Peppero Day

Today was Peppero Day. You see, in Korea, every month has a special love holiday, plus November has TWO. Here are the holidays:

January 14: Diary Day- couples exchange diaries or planners with all the important days (anniversaries, love holidays, 100 day celebrations, etc)
February 14: Valentine's Day- The girl buys the boy gifts
March 14: White Day- The boy buys girls gifts that are white in color. Gifts range from mints and candy to stuffed animals and underwear
April 14: Black Day- This is the day where single people go out to eat alone to mourn their singledom. Also, they eat delicious jjajjangmyeon
May 14: Yellow Day/Rose Day- couples wear yellow and exchange yellow roses. Single people go out together and eat curry
June 14: Kiss Day- self-explanatory
July 14: Silver Day- couples exchange gifts made of silver and announce their relationship to their friends
August 14: Green Day- couples wear green, go for a walk in a park or wooded area and drink soju (which comes in a green bottle); single people also drink soju this day
Sept 14: Photo&Music Day- no one celebrates this, but pics together then Noraebang!
October 24: Apple Day- I described this already. Saying SORRY!
Nov 11: Peppero Day
Nov 14: movie day- less important than and overshadowed by Peppero Day
Dec 14: Hug Day- Couples hug to stay warm during cold winters

Anyways, so today was Peppero Day, which is like valentines day but better because you don't have to give anything to anyone if you don't want to and teachers rake it in. On Peppero Day, friends give friends, and lovers give each other, boxes of Peppero to show affection and as a symbol for wishes that your friends grow tall and thin, like sticks of Peppero (which are the same as Pocky but not strawberry flavored). 11/11 was the date chosen because it looks like 4 peppero sticks lined up.

Anyways, so for Peppero Day, I got 4 boxes of peppero, one big peppero stick (I don't know how to explain except to say it was a supersized peppero) and a bag of homemade peppero. I also got two notes from two of my *favorite* students, Yu Eun-Bin and Lee Jae-Yeon (English Name: AMY!!) The notes are quite possibly the sweetest things I've ever seen. Handwritten beautiful with so much effort. I can't help but smile every time I see them. I responded to each of the notes this evening and told the girls to come to my office to get their response notes tomorrow morning.

This acted as a reminder that I love my job, and my students, and my school.

I am done planning for the month of November, by the way. I have two powerpoints to make, and I am DONE DONE DONE with November. Then I have December, and a WHOLE MONTH OFFFFFFF!