The Basement

Thursdays are bad days for lunch. I have a class 5th period which doesn't get out until 12:10. The Chinese staff at the school, however, all go to lunch at 11:30. By the time I leave class and get to the staff cafeteria, the food is practically gone and it's definitely cold. Not good at all. Since I also teach a 6th period class, I really don't have enough time to leave campus and get something else (like McyD's). It's a problem.

I have been in the habit of eating in the student cafeteria on Thursdays. The food is doled out in separate stations, so there is a much wider variety. A lot of it is still unidentifiable and some of it is downright gross (it is a high school cafeteria after all), but at least it is still hot. But the unidentifiable part makes it a bit of a crap shoot. I don't know what the food is and which stations serve decent food. I try to get the kids to help me, but all too often they just say, "I don't know" and wander off.

Until this Thursday. As I left the building, I saw a group of my girls. One of them is the sweetest child ever. She has a delightful smile and loves to laugh and giggle. Her English is atrocious, however, and she struggles in every one of her classes. She has a very difficult time understanding spoken English. She wants to improve, and she is very attached to her teachers. When she felt how cold my hands were last week, she lent me her fingerless gloves. She will run up to me on campus and hold onto my arms (remember, the Chinese are far more touchy than us Westerners, it is not unusual to see women holding hands while walking down the street). As I walk up to the students, she holds on to my arm. The other girls crowd around and I ask them what I should eat. They offer to help me out. Finally!

They tell me that they are going to the basement. The basement? I didn't even know there was a basement cafeteria! We walk around the building and down some stairs, and then there we were. Cafeteria Shangri-La. There were steamed dumplings, pot stickers, pizza, spaghetti, meat on a stick, noodles, soup, mush on rice... All sorts of little stations with recognizable food that tasted good, too. I had students there to point things out. It was great. I had pot stickers and some lamb on a stick and a few steamed dumplings.

The Canadian had told me that he liked the cafeteria, and I thought he was talking about the place on the first floor. Turns out he was talking about the basement. I am definitely going to eat there more often!