Pepero Daze

This week I tricked some of my Kindergarten kids into making a banner for the website. Click the picture to see the self-portraits they drew below the words. I was kind of hoping they'd toss in a backwards 's' or something like that, but it's just about sweet enough to rot a tooth, anyway. I love it when kids don't question what they're writing down. To keep some 10-year olds quiet and distracted during a test, I had them write "I will be quiet, not loud and annoying" down on a sheet of paper. When they asked "Teacher, annoying is what?" I said "You talk - Peter headache."

For the most part, November still feels like November. There's something oddly comforting about chilly air and a heavy coat. Mornings where it's warm enough to wear my light sweater I'm seceretly a little disappointed.

Speaking of it being November, November 11th is celebrated here, just like it is in Canada. Or rather, nothing like it it in Canada. See, 11/11 here is Pepero Day, the celebration of chocolate breadsticks that are known as 'Pocky' everywhere but Korea. As seemingly pointless as the holiday is, at least the selection of the date is clever; see, the 11s represent sticks of Pepero. I tried to explain to my students why I found the choice in date a little funny, as it's such a somber war holiday where I'm from. I guess that's a little hypocritical, since in practice it's more of a day off and an excuse to wear a cheap plastic flower.

I bought lots of those little chocolatey sticks to bribe my kids with, and they actually gave me scads of garishly-wrapped gift packs as well. Now I'm stuck with a huge pile of the stuff, and I'm not even a huge fan of it. Particularly not after dealing through a few kilos of it on the day in question.

This weekend was a blast, as Cahill, my friend and former neighbour from back in St. John's spent his first weekend in Seoul. He got to Korea last week, and lives down in Suji, a long subway ride south of me. He came up to Seoul on Saturday and he got to see the city middle come alive at night. Sadly, I don't have any sort of collage of blurry-bleary pictures from the evening, as I was too blurry-bleary to remember my camera.

But speaking of blurry night photos, I took a few photos this week to prove that not everything in Seoul is a flashy neon nightmare. There's still some quiet pretty to this place. Some amber nightlight city charm.

The store in corner there is the epitome of Korean convenience stores. It has no cash register, no cash drawer, not even a counter. Just a bed where the owners sit quietly and watch a tiny TV. When you bring something up to pay for it, they just say how much your total is, and pull out a cardboard box full of cash to make change. I'll reitterate that Seoul's an anachronistic city of contrasts like that. Walk down the subway stairs, by the old woman selling hand-peeled vegetables from a cardboard box, through the gate, where your train fare is automatically deducted from a little electronic card in your wallet.

Speaking of quaint old people in the subway, I had a really awkward moment the other day where a strange-looking old man was so interested in staring at me that he literally chased me around. I got a coffee from the machine, and he stood about 3 feet away, jaw agape, bottom lip protruding noticably further than his nose. I walked over to wait for the train, and he popped in front of me again. Trying to avoid him politely, I walked another hundered feet or so down the platform. He kept pace, not more than a footstep behind the whole time, and stopped right where I did, inches away, gawking. Frustrated and a little freaked out, I quickly changed direction and walked briskly behind him, back to my first position. He 180-ed, followed, and stood right in front of me again.

By now the train was entering the station. I waited until the doors opened and jogged alongside the traincars, hopping into the nearest door just as they started to close. I lost him, and probably looked pretty rediculous in the process. But I didn't care; the way this guy was going he'd have followed me to fucking school and watched me teach for the rest of the day. Curiosity I can stand. Creepiness not so much.

Closing thought for this week is this strange subway ad for... I have no idea. It seems to feature some kind of mobile phone off on the side, but the bulk of the ad is the repition of the line "Toilet papers in the bowl."


I hear that in parts of Korea, you're not technically supposed to flush toilet paper, because the sewer systems can't handle it. However, this is gladly not the case in Seoul, and besides, I can't imagine why a cellphone ad would even bring up the admittedly awful topic to begin with.