pepero day dugae

For those of you who remember, 11/11 is a national holiday here. It is, in my opinion, the best holiday here. Today is a day for all of the little children to spend their hard earned o beck wons to buy their teachers and friends alike, PEPERO. It's awesome. Pepero is the same as the Japanese pocky sticks, although if you asked a Korean, they were invented here. They are cookie sticks covered in chocolate. There are peanut varieties, almond, coffee, and even inside out. I bought 10 boxes to give to my kids in school today, man was that unnecessary. I thought I got a lot last year, this year's kids killed it though. I have a bag full of giant peperos, have been eating them all day, and still have 2 extra boxes in my desk. I am officially pepero-ed out.

Today also marks the beginning of the G20 meeting here. I just left school and saw riot police (I live on the opposite side of the city from where the G20 meeting is) and a huge parade of protesters marching down the street in the rain. "Down with G20." Not really sure why, but whatever. Everywhere you look for the past month were notices about the G20. Banners, signs, the flowers in the streets were even covered in plastic wrap during the frost to keep them until today!

Last Saturday Paul and I were out to eat at a blowfish restaurant. We had never tried to posion fish and the guy outside lured us in. We were the only two in there and the man serving us was a chatterbox. He told us all about what we were eating, where it came from (Busan), the restaurant history (started in Daegu), and about his experiences in Australia (hence his English). He then inquired about us and after we mentioned we were teachers his eyes lit up. He has two young daughters who are learning English and he wants a tutor. He then decided he would get a few kids in the neighborhood involved and we could have a class twice a week. I quoted him a price and he said he'd run it by his wife and get back to us. I get a phone call this morning from him stating he'd like Paul and I to come by and meet his wife and show them the materials we would use. Asa! He lives down probably an hour away, but I a) have time and b) will travel for $65 an hour. So hopefully the meeting goes well tomorrow! And conveniently enough, he wants to meet down in Gangnam very close to where the G20 is! I wanted to go check out the protest scene anyway, so it fits nicely into my schedule.


Here's another random tidbit about this week. Yesterday a kid in my first lowest level class ran out of the room and came back with a little plastic bag. The bag was cheeping. I look in and there's a tiny little chick! It was shaking uncontrollably and of course every child in the classroom is trying to get a hold of it. Apparently there was a woman sitting outside the gates of the elementary school selling baby chicks for 1,000 won (<$1). How many parents are in for a suprise that night!?? I walked by her this morning and she literally leaned on the gate with a huge box of hundreds of baby chicks. Poor things don't stand a chance!!


Oh and the lack of posts this week is due, yet again, to computer trouble. I got the power cord working with some fanagling for a while, but no longer. It's had enough. May it RIP. What's really annoying is that while I was typing a food review it died ad I can't get it. It was about Halloween so it's no longer relevant. Bah. Paul's computer it is!