Month: December 2017

Seoulsearching Day 4: Yoeonhui-dong

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Yeonhui-dong is best known for Yonsei University, the country’s prestigious private university, which was founded, like many others, in the 1900s by American missionaries. The school, while known for its liberal politics and vibrant student culture, also requires all students to enrol in religious studies courses (“Chapel” classes), regardless of their faith or study programme. Young South Koreans love coffee / There should be more dustbins in public spaces A giant Hello Kitty for a Hello Kitty-loving friend. I had to inform her that HK has proven to be inspired largely by Miffy/Ninjntje. Sunset on campus A view on Severance Hospital Yeonhui-dong is definitely part of Old Town Seoul. A stack of cartons which symbolise the elderly poverty issue in South Korea. See Korea Exposé’s “No Country for Old People” (14 Sept 2014, by Se-Woong Koo) and NPR’s “A Forgotten Generation: Half Of South Korea’s Elderly Live In Poverty” (10 April 2015). Cheap cool drinks for the hot summer Belgian beers seem to be making their way into South Korean hypermarkets Gone are the days …

Seoulsearching Day 3: Not In Seoul

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(Pictures by Emily Singh) Militarymen out on a holiday. South Korean men between the ages of 18 and 35 must undergo a compulsory military service of between 2 and 3 years. They’re paid dismal wages, with one report estimating they’re paid less than a thousand won (0.80 euros) per hour. One of the first things I do when in South Korea is visiting my grandmother, who lives in Chuncheon. It’s an hour’s train ride away from Eastern Seoul, or an hour and twenty minutes with the subway. I prefer the train since it’s a double decker, and that just seems cooler. The price difference is quite big though – about 3,000 KRW for the subway and 6,000 KRW for the train. Sometimes I take the bus and end up passing places like this that I forget exist in Seoul. Or this. Somewhere in Yongsan. My aunt, who is a florist, has recently started looking after abandoned kittens she found near her shop. My grandmother, who is hyper-modern, hyper-capitalist, hyper-Catholic and also superstitious, obviously hates the …