빼빼로 Day

November 11 is a holiday in Korea, 빼빼로day [pronounced like "pepero"]. As you can see in the picture, pepero are thin, round, cracker-like sticks covered with chocolate or other mixtures. It is like the Korean version of the Japanese Pocky sticks, if you have ever eaten those. They chose November 11 as the date for their holiday since four of the sticks resemble the digits of the date: 11.11. So on this day, young people give pepero to their friends, boyfriends, girlfriends, and (best of all) teachers. Since I teach high school, I just got a few packs of pepero, but some of the elementary teachers really loaded up. The kids give them out just like a gift, with "to" and "from" written on them. One student even put a little bow on one for me.


There is one main kind of pepero, the red-packaged chocolate-covered ones, but they come in all sizes and wrappings, including one with teddy bears on it that one girl gave me. Besides being covered with chocolate, they can have nuts, cacao, icing, sprinkles, or other random things on them.

Now at this point, some of you might be wondering about a holiday that was created for the sole purpose of a company wanting to sell more of their sweet product. What creative marketing! How meaningful! How materialistic! But it is fun for the kids. And the people they give it to.

It has officially turned cold here, the leaves are turning yellow and brown and falling off, and the ajimas are pulling up all the plant stalks in their gardens and burning them. It is getting more difficult to go hiking on the trail after school since it gets dark and cools off by 6pm now, but I went a few nights ago and took my camera.

I am ready for a break from school, but once in a while I still get cracked up when I am grading a paper. Here are some of my favorite recent quotes:

I would like to go to college in Canada because it has lots of moose.

Mi apellido y yo va a la sala de espera. [My last name and I go to the waiting room.]

El asistente de vuelo nos ofrecer una bebe. [The flight attendant offers us a baby.]

Miss Lehmann, why are you wearing a carpet on your shoulders? (When a 7th grader walked into the room and saw me wearing a scarf around my shoulders, trying to
be somewhat fashionable.)

Well, must go now. I love and miss you all!