After volunteering, me and one of my friends (from the previous post about meeting the North Korean refugee friend and her boyfriend) went to the COEX aquarium (last pic is explained below):
You see that second to last pic? Doesn’t the traffic director look like a pimp?
After finishing there we went to my home subway station, SNU, and found a place to eat. I had told them I wanted to try live octopus so we found a place which had it and decided to go there. The last pic from above is me eating one of the legs while the suckers have latched onto the top of my mouth lol. We drank some 복분자 (wine made from fruit, something like a strawberry) which was pretty tasty. For the main meal we had 갈낙볶음 (Fried ribs and octopus) which was also scrumptious. Here’s the video of me first trying the octopus:
Today I went down to 안산 (Ansan) to do some volunteer work with the 새터민 쉼터 (an online community for North Korean refugees) for some of the kids that don’t have any parents. We ate some food, talked, played some games, and just had a lot of fun in general.
One of the ladies who organized this event talked a little bit about her life in North Korea. She served in the North Korean military and became at least a captain (I forget how long she served, it was at least 10 years). At some point before leaving Korea she lived on the streets for five years. She mentioned carrying a baby for two years but didn’t mention what happened (although I can guess ). The kids of course also either don’t know how their parents are doing or know that they already passed away. On top of that they have to adjust to the school system here, often pushing them behind. I can’t begin to imagine how hard all of their lives must have been.
Anyways, here’s some pics (including one pice of me with a green tongue stained by North Korean candy and some delicious North Korean rice-tofu called 두부밥 ):
Disclaimer: Please don’t ask me on or offline for any extra details about North Korean refugees. Thank you. I will only post minimal information and only things I get consent to post.
I got to meet a friend when she came up to Seoul last weekend and we had a great time! She’s a North Korean refugee (새터민 / 탈북자) so I felt like I had a great opportunity to get to know someone who has weathered a lot to get to where they are today. Many of us deal with where to go when we graduate from high school or where to get a job, but I can’t even begin to understand what North Korean refugees have gone through. Sometimes when people go through that, they take the opportunity to learn from it and make the most of what they have and succeed. I think she is one of them who will succeed in whatever she’ll do in the future.
While I was waiting for her to come when we were going to first meet, I decided to walk around and I found a protest outside. They opposed 이명박, the current president of South Korea, but I don’t know too much other than that. Here’s two pics I took there:
Anyways, when we met we decided to go grab a bite to eat at a Korean resturaunt. We both had some sort of meat and mushroom soup which was EXTREMELY delicious. She told me a really funny story about when she went to the DMZ and yelled at the North Korean soldier saying ‘야 이 나픈놈아!’ or something along those lines. She said her boyfriend was terrified and thought they’d be immediately shot lol.
After we had a cup of coffee, we decided to go to a movie, 의형제/Brother, which is about a South Korean agent (소강호/So Kang-ho, star of 괴물/The Host) who hunted North Korean spies and then became a bounty hunter. In the beginning you find out that one of the North Korean spies is doing everything to help his wife and girl who are still back in North Korea. The protagonist hunts him until he develops a relationship and sees him as a little brother. Here’s the trailer:
It was my first experience seeing a movie in a Korean movie theater so I would have to say it was an enjoyable one =).
When we arrived at the theater, we had to wait 2 hours to see the next showing so we decided to just browse around the 용산 (Yongsan) area. The last time I went to Yongsan I felt like I didn’t find the good market, so I really wanted to go to the ‘good’ place (선인프라자 / Sunin Plaza). We headed over there and I got a adapter for my phone which is a combo power-plug and headphone jack so I just had to bring one adapter with me on my phone.
After the movie, she took me to a neat street by 종각 station that was extremely busy. After walking a little bit we decided to go into one restaurant and had 낙지 닭칼비 (octopus and chicken ribs) and OH MAN was it good. Seriously, I’ll go back there in a heart beat. The price was really good too, like 7,000원 per person. Here’s a pic of us with the food:
Here we talked a little bit more about North Korea. She asked me about what I thought about the country and in short I told her that I felt sorry for those that had to live under Kim Jong-Il’s reign. She told me that she’s looking forward to helping others who leave the country and helping people get over the propaganda they’ve been fed their entire lives. I think that’s a very noble goal and I hope she’s able to fulfill that. In the short term there’s always volunteering opportunities here in South Korea. I’ll be attending one such event this Saturday which I’ll probably give some commentary on (though I’ll most likely not be able to take pictures). I was able to find a monthly volunteering opportunity thanks to a commenter who pointed me the right direction, so thank you!
Here’s me drinking the remaining bits of the 막국수 (I think that was the name):
Well, that’s it! We had a wonderful day and I’m really glad I got to meet her.
I said bye to my friend 은희 who’s going to London for the next while. Good luck!
We tried going to 먹쉬돈나 which is supposed to be pretty famous for its 떡볶이. It was the day after the lunar new year so they weren’t open (though a worker told 은희 it would be open). There’s an incredibly easy way to remember the name of the restaurant: 먹고 쉬고 돈내고 나가. That phrase using the characters from the name means: eat, rest, pay, leave.
Here’s the whole group of us at a restaurant in 인사동:
I finally met Chris, who I’ve been working with on the Korean Wiki Project for over a year but never met in person. We went near Yonsei University and ate 대창 (large intestines) and some other stuff which was pretty good. We even got a free bottle of Soju after buying one through a promotion the company is doing about the new ‘cool’ version of their Soju which has less alcohol. After finishing up we went to another place to eat and drink a little more. They knew that 막거리 was my favorite drink, so we ordered some 동동주 (I think that’s the name). I think I’ve found my limit I’m comfortable with. I didn’t throw up or have a headache the next day, so I’d say that was pretty successful.
Here’s a pic with our group + one random guy behind me lol.
). The kids of course also either don’t know how their parents are doing or know that they already passed away. On top of that they have to adjust to the school system here, often pushing them behind. I can’t begin to imagine how hard all of their lives must have been.
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