Questions

Almost every day in the caf, I am asked two questions.

Questions number one:

"Don't you like delicious Korean Kimchi?"

I seriously think that these words are taught together. As in, they learn the question form "Don't you like..." (always in the negative) and then they translate the hangul "kimchi" into "delicious Korean kimchi". Because I rarely just hear kimchi. It's always "delicious Korean kimchi".
The reason that I am asked so often now is that I have passed the point where I see the polite consumption of kimchi as being necessary. I have "earned my stripes" as I see it, so I don't need to endear myself to everyone by pretending that kimchi is my favourite thing about Korea. So I often pass by the kimchi in the cafeteria line without a second glance, and that is apparently scandalous.
The other day after lunch Mr Hyun was acting surprised as usual that I hadn't joined him in wolfing down four pounds of kimchi at lunch. He was singing it's praises in his "cute" broken English and finished on "Many people think that delicious Korean kimchi is the greatest food in the world." I felt like saying "I think you mean 'many Koreans' think that delicious Korean kimchi is the most delicious food in the world.", but instead I went with "Everyone is entitiled to an opinion." Since he couldn't argue that (for two reasons) that was the end of our conversation about why I didn't eat kimchi.
Some of it is good, I will admit. But it is not the most delicious food in the world. By far. It apparently has health benefits, but if a lifetime of eating kimchi will only gain me a few more years of eating kimchi, I'll pass.

Question number two:

"Don't you like vegetables?"

Yes, I like vegetables. I like them a lot. In fact, I have had days where I have been unable to eat dinner because I spent all afternoon eating carrots. I have had purple pee from cabbage. I like spinach, and for a stretch of about three weeks, my broccoli intake was at one head per day.
So yeah, I like vegetables.
However, I do not like vegetables drowned in caustic red pepper sauce. The fact that it has sit so long that the vegetables are now soft from soaking it in is also far from reassuring. Not liking pickled radishes does not mean that I do not like vegetables.
Listen, I know you are the school nurse and you think that I just eat meat and bread all the time, because I'm from the West. But I do eat vegetables, I just prefer them fresh and/or cooked without pepper sauce.
WHY IS THAT SO HARD TO UNDERSTAND?!?!