빼빼로 DAY!

While Americans are celebrating veterans and the sacrifices they have made for America (or enjoying a three day weekend), Koreans are celebrating a completely different kind of holiday. On November 11th every year, Koreans exchange 빼빼로 (Pepero), tiny breadsticks covered in chocolate. No one really knows how this tradition started. According to Lotte, which makes 빼빼로, people just started doing it. I'm inclined to believe they actually started it. According to the all-knowing wikipedia, Lotte does 55% of their 빼빼로 business in the month of November. Every store that's worth anything has a huge display to encourage them. There are gift baskets. 


Anyway, the idea is that 11/11 looks like four sticks of 빼빼로 and therefore we should all exchange them!! If you're following, that means that 11/11/11 is the 빼빼로 Day to end all 빼빼로 days. My students spared no expense. Here's my haul from 빼빼로 Day (minus two boxes which were shared with students...)

Some off brand, peanut, almond and regular!

All in all, a very successful 빼빼로 Day. I felt very loved by my students and ate entirely too many chocolate covered breadsticks. There are worse things. 

Now, back to a holiday with a purpose, but sadly, much less chocolate. Thank you, veterans, especially to my dad. This summer, I was lucky enough to go to Vietnam with my parents, as most of you know. What you might not know is that my dad was drafted during the Vietnam war. It's not something he talks about very much, understandable so. Before we decided to go to Vietnam he said something along the lines of "Seems strange to go to Vietnam on vacation, since I spent so much of my adult life trying to avoid it." We got a chance to talk more about his experience. 

TANK!

HELICOPTER!

He never actually went to Vietnam, but instead served his time mostly in Germany. It was really interesting to hear about that time in his life. I got to see some of the tanks and guns he was trained to use. It's so strange to think about my dad, such a peaceful and fun-loving guy, as a trained soldier. And crazy to think how the luck of the draw changed his life forever. 

The museum which housed these impressive relics was called the War Remnants Museum. It was made up mostly of photographs. It was really intense and really moving. It's not every day you get to read the perspective of the country that BEAT America, so the text was really interesting too. I learned a lot. Unfortunately, these are pretty much the only pictures that I took.

To sum up, Happy 빼빼로 Day! And Happy Veteran's Day. I also just realized how many pictures I have, both from Korea and vacation with my parents, that I have yet to share. I'll work on that.