Hyon-Joo’s Everyday Life

One of the good things about living outside Korea is that I'm rarely called 'ajumma'. I guess I've just admitted that I don't want to be called ajumma. However, believe it or not, I don't have strong resistance against being ajumma - because I am, but I'd be still surprised a little bit if someone bluntly calls me ajumma in a market or café. I'm not quite ready for that yet only because I haven't experienced it a lot. Am I making it too big a deal to be called ajumma? Maybe. Am I subconsciously fearful ...

Special Commandos Needed for Protesters in Yongsan Seoul Six people, including one policeman, were killed and 23 injured on Jan.20, 2009 after Seoul's special police commandos moved in to the top of the building to quell a strike against Yongsan re-development project. A shipping container carrying about 100 commandos was landed on the roof top of the building where the protesters built a 16 feet - about 5 meter - observation tower. About 40 minutes later, a fire broke out in the watch tower, soon engulfing the whole area. The protesters, who once were tenants of the building, opposed to ...

Underground Bunker During the Korean War, when North Korea occupied about 70 percent of South Korea, my late grandfather, who lived in a small city Kumi, had to hide himself in an underground bunker not to be caught. He stayed there for a while and was able to avoid being a bullet bait for the North Korean army. That's how I understand of an underground bunker. You hide yourself or your loved ones from enemies. Or a bunker can be a place where you make top secret strategies in urgent circumstances such as war-time as the name suggests. ...

Korea's "Internet economic president", or the doomsayer Minerva got arrested in Jan. 10, 2009. Puzzled Korean Internet users are trying to figure out why. Was it because Minerva revealed national secrets that KOSPI would go down to 500 and won-dollar exchange rate would soar soon, I mean, obviously? Was it because Korean president Lee Myung-bak was afraid that Minerva was more popular than he was? So was it because his pride got seriously damaged and he wanted to get a revenge on him? Or was it because President Lee Myung-bak wanted Minerva to give his dump economic strategists some crash course trainings? Was it ...