My home town, Jeon Ju

Last week (Monday), I went down to Jeon Ju, which is about 3 hours south from Seoul by bus to visit my cousins. Jeon Ju is my home town. I stayed at my uncle's house while I was down there for the week. I didn't do anything too exciting...

The next day, my uncle and I went down to the immigration office to register my F-4 Visa. I turned in my passport with the residency application and I will be getting my alien card in a few days.

Later on that night, I met up with my cousin Seh Gi at his new boba/sandwich store that he opened up about a month ago. Then, we met up with his girlfriend, and one of his friends at a bar and had some nice cold beers. I don't know why, but the beer was so good that night. I drank 2 mugs, while others were still on their first one. Korea is corrupting me and turning me into an alcoholic. The next night I met up with Seh Gi, his girlfriend, and her younger sister and went to this famous Makali bar. This place was packed, but luckily we got there as soon as someone was leaving. Makali is a traditional rice wine that is popular with the old folks, since that was the only alcoholic beverage back in the day. It's yellow in color, and it kind of looks like milk, but it definitely does not taste like milk. This place has been all over the news, since you get a lot of free food with any drink order. I am not talking about basic side dishes either, you get a whole bowl of chicken cooked in broth, Kimchi Stew, pork, and vegetables. The best part is that you only pay 10,000 won ($10). All 4 of us did not even finish all the food, but we drank all the makali. We didn't want to waste the alcohol. This place was too loud, since it was so crowded, so we went across the street to a sushi bar and had some more drinks. This time we had some soju, which didn't taste too good after having makali.

The next day, I spent time with my cousins Me, Sun, and Jin, which are triplets. Sun and Jin are identical, but Me does not look anything like them. They were all born 5 minutes apart. They told me that their mom or my aunt went through the whole pregnancy thinking she was having twins, but during the birth the doctor realized that Me was hidden behind Sun and Jin. I thought that was pretty funny, since I can't imagine what my aunt and uncle were thinking when they realized that they had triplets. Anyways, we ended up going to downtown Jeon Ju, which is the area that has a movie theater, restaurants, etc. We did some shopping, ate dinner, then came back.

Jeon Ju has changed a lot from what it used to be. I visited the area that I grew up at and it's all been changed. The house that my family and I lived at has been torn down and replaced with a restaurant. The elementary school that I went to has been torn down, but I heard that's been a while. This school was known to be haunted too. I also went to the area that my mom grew up at and that's all been torn down too. My grandmother stayed at that house, until she passed away about 6 years, but was torn down after it was sold.

Visiting Jeon Ju always brings back memories, since I still remember bits and pieces from my childhood. I remember when Helen used to run outside the house naked and I have to chase her down and bring her back home. I don't know why she always did that. She was such a nudist back then! Also, I will never forget the time when Michelle decided to keep the eyeball from the fish that we had for dinner. She fell asleep with the eyeball in her hand, and it didn't smell too good in the morning.