Thanksgiving, Costco, and A New Term

Sometimes life gets in the way of regular blog activity. But not tonight. Tonight, I opened a fresh bottle of wine (it was 5,000 won and tastes like acid!) and vowed that I would write something for all the loyal followers that I have no doubt lost due to my long inactivity.

Last week was the great holiday of American Thanksgiving, which ranks high on my list of great holidays because it's all about my two favorite things, food and family. Unfortunately, the family part of the holiday was unreachable, and, in the end, I stopped looking forward to Thanksgiving and most other holidays. But fortunately, I work at a company that really likes to celebrate American holidays. That's why we had an extravagant Halloween party and also why we had a bountiful Thanksgiving dinner/lunch.
It began early in the day on Thursday morning (noon). My boss and I climbed in a taxi and headed over to a street corner in downtown Seoul, where a red-headed man from HR was handing out slightly warm and pleasant-smelling boxes.

This is what Thanksgiving looks like.

Then we headed back to the office with our precious cargo. Inside the boxes were turkeys, mashed potatoes, stuffing, and pumpkin pie. The Korean staff also ordered us some pizza because no American holiday is complete without pizza, right?

So that was Thanksgiving.

On Saturday, I decided to check out Costco, which is exactly the same as Costco in America except that it's full of Koreans. Still crowded, still located in a giant warehouse, still providing free samples of your favorite junk food, and still selling things in bulk for criminally low prices. In fact, the only difference I could spot involved the food court.

As it turns out, Costco pizza tastes the same, no matter which country you're in.

Actually, differences. First of all, look at that crowd. People were practically fighting over seats. Second...100% PORK hot dogs. Perhaps I've neglected to mention that Korea loves pork. It's by far the cheapest meat available, and I think this is partially due to how farmers feed their pigs. Koreans sort their garbage. The recyclables and such go in one pile, the garbage goes in special bags that are unique to each neighborhood, and the food goes in a big, nasty trash can. The food waste is then processed and fed to the pigs, who, being pigs, don't mind at all being fed food scraps. The end result is that the pigs get their food practically for free, and the cost of pork is drastically reduced. I think it's pretty brilliant. But I also think it's pretty strange for a hot dog to made of 100% pork.

In other news, we started a new term at Chungdahm, meaning that I had to say goodbye to my students, and welcome in some new kids. As it turns out, my reputation precedes me. My 4:00 class on Tuesday was made up almost entirely of boys who had heard from their friends that I was "really cool". One of my former students proudly introduced me to his little brother, while a number of other boys informed me that they knew all about my love of Batman, Star Wars, and Notre Dame football. I knew I'd won their hearts, minds, and eternal respect, though, when I made a Minecraft joke in class. Unfortunately, this class is also going be incredibly wild. The four girls in this class have retreated into full-on siege mode, and probably won't emerge for a few weeks or so. I'm also teaching middle schoolers for the first time. So far, they seem pretty okay. The real trick is getting them to laugh. If you can get them to laugh, you can get them to talk.


I don't work on Wednesdays this term, so every Wednesday will be Adventure Time. Today's adventure involved the cat cafe at Gangnam Station. I think cats can tell that I love them. After only a few minutes, a cat came over and claimed my lap as his own, refusing to move even when the owner offered him food. Oh, and there was also this cat.

I dub thee PLS cat.