Holidays and gifts

Here in Korea, Valentine's Day is celebrated a little differently than in the U.S. The major difference is that it's a day when women and girls give gifts to men and boys. The opposite happens on White Day which is a commercial holiday on March 14th when men and boys are supposed to give gifts back to the women and girls they received gifts from on Valentine's Day.

This past week three students gave me gifts! Two gave me gifts, on White Day, of candy in cute wrapping (one even in a nice glass container from a nearby store called, "Paris Baguette"), and a third gave me earrings today in a cute little green box. I wonder if it was in a green box because she'd remembered I'd told her class about St. Patrick's Day being about green things, or if it was just coincidence? Anyway, I was surprised to receive gifts- wow! I wasn't sure what to do so I thanked her, and put on the earrings and wore them the rest of the day.

Apparently March 14th was also Pi Day, to commemorate the mathematical pi. One of my students wrote in his English diary about how he and his family celebrated pi day which for him involved eating pie. Sounds good to me!