Happy Pepero Day

Today is Pepero day~! :)

Pepero day is celebrated on November 11th in South Korea. It is not a big holiday, it's just a day when people give each other a special Korean snack called Pepero.

Pepero is the name of these yummy cookie sticks dipped in chocolate. The original pepero box is red and it is just chocolate-flavored, but there are several other flavors as well: almond, strawberry, white cookie, melon etc.

 

It's kind of funny that Korea has this whole day dedicated to one type of snack. It's like if back in Europe we had Kinder surprise day and we would all buy and give each other Kinder surprise eggs on that day... which would be really cool actually :D Well the point is, you buy a box of pepero for a friend or a boyfriend/girlfriend or anyone you care about. It's definitely a nice gesture and it really makes your day when you receive pepero boxes from people ^^ And it's really affordable too. A regular box of pepero costs 1200krw (around 1$) but around Pepero day you can get special prices too, like 1+1 or something. I just bought a box of strawberry pepero for 960krw at Lotte mart.

The back of pepero box looks like a postcard. You can write the name and the address of the person sending and the person receiving the box, and there's even a place for a stamp, so you could just send this without wrapping it or anything. But it's better to give it in person, I think. There's a place for a short message too :)

The date of Pepero day is November 11th and it's probably because the numbers 11.11 look like four long sticks that resemble pepero. There are different stories on the internet about how this holiday started. One of them says that two female students gave each other pepero in the wish of becoming tall and slim. Of course, this might not be true, but it's a nice story anyway. Wikipedia even says that if you wish to become tall and slim you have to eat pepero on 11.11 at 11:11 in 11 seconds. Lol I've never heard of that before, but it sounds like a fun thing to do. Of course, I assume they mean just one stick, because it would be impossible to eat the whole box in 11 seconds.

Korean Pepero sticks are really similar to the famous Japanese snack called Pocky. I belive Pocky was created first, years before Pepero. But Pepero day first started in Korea, sometime in the 1990s. Later on, when Japan saw how much money can be made with a day like that, Japan also started celebrating Pocky day. At least that's what the internet says, I am no expert. But I did live in Japan for a year and I don't remember Pocky being a huge day there. I might be wrong, but I don't remember receiving any Pocky on November 11th. Here in Korea I always get a least a box or two every year.

And even if you don't celebrate the day, the stores will remind you of it. You know how on Valentine's day for example, all the stores offer roses and hearts and chocolates and all this red/pink cute stuff to buy for your loved ones. Well, it's similar on Pepero day. Anywhere you go, there are tons of Pepero things to chose from. Not just regular boxes of pepero, but several "special editions" like extra huge pepero sticks or I don't know... Even stores that have nothing to do with Chocolate will sometimes have special Pepero day offers.

For example my favorite cosmetics shop in Korea called Etude House. Today they have a special 1+1 Pepero Day offer, where you can buy any two products and get the cheaper one of these two for free - not bad :)

 

 

My boyfriend and I decided not to spend money on Pepero, but I couldn't help but buy him at least one box ^^ It's not that expensive anyway.

I don't know if Pepero is sold where you live. Or maybe there's Pocky? I hear Pocky is sold in some of the European countries under the name of Mikado. Well, if you can't find any of these, then how about buying one of your favorite sweets, like Kinder surprise egg (lol I just LOVE them) or Milka or something and share it with your loved ones? ^^

Have a happy Pepero day ^^

Modern History Museum in Gunsan

Last weekend it was raining, so my boyfriend and I decided to visit the museum of modern history in Gunsan. 

Gunsan is not too far away from Jeonju, it takes less than an hour by car. It is a small city by the sea and the bank of river Geum. It used to be a small fishing village and in the late 19th century the port was opened to ship rice to Japan.

After arriving to Gunsan we first had a small snack in the nearby convenience store (since we were kind of hungry already, but it was still too early for lunch) and then went straight to the Museum of modern history. The museum was rather crowded. Maybe because of the weather. It seems a lot of people like to visit museums on rainy days.

On the first and second floor of the museum you can learn about the history of the city, mostly about the fishing and farming and of course about the city in the time of Japanese-Korean war. There are many old items such as working tools or pottery on display and also different kinds of fishing boats. There is even a huge fishing boat in the middle of the room and you can climb up on it. And in the middle of the lobby there is a nice lighthouse. But the third floor is the most fun.

The whole third floor is turned into old Gunsan from 1930s. There are replicas of old buildings such as different shops, port, farm houses, train station, school etc... and you can walk around, enter the buildings and really feel like you're in the 1930s Gunsan :)

 

One of the first houses on display, and also the most crowded one, was the school. It was really small and it looked so cute. There were a couple of school desks and chairs and by the walls there were desks where you could try out printing ink on a paper. I tried it, but it was harder than it looked, so I kind of failed and didn't take a photo of it.

Then there were several shops that sold liquor, food, pottery, shoes etc. In the liquor store we could smell different types of alcoholic drinks and in the shoe store we were able to try on old type Korean shoes.

The last part of the museum was dedicated to Buddhism. And there was a small workshop where kids could draw pictures and post them on the wall. And we decided to join in lol Of course we were the only adults there drawing pictures, but why not, there was no "children only" sign. We only got to use two different colors of crayons since the kids were using the rest and we didn't want to take them away from them, so here is our masterpiece in two colors. :D

The museum was really fun. There was even a chance to try on old type Korean clothing and take a photo with this cool 1930s background, but there were too many people and we would have to wait for a long time. So we decided to skip that.

After leaving the museum it was time for lunch. My boyfriend found this cool place that's actually an old elementary school that has been turned into a restaurant. It is not that far from the museum, but still kind of in the middle of nowhere, so you need a car to get there. 

When we entered the restaurant (school) the lady told us to go to the third grade - lol We walked down the hallway pass the first and second grade classroom until we took a seat in the third grade one. The third grade classroom is the biggest and there are places to sit on the floor too. Whereas the first and second grade classrooms are a bit smaller with only tables available. Every classroom still has blackboards on the wall, so even though it is really a restaurant, it still looks like a school :)

We ordered a Korean dish called ssambap. Basically you get stew, meat, rice, lots of side dishes (there was a fish too, but mostly vegetables) and different types of greens to use for wrapping: lettuce, kale, sesame leaf, Korean cabbage, chicory and red beet. You place one of the greens in your hand and then add some rice, meat, vegetables and ssamjang sauce. You wrap it all together and eat it ^^ It was delicious.

 

Before leaving the school we were able to try on old type Korean high school uniforms. They look a lot different from the school uniforms kids wear these days. Boys don't wear hats anymore (too bad, those hats look so cute! ^^) and skirts are A LOT shorter now. Anyway, it was fun to try it on and man, my boyfriend looked soooo handsome in that uniform ^^ <3

On the way back we stopped at Mango Six for some of that yummy yogurt flavored soft ice-cream. So in spite of the rainy weather we had a really fun weekend. ^^

A rainy day in Jeonju

It's been months since I left Daegu and moved to Jeonju and I am really happy here. I love Jeonju, it's such a nice city and it is so much more similar to my hometown than Daegu. I don't really miss Daegu that much, I definitely don't miss the school dormitory! But I DO miss coin norebang (karaoke) around our university, I miss the subway... but mostly I miss my friends. :( But last Friday, a friend of mine from Daegu finally decided to visit me in Jeonju. :)

It was her first time in Jeonju, so I wanted to show her around a bit. Unfortunately the weather was terrible... it was pouring... I was afraid she might even cancel the whole trip because of all the rain, but she arrived anyway ^^ Actually her bus arrived 20 minutes early, so she had to wait for me at the station for a while. And when I finally arrived there, we realized we were not at the same terminal lol Luckily the two terminals are only a couple minutes walk away from each other. :)

My friend already did the research online and she had three things on the list that she wanted to see/do in Daegu: 1.See Hanok village 2.See youth mall 3.Have a bracelet made

So we took a city bus and went straight to Hanok Village. It is definitely the nicest place in Jeonju and a MUST SEE if you travel there. Even in the rain it's not too bad, but I still wish it hadn't rained, because we had to skip the palace tour because of that. It would just be no fun walking around there in the rain.

But even with all the rain, my friend seemed pretty excited - about the street food at least :D She was just walking around the streets of Hanok village and trying all the different types of food like: "wow, what's this, let's try it... oh, this looks yummy, let's try it..." lol Well thanks to her, I got to try out some new street food too. The first thing we tried was shrimp mandu (dumpling). I wonder why my boyfriend and I never noticed it before. It was DELICIOUS! In fact, it was so yummy that we actually came back later that day to eat some more :) The next thing was a kind of octopus on a stick. I am not a big fan of octopus or squid, so I decided to skip that one. I did take a bite just to try it and it really wasn't bad for an octopus, it was rather good.

Then we tried hotteok, which is usually translated as a Korean pancake, I guess. I've had it many times before, but this one was a bit different. It was larger and flatter and it tested amazing! It's also quite cheap too, only 1500won (1,5$) for the regular one with honey. If you want one with cream cheese or ice-cream it costs a bit more, between 1500 and 3000won. The place where they sell it looks nice too, there's this huge oven and you can sit and watch the guy make them and bake them for you. The only bad thing is, you have to wait a while. But it's worth it!

After that we looked for a place where they make leather bracelets with your name on it. And thanks to naver maps app and my excellent sense of orientation ;) it wasn't hard to find. It costs 10.000won (about 10$). You choose the text, color and size and the woman makes it for you. It doesn't take long. I didn't buy one, because I thought it would be better to get it together with my boyfriend and make it a couple bracelet if we decided to :) My friend chose a red one and it looked really nice. We just both agreed that she could have done the last syllable of the Korean name a bit nicer, but oh well :)

After that I was freezing cold. I know it's November already, but Jeonju has still been quite warm lately with almost 20 degrees during the day. But suddenly last Friday it got cold. And I would probably be ok if my feet weren't soaking wet. Walking around with wet feet is unbelievably uncomfortable... I was trying to have fun and not annoy my friend too much about my discomfort, but at some point I just couldn't take it anymore. So we walked to the city center, which is almost right next to Hanok village, and I bought some socks at Daiso (a cheap store all over Korea and Japan where you can get pretty much everything for 1000~5000won). Then we took a rest at Ann's house (the cafe that I'd written about before). But since I was wearing stockings, changing the socks wouldn't have helped much - stupid me. So we stopped at the shopping mall nearby where I bought some leggings and finally got rid of the wet stockings in the bathroom. Man, I felt so much better after that.

 

With the new energy I was able to walk to the market :) It wasn't that far away. In the market, my friend wanted to find this Youth mall she heard about from a friend or read about on the internet. It is quite small, so it is a bit hard to find, but we managed. It's a small place on a second floor with several different shops and restaurants. There was a shop with postcards (a thing that is sometimes really hard to find in Korea...) and there were people sitting outside writing them. But the best shop was this candy shop with candies that Koreans used to eat a long time ago and some I recognized too - candies that we also ate in Europe when I was a kid. And in front of the store there was an old video game that we just had to try. It was Bubble Bobble. I can't believe I even remember the name. We used to play this game on PC a long long time ago :)

We skipped lunch 'cause we were kind of full from all the street food we ate. So we just walked back to Hanok village to buy some ChocoPie - a snack you just HAVE to buy in Jeonju, it's really famous. And then we took a bus to our place here in Jeonju. Finally we were able to warm up a bit while we waited for my boyfriend to get back from work. Then we all went to eat dinner. My friend wanted to try this yummy food she saw on tv and my boyfriend knew about it, so he took us there. And omg, it was amazing. It was hot pot rice and my friend chose the mushroom version while my boyfriend and I went for the beef :) We all agreed it was delicious, but I was the first one to finish and I think the only one that actually ate EVERYTHING. :) I definitely want to eat that again sometime.

And after dinner we went to norebang for two hours. It was really fun. My friend and I used to go to norebang together all the time in Daegu. Then we went home to watch superstarK - a music competition that my boyfriend and I watch every Friday. We also wanted to play a board game together, but we were all too tired - my boyfriend from working all day, my friend from having to wake up at 5am that day and me from walking around with cold and wet feet.

It would have been so much better in sunny weather. I wanted her to see the zoo and this beautiful park near the university, but it has to be good weather for that. Well, at least she has a reason to visit again soon :) It was a great day for me anyway, despite the weather and all, and I hope my friend made some nice memories too. ^^