Bag of duk

Duk is the Korean word for rice cake! Today, April (our music teacher) brought a huge bag of duk to tea time to share with everyone.


Stella told me she did this because she had just bought a new car and it's a tradition in Korea to have a ceremony whenever someone starts driving a different car. Friends and family come over to the driver's house and bring Korean food, duk, etc... and give well wishes for safety to the driver! The duk was left over from April's ceremony. Such a funny tradition, huh?!

Driving in Korea!

Who do you know who's over the age of thirty who hasn't driven since they got their license? Can't think of anyone? I personally know a lot of people, all of who live in Korea! It's not uncommon for Koreans to get their drivers license when they're 18 and then never drive. High School parking lots are not filled with student cars... They all either walk or ride the bus! Stella, for instance got her license when she was 18 and hasn't driven a car since! She's 29!!

One of the teachers at my school sold her car to another teacher at my school last week who is 35 years old, and hasn't driven in over 20 years!!! Isn't that wild?!

What can you do?

Today, I was walking down the hallway at my school and one of my 4th grade students asked me, "Teacher, what can you do?" I was a little taken back by this question and wondered if she was trying to say something else. Afterall, when does anyone just randomly come up to you in America and ask, "What can you do?" Then, it dawned on me that it's the title of the new lesson we just started teaching 4th grade this week... It also dawned on me that if I think it's a weird question, we probably shouldn't be taking 2 class worths of time to teach it! Gotta love the Korean English curriculum, which was obviously written by Koreans!

Needless to say, I answered her by saying, "I can run!" She said, "I can skate"... and that was the end of our conversation! haha