We've been mighty busy over the past week, so please forgive the lack of activity here. Most of that busy time was spent in tweaking this lesson. I used the same idea for both classes, but covered different materials for the different levels. The first graders are working on "I like drawing cartoons. I want to be a cartoonist" or "I like helping sick people. I want to be a doctor," so on and so forth. The second graders are reviewing for the upcoming exams, so we're going over passive structure again. For both lessons, essentially, they have to fill in the blanks to a handout, using only the words from the word bank. Every word has a numerical value as well. Once they fill in the blanks with the words, they have to plug in the number values into a formula. The results, when gathered all together from all of the different questions, form a "Password." I lock my computer with this password as well; the first student to be able to crack the lock on my computer gets the prize, which is just a small set of lollies. For the second graders, since they finish this game sooner than the first graders, I have a backup gameboard, similar to the past tense gameboard for level 1, in which - for every spot they land on - they have to form a sentence in passive structure with the supplied words.

If you're interested in these lessons, head on over to the ESL Resources section to check them out. Or, you can just download the Level 1 Lesson on Future Jobs in both Mac and PC format, or you can get the Level 2 lesson on Passive Structure in both Mac and PC format as well.

Customer service in Korea has its ups and downs. One major annoyance is that, everywhere you walk in a store, the employees shadow you like you're going to steal something. They're not being suspicious - not at all. Turn around and you'll find them smiling and waiting to help. It's just annoying to not have any personal space. One super awesome thing about Korean Customer service, though, is that it starts long before you get to the store. Drive up to any department store and you'll find a thwack of people, men and women, in matching suits and outfits, bowing to your car and greeting you through a microphone (but we can't understand what they're saying, because we don't speak Korean).

So here we have a video of these greetings in action. You'll see the greeters and the traffic directors in matching attire, but this time you won't see any Dancing Traffic Directors. If you're not from Korea you really need to see this. Click on the picture above to see our video on Korean Car Greeters, or go to the sidebar to view it in different formats.

Yesterday was a very solemn holiday in Canada: Remembrance Day. We were surprised, though, to find a different holiday being celebrated here in Korea on the same day. Instead of honoring the soldiers that fell in war, Korea celebrates something known as Pepero Day. You may know Pepero as "Pocky" instead, the chocolate dipped sesame sticks that you snack on. In Korea they don't call them Pocky at all, by the way, just Pepero. Anyhow, November 11th, if you look at the numbers, is 11/11, which some genius over at the Pepero factory suggested looks like four sticks of Pepero. The Pepero company capitalized on this idea, and declared that on this day everyone will give out Pepero Sticks. In Canada, we wear Poppies; in Korea, we eat Pockies.

Sure, that sounds silly, but the declaration actually stuck, and now everybody celebrates Pepero Day. Yesterday Simon received around eight boxes of Pepero from his students. Teachers gave pepperos to each other as well. The days leading up to Pepero had stores full of Pepero Sticks, Pepero stuffed toys, and Pepero gift baskets. In fact, when Simon bought a shirt at a clothing store, they gave him a free box of Pepero as well. Pepero Day is almost like Valentine's Day, except it isn't as demandingly romantic. Sure, you'll give Peperos to your girlfriends and boyfriends, but your regular friends will be expecting them as well.

This ain't no small holiday, as some people may believe, so we made a video to show you what some of the street stalls look like, and just how elaborate this day can get. Sorry we couldn't post this sooner, but we went through a bit of a YouTube epidemic over the past two days, so we didn't get a chance to put this up when we wanted to. Anyhow, click on the picture above for the video of Korea's Pepero Day, or view it in different formats in the sidebar.

We've been here for five months now and we're still amazed with all of the cool things has to offer. A while ago we made a post about Korean Home Delivery, and this can be considered an update to that with an amazing twist: Last week we happened to learn something else that's awesome about Bucheon and Korea: McDonald's delivers to your home!! That's right. Korea's food delivery service is such a huge part of the culture that McDonald's had to tap into it as well. This means that you can sit at your home, play video games all day, and get a Big Mac and a McFlurry delivered to your doorstep. How awesome is that! Here's what you need to make this happen:

Phone Number: 1600-5252.
Menu: See an image of it here. It's not the best quality, but you'll get an idea of what you can get delivered. If need be, you can get a copy of it at the McDonald's closest to you.
Options: They sell everything. Breakfast and dinner foods, as well as Sundaes and McFlurries. Everything you can buy at the store can be ordered for delivery
Price: It seems as if everything costs around 500 won more for delivery than the regular in-store prices, but, hey, if you need a Big Mac right away, it's worth the extra change.
Names: The names are pretty much the same as they are in English, except they are pronounced in a Korean way. So the McFlurry here is the "Ma-Ku-Pu-Lau-Ree" and the Big Mac is the "Bee-guh-Mah-Kuh." So, even if you can't read the Korean on the menu,

One More Thing: The phone system here isn't the number of a specific McDonalds; instead, the number is for a central system. Your order gets forwarded to the closest McDonald's delivery chain. The problem with this is that you have to give more information, (namely, your city and your region). Here in Bucheon we're in the Wonmi-Gu district. When Martina called, both she and the operator were very confused, until an operator with stronger English came on the line. Martina had to explain what landmarks we're close to (the closest being Bucheon's City Hall), and only after 10 minutes of confused explanations did we finally get our order through.

We made a video for McDelivery as well, which shows you the whole ordering and delivering process (and more). Both YouTube and High Quality QuickTime versions are available for viewing in the sidebar on the left. Enjoy!

The two of us are pretty big music buffs, and we've been a little upset that we haven't been able to attend any concerts here in Korea. Luckily, we stumbled upon a concert that we're sure to attend: We don't know how many of you are Indie Music fans, but Jens Lekman is coming to Hongdae on November 29th. Here's what we know, from Last.fm:

Who: Jens Lekman
What: Playing Music
Where: Ssamie Space, Hongdae, South Korea
When: Saturday, November 29th, ???PM
Why: Because he's awesome.

The cost of admission we don't know. Supposedly we're just supposed to pay at the door instead of buying tickets. If anyone plans on going leave a comment or contact us. We don't know much more about the event because we just found out about it today. If anyone else has more information, let us know. Otherwise, we'll keep those of you interested up to date whenever we find more information about this, and we'll surely post videos of the concert after we've gone.