My Lesson in Korean Culture

Today one of my co-teachers announced that she is pregnant. This has come after a long struggle of trying to keep babies and to get pregnant, so the joy is mixed with quite a bit of apprehension. She will take next week off to go through a battery of tests to make sure the baby is ok. My other co-teacher shared a bit of culture with me today. Apparently, in Korea if a woman dreams about dragons, a special kind of fruit, or a particular food, then she is pregnant. My co-teacher dreamed about peppermint, that is how she knew she was pregnant (but I knew she was because she's been sicker than a dog for quite a while now).

Some other Korean culture I learned today: at the end of a festival or a big birthday (1st birthday and 60th birthdays are important here), anyone who participated gets a gift of towels from the host. My co-teacher got a lot of hand towels for participating in a festival the other day. She handed them out because she thought they were ugly. I am inclined to agree: they are this bight coral pink with red and blue dragons and the festival printed on them... not pretty... but it is a towel, I'll use it.

As I was leaving work today, the art teacher gave me some rice cakes (tteok) with chocolate in them. She was giving them to all of the teachers today because she is super sweet and her younger siblings had very important tests today. Firstly, today was the SATs. It is such a big day that people go to work an hour later (unless you are giving the SATs or are a civil servant) to avoid traffic jams. Elementary schools started an hour later, and middle school and high school classes were canceled (since they are taking the exams). Apparently on days like today, with big exams, students are given tteok as a wish that their knowledge and studying will stick long enough to pass the exams. I don't know how to describe tteok to you... I want to say it is like Flubber, but it doesn't bounce, it goes "splat" but still retains it's shape. I'm pretty sure that NASA uses it for something. Sadly, I have eaten three of these because I don't want to waste the chocolate inside.

I will regret this overdose in chocolate tomorrow, because I am counting on all of my sweet students to give me Peperos. If they don't, I'll flunk them all. Tomorrow is Pepero Day, like a Korean Valentine's Day. The stores have huge pink and red heart displays with baskets of stuffed animals and Peperos (a cracker stick covered in chocolate). I'm pretty sure if I went to a shopping center, there would be his and her underwear in the basket with the Peperos. I'm not so gungho over them as Koreans seem to be (Peperos or his and her underwear), but again it's chocolate (at least for the Pepero... I'm not sure about the underwear).

As promised, pictures of the cat cafe and the trick eye museum. To see more, go to my fb.

 

This is the "Would you just ask for directions" glare