to have her baby and then possibly teaching closer to where she lives in Suwon. So, the entire staff went out to dinner to say "thanks" and "goodbye." We went to a nearby bbq joint and the result was stuffage and gluttony: 6 orders of massive pork ribs and another two orders of the 3-layer pork....and that was just for my table of 3!!! I was impressed with all the ladies regarding how much bbq'd meat and rice wine was had this night!

I'm really enjoying getting to know my new co-workers. They are fun and always willing to help when I'm confused about what's going on (which was happening quite a bit). Gem is quirky, pervy and hilarious which is a great combo.  Nice face, Gem (in white)...

Julia is super sweet and funny (sitting in the corner here)...

Laura (the one in stripes who's doing her darndest to avoid the camera because she believes pregnancy should not be captured on camera) is a faboo and experienced teacher who has given me a lot of guidance as to what to expect and what I need to do.  Adi (in the black sleeveless shirt) has been a life-saver for my getting situated here and has been very giving of her time to make sure I was comfortable...

Gina, above in the faded orange, is sarcastic and open (woo hoo, a sarcastic Korean!!).  Becca, who is from my favorite country besides the U.S. (the U.K.) is going to be my shopping, rollerblading and reading-novels-in-the-park buddy. Becca was sitting in the corner opposite Julia and I did a horrible job snapping her. Apparently I was really only trying to get pictures of the food, imagine that. >.< I am sure I will have better pictures of Becca once we get our activities on.

The slew of other lovely ladies are the Korean teachers at the school whom I'm also getting to know (Hayley, Vera Ally, Joy, Christine and Elin). They are wonderful people and I look forward to hanging out with them more as the year goes on.

And now, food coma onset is in effect. Next up: the weekend filled with moving, shopping, and adopting a broken little kitty!