Chocolate covered cuteness

To the Korean eye the digit one looks like a cutesy stick of chocolate. So every year on the eleventh day of the eleventh month they celebrate four columns of cookie dipped in chocolate syrup.

Some say Pepero Day was cooked up an enterprising young marketing mind at Lotte. Inspired by Pocky, the Japanese brand of candy sticks, Lotte has been hawking its Pepero sticks since the early eighties.

Since then the holiday has snowballed into a nation craze, so popular Lotte now sells more than half its Pepero sticks in November. We noticed gift wrapped chocolates about two weeks ago, saw sprinkles in the air.

Pleased singles get to celebrate, we bought boxes for all our students. Clutching one blown up pack concealing eight boxes of Pepero, I made the rounds offering chocolate to everyone in the office. Then the first gift came my way, when Julie, a fourth grader, handed me a box of yellow Ferreros.

All day long we spun the trade, rationing out candy prizes and greedily accepting brides coated in candied walnuts. With my eight-pack of Pepero boxes handed out, I re-filled the gift box to its brim with teacher presents, and went home to nurse a chocolate coated stomach.

Field day fun

We were asked to think back of field days past, what we did all those elementary afternoons as students. So came quickly memories of colored pinnies, ribbons won and contests lost, grass-stained jeans taken home for mom to wash.

Typed up a list of our favourite games and woke early one autumn Saturday to play. We all met at school and started a walk over to the town athletics stretch where our field day took place. Out of their usual Saturday studies, the kids asked why we weren’t taking a bus, but walked just as happily.

First came a mummy relay, all wrapped up in toilet paper. So I stood arms out and watched my team spin round me, until the white wrapped round my face and all I knew was what they shouted to me.

An egg race and a kimbap lunch, we raced through blog tag and a drop and pop. The balloons blew up and ran cross the field to pop. And as the students all swarmed the box full of candy prizes, I wandered out and picked up the plastic pieces.

The sun still too warm squinted tired eyes of one Teacher Russ, ready for napping. Like the balloons, he was popped.

Teddy bear picnic

When we said to the cab driver “teddy bear” he knew which way to go. As much as the mountains or the ocean, the Teddy Bear Farm is a main attraction of Sokcho. The first bears to greet you upon entering are at the cornerstones of teddy life: a birthday, a wedding, and Christmas.

Walk past that and you’ll find teddies in costumes from all around the world. Next, teddies dressed up to story-tell, Le Petit Prince and Peter Pan. Teddy bears on motorcycles, in early 1900s accessories, teddy angels flying from the roof.

Through the legs of a giant teddy bear visitors walk toward teddies in camo print guarding the South Korean border. They hold their guns and do their work so other teddies can relax and frolic on the beach.

There are teddy bears picking autumn apples and others skiing on vacation. A teddy western and a pack of bears beating on Korean drums. A teddy camp out and a quiet night at home.

We make our rounds with a thousand-clicks, peering into glass boxes covered in junior fingerprints. Swing outside to see the teddy statues reading teddy history books and playing in the pond. Walk through the exit towards the bus stop and let the teddy bears wait for darkness, when they truly come to life.

Culture of cuteness

No, these aren't my students. Just some children who decided to sit down and eat dinner with us. They crawled into the booth, behind my back, onto the table, and down my v-neck. They high fived us and hit us with plastic swords, before a mom swept them away, scolding in Korean.

We paid the bill before we could make a further scene, and left with two more friends than when we entered.