White Day

March 14 in Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan is called White Day, or as I like to call it, Valentine's Day, Part II. This tradition, according to Wikipedia, was started in Japan in 1978. Apparently, on Valentine's Day, women give men chocolate and gifts, and on White Day, men give women gifts. This is supposed to be an answer to all the stuff women do for men on V Day.

I got a different story from all the kids I talked to today about it, so that's why I looked it up. According to the kids, chocolate is given on V Day, and candy is given on White Day. But that sucks. What woman prefers candy to chocolate? I also heard a couple kids say that year to year, which day is for candy and which is for chocolate switches. I ended up coming to an understanding with some kids that everyone pretty much does what they want on either day. But I didn't see candy one a month ago, nor did I see chocolate one today, so I guess it's still mostly traditional to keep to one confection on each day.

They've confused me over here about how they celebrate, though. Generally, Valentine's Day for us (if I recall correctly) is all about the women getting stuff and the man being chivalrous and gentlemanly. But here, the whole reason for White Day is evidently because women are the ones doing all the work the first holiday. And then they have a whole month to get dumped if the guy doesn't want to get her a gift, haha.

I'm not sure if they do cards here. I didn't see any. Maybe they just come with the gifts, not the candy.

The Grocery Store and Customer Service

Actually, as in many countries, they don't use the term "grocery store." It's a supermarket. There's a GS Supermarket just up the street a piece from me, so I go there a couple times a week. If I go after 9pm, I can get many things on sale. That's convenient, because I get out of work at 9, and except for weekends, it's pretty much the only time I can go shopping.

Korean stores (even Targetesque superstores, but not retail stores) encourage you to bring your own bags, which is cool. If you don't bring your own bags, you have to pay 50 won (about a nickel) for each one. The bags are big. I usually don't use more than one.

In Korean stores, there are a wicked lot of employees hanging around. They have to stand watch over certain areas, like the produce section, the fishery, the gift box section, and other random places. At retail stores, there is at least one employee for every section. They always have to greet you kindly, and I think, say something purchase-encouraging, even if you clearly don't speak the language. I usually just say hi back (in Korean) and look like I don't understand the rest, which I don't. They don't blame me.

There are more things in grocery stores in Korea than in the states. They have the gift box section, like I mentioned. This is where you can get nice looking sets of fruits, chocolates, and other typical food-item gifts. They also have Spam gift boxes. Spam is big here. They don't get the joke. Fish gift baskets are also big, although I don't think they have those at GS. They have them at the posh grocery stores, though, which are located at the department stores. It's like six whole, unblemished fish, delicately arranged in a box, with molded plastic over them. Weird.

The gift box employees have to wear traditional Korean clothes, called Han-bok.

They also have jewelry stores in the grocery stores, and underwear and small clothing sections. They don't seem to have flower shops in the grocery stores like we do. The fish sections are way bigger than we're used to. They smell bad. Free samples are also more common.

Customer service is hardcore here. The amount of employees in each store is kind of shocking. As you enter a retail store, an employee stands by the entrance and bows. The employees around the store don't bow as much, but then in the parking structures, there are a million parking attendants, and as you pass each one in your car, they give you a full-on 90 degree bow. They bow fast, though. It's kind of funny.

One final note on grocery stores in department stores: they sell fruit for like 140,000 won apiece (about $150). I went into the Hyundai Department Store to buy groceries once with my boss' parents, and I was shocked at the prices. I'm not sure why we were shopping there, actually. There was plenty of food there that wasn't make-me-throw-up expensive, but it was still pricier than the GS Supermarket, which is like four blocks from their house.

Classes

On Friday, I was reading a passage from a book to help the kids figure out an answer, and one of the girls said I didn't have any intonation. I thought that was quite funny coming from a seven year old ESL kid. I apologized and said that I always speak in a monotone. What she really wanted was for me to change my voice when I switched from the narrator to spoken words, but the only personal speaking out loud in the story at that time was the narrator herself, so what was I supposed to do?

Today I started my new schedule. It was grueling. I had seven classes. The first four were completely back to back, then I had a twenty minute break, during which time I scarfed a cup o' noodle. I was almost faint from having gone five hours without food and expending all that energy trying to fill up those little cups of knowledge. After my fifth class I had a fifty minute supper break, then two classes back to back from 7 to 9. Now I have about three hours of homework to correct. At least the kids don't suck.

Someone Else's Blog

I found this blog while trying to look for the local Science Channel's website, and there are some good articles in it. I found the entry on December 7 particularly interesting slash funny. Czech it out:

http://blogs.discovery.com/good_idea/2007/12/index.html