Friday, November 12, 2004

Peppero Day

Well, yesterday was Nov. 11. A special day here in Korea: Peppero Day. Those of unfamiliar with Korea may be asking yourself, "What is this Peppero of which he speaks?" Well, it may be familiar to those of you in the know about Asian snack food in general because at home (and in Japan), it is known as Pocky. If you are not in the know about Pocky, I will now explain: Pocky is a thin stick of dry cookie, coated in a chocolatey substance or some other tasty confection.

Yes, an entire day has been dedicated to them here. The sheer marketing genius behind this astounds me. I believe the brainstorming session may have been a little like this (only, in Korean):

"Peppero sales have been slipping, especially during November. What can we do about this?"
thoughtful pause
"We could try putting them in fancier packages..."
"We've done that, didn't help."
more thoughtful pausing
"Well... the sticks kinda look like 1's... um, maybe, it being November, you know, the eleventh month, we could make it Peppero month or something..."
"I like your thinking, but a whole month is probably too much. Maybe just a day. I know! 11/11! Yes! We'll make millions!"

And that is the story of Peppero Day, as interpreted by me. I was given many sticks of Peppero by my students. Pure choco-stick fun!

In other news, it appears that I am gaining another class outside my institute. It starts on Monday and involves students from middle school to adults. Not sure what to expect, really.

Laura and I are going to a small city called Donghae for a few days. It's on the NE coast of the country. Hopefully, it will be good. We figured that this might be our last chance to travel before winter comes along. The weather here is still quite nice (it's mid-November and we still have mosquitoes) and it would be a shame not to take advantage of that (not the mosquitoes; they take advantage of me, though - I feel so used).

Well, that's about all today. I may still try to type up the full stories of the hike, the trip to Andong, etc. Time is lacking lately though, but I will try.

Guy

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

A whole DAY!!?? The sheer pleasure of it!! oh man...did you know over here, we have "pocky for men".. it is the dark chocolate version...I don't know why women can't have dark chocolate, but i am sure it is just something lost in teh translation as they say :) and as for mosquitoes.. i killed one in my living room just this evening... wierd hun? i think maybe they are growing in my house as a means of progressing the natural evolution of the blood sucking fiends. I am glad to hear that you are keeping busy and enjoying it. keep those posts comin!

Anonymous said...

I spent 3 years in Korea and though I am back in the states, I still celebrate Peppero Day:)

Anonymous said...

I lived in Korea for a year and I "celebrate" 11/11 as well (any excuse to eat more chocolate). Of course, you will get the Koreans mad if you "inform" them that Pocky came out before Peppero