Food, Glorious Food!

Today was the first day that I got noticeably homesick. I've been homesick up and down since coming here. But today, it was pretty bad, only at least it was a happy homesickness. My teachers and I went to the Outback Steakhouse. I was looking forward to some familiar food, only there weren't too many familiar items. What seemed like a normal bowl of pasta had squid in it (it was still good though). There was no blooming onion, I am sad to say. But they did bring out the brown bread, only this time it was served with not only butter, but mayo, chocolate syrup, and raspberry jelly (I'd call it syrup too). I chowed down on the bread and syrups, being the first syrups (other than maple flavored pancake syrup) in six months. Then the waiter brought cheese fries--I can find these almost every where, the typical fries with melted cheese and bacon (some places even add sliced almonds--a yummy addition). But this time it was served with a bowl of ranch. I had almost forgotten such a dressing existed! Oh how I missed Jess at that moment!

 And it occurred to me, I must be eating really damn healthily!

We had rare steak (reminded me of Wayne and Chris H's steaks), candied sweet potatoes (instead of a regular baked potato), a type of mizithra pasta and a tomato sauce pasta (both containing squid). Don't worry Mom, I didn't touch the tomato one.  So together all five of us put away five loaves of bread, five cups of mushroom soup, a steak (only a bit over 8 oz), sweet potatoes, two pasta dishes, and a heaping platter of fries. And still they told me I ate too little! But they also made me drink a mug of mangoade, a sprite, and a cup of green tea. Thank "got" the bread had chocolate sauce, or else they would have forced desert down my throat.

I guess this makes up for the rotten sweet potatoes I found instead of breakfast, and the smelly fish lunch I couldn't eat today.

This wasn't counting tea time when I drank two cups of ginseng and ate some cookies while listening to how Korean business men spend their evenings with co-workers (not too much different than American men do with the drinking and call girls and what not).

And dinner was bolstered by various tellings of sex scandals (not theirs) and my teachers learning about sex and all that fun stuff. It was more hilarious because two of the teachers refuse to say "sex" and turn bright red at the though of the word, but they'll still talk about it in a round about way. And if one of the younger girls tries to translate to me,  the older teachers stop and get embarrassed. I missed a lot in translation, but the facial expressions gave me enough entertainment.