How to become 'not-wanted' person for big companies.

This is nothing to do with traveling in Korea but just my personal story.
As returning the book I borrowed last time, I was wandering the library to choose another book to read. Then a book dragged my eyes... The title of the book was '누가 무지개 깃발을 짓밟는가'. Its english title was Unfinished lives. It was about people who fought for discrimination or died for it.

It was so obvious that I would love to read the book. But for a second I hesitated to bringing to the check out desk to rent it. And that's shame of mine. 

It's been more than 6 months since I came back to Korea after my graduation. Then was preparing to get a job in Korea. I have been reading newspaper and practicing to think as the person who the big corporation would want to hire.

"You should be better than others but shouldn't be distinguishable." 

This was what my friend told me when I just started to get a job in Korea. Now I understand what he meant. I hesitated to read the book since I was afraid that I would think different from others. 

Mayor of Seoul, Won-soon Park, said that he cannot support same sex marriage as a mayor of Seoul. It could be same for me maybe. I should not support same sax marriage as a part of company but still support them personally. 

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Try the special subway!!

Few days ago, something made my day so special!

It was all because I got on the special subway without any purpose!We call it 'Larva subway' because it is decorated with Larva.

I am sure you you have no idea about WTH is Larva, So I prepared a video haha!!!

So, basically, the Larva subway is decorated with larva image :D The subway is only at line2 (as I introduced before, there are 10 subway lines in Korea) 

If you would like to take the Larva subway, please take a look at the time schedule. 

운 행 구 간						비고
Shindorim→ Seoul Nat'l Univ.→ SamSung→ Sungsoo→ City Hall→ Hong Ik Univ.
07:21 (운행시작)	07:34	07:55	08:13	08:31	08:41	- 운행거리 : 395.8km - 운행시간 : 12시간 23분
08:53	09:06	09:27	09:44	10:02	10:11
10:23	10:36	10:57	11:15	11:32	11:42
11:53	12:07	12:27	12:45	13:02	13:12
13:23	13:37	13:57	14:15	14:32	14:42
14:53	15:07	15:27	15:45	16:02	16:12
16:23	16:37	16:57	17:15	17:32	17:42
17:53	18:07	18:27	18:45	19:02	19:12
19:23 (운행종료)

And here is the pic that I took in the subway :) 

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Welcome to Coffee Shop paradise

Korea Is coffee shop paradise, I would say.

There are so many coffee shop brands... Honestly, it is so annoying because you need to bring so many point cards since you will never know which coffee shop you will be next time... :'(

If I was in Canada and looking for coffee shop around, it must be either Starbuck or Timhortons... which means I don't need to bring point card with me since Starbucks lets you collect starts with my app and Timhortons doesn't give you point :p 

But since their interior is really good, I shouldn't complain.. :) Also, I am  writing this post at cafe as well loll

First Coffee shop which I would like to introduce is 'Blank' in ShinCheon. 

Personally, I LOVE their interior... :D 

because the interior makes me feel calm... also, the price of Americano relatively cheaper than other coffee shop.  

Next is O'sulloc. 

To be honest, it is not a coffee shop, it is tea shop. There are so many kinds of tea. So, if you are sick of coffee, try this place. 

 

I am writing this post at O'sulloc at Gangnam (yeah, you are right, that Gangnam from Gangnam Style). But since this Tea shop is Franchise you can find it anywhere in Korea... (I believe... at least I know one at Myeon Dong) 

Well.. there are so many other Coffee shop.. but honestly, I don't know what makes one different from the others.. so I wouldn't mention them on this post..  :'(

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One of the best Korean foods! "Sam-Gyeop-Sal."

If you are not Muslim or Vegetarian... 

or have some other reasons that you cannot eat pork... 

You SHOULD.. wait.. let me correct myself.. 

you MUST!!! try Sam-Gyeop-Sal!!

Sam-Gyeop-Sal is basically Pork belly but it is thicker than bacon. 

I am 26 years old and I haven't seen any Korean who does not LOVE Sam-Gyeop-Sal. 

Picture above is from yesterday. 

The name of store was 'Palsack Sam-Gyeop-Sal' 

which means Sam-Gyeop-Sal in eight colours. 

Basically they will serve you 8 kinds of Sam-Gyeop-Sal which are Curry, Go-Chu-Jang, herbed and... 5 others. (honestly, I cannot remember all of them haha :D) So, in the other words, they will serve you 600g of Palsack Sam-Gyeop-Sal.

with Seafood Dan-Jang soup (Korean style Miso soup). 

*don't forget soju when you are ordering Sam-Gyeop-Sal it is the best alcohol you can have when you are eating Sam-Gyeop-Sal!! 

Personally, my favourite was Curry Sam-Gyeop-Sal but my friend chose Herbed Sam-Gyeop-Sal. 

Palsack Sam-Gyeop-Sal set was 30,000 Won which is approximately $30 USD. I should tell you that it sounds like that it is a bit expensive but actually it is not. 

If you go to Ma-po Gal-mae-gi, which is also famous grilled meat restaurant, you can have Sam-Gyeop-Sal for 7,500/150g. So, basically it is same!! 

I will add map of the restaurant which I visited yesterday for people who wants to visit :) 

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Sok-Cho beach for Summer visitor!

This time, I will introduce Sok-cho beach along the east sea of Korea. East sea is one of the most famous place for summer vacation with Busan. Of course thousands of people visit east sea so that there during the summer there is heavy traffic to east sea.

This is the entrance of the beach where my family visited this summer! The beach was opened to public on that day, so there were so many people already. As I mentioned above, it took 7 hours for use to get there due to heavy traffic. (It if from An-Yang to Sok-Cho).

On this beach, there is Nature museum which is open to public for free. I really wanted to visit this museum to introduce to you guys, but sorry, I was too busy for surfing LOL. But if you have chance to visit Sok-Cho, you can visit place!

Even thought we went to the beach pretty early (we went around noon), there were a lot of people already! The read parasol are needed to be payed to use. The one with table is more expensive so that we borrowed one without the table. One without the table is 15,000Won (approximately $15).

On the parasol, it says "You are at the Sok-Cho beach!!".

You can borrow tube as well! but it is a bit expensive. Each tube is 10,000 Won (about $10). Since I did not borrow boat I don't know about the cost, but you can also borrow the boat and the other things. But you need to give your ID till you bring back your stuff.

I forgot to take a picture, but there's shower room as well! Even though the water is a bit cold, it is better than going home soaked in salted-water! You may need to pay 2,000 Won ($2) per adult and 1,000 ($1) per kid. Since they won't offer any shampoo or body soap, you should prepare your own!

Bonus. You can find me with my bother in this picture!! haha!

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For people who wants to buy cosmetics in Korea

You may heard that you must buy cosmetics once you visit Korea!! Because those are so cheap but in good quality!! :) Yes, they are really cheap but compare to its price, it is really good quality. Not only that, you can also get plenty of samples when you purchase in one store! Last time, I bought gel type eyeliner for my friends from Tonymoly, then as soon as they tried it, they fall in love with it!!

If you recognized all the logos above!! You are already better Korean than me!! :'(

1. ETUDE

So... Let me start with ETUDE. Etude is one of famous road-shop in Korea. Girls love Etude because of its cute case and their high quality (compare to its price). The first item from Etude House is the Mascara for Eyebrow.

Yes.. I agree.. I thought Mascara is only for Eyelashes. But Korean has Mascara for Eyebrow as well. This Mascara will brush so that it won't look too dark or light.

The next one is for Eye lash. (Don't get confused!! the one above is for Eye brow and this one is for your eye lash!!!) This is not a normal Mascara! It is water proofed! There were so many people used this Mascara already and it got pretty nice score!!

I guess that Etude is specialized with eye product since the last item that I would like to introduce is eye related product as well!! The next one is Eye lash ample! There were blind test which has been held for 30 days, and this product from Etude ranked number one!! If you think your eye lash is too short, you should try this product!! :) Try this on before you go to bed and feel the difference when you wake up!

2. Innisfree

Next store that I would like to recommend you is Innisfree. This is not my favourite but it is still one of the most famous road-shop in Korea.

What you should buy once you visit this store is Pencil remover. When you are super busy in the morning but made some mistake, don't cry but use this pencil!!! It will make you life much easier!!

The next product from Innisfree is my friend's favourite. She even asked me to get some more!! It is Shadow pencil!! I know this is nothing special because you might have similar one in your country as well and some are not that expensive in your country. However, this product is waterproofed, has a lot of colour to choose, and never become lumpy.

3. Tonymoly

Tonymoly is definitely my favourite!! It suits for my skin the best!! But since everyone's skin types are different you should find one for you for sure!! However, I never found anyone who does not love backstage gel eyeliner from Tonylomy till now!! Everyone loves this product and they even asked me to get some more when I come back to Korea!! There are few choice for  colour, you can choose what suits you the best!!

4. Skinfood

Skinfood is famous for using food ingredient for cosmetics. For long time, their catchphrase was "don't eat, yield for your skin" (먹지마세요 피부에 양보하세요). It was funny but thinking that we are using a lot of vegetables for facial masks, it is actually true.

One thing that you should buy from this store is Hydro Cream which is made of Honey. You may thing that you should clean it off once you put on your face since honey sounds like sticky but you don't need to. :)

5. Nature republic

I believe that Nature republic was famous for Chinese since Rain was model for this brand for few years.. (I believe)

What I would like to recommend for you to buy if you go to Nature republic, get Deep Care hair pack. This is pack for your hair and it will give more nutrient than your hair conditioner!  I tired this pack for a while when my hair got damaged after dyeing my hair for several times in few months. And It seemed like working!!

Another product that I want you buy from this store is Lib&Eye Remover. I was big fan of Missha's Lib&Eye Remover, but once I tries this, I never used Missha's again!! Also a lot of Korea Musical actors use this product as well. If you think about how much makeups they put on their faces, you can easily imagine how good is this product!! :D

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Fried Chicken in Korea

I know that we all have fried chicken in each of our countries. That's what I thought first!! Personally I am missing Fried Chicken wings in Canada right now BUT!! one of my Hongkongese friend told me that she loved fried chicken in Korea so much that she ordered it every night before she goes to sleep when she visited Korea. So... I guess it is different!! 

Also, fired chicken is so popular in Korea. So that we even call it Chi-nu-nim. Chi-nu-nim is compound of Chicken and Han-nu-nim (which means God mostly Jesus). Now you can see how much Korean loves fried chicken. 

In general we have two types of fried chicken. One is non-spicy and the other one is... as you can guess... spicy. But spicy fried chicken is not that spicy so I want you to try it!! :) 

This is non-spicy version that I love~~~ <3 so much!! If you ask me to describe how does it taste like.. it is really hard to... It is tender,,, and a bit salty, and.. hum... You should just come visit Korea and try it. 

This is spicy version. But as I mentioned above, it is not that spicy. it is more like sweet and spicy. But not too sweet!! :) So you can handle a bit of spicy, you can try it.. ( i believe) 

Another good reason that you should try chicken in Korea is that.. you can order anytime you want!! Some chicken restaurant opens for 24 hours!! not only that!! they even bring it to where you are!! it does not matter weather you are in beach or in mountain!! they will come find you! :) 

so if you are in Korea and wonder if they will come for sure!! pick up your phone and find the closest chicken store the simply call them!! :) 

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Don't use google map it world not work as you expect.

Let me tell you something before I start this post. I am a big fan of google map. But it is only when I am living in Canada. Personally, I believe that google map is the best map ever if you are not a good navigator but this won't work as you expect once you arrive in Korea. 

For some reason (well, they say it is due to military reason since S.Korea is still in war with N.Korea) Google map cannot offer same service that they do in the other countries. Which means, it is not as accurate as you use in your own country. 

So, what I would like to recommend is 'Naver map' (Google play, itunes). It will do what Google map do basically but in my opinion, you better not to expect too much on it. What I found is that it won't direct you once get closer than 700m to where you want to go. So, from there, you need to find your own way. 

One thing that I like about Naver Map it that tells you how much it will take if you would like to take a taxi to your destination :) 

There are other map application you can use in Korea, such as Daum map, but since most of my friends are using Naver map, I believe that Naver map is one of the most famous map application!!! 

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Korean health food for summer :D

Since we sweat a lot during summer, we need to eat something special!! hum.. maybe it sounds weird but it is better to eat anyways :p 

There are three days that Korean eat special food for summer. It is 'Cho-Bock (초복)' 'Joong-Bok (중복)' 'Mal-Bock (말복)'. We call these three days as Bok-Nal all together. 

'Cho-Bock (초복)' is July 18, 'Joong-Bok (중복)' is July 18th, and 'Mal-Bok (말복)' is August 7th. All three days are followed by Lunar Calendar. Usually in these days, we eat something has extremely high calorie such as Sam-Gye-Tang, Choo-Eh-Tang, or Bo-Shing-Tang. So if you are visiting Korea during these days, you can have one of those three foods and pretend that you are a real Korean :p 

Sam-Gye-Tang is a soup with chicken, Choo-Eh-Tang is made of mudfish and Bo-Shing-Tang is soup with dog... The most popular one is Sam-Gye-Tang :D 

Few days ago, it was Joon-Bock (중복) in Korea, so my family went to restaurant to have Sam-Gye-Tang since my mom was too tired to make it at home. This is Sam-Gye-Tang. Even thought my cousin loves the chicken only, personally, I believe the best part of this dish is the soup and the rice inside of the chicken. Just like turkey in western, we stuffed the chicken with a lot of other healthy ingredients such as ginseng, chest nut, leek, jujube and so on. 

If you want to try, you can follow the link below... :) Sam-Gye-Tang

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Korean Traditional Food 'Jun (전)'

If you are interested in Korea or Korea food, I am sure that you know Bi-Bim-Bob (비빔밥), Kim-bob (김밥), or pork-bone-soup (감자탕, gam-ja-tang) already. But today, I want to introduce 'Jun' (전, in the other words Korean style pizza) to you. We used to eat Jun in special occasion such national holiday like Chusuck (Korean Thanks giving day) or Sulnal (Korean new year) or in wedding and so on. But now you can easily find a restaurant which is selling Jun!! There a so many kinds of Jun so that I cannot mention in this post all of them, but I will do some which are famous popular so you can order from any Jun restaurant in Korea :) There are few restaurant which sells only  (almost only) 'Jun' there. The first Jun that I would like to introduce today is Pa-Jun. Pa-jun is mostly made with 'leak' with flour.   This picture is the one that I took yesterdays when I went 'Jun' restaurant with my mom and aunt :) This is actually not just 'Pa-Jun' but it is 'Hae-mul-pa-jun'. Which means it also contains some sea food not just leak. :) Since I LOVE sea food so much, when I was young, I used to pick sea food from 'Jun' HAHA!! To get rid of the smell of sea food, usually 'Hae-mul-pa-jun' is a bit spicy. But since I cannot handle spicy food well (yes, I am Korean but I cannot eat spicy food. You did not misunderstand this context) we asked them to take away the pepper from the Jun so that i can eat it as well :) The next one is Dong-Tae Jun. Dong-Tae Jun is made with frozen pollack. So if you cannot eat fish for some reason, you may don't want to try this. However, one thing that I love to tell you is... Dong-Tae Jun is also one of popular Jun in Korea :) Dong-Tae Jun is so soft and it does not smell like.. you know... fish! that much LOL And there are Go-chu-jun, which is made with pepper but not spicy at all. They take away the seed from the pepper and fill it with some meat and other stuff.  Even thought it is not spicy at all, personally, I am not a big fan of Go-Chu-Jun only because it is made with pepper LOL ... So if I can, I rather to order dong-gu-rang-ddang!!! I LOVE dong-gu-rang-ddang so much and I am dare to say that this is the most popular jun in Korea...cuz I never seen anyone who does not like this!! If I need to say something similar with dong-gu-rang-ddang.. it would be similar with bugger petty but smaller version :) When I was young, on Sul-Nal (new year day in Korea) or Chu-suck (Thanks giving day in Korea), my aunt always complaint that no matter how long she works there's only few dong-gu-rang-ddang because I sat down beside to her and never stop to eat it :) For the last, I would like to introduce a drink that match perfectly with Juns!!! That is mak-gol-ri!!!!! It is Korean rice wine. Even thought it is not that strong, it is so sweet so if you keep drinking... you won't be able to notice your parents even :p      

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If you phone battery is out.

These days, the phone is very important. We use our phone as camera, map, notepad, and so on.... not just as a phone. But when your phone is getting out of battery, don't get panic because there are easy ways that you can charge your phone.

• Find convenience store: if your phone battery is getting low, try to find convenience store as soon as possible. "Mini stop","seven eleven","C&U".. any convenience store would be fine. Just enter the store and ask to charge your phone. It will take approximately 30 min to charge your phone and cost only $1 or $2. 
• Why don't have have some meal? Almost all restaurant in Korea will let you to charge your phone. Some might ask you if you have cable but to be honest, no one asked for cable recently. 
• Try to find USB port. If you are in the bus, try to find USB port. Because some buses has it!!! I believe most Mbus (which is blue colour) has one!! Unfortunately, I haven't seen any from subway :( 
• 

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Korean Frozen Desert Pat-Bing-Soo

The weather is extremely hot in Korea these days. How hot is it? I thought that I would melt down on the street today LOL... So I decided to post something can make the hotness go away!

Few days ago, I read an article, 10 Brain-Freezing Treats From Around the World, and Pat-Bing-Soo was introduced in the article as well! So, I decided to post something about Pat-Bing-Soo to let the hotness go away!!

As it is described in the article, Pat-Bing-Soo means"red beans with ice" in Korean. The dessert consists of shaved ice, bean paste, fruit, condensed milk and fruit syrup. But!!! We do have more kinds of Bing-Soo!!

The original version of Pat-Bing-Soo that my mom and I tried last summer! It contains a lot of red beans and tastes so good for me even who does not like red-beans that much. Red-bean as a desert might sounds weird to you, I understand this because one of my best friend who is came from columbia (good job on the world cup by the way!) told me that it is weird for her to eat red-bean as sweet for her. If you feel the same way, don't worry, we have plenty kinds of Bing-soo.

These are Bing-Soo from Paris Baguette (which is one of most famous bakery franchise in Korea). As you can see above, Paris Baguette serves fruit Bing-Soo, Mango Bing-Soo, Blueberry Bing-Soo, Rice cake with been Bing-Soo, and rice cake Bing-soo... I know.. there are too many right? but this is not all!

Sing almost of cafe and fusion restaurant has their own Bing-Soo menu, it may take more than a year for you try all of them!! haha

This one is one of special Bing-Soo which is called Melon Bing-soo. They made bowl with melon and put crushed ice in it and decorated with scooped melon on top. Even thought the visual is so pretty, it was too sweet for me. Yet, if you love sweet desert you can try.

I was about to give you the address of this restaurant since it was so new in 2013 and you had to make reservation to have this special Bing-Soo. But it is so popular in Korea so that you can find this Bing-Soo so easily!! So just search for Melon Bing-soo or 메론빙수!!!

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Beef- Tripe and pork-tripe

Beef-tripe and pork-tripe are one of my favourite foods in the world! and yes, I am talking about beef tripe!!! Some restaurant cook it without sources and some restaurant make. No matter how it cooked, I love it!! Maybe you think this is too much for you to try because how it looks. Yet, please don't say anything but try it first! You will love it!!

This restaurant is one in the Il-sal which is near Seoul. I could not find any better restaurant in Il-san than here!! they even set fire on your dish. I don't know why they do it, but it is fun to watch it!! haha. when I found this restaurant first, I went there almost every other week!! :*(

Unfortunately, beef-tripe is a bit expensive. It will cost about $20-40 for two people. Usually Korean eat this with Soju

So, if you want to try it as Korean does, you can order soju as well!! But be careful because most of my foreign friends does not like it!

I found this restaurant just few weeks ago then addicted to it! This is pork-tribe. It is a bit spicy but not too much. There are dozen of pork-tripe store in An-yang. Those stores are along the alley so people calls that alley as Gopchang alley (Gopchang means tripe in Korean). My aunt told me that gopchang alley has been more then 30 years! It is even cheat as well! It is only $7 for one person.

You can find beef-tripe restaurant easily in seoul but if you want to try some pork-tripe restaurant in Gopchang Alley, you can follow the map below! Hope you enjoy it <3

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Best summer food = Nang-myeon!

Nang-myeon is one of the best summer food!! There is a song for Nang-myeon called by Girls Generation. This noodle is sweet and a bit sour but in one sentence, it is extremely delicious!! But Nang-myeon tastes better when you eat it with meet (it doesn't matter whether it is pork or beef!! :p)

http://cfile2.uf.tistory.com/image/204A830F4A84D58D2C3123

So, this restaurant, GoSsam Nang-myeon, serves nang-myeon with pork only at 6000Won (which is almost $6!!) The restaurant is franchise so you can find this restaurant in many places. If you are planning to stay in Seoul, you can visit restaurant in Shinchon.

You will have three choices when you go to the restaurant. Pork + water nang-myeon, pork + bibim nang-myeon, and pork + hot noodle. Water nang-myeon will be served with cold soup while bibm nang-meyon is spicy noodle without soup. Personally I suggest you to try water nang-myeon with pork!! :)

 

How to Eat

Wrap piece of meat with your noodle and eat it! and enjoy it!

 

Music below is the song about nang-myeon ^^

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fMvMarhwpJs]

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How to ride subway in Korea 2

Last time I introduced subway line in Korea. That we have 10 lines near Seoul and you can use card to travel. Few days ago, when I went to ShinGill to meet my friend, I saw six white men were stuck on station since they the machine did not let them go outside of the station lol.

It happened because they did not know where to put the card. So I will talk about 'how to use your transportation card!' today.

When you get on the bus or go to subway station, you will find little machines which are look like below.

Once you find this machine, don't get panic, and just put your transportation card on top of 'T money' sign. Then you will hear little 'beep' sound and the screen will show you some number. The number is how much you got charged, or sometimes it will show you how much money you spent cumulatively if your card is not prepaid card.

As long as you heard 'beep' sound, you are free to go and find your seat!!! Also, as I discussed last time, you should put your card once again before you get off from the bus or leave the station. (don't stuck in the subway station like those six white men in ShinGill station loll)

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How to take subway in Korea

 

It may seem complicated!! but don't worry it is not that bad as you think!

There are around 10 subway lines and each line has their own colour. With subway, you can go almost everywhere around Seoul!! If it is too hard to map out your trip with this map, Seoul Metropolitan Rapid Transit will be very helpful!! It provides journey time, fare, and transfer station.

If you are stay longer than a month, you better buy commuter subway pass which is 46,200 Won. You can use for 60 times for 30 days. But you would not be able to visit few stations with commuter subway pass, such as line7, so you may need to check it earlier.

If commuter subway pass is not suit for you, you can simply get a card for transportation that you need to charge money in it. (I will post how to charge your transportation card in next post).

 

Don't forget to put your card on the machine before you take off from the bus!!

https://enuri.com/knowbox/Kbreadprint.jsp?kbno=312714&cate=0304&modelno=0&zoom=85

I know you would not forget when you take off from the bus because you won't be able to go outside if you have not put your card yet.

But it is easy to forget when you get off from the bus since no one force you too!! Yet, it is important for you to put your card on this machine because they will charge you 900 Won (which is almost $1).

Korean subway charge you based on how far did you go by taking transportation. But they would not know where did you get off from the bus if you do not put your card on the machine when you get off. So they charge you the maximum price. If you don't want to loose your money, DON'T FORGET TO PUT YOUR CARD BEFORE YOU GET OFF FROM THE BUS!

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