Bbang tigi

In Japan their rice snacks are called せんべい and I was an instant addict.  Most people go to Asian stores in the U.S. to find ingredients to actually cook stuff.  Me, I always look for the best selections of authentic senbei. Made of rice and soy, it tastes like it should be healthy. 

Oh, how I wish it was!  

Here, in Korea, we eat 빵 티기 or bbang tigi (I hope those characters are right!). 

This display I found on line is a fair representation of how the snacks come in large bags, piled up on top of each other.  I first noticed the stuff in Sacheon's nearby Open Market. Fascinated, I decided to take a few bags home.  It's cheap, lightweight, comes in a variety of shapes and sizes, and has a lot fewer calories than a bag of potato chips of the same size.  Plus, I teach all of the other Korean teachers' students once a week.  They love snacks and together they have 240 mouths.

The far left, yellow stuff feels a lot like a big, crunchy Cheetos cheese snack in your mouth, but tastes more like a very slightly sweetened puffed corn.  I really like it for its crunchy/chewy texture and mild flavor.  The brown ones look like those softer cheese puffs, and feel like that in your mouth too.  Here are some more colors of this type I found on line:  

They're sweetened with a sugary coating and I've tried these coated in chocolate too--yummy!  The 2 white colored bags I haven't tried, because I'm pretty sure they'll be tasteless, like these:

To my taste buds, they're nothing more than starch.  Thankfully, a lot of my students liked them so the purchase was far from a waste!  No doubt, you noticed the giant bags of super-sized Trix cereal-looking variety in the display. Close up they look more like this photo below, but many are perfectly round, like Trix, only 5-10 times bigger:

Naturally, I'm a kid at heart, so I HAD to try these.  Nothing like Trix cereal, of-course, they have some grainy "so-so" flavor, to quote a favorite American expression used by my Korean students.  My youngest kids adore them because they're so fun to look at, I think!  Since so many of these kids' parents work FT and they only shop at regular grocery stores, many of them have never tried this.  It took an American English teacher to introduce them to a very old-styled, traditional Korean snack!  

Pictured above is the machine that makes the stuff right in front of your eyes.  These big, flat white ones are the size of small plates.  I want to try them out in place of a hard tortilla or something.  If you find one of the street vendors with a truck full of a gazillion varieties, you'll pay extra, but you can watch him making all different kinds and bagging them up; so I imagine they're fresher.  Haven't tried any yet, but I'm sure I will--just too cool not to!  

Check out the SIZE of the bag leaning up against the truck!  It's like buying edible packaging popcorn, so no wonder...Ok, this last image is my own photo of 2 of the best, yet still cheap varieties.   (I'll probably write again and display the pricier kind--I just disappeared a whole bag of rice-crispy treats styled bbang-tigi--deadly delicious, with a caramelized sugary glue & nuts instead of marshmallows.

  

Second to last share for today are these.  The one on the left is full of my students' favorites--they're rolled in a brown sugar--a big hit every time I bring them to school.  These others, on the right, have a very mild flavor which I can't really describe.  I love that they're hollow & intend to bring enough string to let the students make edible bbang tigi bracelets sometime.  Stay tuned for more on this  delightful and uniquely Korean snack in the future, and...Oh!  They're not always made of rice.  I just finished off a Sunday walk w/a new Korean friend.  She brought these.  They're made of wheat, but still called bbang tigi.  They taste just like puffed wheat cereal melded together...I wonder which came first?

What a fun twist on an old familiar American-to-me flavor!  Happy snacking to you from Sacheon~~

It's All About the Chocolate

This week was Valentine's Day, and here in Korea, it's celebrated very simply, with CHOCOLATE. And I am soooo OK with that! The women from my church congregation in Utah agree with this focus and hosted a "Death by Chocolate" night.  Everyone was to prepare some sort of chocolate desert or candy, or...knowing the skills of these women, I can't tell you how bummed I was to have missed it!! Now, it's true, the tradition here is for the girl to give chocolate to the boy...that's not so fine. But, I'm not so sure that anyone here in Sacheon pays too much attention to that particular tradition.  And as a teacher, one kid after another came up and demanded in English, "Give me chocolate." Not only is sharing chocolate extremely difficult for me to do, I'm unwilling to encourage these little aspiring leaders to behave like beggars or parasites.  Since I've become pretty great buddies with the ones who did the begging, I closed doors and said "go away" to all who used that particular phrasing. On the other hand, I handed out candy hearts and chocolate during class for a week; and to those students who gave me chocolate, I gave back more.   In further defense of my predicament, I teach ALL of the other Korean teachers' kids in my speaking class. Each Korean teacher has just over 40 little hungry birds who always like being fed, I have them all, which is over 200. 

Lotte is bigger than Hershey's or Nestle's here.  It's THE chocolate producing company in Korea.  This is a popular chocolate bar, and milk chocolate is much more popular than dark--just like it is in Utah.

Another candy bar I received was this Korean version of Nestle's Crunch, I believe. 

I love their Ghana Black Chocolate best.

Which is what I gave out, in small individual squares, along with Hershey's dark chocolate Kisses, (which cost a small fortune here--but I pay it willingly, because I'm an addict). Wish I could say that I still have most of what over a dozen students and fellow teachers popped into my room to share, but...  I saw a site that has guys downing 9-10 Ferrero Rocher chocolates in a minute.  Pretty sure I could top that. 

Part 2, Future (because they're current) Leaders

"Tony" seems like a real goof. He is. He's also brilliant, fun and fun to be around. If he holds onto the combo, he'll be unstoppable!

Demonstrating the essence of loyalty, "Laura" and "Julie" show the world how to be best girl-friends. Both shy and sweet, they cling together and encourage each other with a tenacity that's inspiring. I have to share some background. When Laura first came to our school, I randomly seated her next to a problem student--"Huey." It was love at first sight. For him. Every week he reminded me to put her name tag next to his; and, in exchange for this arrangement, I got a reformed, well- behaved boy. I never knew how Laura felt about it; but, always smiling, she was too gentle and sweet to complain. Until Julie claimed her. It took Huey about a month to get over it. Ah, young love...

"Rosie" is a hornet when crossed. Her moods change as quickly and dramatically as desert storms come and go. I put her in the leader category because she leads. 2 new girls came into the class and Rosie claimed one for a friend. The new girl's super smart, so for awhile, Rosie was consistently more studious. However, Rosie could lead a gang war and I finally sent her out of the room for a shouting match she incited between the boys and girls. She's not forgiven me yet. I get a glower from her in the halls these days...

See the boy closest to the camera? I love "Nicolas!" Sure, it helps that he's brilliant, sparkly, funny, competitive and TINY. Short even among his peers, he's got a goliath spirit housed inside. Like Dustin Hoffman or Michael J. Fox, you notice this kid when he opens his mouth because he's always got something going on in that head of his. Always.

Katy caught my attention when she said "Tomorrow is Wednesday!" with a big smile, shortly after I started teaching. That's her day to come to speaking class. Do you have any idea what that did for me? Talk about a way to make someone remember you! She's in the super-smart category of kids, helpful and kind to all, comes in to play whenever she can, and swallowed "energizer bunny" batteries. These kids--all of them--are what light up each day.

Future Leaders, part 1

Meet "Jamie." She's in my Wednesday night essay writing class. I couldn't succeed in that class w/o her on my side. She understands more English than the rest of her classmates. She has an easy, relaxed smile and she's "gets" both me and her classmates. You want this girl to like you. She could run a corporation someday.

"Esther" is a free-spirited first grader. She's the smart, bubbly, dance-around-the-room type who'd fit in anywhere and nowhere. She dances to her own inner drumbeat (or hurdy gurdy--who knows?) and I could easily see her as the spirit of a 1960s flower child.

"Heidi's" no longer with us. I cried when her mom decided she needed to do something else (like maybe, stop paying for private school?). She's the one in front, wearing a yellow shirt. All 4 of these girls are leaders, but Heidi was the strongest and set a tone which has infected everyone who's come into the class since. I could see her as a dynamic social worker or a Leslie, from "Parks and Recreations" (only less manic). How I MISS HER!!

"Christine" is the director's daughter. She's gorgeous, strong-willed and, with a successful and motivated father wrapped around her little finger, I can't believe she won't turn some pages in history.

"Edwin" is the boy in the middle. An Oppie Taylor or Beaver Cleaver (if you don't remember those names--look 'em up!), he has a heart of gold and an a real zest for everything good in life.

"Ricky" and "Jeff." These 2 are both brainy and charismatic. Jeff has a younger brother who's just as smart as he is and Jeff is not only the smartest in class, he'll do anything for anyone. But he's highly competitive and neither he nor Ricky are push overs. They could start their own company or invent something...

Chris is the director's son. If cultural pressures don't break him first, he could become a great humanitarian, philosopher, or...while his handwriting is so bad I've returned some of his assignments un-graded, what he has to SAY is profoundly kind, wise, and unselfish.

Seldom does "Luke" wear this serious of an expression. He had a cold on the day I got this photo. He thinks for himself. When given the opportunity to color something anyway he choses, Santa's got a black moustache, red beard, black ringed eyes and smokes a cigarette; Rudolph has cow spots; and the Sun is pumpkin-colored with jagged teeth. He wants to be a teacher and I think he'd rock as a college professor.

To be continued...

They Say the Darndest Things

They are my sunshine, as well as thunder storms. Students. I've only been in Korea for a little over 5 months, but have watched several of them transition from giggling kids,

to moody teens already!

Last week one of my girls hid her face and fought back tears for the entire class period. Normally outspoken and gregarious, her withdrawal was a dramatic change. But nothing eased or explained her pain. She escaped to hash out whatever was wrong with girlfriends immediately following class. Being the only girl in a classroom full of boys is no small impediment to her too. For this week's class she was back to normal and had a particularly great day beating the boys at nerf basketball during grammar review!

(These are photos of 1st graders playing the game. Rodin took to basketball immediately--see the smug, pleased face below).

She sang and danced happily around the room, somewhat like Tigger; and the boys looked from her to me, incredulously expecting me to mock her silliness as they, both trapped inside "cool mode," did. Nope. I love "Sandy's" craziness as much or more than "Joe's" dry humor, especially since Sandy loves everything I draw and expresses herself with zest! She's sunshine in my life, the bright, shimmering kind. These boys are sunshine too, only of the more diffused, subtle variety. I appreciate all kinds of weather, except cold gray days, which another middle school class emits regularly. Everyone seems to carry the same sleepy, blah attitude into the class with them--like yawning. Try teaching zombies in a speaking class... Maybe I'll take a photo of someone sleeping on their desk--not normally something I try to capture in a photo and getting a decent photo of a teenager isn't easy!! Most HATE the camera. But, no matter the temperature or mood of any particular student on any given day, I enjoy teaching English because I get to read what they write.

Much of it is hurried, shallow and/or unapologetic, regurgitated plagiarism. But some of it's insightful! On "Should Money be Saved or Spent," "Grace" writes (edited, but the ideas and phrasing are all hers): "Saving too much makes us misers and spending too much makes us beggars...money needs to be rotated, like water...we need [it] like we need water. Money should be saved, but [it] also needs to be used. If not, the economy would stop developing. Also, both saving and spending money makes us happy, so we should both save and spend appropriately for the most delight in life!" Female students in particular write about stress woes (unedited): "I get rid of my stress for play the piano or listen to music. But I'm sometimes cry. I get stress every day...I'm every day tired and angry...I want to be happy...but, sometimes I can't get rid of my stress..I'm ok," she adds, "because my mom sometime [helps] me." Then she asks me directly in the diary, knowing I'll read it to correct it, what she can do about relieving stress more effectively. I felt at a loss...I'm no pro at healthy stress release either! But then another student's insight saved me the trouble of answering on my own(edited slightly): "To get rid of my stress I sleep. It works great. When I get up, I'm okay. Also...I doodle. When I finish doodling, I forget why I was upset. So, I feel fine!!! I hit my doll [too]. It is my favorite way to get rid of my stress." WOW...withholding my source, I shared most of this, (omitting the hitting tip--although I believe in it!), and, "Also, I get rid of my stress by studying hard. Then, I'm very tired, but, I forget about angry things...I almost never get stressed."

There you have it. What a great collection of creative, intellectual, physical, and emotional stress relief advice, w/o one word of the healing powers of chocolate! I must study this further...

Not since I was Four years old...

When I saw Fantasia the first time I felt the way I did today, seeing Life of Pi. I went with some new Korean friends. The 14 year old, "Julia," is in one of my classes. Her English, along with the rest of her family's, is superb, since they recently returned from living in Canada for years. Sharing many ideals, and with the language barrier removed, we've decided we need to start hanging out together. I'm thankful that our first outing was to see this incredible film. I'm listening to the movie trailer sound track while I write.

Last week I didn't know to purchase tickets ahead of time, so the Life of Pi was sold out. Les Miserables was sold out too. I chose something else with my Cambodian friend, Ahnkheng, based on its star-studded cast. Forgetting how it had really Earned its R rating and a dismissive review from my son (who's movie tastes are the only ones I trust), and desperate to not waste a bus trip to Jinju, we saw Cloud Atlas instead. Ugh. It's a film that tried desperately to impress and amaze, but only succeeded, in my opinion, with those who have only a partial grasp of the English language, and don't know when they're being purposefully manipulated by an immature story. All the bells and whistles were there--with extra helpings of violence and sex, like it or not. But there was no revelation, no point...I'm sure there are many who will argue with me on that, but what else is new? Nothing in Cloud Atlas.

Today's Life of Pi, on the other hand, took my breath away, moved me to cry for the departure of a tiger and all he represented, and to believe that anything and everything remains possible through faith and gritty determination. I've always been fascinated by animals and no film has ever managed to meet and exceed my hunger to watch them up-close.

I've always known tigers were beautiful, but not like I know it now. The movie is about a whole lot more than animals, but the wonder and awe of this movie, on every conceivable level, will, if I'm lucky, haunt me from this day forward.

I'm a cynical/optimist. I've become jaded toward most of what the world offers up in the name of imagination. It's difficult for a movie to even meet, much-less exceed my expectations. I saw the visual beauty in The Hobbit, but shuddered at it's cliche ridden execution--such a horrible disappointment.

I love that book! It took a significant lack of talent to mess up such great raw material. And Avatar's an applauded film I've never actually succeeded in stomaching an entire viewing of. Seeing comparisons of Life of Pi to Avatar on the internet is an insult. Avatar is nothing more than a colorfully rendered telling of a horribly predictable, politically charged plot, which arouses no sense of real wonder, unless you mute the thing and wipe the judgmental, smug and/or stupid expressions off of the CG animated characters.

I know, I know. Many people adore these films. The optimist in me WANTED TO. I really, really did, so I tried. Repeatedly. But to no avail. The Life of Pi, breaks away from every trendy norm, to completely, quietly, and powerfully tell its own story. Secure in its message, viewers are left free to interpret and take away for themselves from a rich banquet of images and messages. The cinematography astonishes and elevates without cheaply resorting to shocking and/or revolting the viewer. In every way, missing the Life of Pi is on par with missing a valuable experience. It's a story worth seeing and hearing--again and again. Who knew anything could so thoroughly restore my sense of wonder in a matter of minutes and raise my heart to flights of nearly forgotten fancy by the end? The optimist in me feels recognized, validated and encouraged to thrive.

Toys, Joys and Educational Ploys

At first she wouldn't touch it. Many of the girls shrieked when they saw the new toy I brought, the first of a suitcase full, sent from my dear, oldest brother Tom. This thing is squishy, bulgy, and tentacled. A week ago it was a bright fluorescent yellow color and I'm sooooo very happy Tom sent 3 of these; the other 2 are purple and orange. It's been laughed over, fought for, stretched, squeezed, probed, thrown, and coveted since I brought it to class. All I did was tape an "X" on the white board, pull out the ball and have student throw the thing at it--AFTER they'd memorized and/or recited what they needed to. Since it doesn't feel or respond like a normal ball, the X is difficult to hit, so cheers abound when someone succeeds; and everyone, EVERYONE wanted to get their hands on the "alien" ball!

It was winter break for them. So, like me, no one really wanted to be in school, including our private academy. They were freed from public school, but still had to attend hagwon--private school. Some even had to take extra study courses during the "break." Missing my own son, sick, and overly tired...I struggled to have patience, since I didn't really want to be there either. Jordan was back in the U.S. with most of my family, still celebrating Christmas, and a dear Uncle passed away at the conclusion of December--it was really hard for me to be in Korea for a little while. But, that crazy ball had everyone laughing hysterically and forgetting about the fact that we were in a classroom!

What's this got to do with speaking English? More than you might think. As I mentioned, more than the usual number of my students were down right sullen the week before, resisting the need to learn the "fun, grammatically relevant" English story I'd compiled and illustrated. Some refused to put forth the effort to memorize or stand up and recite a thing.

As soon as the ball came out, however, all boredom disappeared, along with inhibitions. In order to get a shot at handling the strange new toy, even the quietest students participated with more zest than usual. Quite simply, laughter, curiosity and enthusiasm over the ball pulled everyone outside of themselves and led to full class participation and some of the all-time best recitals I've seen.

Which just goes to prove the old adage--laughter really is the best medicine. Thanks again, Tom!!