July 20, 2014

There were about 15 or so of us in a classroom and I was cooking for them. It seemed to be some kind of after school event and most of the people were watching something in Korean that was being projected to the front of the room. Someone said “welcome to our first meeting” so I assume it was so.

I was rather nervous and put everything into the wok without much thought for sequence and order which of course ended horribly. Among the ingredients were onions, cabbage, and apples. I only turned away for a moment when I found out that a kid had taken everything out of the wok and put it all into his own bag. I froze.

“Did that really just happen?”

“Did that really just happen?”

“Did that really just happen?”

I couldn’t stop repeating myself as I stared straight into the eyes of the kid that was now standing in front of me, clutching a Ziploc bag closely to his chest.

“Now we’re going to be here until eight!” someone groaned in the background.

~

In the back of the room, there was a small red book in which former students had written self motivating comments. I flipped through a few pages.