Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day in Korea is fairly similar to how it is in North America but with a bit of a twist since girls are supposed to be the ones giving chocolate and candy to boys. Luckily they have designated another day so that the boys can return the favor. As it turns out, my little Brian's birthday is also February 14th (how appropriate) and he was very enthusiastic about all the chocolate he was able to consume. I brought the party hat my elementary students gave me on my birthday and Brian paraded around in it for most of the day (and brought it back to school on Thursday and Friday).
Everyone ate a lot of chocolate (I still have quite a bit left in my desk at school) and therefore there was a bit of hyperactivity going on. Steven brought Kelly and I an amazing fuzzy heart made of different kinds of chocolates (some were a bit odd- chocolate covered green apple yogurt, anyone?). Other than that the gifts were pretty standard (albeit tasty).

Speaking of gifts, Jon and Paige seem to get the strangest/coolest ones (these were for Lunar New Year, not Valentine's Day, but still). They each got 2 bottles of wine (one white, one red) and a GIANT ham gift package. Yes, you hear me correctly, a huge case filled with different kinds of shrink wrapped ham and some mustard sauce to go along with it. Insanity. Maybe next semester I will have kids with mommies who like to give strange gifts. I did get some nifty Nike socks from one of my elementary kids for Lunar New Year but it just isn't the same as a custom made ham gift set. I guess not everyone like to give the gift of ham. Oh well, better luck next time.