Juk (Korean Porridge)

Juk, or Korean porridge, is a food that I have come to love when I'm not really in the mood for anything in particular.  I was first introduced to juk by my boss when I had bronchitis a few months ago.  I was told that Juk is great to eat when you are sick.  It's very similar to the idea of chicken noodle soup in the States.

According to Wikipedia (I know, I know....Wikipedia....), Juk is made with plain white rice and can include varieties of different ingredients including milk, vegetables, seafood, nuts, and other grains.  From my experience, it isn't very flavorful.  However, I really like the taste of the tuna juk that I regularly get.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congee#Korea)

 My tuna juk.

The take-out bag.

The portion is really big and is usually enough for two full meals.  Then, after the container is washed, it is great to use as a left-over container.  Our cabinet is full of juk containers!  Who needs Rubbermaid?  lol

Loose Teeth

Before we came to South Korea, we had to meet with the South Korea Consulate in Chicago.  There, we met several other people who doing the same thing we were doing.  We exchanged contact information with two of the people we met: Doug and Sara.  (By the way Doug and Sara, if you are reading this, we need to meet up sometime and catch up.)

Anyway, Sara has a blog that I read.  About two weeks ago, she wrote a post and the title of it was "I'm not just a teacher, I'm also the tooth fairy!!"  In her story, she stated that she helped pull out one of her student's teeth.  I thought it was a cute story.  Here is the link to her story if you are interested: http://sara-avadarian.blogspot.com/2011/07/im-not-just-teacher-im-also-tooth-fairy.html

Well, earlier this week, I had my own run-in with a student having a loose tooth.  His name is Si-Woo and he is in my phonics class.  Si-Woo had his hand in his mouth the entire class.  He was wiggling and pulling on that tooth trying to get it to come out.  That's when I thought of Sara's story.  However, unlike Sara, I was not about to pull out Si-Woo's tooth.  In fact, I got weak in the knees and had to sit down.  All of the kids were laughing at me because it was making me dizzy seeing him trying to pull out his own tooth.

That is not like me - getting dizzy and weak over something so small!  I mean, I am a blood donor.  I love watching medical shows where you see blood and guts.  But something about him messing with his tooth just did not settle with me.

I was worried about the next day in class.  But as luck would have it, he pulled it out that night!  Ever since that tooth incident, my students (some of whom were not even in that phonics class) come up to me pretending they are pulling out teeth.

I hope there are no more teeth incidents.  And, I would like to commend Sara for pulling out her student's tooth!  You are a braver person than I!  :)