Hey hey it's Pepero Day

So while everyone in the States is observing Veteran's Day (thank you for your service!) over here in Korea it's Pepero Day.

Pepero itself is a snack made from sticks of cookie dunked in chocolate. It's the same as pocky essentially. There are a bunch of varieties- strawberry dipped, almond, chocolate filled, etc.- and they're available year round. However, November 11th is always Pepero Day because of course when you write 11/11 it looks like a bunch of sticks of pepero.

Pepero Day is pretty equivalent to Valentine's Day and White Day. The stores all put up massive displays and you can buy extra big boxes of it or the bakery made variety with sprinkles or "I Love You" written across it. If you've ever watched a Korean game show you may have seen pepero before when it's used in a kissing game. They play it a lot in We Got Married (우리 결혼했어요) which features a variety of Korean stars who are paired up for the show. Each person in the couple takes one end of pepero in their mouth and then begins eating it so that they get close to kissing, à la Lady and the Tramp. Of course since they're so shy about that here (take a drink every time a Korean drama fades out or cuts away from a kiss!) the game is basically to see which couple is willing to get close enough for a kiss before biting off and therefore have the shortest stick of pepero at the end. So Pepero Day is definitely a holiday that couples can indulge in but there is plenty of pepero exchange between friends too.

Walking to work I passed a bunch of students heading home and saw them carrying boxes with bows on them and gift bags and even one girl who had to use both arms to carry a heart-shaped pepero box display. At work one of the students in my first class gave me a box of pepero, the chocolate filled kind which is the best obviously. Then in my second class one of the students brought in extra large, individually wrapped sticks for everyone in the class. Another student even gave me a big box of pepero from Paris Baguette which is slightly fancier and probably cost much more. Very sweet!

I am for any holiday that encourages the eating of cookies dipped in chocolate so long live Pepero Day!

Trivia of the Day:  "The Liancourt Rocks, also known as Dokdo or Tokto (독도, literally "solitary island") in Korean or Takeshima (たけしま/竹島, literally "bamboo island") in Japanese, are a group of small islets in the Sea of Japan (East Sea). Sovereignty over the islets is disputed between Japan and South Korea. The islets are currently administered by South Korea, which has its Coast Guard stationed there. The Liancourt Rocks consist of two main islets and 35 smaller rocks. Two Korean citizens—an octopus fisherman and his wife—are permanent residents on the islets. A small Korean police detachment, administrative personnel, and lighthouse staff are stationed in non-permanent supporting positions on the islets. Although claimed by both Korea and Japan, Liancourt Rocks are currently administered by the Republic of Korea. Both nations' claims extend back at least several hundred years. Significant arguments supported by a variety of historical evidence have been presented by both parties, which have been challenged by counter-arguments with varying degrees of success. North Korea supports South Korea's claim.

The Liancourt Rocks are a point of heated contention*, alongside other Japan–Korea disputes. The Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs considers its position "inalterable". South Korea, for its part, maintains a nationwide educational program which sends the students of 62 elementary, middle, and high schools on field trips to the rocks on a regular basis. The government has also written a textbook about the rocks, intended to be used in elementary schools across the country, and manages a year-round national educational tour. When Japan's Shimane prefecture announced a "Takeshima Day" in 2005, Koreans reacted with demonstrations and protests throughout the country, extreme examples of which included a mother and son slicing off their own fingers, and a man who set himself on fire. In 2006, five Korean "Dokdo Riders" embarked on a world tour to raise international awareness of the dispute. Another notable protest featured South Koreans decapitating pheasants in front of the Japanese Embassy."

*The Dokdo debate is serious business! My students get all worked up about it (although this is true any time Japan is mentioned) and it's been used several times during their end of class project. Most recently I had a group who drew a picture of the Korean peninsula as a buff person who was punching Japan and saying, "Dokdo is ours!".

September I hardly knew ye

Cripes! The start of a new term at work, my internet throwing successive tantrums, a recent trip out of the country, and my general laziness and tendency to say, "Naw, I'll write something tomorrow" has led to an unintended two and a half week hiatus. Whoops. So I figured I needed to sit myself down and get something out before this month just completely passes me by.

First and foremost: Fall is here! It arrived exactly thirteen days ago on a Monday morning. How do I know this? Because fall is just that awesome. It comes with a crispness in the air and a coolness that you can feel even under the remaining summer heat. It's not pushy though like Winter which comes barreling in to set up camp for four months. It pops up, gives you a quick wink to let you know it's in town, and then lets Summer fade out. When I came downstairs that Monday morning I paused for a second and oh hey, there it was. Fall is the best season ever and I'm so so happy I'm abroad in a country that experiences a beautiful Autumn like the one back home.

And to ring in the harvest season, Korea celebrated Chuseok (추석) this past week. Chuseok is a three-day holiday that you'll hear most foreigners describe as the Korean Thanksgiving. Everyone goes back to their hometowns (or as most of my kids said to "grandma's house" wherever that may be) to spend time with family and in the words of my students to "eat yummy foods". It's one of the most important Korean holidays.

The holiday this year was from Sunday the 11th to Tuesday the 13th so a group of us girls from work took the opportunity to take a mini-vacation to Shanghai. You'd think that considering we'd only just started the new term we wouldn't be in need of a break yet but those first couple weeks are tiring so it was a more than welcome stay away. More on that adventure soon! That is when I actually finish up on Vietnam. Heh.

CDI always makes up missed class days though so I had to work both days this weekend which was not too fun. Luckily I only had one class today though that was out by 1:30pm so I'm spending the rest of the day relaxing and catching my breath. Literally. Somehow I came down with bronchitis and I have a real nasty cough and that obnoxious chest pain. Dr. Google and her associates however recommend basic home treatment like liquids and rest so I'm holding off on a trip to the pharmacy just yet. So far sitting next to my humidifier is helping a lot actually. In the event of needing more than just charades and coughing at the pharmacist though, this site seems to offer a decent Korean-English dictionary for medical terms. Or at least it's a Korean-English dictionary for medical terms. Whether or not those terms are accurate I haven't a clue...

So that's that in my life right now. I anticipate the next few months being pretty busy but I want to make sure to share some more of what's been happening lately. My first ever K-pop concert! Flying in style and delicious food in Shanghai! A visit to a house shaped like a giant toilet!

At least one of those adventures means I forever have the perfect ice breaker for awkward situations at parties. This really has been a successful year.

Trivia of the Day: Ganggangsullae (강강술래) is a 5,000-year-old Korean dance that was first used to bring about a bountiful harvest and has developed into a cultural symbol for Korea. It incorporates singing, dancing, and playing and is exclusively performed by women. The dance is mostly performed in the southwestern coastal province of Jeollanam-do. It is often associated with the Chuseok holiday and Daeboreum. Traditionally, this dance is performed only by women at night without any instruments. Young and old women dance in a circle at night under the moonlight. They go outside in traditional Korean clothing, hold each other's hands, make a circle, and start rotating clockwise. The lead singer sings a line and everyone sings the refrain 'ganggangsullae'. The song tempo progressively becomes faster. They sing about their personal hardships, relationships, and desires. During the dance, the women play a variety of games. The dance can last until dawn.

It's ninety degrees! Have mercy, John, please! It's hot as hell in Philadephia!

Happy Fourth of July!

We're back from Vietnam and it was great. Hot as blue bloody blazes but we saw some very cool places and I would definitely recommend it (in the fall or winter though). I took approximately 2,000 pictures so when I find some way to narrow those down expect a full trip recap. Here's a glimpse of our adventures in Vietnam:

Stay tuned for stories about pizzas, old lady kisses, non-toilets, and vampire coffin bathtubs. Plus lots of pretty pretty pictures for the tl;dr crowd.

Hope everyone at home in the US of A (and expats around the world) is having an amazing July 4th weekend and celebrating with sparklers and barbecues and fireworks. This is one holiday that I love but have never had a consistent routine for so I'm okay with being out of the country for it. My fella made us a classic July 4th dinner of burgers and corn on the cob and now we're settling down for a showing of Jaws (this is fine because I don't plan on being near the ocean any time soon!). 

Enjoy your long weekend everyone! Celebrate safely :)

Look- something shiny!

On Children's Day, May 5th (I know, I know I'm so behind), my mom and I went to Suwon to check out Hwaseong Fortress. I'd been to the wall surrounding the fortress a few months back but wasn't able to make it to the fortress itself before closing time. We wandered around Haenggung, which is the palace within the fortress, and then mom did  some more exploring while I scooted back to Incheon for work. I still haven't been able to do a full loop of the wall so hopefully I can accomplish that sometime this summer when it's still warm. 

On Children's Day kids get a much needed break from school for the day. A lot of hagwons close too but some, like ours, stay open and there are a few poor kids who end up having to come. Plus no mini-holiday for us teachers either, boo.

Damn, clowns are a bad idea no matter what country you're in.

There was a performance outside the entrance involving swords and archery and lots of straw slicing. My kind of performance.

 Behold the power and skill of the guards of Hwaseong Fortress.

 

And here's where I headed back to work so these are pictures my mom took in an area I haven't been to yet so these were new for me too.

Trivia of the Day: A gosu (고수, literally "drummer") is a drummer in performances of pansori (판소리), a form of traditional Korean narrative/theater that is usually performed by just two musicians: a solo singer and a drummer. The gosu supports the sorikkun, or singer, by providing rhythms with a soribuk (pansori drum), a shallow barrel drum with a pine body and two cowhide heads. Impromptu short verbal sounds made by the gosu, called chu-imsae, also play an important role.

Happy Mom's Day

It's Parent's Day here in South Korea today but Mother's Day back home. So Happy Mom's Day to all you ladies out there who raise us kids right and love us no matter what. And especially Happy Mother's Day to my own mom who supported me when I told her I wanted to move across the world and who came to spend some time with me here (something that after six months away from home I really really needed). Hope you enjoyed your day and your trip mom! 

I snapped this at the top of the mountain, the one by my apartment, that we climbed last week. It was pretty hot and bright up there (note the squinting) but we were feeling pretty good after that hike. I'm happy we got this shot together, awkward angle and all :)

And her hair it hung over her shoulder, tied up with a black velvet band

Happy belated St. Patrick's Day!

Since the holiday fell on a Thursday this year I saved the celebrations for the weekend. Luckily Korea is awesome and had a festival for the occasion:

It was hosted by the Irish Association of Korea which according to their website has been around since 1996:

The AIM of The IAK is to highlight & Promote Irish culture in Korea. We do this by providing events of interest to the Irish in Korea, and opportunities for Korean people to experience and learn more about Irish customs and traditions.

Basically there were a bunch of bands who played and some dancing in between, though no badass step dancers like I was hoping for. There were a few tents set up selling t-shirts and Irish tea and one area where you could make a donation for a memorial the IAK is hoping to build in honor of Irish who died in the Korean War. Ireland wasn't actually in the war but apparently there were at least two hundred soldiers who fought with the American, Canadian, and Australian forces.

Probably the strangest thing about the set up was that there was no beer tent. I had to walk down the block to a 7-Eleven though it was slim pickings since everyone else was doing the same thing. Korean beer is just okay, nothing to write home about, and they don't offer a big selection of imported beers which is too bad. However, there are no open container laws here which is a happy trade off.

So I bought a few beers and a hotteok (호떡) from a street vendor to go with them. Hotteok is the most delicious thing ever. It's basically a fried dough pancake with a brown sugar/cinnamon/peanut mixture inside that melts into gooey goodness. They're super cheap on the street and you can buy pre-made mix in the store in the baking aisle for making at home. When you buy one they hand it to you in this little rectangular piece of light paper that makes it easy to eat as you walk.

Of course if you are a space cadet like myself and not paying attention as you eat and walk, there is a chance that the gooey brown sugary sweetness inside, blazing hot since it's fresh off the griddle, will gush out and make you believe that you just stuck your hand in a POOL OF LAVA. Oh man did my hands have some blisters after that. If I ever have to booby trap my house like Kevin did in Home Alone I am totally making one of the traps trigger a giant falling bucket of half eaten hotteok. Delicious yet deadly.

Once I rinsed my hands under some cold water I headed back to the festival area and grabbed a seat to enjoy the music.

I wasn't really sure what to expect from a Korean Irish festival but it was a good time. I heard some familiar songs and some new ones and the crowd, though mostly foreigners, was a nice mix of folks from all over. At one point I was in line for the bathroom (apparently no matter where you go in the world women always get stuck waiting in long ass bathroom lines) and this girl behind me had this crazy get up going on with green tights and shorts and green shoes, etc. She asked if she looked ridiculous and someone responded, "There is a Korean man out there with a green mustache.... you do not look ridiculous".

After the festival I went to Itaewon and met up with a bunch of my co-workers for dinner and drinks. As part of the festival the IAK was also hosting two hooleys, a big one in Gangnam and a smaller one in Itaewon, so we went to the latter. One of the bands from earlier was there playing and we just spent a few hours hanging out, having some drinks, and listening to Irish tunes. My kind of evening.

You know it's funny because as I was looking around the crowd on Saturday I'd been thinking that it seems so random having an Irish Association in Korea. It really isn't at all but I guess it just took me by surprise at first. But then I was thinking that Ireland and Korea actually have a hell of a lot in common. In terms of size they're both relatively small nations (though their populations are hugely different) and geographically they're each slightly set off from a bustling continent. Ireland is an island and though Korea is a peninsula, considering that you can't exactly just take a road trip through the North and into China it's pretty much just as cut off. Ireland and Korea both have a history of being occupied by a neighboring nation and each country has been wracked by civil war that's left it divided.

It just seemed unexpected at first to hear one of the members of the IAK making announcements to the crowd in his Irish accent and then moments later repeating it again in Korean. And maybe I'm completely grasping at straws here but I think I can appreciate a little more how these two countries might get along so nicely.

Oh yikes except now I'm trying to picture an Irish/Korean dinner gathering of corned beef and cabbage with a side of kimchi and some Guinness and soju to wash it all down...

The unique cuisine makings of a beautiful friendship.

Trivia of the Day: Kim Yu-Na (김연아) is a South Korean figure skater. Kim is the first South Korean figure skater to win a medal at an ISU Junior or Senior Grand Prix event, ISU Championship, and the Olympic Games. She is the first female skater to win the Olympic Games, the World Championships, the Four Continents Championships and the Grand Prix Final. She is one of the most highly recognized athletes and media figures in South Korea. She has never placed off the podium in her entire career. At the 2010 Winter Olympics she won the gold medal, becoming the first South Korean skater to medal in any discipline of figure skating at the Olympic Games. Kim's gold medal was South Korea's first medal at the Winter Olympics in a sport other than speed skating or short track. Due to her dominance for the past few years, she has been nicknamed "Queen Yuna".