Yesterday, November 11, was Remembrance Day in Canada - a day to remember those who died fighting for Canada during the World
Wars. In South Korea, November 11th, is Pepero Day - a day to buy a lot of overrated candy and give it to your teachers.
Pepero comes in different forms, but basically it is a long cookie-stick coated in chocolate. It is also sold in Japan, where it is known as Pocky (it tastes like crap there, too). It is made by Lotte, which is a huge Korean-Japanese company.
Anyways, in what has to be one of the most brilliant marketing coups ever, they have somehow got the entire country to buy into this "holiday". The date was chosen because 11/11 looks like 5 sticks of Pepero.
The picture above is some of the stuff the kids gave to me (I'm not sure what the I love NY has to do with anything, but that was one of the boxes I received). I have no idea what I'll do with it all, I'll probably just throw it out, but I appreciate the gesture.
On one of the packages there was a description in English of the day:
"pepero day which is so special to declare true heart for someone is loved by a lot of people"
I had to go downtown yesterday morning to make a money transfer to my Canadian account (long story). Anyways, after I finished I went to the bus stop to catch the bus home.
While I was waiting, I saw a little old lady walking in my direction carrying an empty cardboard box. She was hunched over like many old Asian women, usually from working in a rice field all their lives. If she stood up straight she would probably only have been about 4'6", but because she was hunched over she only stood about 3 feet tall (I'm not exaggerating here - she was tiny). Then an average-sized man in his 50s or his 60s came up toward her while screaming at her. When he reached her, he grabbed the box and they started struggling over it - yes, fighting over an EMPTY, cardboard box.
The whole time she was just screaming at him, and she had a very healthy set of lungs on her. Well, I guess she must have pushed the right button, because even though she was about half his size, he clocked her right in the head. It was a solid hit. But she still wouldn't let go of the box.
There were several Koreans who had stopped to just stand there and stare, but didn't do anything about it. So I walked over and started yelling at the guy, and got between him and the woman. I didn't want to get in a fight with him, because if the cops came, being the foreigner, I'd be the one that got hauled off to jail. Fortunately, he was smart enough to realize that it would be wise for him to leave, and so he started walking away.
However, the woman continued screaming at him, and was still doing so 5 or 10 minutes later when the bus came. She didn't look homeless, but there was obviously something not right in her head.
Udo (Cow Island) is a small island off the east coast of Jeju Island. It is reached via a 15 minute ferry ride from Seongsan.
In the second picture you can see the little houses with their distinct blue and orange roofs. Those rock walls were all over the island. As we cycled around the island, we also saw many haenyeo. These are women who spend most of the day in the ocean diving (holding their breath, no airtanks) and catching shellfish.
