Uh, I think first of all, I heard so many helicopters above my house, so I was like,

Okay, are they going to land on my roof? Like, they could have stopped the lawmakers from jumping the fence. It's

not that difficult. They could see that there was an ugly, you know, kind of going on top. It's not exactly like, but they

knew that, you know, apparently the big commanders, you know, saying, "Do your job." But the B's were like, "You're not

really going to do it." Because everybody was like, "This doesn't make..." [Music] Uh, at first I actually didn't believe it

because I got contacted by my friends and they told me, uh, I shouldn't go outside. So I was like, "What? What are you

talking about? Why can't I go outside?" And they were like, "Yeah, there's like some political issue going on." And I was

like, "What issue is going on?" And they were like, "Martial law was declared." And I was like, "Huh?" Since that happened,

it's been such a long time, right? And I was also not sure why it was declared, so I was just trying to look up information

online and see what really happened. And yeah, then I was following a live stream, actually, because, yeah, I wanted to see

what was happening in real time. So I, I didn't sleep until like 5:00 a.m., I

think. Yeah, until I was quite sure that it was lifted. I was just like sitting at home like, "What should I do? Um,

well, my phone was down, and then I was asleep, so I didn't... no, I didn't... I

didn't... I didn't know until the next day. So it was actually a very stress-free evening, to be honest. I woke up, uh, to a

message from my mom and I was like, "What's going on? Why is she worried?" Cuz she just said like, "Call me immediately."

And I was like, oh, okay. I thought it was something to do with my family. And then I looked at the news, and then I was like,

all right, something like this happened. The first thing I do in the morning is check social media, and my father is also very

much into knowing what's happening, what the vibe is, in the news and stuff, so he had already seen that it had gone and not

worked. But I guess because it was afternoon over there, exactly. So they had already seen it all. Yeah, whereas we were

on the tail end, not really including... yeah. My father was like, "Oh, good to see that it didn't go through. Have a good day," you know?

It was kind of like, okay. I think the world is such a mess that he wasn't too shocked. My mom was worried, but

then, for me, by the time I'd actually looked it up, it had already been resolved more or less. Exactly. Or yeah, it had

been wrapped up, so I was like, oh, I guess it came and went without me knowing. Yeah, when I first heard it, I saw

it in like a COO chat because I don't watch TV, so I didn't know what was going

on. And I was looking through the group chats and I realized that it's something important because I didn't know the

terminology in English, so I had to go and check like what it meant, what could mean, what could happen. So I was a little

worried, honestly. I think it was really late; it was like 11:00 p.m.

or something. I think I was doing my skincare; I was getting ready for bed, and everyone is like, "Oh, this is going on." I'm

like, "What?" I did my research on Google. I asked Chat GPT everything. I'm like,

ChatGPT, what does that mean? So I was like learning about it and explaining it to my friends, to those who didn't

[Music] I know well, the thing was, um, I'm pretty active on Instagram, so when it happened, I just uploaded a story on Instagram and

I was like, informing my people in Belgium what was happening. So a lot of people kind of already knew that I was

safe, and it was more like the issue, um, involving the president. So they were just like wondering, like, what is going

to happen next and like, is it going to be sustained? My friends were more worried about the country

than about me. Well, they were voting at 12 a.m. Yeah, it was very... Honestly, when I first saw it, I kind of started getting

goosebumps, like, okay, that was a really close call. The fact that you wake up the next morning saying, "Good morning,

everybody," there was almost a military coup yesterday; the power could have completely changed. But yeah, everybody

just goes to work as normal, you know, have a good day. And the thing is, you know, it was kind of weird being—because I work in

the office—being at the office, and everybody's like, "Okay, are we working? Like, you know, are we doing life

continuing as normal, or we just like going to..." You know, everybody was like, "Okay, are we going to die?" No. I did see a

lot of, um, a lot of my office worker friends had posted on their stories, and they were definitely saying like, "Is this

meant to be proceeding like this? I guess I am going to work then." No day off. Yeah, the

snow days, everybody kind of canceled this because of the huge snow. So I thought it would be like a huge

catastrophe, and everybody be at home. You would think, yeah. And I was just there sitting at the office like,

and morning meeting, "What are we doing today?" And I'm like, okay, I think because we already have the North Korea...

The situation's already pretty serious, so maybe they just took it on the chin and thought, 'Well, it's done.'

But it hasn't happened, not for 40 years! It's insane when you look at the

chances of it actually happening. It's so crazy! Oh yeah, I got a lot of

messages and had to explain. At one point, it got really difficult, so I made a voice note,

telling everyone, 'I'm fine. This is what's going on.'  I saw a post on

Instagram that was like me explaining the whole situation to my family and friends for two days! Everyone was like,

I think I was getting calls from my family and friends, yeah, but they were worried about me, so

[Music] I guess the protest, the way people rallied so quickly... that was impressive, if I'm going

to say so. It got enacted; honestly, I was surprised the military agreed. They actually said, 'We will comply with the command.' Because it was so outrageous and sudden, and he didn't say,

 'This is a war situation; we're being attacked, and this is why we're doing this.' It was just like,

 'I'm doing it because...' For me, I think even the soldiers are one of the reasons it didn't go

through, because they didn't storm in and stop the voting. They could have stopped the lawmakers

from jumping the fence; it's not that difficult. They could see there was an outcry. You know, kind of going on top

of it. It's not exactly like that, but they knew that, apparently, the big commanders were saying, 'Do your job,' but the

B was like, "You're not really going to do it," because everybody was like, "This doesn't make sense." So really, it was

stopped by the lack of belief in it, because everyone was just like, "Even the soldiers are like, I don't really

know." Just really unfounded. I don't know. But imagine, for the Grannies—and I'm getting goosebumps again—but imagine the

Grannies and Grandpas, or the people that have seen a revolution, that have seen all of this progress. For I think for

that generation, this must have been the most traumatizing, relieving experience. And I didn't think about that.

That's quite true. Think about it: You just lived through the whole Revolution, and then you fought, and you

saw people die, and you saw before there was this whole structure and human rights and stuff, and then this has been

reinstalled where the media is controlled; you can go to prison without any—without anything—just for speaking out against the government. And they're

just like, "How can one man have so much power?" I feel like people do forget, though, how short the history of like

modern Korean life is, in my opinion, because—well, in the last 70, 40 years... 40 years? No, it's 40—was like the 1980s. It was

okay from that. But then also, just from the war even between—so there are people who have lived that entire timeline and

are still alive now. It's just—and just the landscape of the country changing so much in addition to like the historical

events. And it just reminded me how Korea is like a really democratic country, and they care about their laws, and they're

they care about their people, and they're still out there protesting. They care about their country so much; they're like

really proud. And it made me feel safe, at least. Yeah. Uh, I think first of all, I heard so many helicopters above my house.

So I was like, okay, are they going to land on my roof? But then I knew, like, the army got

sent to the parliament, right? And then, um, I also saw that some soldiers were like trying to stop the protesters, but they

like, held their hands up, or I even saw like a soldier hugging a protester. I saw a video of that, so I was like, oh, they

are also just like there because they have to be there; they're like following their job obligations. So I kind of felt a little

bit sad about that. Yeah, and I was, uh, also very impressed by the Korean spirit and like everybody protesting directly. I

was like, yes! I think like Korea has a very strong democracy. I think like Korea has a lot of peaceful protests as well,

right? So I think it's really nice that they also allow the people to protest, and they don't see it in like a bad way,

because like it can be a little bit hard for people to stand up for their rights. But now I see like even singers like

singing songs and like they had the light sticks and stuff, so it's kind of fun how they incorporate like the Korean

like music culture as well. Um, so yeah, I'm I'm really proud of the Korean people. Actually, I hope there will be no

more martial law in the future. I don't want the freedom to be taken away from us. [Music]

Well, the thing is, we can't protest. Actually, us going to protest is illegal, and we will be deported. It's actually

illegal for foreigners to protest and participate in political activity. It's something like all we can do is talk

about it and kind of, you know, support our Korean friends who were kind of there and protesting. I guess millions

millions there. In a way, I think also reminding the Korean people what they can do together, 'cause it's insane.

Sometimes I was sitting there and I'm like, I don't think people understand how close it was to a military, to an actual

martial law being enacted. It was like, I don't know, some people actually realized the severity. I was speaking to

a few of my, even foreign friends, and they were like, "What was all that about?" And I was like, "This is very serious. I"

was like, I just don't know, the whole military was about to completely just take over, and you don't want that, like a

dictatorship. You don't want the military power just having, um, absolute say over everything. That's not a position anyone

wants to be in. It's so serious. It's, it was such a serious thing. You were about

to become a dictatorship. Yeah, yeah, exactly like that. America didn't know about it, like the Americans were like, "We

don't know what's happening." If it was North Korea, the Americans would know about it first. They have the knowledge.

If the military had actually listened and blocked the entrance of Parliament, which they were blocking there, there, we would be, what, extracted, hopefully, two

hours. No, it's like, it's two hours, hopefully. I would have been extracted and back in England. But that's a thing,

we have a way out. I know. But for the people living here, that's imagine your existence just under that

'솔직히 소름 돋았다' 한국 사는 외국인들이 자유를 위해 몸 던진 한국인들 모습을 보고 감동받은 이유 (영국, 벨기에, 튀르키예)

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* 비즈니스 문의 :  worldlaboratory.kr@gmail.com
