Pepero Day

Last Sunday, November 11, was Pepero Day in Korea. It's an unofficial holiday here (similar to Valentine's Day) and people give Pepero sticks to one another. It's held on Nov. 11 because the date 11/11 resembles sticks of Pepero. It's also kind of a big deal with displays set up in and outside of stores - see the photo below. Pepero sticks are similar to the Japanese Pocky sticks, basically a pretzel covered in chocolate, strawberry, or chocolate and almonds (my favourite!). A lot of students at school brought them to give to friends and teachers, so I've been eating a ton of them over the last week!

this is the display outside of a store near my apartment

I just read on Wikipedia that Pepero Day was possibly started by girls who exchanged Pepero sticks as gifts to wish one another to grow "as tall and slender as a Pepero". Pepero means thin like a stick. I'm not sure if it's true, but it doesn't surprise me in a country that is somewhat obsessed with being thin!

Storytelling Contest

A few weeks ago my school had an English Storytelling Contest. The older kids told stories or sang songs by themselves and the younger ones sang songs as a class. A couple of the younger classes were so cute, I thought I'd put a couple videos up so you could see them!

This is Cute class, the 4 year olds (about 3 western age), singing 'I'm a Little Teapot'

And here's Funny Class, the 5 year olds, singing.

My Neighbourhood

It turns out I'm really not that good at blogging! I'm definitely not a born writer - my brother got all of that talent in our family!! So it's been far too long again, but I'm going to try and get better at this. I thought some of you might be curious to see what the area I live in looks like so here's a peek:

These are what the vast majority of apartment buildings in Korea look like. When I first got here Manda told me that every place in Korea looks the same; I thought this couldn't be possible, but it turns out it's true... no matter what city you go to most of the buildings look exactly like this. They're all sponsored by different companies - Samsung, Hyundai, LG, etc...






These are some of the buildings on my walk to school.

more on my walk to school...













This is my apartment building, it's actually called an officetel which means that all of the apartments are studios and many of them are actually used for offices.

Here's where I do a lot of grocery shopping. It's kind of like a Korean version of Wal-Mart, they sell pretty much everything.

And here's the area at night

Vacation in Thailand - part 2

After 2 nights at Lonely Beach we decided we needed to see more people around, so we moved to the main beach on the island - White Sands. We found a hotel there that was right on the ocean and also had a pool. The rest of the week was great, very relaxing, it consisted of a lot of lying in the sun, swimming and sleeping. Here are a few more of the highlights:

- While still at Lonely Beach we wanted to take a taxi to White Sands, but none were driving by so we started walking in that direction. It wasn't great; mostly uphill in sweltering heat; but after about 2 km we happened to look up in the trees to see a group of monkeys in the trees. They were just climbing and swinging, it was pretty cool. Unfortunately none of the pics turned out, but it made the walk worthwhile!

- One morning we woke up early-ish and booked a scooter so we could ride to the National Park and see the waterfalls. I was a little hesitant because I'd never driven a scooter before and 'they' say that helmets aren't necessary on the island. It turned out to be a lot of fun even though it started to pour on the walk up to the falls. But the waterfalls were beautiful and riding the scooter was great, even in the pouring rain. However, a few days later we were told that during the high season on the island about 2 -3 tourists die every week from scooter accidents. So next time I'd wear a helmet.

- On Thursday afternoon we went on an elephant trek. Chang means elephant in English so it seemed fitting that we went to see them on Elephant Island. First we went down to the river with the elephants so that we could bathe them, then we went on a ride for over an hour, and at the end we got to feed them. The elephants were amazing, their size is phenomenal but they are also very gentle. It was a great experience.

- On Friday afternoon we were walking down the main street when we looked up to see more monkeys! This time 3 younger monkeys were eating bananas that someone had placed on the top of a phone booth. The would swing on the power lines to reach the booth, grab the bananas and then race away so they could eat them. There were also 3 or 4 older monkeys a bit further back sitting in the trees. Unfortunately I didn't have my camera with me, so there aren't any pictures of this sighting either :(

- All of the restaurants along the ocean set up tables on the beach at night. You could go up and see all the fresh seafood they had, order what you wanted and then they grilled it for you, it was great!

- On our last day in Thailand we flew back to Bangkok in the morning so we could spend the day there and finally see the Grand Palace. We made sure it was our first stop so that we would have time to see it. It was worth it, the palace was amazing and very beautiful. After the sightseeing we did a little more shopping at the markets and then went to the airport to catch our flight back to Korea. It was supposed to leave at 11:30 pm but was delayed an hour. This meant we didn't get into Seoul until 8:30 the next morning, so needless to say work was not fun that day! But all in all it was a great vacation and I'd love to go back sometime!

Next weekend I'm off to Beijing for 5 days so I'll write about that soon after. Hope you're all doing well :-)

Vacation in Thailand - part 1

At the end of July I went to Thailand for my summer vacation with my friend and co-teacher Manda. We were so excited for the trip, I really needed a vacation!!

We left Seoul on Friday night and arrived in Bangkok very early Saturday morning. We checked into a guest house and had a good 6 hours sleep. Manda's friend Barb from Australia happened to be in Bangkok at the same time and we stayed at the same place, so we met up with her on Saturday morning and then headed out to see some sights. The first thing we did was go out and buy some fruit from the vendors on the street. It was great; fresh mango, pineapple, guava and cantaloupe for about 30 cents each! We spent the day browsing the markets and wandering around. Bangkok is a very colourful city and busy any time of the day.

On Sunday we had another early start because we were going to see the floating markets outside of Bangkok. We were up at 5 and on our way at 6:30 am. It was quite a drive to the market so we were able to get some sleep on the way. Once there we took a speedboat to the actual market, it was beautiful, but a little overwhelming - so many people and so much to see and do. We wandered around for a while and bought some souvenirs and food and were on our way back to Bangkok by noon. Our plan for the afternoon was to go to the Grand Palace, but it got derailed after we got taken in by a classic Thai scam - the tuktuk ride for 20 baht (about 75 cents). It sounded too good to be true and it was, if we hadn't been so tired and hungry we probably wouldn't have agreed to it!! The driver ended up taking us to an out of the way restaurant - which he likely got comission for. But we ended up having a great meal - and it's all part of the experience... right? Live and learn!! But anyway, by the time we got back to the palace it was closing in 45 minutes so we didn't have enought time to go in. We ended up wandering around the area and seeing the National Art Gallery and other sights. That night the 3 of us went for dinner and a Thai massage, I'd never had one before and I was in desperate need of a massage. It was great, so relaxing and cheap! I ended up going for 4 massages during the entire week!

On Monday morning it was another early day because we were catching a flight to Trat on our way to Koh Chang island. The Trat airport was like no other airport I'd seen before. It was entirely outdoors, the check-in desk, security, boarding, etc... all outside! We then took a ferry to the island and arrived at the beach at about 1 pm. The area of the island we were staying at is called Lonely Beach and it was definitely lonely! It was low season and because Lonely Beach is towards the southern end of the island there were hardly any people there. But it was great for a couple nights to get away from everything. We had decided to spend the first few nights in a traditional hut at a resort that was recommended to us by Barb. It was quite a climb up to the hut and when we saw the inside we realized we were really roughing it! But the view was amazing so we decided it wouldn't be too bad for a night or 2. The first afternoon was spent napping, laying on the beach and swimming in the ocean. That night a huge storm hit the island, but it was really cool to hear the storm mixed with the sounds of the ocean while sleeping.

The next morning after a feezing cold shower we decided that we'd had enough roughing it, at least we gave it a shot! So we decided to move down to one of the hotel rooms on the beach. We had to pack up a few things in the hut and when Manda opened her backpack to put her towel in she found a scorpion sitting there!! We remained pretty calm considering this; Manda told the guy that had come up to help us down with our bags and he then found something to get it off the bag and killed it. After that we were happy to leave the hut behind and knew we had made the right decision to move!

to be continued...

Chocolate Cheese Update

I thought you might be interested to hear how the choco cheese went over with the kids at school. The day before summer vacation I took the cheese to my homeroom for their morning snack. The kids were so excited, they were all saying "Yay, choco cheese!" So I passed it out and they all eagerly unwrapped to cheese. Moments later the classroom was filled with sounds of disgust, something like this - "Ewwww, Carrie Teacher, choco cheese very, very yucky" All 12 kids were not happy, after they took one bite they threw it in the garbage! It was very funny. So now I don't have to try it; these kids will eat almost anything, so if they didn't like it I'm pretty sure I won't either!

I'll have a post on here soon about my trip to Thailand, I had a great time and need to write about it before I forget everything. Miss you all!

Some interesting food choices in Korea

Have you ever had a craving for some steak & pasta in a waffle cone?? How about some chocolate cheese?? If you have then you should get to South Korea ASAP! These are 2 of the things you could try here if you wanted... Most of the food here is so good, but there are some very different combinations. And just in case you think I'm kidding, here are some pics!

Some of the yummy pasta and waffle cone combinations

Andrew enjoying his choco cheese!