1 Month of SCHOOL LUNCHES!

For the month of November, I took a picture of all of my school lunches. I have surprised myself, and am relatively happy with my lunches. I don't eat a lot of it, but I usually manage to find something that I can eat. I always take my one piece of kimchi, and ALWAYS finds it's way into my soup before I clean my tray off. If I were to not take something, I would get the questions, so instead I always take a bit of everything, and then I eat what I want. I am lucky because at my school, I serve myself, so I can take small amounts of the things that I know I will not eat. This way I don't waste much. Many of my friends are served their lunch and in this case, there would be a lot of waste from me. So, here is a glimpse into my school lunches... 

1.There is always, rice. Sometimes the rice is meant to be part of something else. For instance, when we have bibimbap, you are expected to add other vegetables and sauce into it to make it what it is meant to be. 

2. There is always a soup. Usually it has a fishy base or another mystery meat base and then has a few vegetables or something in it. Sprouts are quite common.

3. We usually have a meat side. Lots of times, it is a mystery meat. We seem to have pork and duck a lot though.

4. We always have kimchi. Every once in awhile we have a radish kimchi or a different kind of kimchi. I'm not really a fan of any of them. If I had to eat them, (like the temple stay) I would eat them, but there is no monk staring at me, so I don't feel the need to eat it.... :)

5. There is always another interesting side. My least favorite are the candied mini anchovies with there tiny eyeballs looking up at me. I don't take many of those...Ever...

Quail eggs. 

Here are the anchovies looking up at me...

I also pick around the tentacles and squid pieces. I think coming from Kansas makes it difficult to eat these things...

Fried lotus pods...

I think they noticed that I was taking pictures, so they added more fruit to the menu... Maybe?

What??? Fresh fruit? A rare occurrence! 

This last picture is what my soup usually ends up looking like.... All of the things that I didn't want to eat make their way into my soup, so that as I take my tray to dump it looks like I ate SOOOO much. Everyone always wants to know what the foreigner is up to, and this is one thing people notice.
On a side note: they also like to know what I am shopping for at the grocery store... Every person makes an effort to peer into my cart to see what I'm buying. I find it hilarious! :)