Sangju: Firsts, Friends, Food, & Fighting

These are some of my experiences in Sangju outside of shadowing Ottie at school. I hung out with friends, cursed at the lack of proper traffic rules (seriously, zebra crossings are mere artistic suggestions in that town I was so frustrated), dodged spiders the size of thumbs, and participated in my first ever martial arts experience, Hapkido, for a week. Which meant that it was a week of terrifying somersaults, muscle aches, and abject humiliation in front of amazing black belts who were at least a decade younger than me.

Not to mention food. I take too many pictures of food.

^{F21 dress + thrifted cardigan + The Little Fox ‘The Runaways‘ necklace + H&M platform shoes}

This was my outfit for my last day of school. It started raining suddenly, so Annie-sem kindly lent Ottie and I her umbrella. She’s super sweet!

It’s not really like the pole-holders of Japan (via), but Korea does come close!

This was my first meal in Sangju, in fact, and also the first time I’d finally come face-to-face with Pika and Fel. Budaejjigae (army stew) was yet another first for me, and it’s one of the most rojak stews I’ve ever eaten in my entire life- instant noodles, macaroni, sausages, mushrooms, tofu…

I never expected milk in Korea to taste so good. It even reminded me of the sweet sweet goodness that I had in Argentina.

Hermes, Fel, Pika, Ottie, and I shared a bowl of Bingsu for desserts after Budaejjigae and kinda gave me a crash course on the current kpop hits. XD

YY-sem wanted to go home to his family after a special seminar one day while I was shadowing Ottie, so he gave me his spot for the teachers’ dinner after. It was pretty epic. Chi introduced me to soju and I had to stop after two and a half shots.

Pika delights in destroying my pictures. I got distracted by the funny face he was making and promptly focused on the wrong thing. XD

I also had my first legit (I used to play watered-down versions with Ti during primary school) Role-playing Game as a guest character. It was funny because at the end of the round, me, Pika, and Ant were stuck at the bottom of a cave, while Fel cautiously enquired after her teammates Pika and Ant. (I was a villainous boss to Ottie’s Big Bad, Casta Mogen.)

Since it took a while for my turn, I attempted some sketches of the characters for Fel and Ant.

Pika introduced me to my all-time favourite Mocha custard-filled bread from Paris Baguette. It’s so yummy it was all I ordered from Paris Baguette after.

I also got this bread from Tous les Jours pressed unto my hands one night after a session of Hapkido by the Kwan Jang Nim because he thought that I needed to fatten up. XD

Here is Kwan Jang Nim. He looks fierce, but he’s a good guy.

Kids testing for their belts. On a side note, I still haven’t gotten over how kids in Korea have dyed and permed hair at such a young age.

Ottie, Pika, and I hung out with two awesome black belts and a soon-to-be brown belt one day after Hapkido at the nearby convenience store, and we played Kkeutmalitgi (or Shiritori). It was fun. That cute kid in the middle was younger than the two black belts flanking him, but his English seemed way better than theirs. So cute!