Adventures With Ju

I'm so glad that I got to meet up with Ju during my stay in Seoul! We haven't seen each other since early 2011 back in college, and it was nice to be able to hang out once again. 

Ju was an exchange student back in SPC and when she was there, we hung out in the city a few times. Even after her exchange ended and she had to go back to Korea, we still kept in touch by writing letters. Writing her address in Korean gave me much joy =)

On our first meetup, Ju & her friend Victor took me to this "metal pan" restaurant in Sinchon, near her university. The place was crowded with students at dinner time.

I'd asked to eat at a typically Korean place and this was what they thought of.

"What do you want to eat?"

Victor studied American law policy and therefore speaks some English. It was nice to be able to have conversation over dinner with the two.

Here come the ingredients...

Taro, cabbage, chicken, onions, dukbokki & spicy Korean sauce, among other delicious things.

When the pan was almost picked clean, a plate of rice was called for.

The rice is then dropped onto the pan and stir fried together with the leftover ingredients.

Ta-da! 

Now we have fried rice!

Mission #1: Have typical Korean dinner with Koreans my age.... ACCOMPLISHED!

LOL

Ju and Victor told me that in Korea, finding people of the same age as you is a very nice thing. Therefore, we were a happy table that night.

After dinner, Ju & I headed to E Entertainment arcade nearby. Since Pump It Up comes from Korea, I was curious to see what the experience of playing PIU there would be like. 

And so,

#Mission 2: Play PIU in Korea...... ACCOMPLISHED!

We took neoprints together yay! My first in almost two years! 

I think it cost us 12 x 500 won only. 

So cheap right?!!!

After getting all breathless in the arcade, Ju and I went back onto the streets of Sinchon for some shopping. Thanks to her, I was able to quickly find most of the things that I wanted to get. 

That night, I learnt something new from Ju. 

I always wondered why girls like to lock arms while walking around on the street. Some of my friends, including Ju, would do it to me and I'd feel a bit awkward at first. I'm just not used to it. But that night, for the first time, I did not feel awkward at all. In fact, I found it rather nice and useful. 

First of all, locking arms with a friend ensures that the two of you do not get separated easily in a crowded place. It's more conducive for having a conversation while walking. Secondly, the weather was rather cold and locking arms actually helped me to keep warm. Thirdly, and this is important, locking arms made me feel friendlier towards her.

Ever since then, I really liked this habit and I wish to do it more to my friends, regardless of whether or not we are used to it, haha!

Though, in Singapore there's hardly a reason to keep warm...... 

(p^ . ^)p o(^.  ^)v

Because of the cold weather and light drizzle that night, we both caught a bit of a cold.

My haul in just an hour.

On Easter Sunday, Ju's parents invited my family over to her house for dinner.

Can I just say, Ju's mom totally confirmed my suspicion that lurking in every Korean household, is an amazing Korean mom who can cook the most DAEBAK food in the world?!

We had a most wonderful time even though we couldn't speak Korean and Ju's parents couldn't speak English. With Ju acting as translator, we got along just fine. 

A few days later, I hung out with Ju and her friends once again at Gangnam.

We walked around looking for a restaurant selling budaejigae (Korean army stew).

We finally found a place. 

Ju said that budaejigae has a sad history behind it. During the Korean War, starving people would take leftover food from the US Army's trash to make this stew in order to survive.

I'm not sure the original budaejigae contained this many kinds of delicious ingredients, but the sliced hotdogs and luncheon meat seemed believable. 

To satisfy their liking for club type music and my preference for a more chill environment, Ju and her friends decided on HO BAR for the night. 

Apparently it's neither a club, nor is it really a bar. Guess it's kind of a hangout place where youngsters like us can go to have a few beers after dinner. They play really loud *DIU DIU DIU DIU DIU* kind of music though.

It was a fun night and we shared much laughter, again, thanks to Ju's tireless translation. 

I find Koreans are much more polite at phone usage than we Singaporeans are. They don't really text at the table and are able to refrain from checking their phones until the meal/activity is over. Thus, you feel like you have the complete attention of the person who is hanging out with you. I really appreciated that.

I also noticed that Koreans love to drink with their meals, especially after work at dinner. It's not uncommon to see groups of coworkers or friends getting tipsy after work hours. At around 22:30, the train stations would be filled with alcohol-smelling people making their way home. 

In Singapore we don't have such a phenomenon, and I guess it's because alcohol is so expensive here. A large bottle of beer costs $1 in Korea, as compared to $8 for the same bottle in Singapore. You do the math.