Pepero Day!!!

"Woman in White" and "Man in Black" are slightly more classy brands of Pepero, and both have chocolate cookie bits scattered throughout the chocolate dip. Only my best students received these.

Several boxes of Pepero in all their glory. Also, my left knee.

Pepero, but no knee. I'm very fond of the strawberry-flavored ones.

This huge box of Pepero was given to me by a male student. Unfortunately, the larger-sized Pepero sticks use wafers instead of the delectable pretzel cookies, so I haven't even started on this box yet.

For the tried-and-true Korean, nothing but the original Pepero will do.

Those of you in the States probably aren't familiar with this holiday, but here it's all the rage. Pepero (and several other copy-cats) is the Korean equivalent of the more well-known Japanese candy Pocky, chocolate-covered cookie sticks. While most countries in the world consider November 11 to be a day of rememberance, in Korea it is a day of romance, of gaudy cardboard packaging emblazoned with butchered English love lines, of massive fortunes earned by convenience stores and Wonka-esque entrepreneurs. I wasn't aware that there was going to be a holiday until a slew of my students were absent one day to visit a Pepero factory in preparation for the big day.

To prepare, I bought about 60,000 won worth of boxes, carefully selecting the ones that contain two bags of sticks rather than one. The goal was to give each of my students on Friday and Saturday a bag, and pray to all that's sacred that they don't lose their minds.

My first class on Friday is full of the silliest munchkins you could ever come across. For instance, Kevin, with boogers permanently affixed to his upper lip, spent 10 minutes of one class trying to get a piece of tape off of his hand and into the trash can. No matter what you ask him, the only words he ever speaks are "I'm fine. Thank you." I've yet to decide whether this is his deficiency as a student or mine as a teacher. He also rams his head into the wall. Constantly. The rest of the class has managed to climb a number of rungs higher on the English ladder, but they're still adorably retarted in a way only children can be.

On coming into Kiwi classroom, I was immediately assaulted by an army of students, all bearing Pepero gifts. The entire day, whether I wanted it to or not, became themed around Pepero.For the first third of class, there was a mass exchange of chocolate, and in celebration, we all used the sticks as props; besides the obvious cigarette mannerisms, I also saw students mimic flute-playing, limp across the classroom using a larger stick as a cane, and transform their noses into brown elephant trunks. A chorus of girls replaced the lyrics of traditional children's songs ("BINGO", "Old McDonald", even "Jingle Bells") with nothing but Pepero's three syllables. When I finally got around to teaching the lesson, a zoo animal identification masterwork, the students refused to repeat my pleas of "I like the monkey," instead shouting "I like......... PEPERO!" As a teacher, it frustrated me, but as someone who realizes they've already been taught zoo vocabulary something like eight times since they started here, I was elated with their ridiculous enthusiasm for kinda crappy candy. A great time was had by all.

The rest of the day failed to live up to the potential of those brief 40 minutes, but I still got a few arm-loads of chocolate, and there wasn't a single class that wasn't grateful for the bags I distributed. Many of my students gave me obscure brands of the candy, and some went out of their way by bringing me more expensive Pepero gift sets. Sally, one-third of my Monday/Wednesday/Friday harem, even enclosed a note within her gift-wrapped Pooh Bear pepero:

"Hello.

John teacher. I'm Sally. Today is papalo day! I give you papalo. The papalo is very yummy!! Bye-- (Drawing of a Heart)

from
John teacher

to
Sally student"

One side of me says that the conniving marketing geniuses working for Pepero should rot in the same hell as the PR people from Hallmark, but the other half had a great time this 11/11. Just wish I had the damn day off.

Cullinary Delights of Korea (for Mata)

At the top of this photo is gimbap, rice, cucumbers, carrots, and other veggies wrapped in seaweed. These can normally be had for 1000 won, and make for a cheap and fast lunch. The sides below it are standard for anyone choosing to eat inside an Orange restaurant, the dime-a-dozen (until you find the one that you swear by) eateries that dot the streets of Korea. Most are 24 hours, and all essentially serve the same dishes.
Bibimbap is rice, seaweed, gimchi, and some vegetables meant to be mixed with a spicy red bean paste. An egg tops the dish. These pictures, by the way, were taken by Marie and reflect her tastes more than they do mine. This stuff is alright, but I prefer bokkumbap, essentially fried rice.
Omaraisa (a horribly-botched spelling job, I bet) might as well be called a rice omelette, and it makes for a good breakfast or early lunch. It's resting in some kind of gravy and is topped with 1000 Island dressing, ubiquitous in Korean food.
Samgyeopsal is a wonderfully-fattening serving of pork that is grilled in the middle of your table along with an assortment of vegetables, gimchi, garlic, mushrooms, etc. When finished, you pick whatever you want to off of the grill and wrap it in a lettuce leaf. Going out for samgyeopsal is meant to be a group affair, unless you want to start gaining the pounds at break-neck speed.
Not a big fan of Jigae, but Marie swears by it. It would best be described as a bean paste stew, and like everything else here, you have several varieties you can try out, depending on what you want the key ingredient to be. Unfortunately for this land-lubber, most of these varieties are centered around aquatic options.

Lots of questions have come up about the food in Korea, and while I have one of the least daring appetites of all the people I know, I can divulge some details. This post is mostly meant for one Joe Mata, a good friend of mine who has just recently started a job in Seoul and may or may not already know about these dishes. Most of you probably know him already, but I figured some clarification would be necessary for those that don't. Anyways, it's good to have him here, even if it is as far as you can get from me without leaving the country.

An old favorite from the Rock Bridge days...

I was cleaning out some old emails today and stumbled upon this book cover that I scanned back when I worked at the Rock Bridge High School Media Center. Some jokes never get old.