My Father on Korea

"Have a great day in the land ancient and modern beyond the setting sun overrun with octopuses."

Thanksgiving in Korea

Since we could not celebrate Thanksgiving on Thursday, Adam and Nichole were kind enough to host a dinner at their place on Saturday. It was Thanksgiving potluck style, but Adam and Nichole provided us with food too. Daniel, in spite of the fact that he is Canadian, helped prepare some delicious chickens and stuffing (a special thanks to our boss who gave us some money to help cover the dinner). Of course we had all the normal Thanksgiving fixings. It was delicious. I told everyone that I would bring wine (which led to the birth of a new Thanksgiving tradition).

I was at E-Mart-uh trying to decide what wine to bring. There was a surprisingly wide selection, but a lot of it was expensive and none of it was really what I wanted. I saw on the bottom shelf a giant jug of Carlo Rossi Sangria and thought for a minute about whether or not it would be hilarious for me to bring that. Ryan and I had talked several times in the past about some of his friends drinking barrels of that stuff. I decided against it. But that is when inspiration struck. SANGRIA! I found some inexpensive bottles of a lighter red, a 3 liter plastic jug and a bag of oranges. After borrowing some sugar I started in on slicing oranges and chilling wine. About halfway through I realized that I didn't have any brandy or triple sec. I went to the corner store and stared at their alcohol, trying to find something to substitute. Cognac, whiskey, beer, soju...none of these seemed appropriate, especially soju (ie. paint thinner). I found a bottle of "Traditional Korean Raspberry Wine." I decided that it would have to do. I was set. I put the concoction in the fridge and waited for it to chill. Normally, you're supposed to let sangria sit over night, but this is Korea so it seems fine to let it stew for only 40 minutes.

While the sangria could have been more alcoholic, it wasn't terrible, and all of it was consumed. I thought it was pretty good, something I could work on perfecting for Christmas. I am pretty sure that from now on I will have to make sangria at every Thanksgiving.

Turkey Day

Thanksgiving in Korea was a weird day. All of our American staff knew that it was Thanksgiving, but most of us forgot until someone else brought it up. Of course we had to go to work, unlike the traditional two days off and there was no turkey dinner to be had. Luckily, after work a few of us went out for fried chicken and beer, which is the closest thing we could get to Thanksgiving dinner at 10pm in Korea. Certainly an nontraditional Thanksgiving, but all in all not a bad day.

My Students

I am continually impressed with many of my students. Some of them impress me with their motivation and determination, some with their raw talent for language. Some students impress me with their vibrant personalities and other with their sense of humor. No matter what it is that impresses me, I am often reminded how awesome they are. Last week while I was grading essays I was not only reminded how cool my students are, but I was inspired by one.

I have always liked this particular students. He works hard and he doesn't always have the correct answer but he is never scared to try. The topic of his essay is unimportant, but he wrote about how when he cooks he wears the same clothes that a chef does. He explained that when he wears his chef clothes the food he makes is more delicious than the food he makes when he doesn't wear them. I realized that he has mentioned his love of cooking and desire to be a chef many times in his essays.

I think his dream of being a chef is really cool. Most of my male students say they want to be doctors, scientists, inventors or computer programmers (or something similar) when they grow up. They don't really consider professions that aren't science based. This is one of the first students I have met who wants to do something outside of the math or science career track. I think it's awesome that he is interested in something other than science and computers (I probably think it's awesome because I have very little interest/talent in those two fields). He is so confident and unfazed by his classmates saying he is crazy for wanting to cook. His confidence and passion make me smile. I know he will go far.

Going, Gone

One of our American teachers bounced this past weekend without telling anyone. Wherever she is, I hope she is happier than she was here.

The Good Life

The Good Life:

• New schedules
• My students
  
• Not having 6 in a row on Fridays next month
• Friday nights in Korea
• Saturday nights in Korea
• Beijing
• Tokyo next month
• The Boys
• Laura's visit (35 days)
• My desk buddy (even when I am grumpy)
• Dak Galbi
• Radio Star

빼빼로 데이 (Pepero Day)

Today, November 11, is Pepero Day in Korea. On Pepero Day people, particularly students and teachers (apparently), give each other a snack called Pepero. Pepero is a long, thin stick made of cookie dipped in chocolate. Some varieties are filled with chocolate instead of dipped in it or they might be sprinkled with almonds in addition to the chocolate coating. You may be asking yourself, “Why is November 11 Pepero Day?” The answer is obvious. When you write out the date numerically, 11/11, the date clearly looks like two pairs of Pepero. It only makes sense that you would give out Pepero on this date. It is actually quite a brilliant marketing ploy, inventing a holiday where people buy your product and your product only. It also seems like everyone in Korea is aware of it. I assumed that my students would know about it, seeing as how it was a day devoted to sweets. But I was amazed how every grocery store and corner shop suddenly had enormous displays of the stuff. There were tents with vendors on the street selling Pepero this whole past week. The whole thing seemed to be a really big deal.


In spite of the evil corporate marketing behind this holiday it was a really enjoyable day. Most of my students would ask me at the beginning of class, “Teacha, do you know what today is?” They giggled with joy when I answered, “Pepero Day, of course!” They also really enjoyed that instead of writing the date on the board I wrote 빼빼로 데이. Many of my students made a point of bringing me Pepero, some of it was even home made! They seemed very excited to give it to me and they were ecstatic when at the end of class I handed out Pepero. I can only assume all the sugar will one day warp their brains, but that seems fine, it can’t be any worse than all of the pop we consume in the states. Believe it or not celebrating this holiday really brightened my day. Make sure to mark your calendars for next year and stock up on plenty of Pepero so that you too can celebrate this wonderful holiday.

This is comforting...

Just read this article.

Reese's Peanut Butter Cups

Sam got two packages today. The packages contained a variety of things, some mundane and some strange. One of the boxes had an enormous bag of Halloween candy inside. Within this bag was the most glorious treasure of all, Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. Sam was kind enough to share this delicious bounty with the staff. I had forgotten how wonderful they are. An explosion of flavor coated my mouth, the peanut butter and chocolate danced on my tongue. Their tantalizing and seductive flavors taking me back to my childhood and America. Most delicious night at the office ever.

Cultural Ambassadors

There is a coffee shop that I frequent in Jeonju which serves decent coffee and serves some food. My friends and I go there several times a week and have befriended most of the staff. I like to get these fluffy, delicious, big pretzels they serve. I often opt for the one dusted with a little Parmesan cheese. The pretzels come with sauce, I always order pizza (marinara) sauce with mine. Every time I do this the person taking my order makes the strangest face, sometimes they will look at me and say, "Really?" This always perplexed me. How can that combination sound bad? It seems only natural to me. I asked one of my friends that works at the coffee shop what sauce I should order with the pretzel and she told me cream cheese. Weird.

Today I told my friend Ryan about this oddity and he immediately got up and confronted our Korean coffee slinging friends about the situation. He said that they had to try it with the pizza sauce. I walked over with my fresh, hot and delicious pretzel, complete with pizza sauce (OBVIOUSLY) and offered some to them. We insisted that they try it. After a lot of fuss about how they didn't want to try it and other objections two of our friends finally took a piece and dipped it, ever so slightly, into the pizza sauce. They looked at each other as if they were trying some new exotic cuisine that they had never realized existed. They very cautiously ate the pieces of pretzel. It seemed as if they were analyzing each bit, trying to decide how it tasted. They both nodded and said it was good. "See, see" said Ryan. Satisfied with the results Ryan and I returned to our seats. I told Ryan that I was pretty happy that we made that happen. He dubbed us true cultural ambassadors.