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Pyongyang Chapter 8 Summary

How It All Goes Down

  • Guy tells us about his new thing: paper airplanes. Actual ones. Not the M.I.A. song.
  • Guy throws the paper airplanes out the window and tries to get them to land in the river. Why? So the “volunteers” have more trash to clean up?
  • Saturday night is disco night at the hotel. Yes. You read that right. Disco night.
  • Sunday is the “day of the pedestrian” (8.43), when everyone is supposed to walk 10,000 steps. Does that mean they’ll let pedometers through customs?
  • Guy goes to see a battleship before stopping at this massive building in the middle of town. It’s a pyramid with a huge crane on top.
  • This building was built in 1988 but never finished. The whole thing is actually empty inside. Guy describes it as a “rotting carcass” (8.75). Let’s book our next visit there.
  • On Monday, it’s back to the grindstone as Guy tries to explain French gestures to North Koreans.
  • Sacre bleu!