"Chocolate Love"

First off:

Happy Pepero Day!

November 11th is known as Pepero (빼빼로) Day (similar to Valentine's day). Pepero is a chocolate covered cookie stick that is fairly popular and is made by the conglomerate Lotte. Pepero Day is held on November 11th because the cookie-stick originally came in 4 sticks that could been seen to resemble the numbers 11/11. Cute -- but just another corporate made holiday.

I found this funny - and shows how bad women's body image is here:

"According to one story, Pepero Day was started in 1994 by students at a girls' middle school in Busan where they exchanged Pepero sticks as gifts to wish one another to grow "as tall and slender as a Pepero"

 (groan!)

Speaking of chocolate and corporations, I feel it is necessary to point out the following:

I had posted a blog back in early August that had a song called "Lollipop" by the joint music group 2NE1 (female) and Big Bang (male). I love the song, but I soon found out that it is actually a song about a cell-phone called "The Lollipop". (I don't know what it is about the cell phones being named after food - like this one that all the kids want called "The Ice Cream Phone".

Back to my original though though: It is a bit of a disappointment that these bands are basically owned by their sponsors. So it was no surprise when I heard the song by SNSD (Girls' Generation) called "Chocolate Love". It's a song about the new LG Chocolate touch phone.

K-Pop music now feels like one elaborate commercial.

And as a special note, I'd like to thank my mom for sending me this story:

South Korea: The 950th Time Is a Charm

A woman who had tried to pass the written exam for a driver’s license almost every day since April 2005 has finally succeeded, on her 950th attempt. The woman, Cha Sa-soon, 68, spent more than $4,200 in application fees, but until Wednesday had failed to score the minimum 60 points out of a possible 100 needed to get behind the wheel for a driving test. She finally passed the written exam with a score of 60, said Choi Young-chul, a police official in Jeonju, and now she must pass the driving test. Ms. Cha told The Korea Times that she needed the license for her vegetable-selling business.

I asked Koreans about this story, and they have heard of her. She is pretty famous for her failures, but even more for her passion and resolve to get a license. Apparently, she is a decent driver but isn't the brightest tool in the shed. I know I'll be scared to cross a street wherever they are selling vegetables....which is pretty much everywhere.