Finally, a Decent President 😌🎉

After the agonizing 6 months

안녕! It’s Ari, your happy Korean friend 😆 and weekend reminder. 🎉 I’ve missed you all so much during my three-week break. The past weeks were filled with worry and anxiety about my country’s future, and I couldn’t bring myself to do even the things I dearly love—including writing this newsletter. But with the new president sworn in, even the air feels different now—lighter, hopeful, and sweet. I’m so happy to be back with you. Thanks for waiting, and thanks for always being here. 💙

Today’s newsletter covers a refreshing cucumber recipe and why my six-month anxiety is finally over. Let’s dive in!

Cucumber Muchim (Soju-friendly)

Cucumber Muchim (Credit: 우리의식탁)

Have you ever heard about Muchim? Muchim is a traditional Korean way of preparing dishes by mixing one or more ingredients with a flavorful sauce. It’s a bit like a salad—but with a Korean twist. There are countless kinds of Muchim dishes in South Korea, each with its own ingredients and unique sauce. It’s one of the most versatile and beloved sides in Korean cuisine, adding a refreshing, tangy kick to any meal.

Because the weather gets warmer every day, I prepared Cucumber Muchim for today’s food recommendation. There are many kinds of Cucumber Muchim, but today’s recipe makes the perfect companion for your soju time, a late-night snack that won’t make you feel guilty, or a refreshing treat on a lazy weekend. Check out the recipe below (🙏 credit: calla103466) —and bon appétit! 😋

Ingredients:

• 2 cucumbers (with the bumpy skin removed)

• 0.5T minced garlic

• 2T sesame oil

• 0.5T soy sauce

• 0.5T salt

• Roasted sesame seeds

• Optional: red pepper flakes for a spicy kick

Instructions:

1. Prepare 2 cucumbers and remove the bumpy skin using a peeler.

2. Use the back of the knife to tap the cucumbers to remove the seeds, then cut them into bite-sized pieces. (Tip: Soak the cucumbers in cold water for about 5 minutes to remove seeds more easily.)

3. In a bowl, add the cucumber pieces, minced garlic (0.5T), sesame oil (2T), soy sauce (0.5T), and salt (0.5T). Toss everything together until well mixed.

4. Grind some roasted sesame seeds (important!) and sprinkle them on top.

Tips: For a spicy kick, crush some red pepper flakes and mix them in!

Finally, a Decent President 😌🎉

Lee Jae-myung is sworn in as South Korea’s 21st president at the parliament on Wednesday. (Credit in the pic)

Deep in the night on December 3, 2024, Lee Jae-myung, 👆 then majority party leader, live-streamed himself personally hopping the fence at South Korea’s parliament building to confront the martial law that had just been declared. Exactly six months later, he entered that same building in a presidential bulletproof car, walked down the red carpet, and was sworn in as the 21st president of South Korea.

Because the former president was impeached, there was no transition period. As soon as all the votes were counted, the new president’s term began immediately. At his first press conference as president, he remarked that the presidential office felt like a “graveyard”—there was nothing left and no one left.

It turned out that the former administration had removed computers, desks and even the internet, 🫠 seemingly out of fear of leaving behind evidence of their crimes. Most of the staff had either been transferred to other offices or had resigned. 🫠🫠 The former president and some staff of his office face multiple criminal charges, including the illegal martial law declaration and attempts to invoke a second Korean War, which could lead to lifetime imprisonment.

Just a few hours after the new president’s term began, the new administration’s spokesperson held her first press conference. She explained that because there were no printers in the office, 😱 she couldn’t print anything for the reporters. In an interview after the briefing, she added that there wasn’t even a pen or paper, so she had to use her own laptop for the presentation.

The past three years under the former administration truly felt like a graveyard. With the Itaewon tragedy, 159 lives were lost on the street. Every day, factory workers and construction workers continue to die on the job. Cases of husbands killing their entire families out of financial desperation have become disturbingly frequent. The democracy that Koreans earned with their blood almost died when martial law was declared last December.

Now, Lee Jae-myung has been entrusted with the task of rebuilding the country from the ashes. And he’s the perfect choice for the job.

Lee Jae-myung is South Korea’s first-ever president who was once a blue-collar worker, coming from perhaps the poorest background imaginable. He was so poor that he couldn’t afford to attend middle school or high school, spending those years working in factories. While working, he suffered a serious injury when his left arm got caught in a press machine, leaving him with a disability that he still carries to this day.

A powerful cartoon captures Lee Jae-myung being lifted from the pit of political attacks by the hand of the people—symbolized by the red voting stamp. Beneath him, the media, judiciary, and prosecutors try to drag him down. (Credit in the pic)

Lee Jae-myung also endured relentless legal harassment by the former administration—including over 300 search and seizure raids, five simultaneous trials, and the deployment of over 150 prosecutors dedicated to his cases. He survived a stabbing attack to the neck last year that nearly killed him; the knife missed a vital area by just one millimeter. And finally, he survived the martial law that put him at the top of the regime’s kill list.

I proudly voted for the 61-year-old survivor with a kind heart—just as I did in the last presidential election. When he was a kid, he couldn’t afford to buy fruit, so he ate discarded fruit; when he became a mayor, he created a program to give free fruit to underprivileged children. And because he couldn’t attend middle school or high school, he never had the chance to wear a school uniform—so when he became a mayor, he launched a program to provide free school uniforms to all students in the city. Thankfully, this time, after the election was over, I didn’t cry for a week like a mad person—instead, I screamed with joy and happiness. And I strongly feel that this time, we won’t have to impeach our president.

Thanks for reading! 🥰 If you’d like to support my work, consider grabbing my book, I Like You, but Not Your iPhone! 📕 Or buying me a coffee ☕️ I will be back next week. 안녕!