I found my Seoul at the DMZ

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Over this past long weekend I headed to Seoul, Korea with 7 of my fellow English teachers. Mary and I had randomly picked this place to go visit, thinking it would be fun since there are actually Americans there and a major plus being many of them are American military boys. Well as time went on many more people decided to join in on our fun and the turnout....was awesome. We had a great time eating, shopping, laughing and doing random things.

We arrived on Thursday afternoon and we took the bus and hour and a half from the airport to out hotel near the Namundam Market. We checked in and headed straight for a traditional Korean dinner! It was DELICIOUS!! There was so much food and we were stuffed. After that we headed to the market, duh. What is a trip with me and Mare without ALOT of shopping? We bought some cool Korean items and whatnot then headed back to get ready for a night on the town. Four of us headed out to the infamous foreigner spot of Itaewon. Of course Mare and I were looking for the boys. We found them and it was nice to talk to people who don’t hate Americans and who speak fluent English. We had a blast that night, if felt like I was back at home.

Friday a group of us headed outside the city with Paul to meet up with one of his friends and guess where we went for lunch???? BENNIGANS!!!! That’s right they have that in Korea, never mind that the prices were double what they are in the states. We all ordered Mt. Dew (first time having it in 8 months....tasted so weird) and I got the Monte Cristo and shared it with Mare, unfortunately none of us are used to this kind of food and we were all feeling pretty sick for most of the day. After lunch we walked around a huge mall. Then Mike, Mare and I headed to one of the markets and I have to say it was the craziest thing I have ever seen. Warehouses after warehouses full of stuff. I’m pretty sure there is a map telling you what is where but we didn’t have it so we wondered around aimlessly for 2 hours until it was time to meet Jason at the palace. At the palace Mare and I decided to have our picture taken dressed up in traditional Korean clothes, it was pretty funny! After the palace we headed to the art district to do some more shopping. On this street there is supposedly the only Starbucks in the world with the marquee in a foreign language. It was pretty cool, AND they had white chocolate mocha, so you know we got this too. Then we walked around and headed back to the hotel to take a break and have a snack. Then we headed back out to wander around to see what we could find, and guess what we found, a Krispy Kreme. Yep, so we got 2 dozen doughnuts, yeah I'm fat and proud of it! After walking for a while, we saw a huge bowling pin and we were like what the heck, lets go bowling. Turns out we all are horrible bowlers. BUT, believe it or not I WON!!!! Haha, anyone who has ever seen me bowl will not believe this but its true, a strike, 2 spares and only 2 gutter balls. We had a blast then headed to the hotel to rest up for the DMZ on Saturday morning.

Saturday we headed up to the DMZ (demilitarized zone) between North and South Korea. I had no idea what to expect when going and it still seems a little surreal. On the way up the surroundings slowly became more deserted and desolate. Then we see barbed wire fencing all along the river, not just one row, but multiple rows. Then frequently there were towers with armed South Korean soldiers watching the waters incase any North Koreans try to swim down the river to invade. On top of this the waters are laced with mines and other things. On the freeway there are also these bridge looking things, which actually are tank traps. In case of a North invasion they can blow up these traps to delay their troops. Our first stop was Freedom Bridge where the North and South Koreans crossed to go into the countries. There are many families separated by the division of Korea. After that we headed to the 3rd tunnel. This is one of the 4 known tunnels that the North Korean have dug in attempts to reach Seoul. This tunnel was discovered in 1976, the last tunnel was discovered in 1990. We were able to walk into this tunnel and at the end we were 1.2km away from North Korea. Again it was so surreal, there are 3 two meter thick concrete walls then its the North Koreans territory. Our guide said that where we were underground above us there were millions of live mines. Sounds like a great vacation, eh? But it was very informative and pretty cool. After the tunnel we headed to the Dora Observatory. From this point we saw North Korea. Not just land and hills but a city and a propaganda village, there were actually people there. North Korea actually had the largest flag in the world too and the flag pole....not your everyday flag pole, it looks more like a heavy duty cell phone tower that could survive a typhoon. But it was crazy to look out a see the north, it looked so run down and sad. I cant think of why the south would want to be reunified with them ever. Unfortunately we were not allowed to take pics at this point but what I saw will stay in my mind forever. After the observatory we headed to Dorasan train station. It is the last train station in the south and connects to the North Korean train tracks. They hope to have trains running to Pyongyang someday soon. President Bush paid a visit to this station back in 2002 giving his well wishes for the families of Korea to be reunited. At the station we got 2 stamps in our passports, one for Dorasan station and the other a ticket from Dorasan to Pyongyang.....if your wondering, this means that technically my passport says I have been to North Korea. We were warned that we may have problems getting thru immigration upon our return to the States. But I chose to live dangerously and I got the stamp. I guess we will see what happens in 3 months!!! After all the excitement of the DMZ we headed back to Seoul, where Mare and I got on the train and headed out to Osan Air Force Base for some shopping. We found some purses and makeup and we had a nice time walking around not being foreigners. Its nice to go somewhere where all the people dont stare at you all the time.

We all met up for dinner later on Saturday, Anna, who stayed with a family in a small village 2 hours away from Seoul, met up with us and the family was with her. So they took up to a traditional Korean dinner and it again was DELICIOUS. After dinner, Mare and I did some last minute shopping, we just cant stop, the shops call out our names and the items yell, "Buy Me, Buy Me!!" But she cut me off eventually and we headed back to pack and hang out with everyone.

Sunday morning was not cool, we woke up at 5:30am....4:30am Taiwan time. We got ready and headed out to catch the bus to the airport. We hung around the airport for a while and ate some food and I had a delicious smoothie from Smoothie King!!! Yeah I indulged in lots of western food over the weekend....I really miss it. Then we boarded our flight and headed back to Taiwan.

It was a great trip and I would love to go back there some day, maybe even go there to teach next year....it is a possibility now that Paul hooked me up with the English job pimp of Korea! Just another option to add to my pot!!!

The past few weeks at school have been a blast. I really love working with my current co teacher. She loves to have me to fun things and not follow the book!!! So far we have done the Hokey Pokey, the Chicken Dance, Old McDonald had a Farm and for Easter, we dyed Easter eggs and I had an Easter egg hunt for 3 days. The kids are obsessed. They want to do these dances and songs every class and on Monday they still wanted to look for eggs. I am so glad to see I have made some sort of impact on them, since I really cant make them fluent in English, I defiantly can help them to have fun with American culture and to feel comfortable talking to me. Last Wednesday was Children's Day and as a treat to the students there was a traditional Taiwanese puppet show for all the students. I was able to go with the 5th and 6th graders. It was quite an experience! I understand enough Chinese now that I could understand about the characters and the plot of the show, but during the show all the words were Taiwanese. Needless to say, I don’t know much Taiwanese, only a few words. But it was still very funny and I could understand what was going on from the motions of the puppets and the reactions of my students. Towards the end they asked for volunteers to come on stage and learn about the puppets, well since I was in the front and the kids were practically dragging me up there, the guy chose me, the foreign teacher (weiguoren lao shu) great...... the kids were going wild. I was surprised by how nervous I was being in front of all my students that I have already taught. So there were a few students with me as well, lucky for my all three of them are my top students who speak very good English and the puppet guy spoke a little English too. So we were each given a hand puppet, I immediately started to use the puppet to annoy the other students, and the audience was going nuts. So apparently we were supposed to talk in the voices of our puppet. So the guy would say the lines and we were supposed to repeat them. Well the puppets speak Taiwanese and I don’t, so when he got to me, he would say the lines and I could only remember the first word then I just said "Blah Blah Blah", using the tones I could hear, this caused even more excitement in the crowd, eventually he gave up on me speaking Taiwanese and he made me do all the sound effects. At least I can do that!!! Overall it was a great experience, I was a part of a truely Taiwanese cultural experience.

I am coming home on July 13th!!!!! I got word today that I can buy my ticket this week!! So I will be touching down on American soil at 12pm in Detroit. My plans for that day include, eating Mexican food til I can't walk, then a BBQ at my house that night. I will also be hitting up Target and Meijer to re-acclimate myself to American culture. I will also be visiting Mr. Freeze for some delicious ice cream. I also just found out that I will be going to LA, July 27th- Aug 5th for another People to People leadership summit. I am very excited about it!! I have also talked to people at University of Northern Iowa's Camp Adventure program and I am planning on interviewing with them in June for an internship at a Child Development Center on a military base in Germany, England or Key West!! My living expenses will be covered and I will get 12 graduate credits, I am excited about the opportunity and I hope everything works out!!

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Photos

The Automated Toilet
A glorified porta potty, possibly the coolest thing ever

DMZ.....note the sign
I wanted to see how close I could get

That's North Korea in the background
Mare didnt get caught taking this picture

Im putting Korea back together
with help from my hot boyfriend Kim Jong Il, ha

Comments

[Dad]

Local foods
I didn't see any comments about you trying the local foods(dog).