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