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Published: March 20th 2006
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Yesterday the 18th of March I finally landed in the buzzing city of Seoul, South Korea. I was met by a familiar face and a great big hug. And after a quick money exchange we were off. It took about an hour to get into the city and to Jennifer’s apartment by bus and subway. It flew by as Jen and I filled each other in on the events of lives in the past year. When I arrived it was 3am my time and only 6pm here. So to try and make my jet lag minimal I took a shower and we headed out for a few cold ones. Jens boyfriend Jason, a world traveler from England, joined us and we drank beer, ate interesting things on a stick and had informative conversation till around 12:30am. By this time I was feeling like I was on a boat and really needed to get some shut eye. And so I did.
The apartments here a very small, there are almost no houses in the city and lots of high rises. It is a far more developed city than Edmonton, I was quite surprised. Most of the young people
speak English and few of the elderly. There is a little bit of English on the subway and they use the same numbers so it’s okay getting around. Ah that’s a lie, Id be completely lost without Jen. This is a very developed country though, especially in comparison to there neighboring country North Korea. It is actually almost like a little island here because you absolutely cannot cross the boarder into North Korea. They will shoot you down when you’re caught up in the barbed wire fence that strings all along the boarder. There are man posts all along as well, each manned by 2 armed militants, and I guess you’re not supposed to take pictures of them. I got some anyways, I know I’m bad.
Today was a great day; we got the opportunity to be guided by long time locals to the Demilitarized Zone at Imjingang. It was with a man Mr. Lee; Jen does English lessons with (a CEO for KSwiss) and his wife. They were very hospitable and informative. It was quite interesting seeing I didn't come here with much knowledge of the country and there bad blood with North Korea. I guess it’s not
DMZ
this is where Koreans hang messages to family's and people in the north expressing there greif and hopes to re-unite really the people, it’s the communist leader of North Korea wanting to keep his people sheltered form the ever evolving world. North Korea will not allow entry to any citizens from the US or South Korea. It’s really sad because a lot of the people living here are from the north and came here seeking refuge when the war was alive and there country was in complete chaos around the 1950's. They estimate between civilians and military there were around 2 million casualties in the 3 year war. Anyways, now there is absolutely no boarder crossing permitted and they have troops from the US that live here year round to keep the peace. Crazy hey, so we checked it out and then Mr. and Mrs. Lee brought us to a traditional restaurant where we had a very interesting lunch served in very many little dishes. I found it somewhat odd that we all ate out of the same dishes with our metal chop sticks, a lot of germ swappin goin on. I had never tried any food like it before and really enjoyed most of it. They seem to like raw baby seafood, there was baby baby octopus and then
DMZ
the guards I wasnt supposed to take a pic of. La da da crab legs you sucked the insides out of. It wasn’t really bad just weird a little. And after that little cultural experience we headed back to the city.
Now we are just relaxing at Jens apartment looking into what we will fill our day with tomorrow. Till next time......
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Song
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Wecome to Korea!!
Welcome to Korea! Hi ~ I am Song, Korean national live in west coast. I read your travel essay, while i was searching my next travel destination. I hope you enjoy Korea while you are here.