2017-2018
Two very long years, Jung Il woo served his Civic Duties at the Seocho-Gu Senior Center. I have compiled all the photos I could find of his time here. In addition, I also found photos of the center, so you can have an idea of what it looks like inside and can imagine Jung Il woo working there.
I had the opportunity to visit it. It is absolutely beautiful, one would never think it was public as its installations look like a private clinic. Absolutely clean and welcoming. I will also give the directions of how to get there in case you want to see it for yourself one day.
This center was hard to find. I used the photo of Jung Il woo in MMA magazine and photos of fans that had visited him there as the guide. What made it hard was that when I did a search in Google Maps in Korean, the photo that belonged to this center did not look like this place at all. So finally after two hours of looking at every single senior center entry by Google in Seocho-Gu, I decided to finally click on the one with the wrong photo… (or so I thought) and there it was!!! I was so, so happy! Now they have changed the photo so it looks a bit more like the photo in the cover of MMA.
So the best way I found to get there from where I was was getting off at the Nambu Bus Terminal on line 3 of the Metro. Then you walk for about 15 minutes… not even. The next two photos are of the last stretch… which actually borders a huge green area. That’s why in the map there is nothing there…
And well it’s time we saw Ilwoo here … ready?
Can you imagine… you could have casually walked there and maybe he could have been cleaning the sidewalk… what?!!!
Now let’s take a look inside…
So when you walk in, it feels pretty unlike a Senior Center…
This is the reception area… see the cabinets on the left side, people that come take their shoes off and put them in there and they have inside shoes stored there… I was this space briefly. Enough to take this photo:
So in this photo coming up, Ilwoo was cleaning the glass around the entrance of the reception area. You can see the cabinets I just talked about behind him…
Here are other photos of the center. Cr. Seocho Gu Senior Center Website.
Yes… imagine being that age and having someone as lovely as Ilwoo take care of you! I have got to move to South Korea! 🙂
In one of these cafeteria like rooms Jung Il woo participated in an event taking photos. The story comes from a mother who’s high school son along with other youth volunteered their time as part of their civic duty high school requirement. She wrote about it and posted many Ilwoo photos in her naver blog. Her username in Naver is something like Happy Rich Mother. These are her photos: Her blog is HERE.
How great to spend sometime with him like that!
This center is such a beautiful place!
These are other photos from Ilwoo at the center and/or with the seniors:
Those two came from an article HERE.
And my favorite by IG sol_son:
Such a beautiful photo!
While there many fans went to visit him… especially on his birthday fans showed up with gifts for him. He always took the time to be with the fans that visited him. Here are some photos:
He would take public transportation to work sometimes. A couple of fans captured him in spite of the mask and all!
WITAT
I am so glad Jung Il woo had the grounding and unforgettable experience of serving his country at an elderly center. It allowed him to serve other people, to be a “normal” citizen for two years, and take time to center himself. It is very obvious how much he matured over these two years. He grew so much as person… he was already kind, but now there is a deeper kindness. What a beautiful human being he is!
I look forward to seeing what you will do and where you will take us in the coming years Ilwoo! So glad to be on your train WOOnderful man!