On the morning of 11/11 one must take precautions when going into a Korean school. Swat helmets, riot shields, buckets of patience, and elastic pants. Pepero day comes once a year, and every year it falls on the vertical lines of 11/11. What is pepero day you ask? Pepero day is a Korean valentines day; trading the love and hearts for boxes and boxes of pepero. Pepero are little slim biscuits dipped in chocolate. I've seen them sold as Pocky in America. All the kiddos bring in boxes of pepero for themselves, their friends, and lucky for us, their teachers. By about noon thirty kiddos are bouncing off the walls all hopped up on pepero, and the teachers are cringing in pain after eating a life's worth of pepero in about a 3 hour sitting. It's a scene.
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| Ok, last one |
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| The loot |
After Pepero day, we had to buckle down and prepare for our presentations. The school has eleven "kindergarten" classes. Each class was required to put on a presentation for the parents this last weekend. We have been working on dance moves, sing alongs, and poetry for about a month and a half with these classes. Every morning, toiling over presentations. All for 25 minutes of glory. Apparently this is what the parents pay for when they sign their students up at our school. From what I can gather, the presentation day is a recruiting tool to get kids signed up into our school as opposed to the 5 different schools around the corner. This being said, the production blows away any school production I have ever seen before. The costumes alone are worth the price of tuition. The best way to describe it is as a cornucopia of choreographed dance moves, disney songs, K-pop, and sequins. See for yourself:
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| Mission Accomplished! |
After the presentations, we all went out to dinner to celebrate. After stuffing ourselves full of delicious galbi, dwanjaengchiga, rice, beer, and sighs of relief, we moved on to korean karaoke known as noraebang. Its just like karaoke as you know it but with laser light shows, and couches. It was the cherry on top of our saturday sundae.
The next morning Lacey and I figured we could use some fresh ocean air. We decided to take a bus down to Ilsan beach. This beach is on the outskirts of our beloved Ulsan. Now when I say fresh air, i realize that I am using the term quite loosely, as Ilsan beach is located next to the biggest ship yard in the world. We get to the beach and we see the horizon littered with tankers and tug boats. It was amazing. We hiked over the cove and found what appeared to be quite the tourist attraction. The trip to the beach was the cherry on top of our sunday sundae.
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