A Russian girl, after several years of living in North Korea, shared her impressions as part of the popular trend on Twitter "one like - one fact."
1. The first question I asked dad when we landed was “Why did you bring us here?” There was some kind of steppe with dry grass around, instead of an airport there was a small, shabby two-story building that smelled of dampness, and “strange people (I didn't understand why they were dressed the same)
Let me explain: we lived in Pyongyang from 2005 to 2009, in Seoul from 2012 to 2015
2. The same clothes, the same hairstyles - yes, it's all about North Korea. In those years hairdressers had albums with allowed hairstyles - you can only choose the one that is there. Others are not allowed. By the way, I have never seen a Korean woman have dyed hair.
3. Traffic lights weren't everywhere at that time, so basically the traffic was regulated by young female traffic controllers. And in the heat, and in the rain, and in the strong wind, they, like robots, did their job. They look like this:
4. Pyongyang is VERY clean. The city seems to be licked. Well, it's not surprising when they even cut the grass between the slabs with scissors (not a joke, I saw it myself: 10 people, squatting, cut grass blades with huge iron scissors)
5. The lights in the city at that time were turned on only on holidays: Kim Il Sung's birthday, Kim Jong Il's birthday … on other days, the lanterns were not lit everywhere
6. In winter, there was always soot on the windowsill, because the Koreans stoked stoves at home to keep the apartment warm
Promotional video:
7. Normal (well, as far as possible) clothes were sold in several shops for foreigners. They brought European clothes there and sold for a penny. We called them "German", "jacket" (there were jackets, well, logical), "short" (I don't know why)
8. Everything was beautiful in the German store, because it was exclusively for employees of the Embassies and delegations. All the goods there were from Germany and the clothes were super quality. I was more interested in milka chocolates for 0.5 €
9. By the way, about money. For locals there are won, for foreigners - euros and dollars. They accepted both. Foreigners secretly exchange $ / € for won. You can use them to buy something in local shops and markets. How now I don't know, but they say that everything is the same
10. Once I really wanted some toy, so my parents sighed and took me to the children's store. They knew what was there and how, but I drove and dreamed. Yeah. The feeling that these toys were collected from my grandmother's attic, dust off and put up for sale
11. The smell that I associate with Pyongyang is dampness. It smells like that in any room
12. Once I broke my finger and was taken to the hospital. During an X-ray (on some terribly loud iron apparatus that was about to fall apart) a whole council tried to understand what I had broken myself there. Then five people put a splint on me. She broke down a week later
13. Literally a year later, I again came to this hospital - with suspicion of appendicitis. I went and prayed that it was something different, because I didn’t want to be cut there at all. As a result, the doctor pressed on some points on the arm and foot and issued a verdict: gastritis
14. They gave me a matchbox with some herbaceous pills and told me to take them for two weeks. Since then, my stomach rarely hurts.
15. Upon arrival in Pyongyang, we were vaccinated against Japanese encephalitis, because isolated cases of infection are still recorded
16. There is very tasty milk, because they make everything themselves, without any chemistry. Sour cream is such that there is a spoon in it, milk is fat, but in moderation. The only thing is that there is no kefir and cottage cheese, so we made them ourselves (what you just can't learn in four years)
17. When we lived there, the water was turned on on schedule. Now this is no longer a problem.
18. We didn't have an Internet at home either, so I had the coolest childhood: we played football, tennis, went to the pool, drove bikes, built huts, climbed around old houses and came up with our own games
19. Food tastes better in the north. Men are prettier in the south, girls in the north
20. And more about food. In the North, the cuisine is authentic, Korean. And in the South there is already a lot of Japanese and American, and what is traditional is tasteless. For those who want to try the REAL Korean cuisine - in the restaurant Karyo on Leninsky. Delicious. It even smells like Pyongyang!
21. The products there were then very cheap. You could buy Kg of meat for 1-3 €. The fruits are all juicy, they don't even smell like chemicals. There are always a lot of strawberries, delicious watermelons in summer … eh
22. We went to China to buy things and different delicacies. Four hours on a bumpy road among villages and villages - and you are in another world. There they bought me my first MP4 (yeah, this is not an MP3 for you!) Player, I wore it on a string around my neck and listened to "do you know"
23. We left for Dandong early, at about 5-6 in the morning, so we constantly watched as pioneers stomped to school from villages and villages - to a neighboring village. And this, I tell you, is not always close
24. It was cool on the border: China and Korea are separated by a huge iron bridge. When you cross it, you involuntarily look back and forth, and you have a bifurcation of reality
25. Pyongyang has two of the most popular hotels - Macau and Karyo. In the first, all sorts of birthdays and other holidays were constantly celebrated, so our gang learned all the nooks and crannies there. On the same floor with the restaurant there was a casino, which we ran into and tried to steal chips
26. And there was also karaoke, in which there was always no one, but music was playing
27. In some year, I don't remember, Larisa Dolina came there with a concert! It was just Easter, and we went to the night service. A woman came up to me and asked to light a candle for her from mine, then I realized that it was her (she did not recognize it without a make-up)
28. Then we went to her concert, where the whole audience sang "paaaagodaaaa in doooom." After the concert we went backstage, where she hugged us all and signed autographs. Until now, somewhere lying around a notebook, in which her autograph and a message: "Polina from Larisa Dolina"
29. The parade on the main square (by the way, there was a portrait of Lenin there) is always beautiful. It seems to me that they have been learning to march so harmoniously all their lives
30. I danced Korean fan dance, so I have the most beautiful hanbok (traditional dress), hand embroidered!
31. At school, we were told that there are no pigeons in Pyongyang, because during the war the Koreans ate everyone from hunger. I don't know how true this is))
32. Sometimes on the way to school, I heard dogs howling behind the fence. Then it turned out that they were slaughtered there - for meat
33. Favorite question: "Did you eat the dog?" No, I didn't. In my 7.5 years on the Korean Peninsula, I have never eaten a dog. DIDN'T EAT. Please do not ask about this, this question brings me to a nervous tic)
34. Women are prettier in the North, and men in the South
35. Once we flew from Beijing by North Korean airlines (and there all the planes are Soviet Tushki) and almost fell, because the plane was overloaded and it could not gain altitude. Sandwiches, carts with drinks flew through the cabin, and stone faces tried to calm everyone
36. North Koreans are very fond of blonde-haired blue-eyed children. My little brother was a star in every restaurant)
37. Once my mother bought some Swarovski earrings for 10 or 15 €. They were just brought in then, so the Koreans did not know how much they should cost.
38. In "Moranbone" (another store with a strange name) you could buy our medicines. For example, Citramon
39. Daddy says Taedongan Mekchu (beer) is quite decent. They have no other))
40. What happiness it was when a burger shop was opened near the house. We called her that. McDuck, of course, is far away, and the lemonade was too sweet, but we still thought it was something incredible. Someone there even noted others!
41. In winter we went to the ice rink to go ice skating, but it was difficult to hold out on them for more than 15 minutes: it seemed that they were already 40 years old, and they were not sharpened by about the same amount
42. Once a Korean entered our territory. How he did it is unclear, but he was caught for a long time in the bushes. What happened to him next - history is silent …
43. The language in the North and South is slightly different. Southerners have a lot of Americanisms, while northerners, on the contrary, have a language untouched by time
44. If Koreans came to the monument to Kim Il Sung (now there is still Kim Jong Il nearby), then they always brought flowers. Many were crying
45. The sea in the North, whichever side you enter, is very dirty. And smelly
46. I returned to Russia by train - I traveled for five days to Krasnoyarsk (since then I hate cutlets). It was funny when, somewhere in the DPRK, a train stopped in the middle of a field because the electricity was cut off. Stood like this for two hours exactly
47. On our territory there were old houses ("devils"), each of which we gave its own name: "beloved" (most often hung there), "damned" (there were always corpses of birds and rats) and "Korean" (Koreans lived there when they built a new house).
48. It was impossible to climb on them, but pf, who could stop us. We boarded the doors - we climbed through the windows. We put nails on the windows - we were going through the balconies. In these devils there were a bunch of photographs, old things, notebooks, even, God, beans and peas
49. The elders (well, of course, who else) told us that the people who lived there abandoned everything and left when the war broke out and the Japanese launched encephalitis mosquitoes. Well, they also scared that ghosts live in devils, so we constantly saw "glow" in the windows
50. Since we did not have the Internet, and we quickly passed all the toys on the computer, we built huts. Since then, I know how to screw the door from the bedside table to make a window, how to make a door from just one board, how to make LIGHT using a crown and a light bulb from a postcard
51. We had television, but it was either on record with a delay of several hours, or it was shown “good morning” in the late afternoon. In short, a complete randomness, each channel broadcast differently. Euro 2008 was watched in the recording the next day)
52. For films we had DVDs, discs were either bought and transported from Russia, or changed and re-recorded. I still remember that the program was called Nero
53. My mother and I had our own dressmaker in Pyongyang (we had to dress somehow). Once she sewed me a beautiful crimson suit with a skirt, but since Polina was more a boy than a girl, this skirt cracked at the first wear (she decided to run from the boys)
54. We often went to the restaurant, which for some reason everyone nicknamed "Dipclub." I don't know if anyone paid for it)
55. At some point I got bored and decided that I wanted to learn how to play the piano. My parents took me to see some very famous composer who tried to teach me great things. In the second lesson, I ran away from him, because I wanted to start playing right away))))
56. In every restaurant, our gang constantly bought lighters. And they were quietly sold to children about 10 years old)) why did we need them? We burned fires in our huts) no one was hurt, if anything
57. North Korean television is incredible. There is always news, or someone is singing - I did not see anything else there. The news anchor always speaks with such fervor that one wants to burst into tears. Well, they always do well and shock, no problems