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 ):
When I first saw this sign, I thought they had misquoted the phrase “don’t worry, be happy.’ The other day when me and a friend passed by the sign he asked me if I knew what it meant and I mentioned that the English phrase is wrong. He continued to explain the pun: so (소) is Korean for cow, so this place uses that phrase as a pun to say that they’re a restaurant specializing in beef. Clever.
Now for the fail. Here’s a store which has its Korean name romanized into something which I can guarantee no foreigner will pronounce right. At least they include a sane secondary title/description. Yet another reason to learn Hangeul as quickly as you can.
I saw this on the front page of reddit today. For those that don’t know what it is, it’s a social news website where the users submit and vote on things they like (so things people think are interesting usually get to the front page). Anyways, here’s the original submission and comments and here’s the video:
I was going home and saw a ton of people on the SNU campus so I decided to check it out. I guess today was the graduation ceremony which meant there were a ton of people on campus. Not only were there a lot of happy graduates and their proud parents, there were almost just as many photographers, flower sales people, and food venders. I’ve never seen anything quite like it! Sadly I didn’t have my camera with me. I did have my phone though and took the one pick above. Who would’ve thought the android mascot (with a SK logo) would be parading around the SNU campus after the graduation ceremony?
). 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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