Food and other things

[spinelstar]

Today's been good so far... Tomorrow's going to be my busy day, apparently. Six classes, probably. But today I just had two classes of second-years.

I'm provided with the school lunch every day, which I eat with the other teachers in the staff room. I feel obliged to eat the whole thing every day, because the other teachers always do and I don't want to seem ungrateful. But the amount of food they give me combined with the fact that I'm a picky eater has made that kind of difficult. Seriously, I don't know how they all eat the whole thing every day... And they're always so fast, too. I must have a small stomach and a really slow metabolism. After the first school lunch I wasn't hungry again until 9:00pm that evening!

I've been proud of myself, though, because there's only been one time so far that I haven't eaten all of it. And I think that I'll actually grow to like plain milk before the month is out, because that's always what comes with it.

So anyways, today there was a salad-looking-thing and rice, and then there was this bowl of burnt-orange liquid stacked high with minced vegetables and I think some meat scraps, but mostly tofu. I sighed a little bit on the inside and went for the salad.

It wasn't so good. I think it was spinach, and there were just some other vegetables in it that weren't very good (I have no idea what they were) that just made it seem heavy and soggy somehow. So I gave up on that for a little while and went for the orange stuff.

It was surprisingly amazingly good.

It had a creamy, almost tomato-/vegetable-soupy taste, and the tofu absorbed that really nicely. I found myself shoving it into my mouth without stopping to think about it, much like I would with spaghetti or a cheeseburger back home. It was easily the best thing I've had at the school lunch so far.

But I still had to eat the salad. :(

Word Phrase of the Day: Sei, na. (presumably the first word is written with the kanji 正) It basically means, "That's correct."

Comments

[ceitfianna]

Its always uncomfortable to have to eat everything when you don't like it or even when you do. When I was studying abroad in France, my host mother would give me more food than her husband, it was tasty but I couldn't eat it all.

I hope your busy day is good. Today was mine with class in the morning and evening.

[viridian.livejournal.com]

You know, I know you're in Japan where not finishing your food is a big deal, but as a fellow picky eater, I would've said fuck this salad and thrown the rest out. There's no sense in putting things in your body that you don't want in any way.

[mm-spinelstar.livejournal.com]

I have a feeling that there will be days when I do exactly that. :P Probably sooner rather than later.

Still, it's just... everyone here is so nice, and I don't want to make them feel like they can't please me. I've gotten the impression that the guy before me made them feel that way a little bit, and I can't help feeling bad about that. I'm pretty sure he came off as really stuck-up and unaccomodating, and I just want to try as hard as I can to make a better impression.

On the other hand, it's nice to hear that someone thinks I'm being too careful. Some of the other English teachers in the program are like, waaaay too obsessed with acting Japanese, and sometimes they make me feel like I'm not trying hard enough. :(

[viridian.livejournal.com]

I've been told I would appear SO RUDE if I stuck to my eating habits in Japan, but life is too short to eat shitty food if you're not literally starving to death.

Plus, I bet they're really used to it by now. I'm sure there are tons of Americans who come over to teach and haaaaaate the food. You can always apologize if someone appears to take notice, but you're making an effort and that's the important part.

[ashen_key]

As a fussy-eater, I send you lots of sympathy.

[wanderlustlover]

I remember this stuff! We had lunch and dinner prepared for us at my school and it was always different. I did kind of go out of my way to try everything at least once. Some of it I didn't like as much as others but it was really educational.