Nov. 11th

In Canada, we spend November 11th remembering soldiers who died fighting for our country. In Korea, they have PEPERO DAY! Pepero are called Pocky back home, and are little stick cookies dipped in chocolate. They celebrate this day because the date 11/11 kind of looks like five sticks. Understand? I don't really either. But regardless, I have to buy a bunch of bland cookie-thingies for fifty kids or else there will be a mutiny.

The company I work for, YES Youngdo English Academy, is offering students here a chance to spend January and February in Waterloo, St. Catharines, or Sarnia, for the low, low price of ELEVEN THOUSAND FUCKING DOLLARS. (Airfare's included, though, so it's not such a bad deal. Two years of university tuition, but hey, it's only money.) Kids here get January off (and then only a month in the summer), so while they're loathe to spend their winter holiday going to school in Canada, being away from their terrible lives for the month of February is very appealing. The idea of only doing an hour or two of homework a day while in Grade Six sounds utopian to them, not to mention never having to go to school on Saturdays. This is a terrible country to grow up in.