DMZ ZONE

 So I am WAY behind on my posting. I think I am going to try to post once every for the next two weeks and that will hopefully catch me! So I am going all the way back to the first weekend of May. The first weekend of May was also my first weekend with a visitor! Todd worked with me in Brooklyn. For the last two years he has been teaching in China. He had a 4 day weekend so he hopped on over to Seoul! It was fun to have a friend in town. Though I love all my friends here, it is always enjoyable to see someone from home.

On Saturday we decided to go the DMZ. The DMZ is the area between North and South Korea. It is actually a very interesting area. Seoul is only 35 miles away from Seoul and as you drive up north you drive along the border. There is a fence on the side of the highway with guards posted every 100 feet. They are making sure that people are swimming across the river. 

The DMZ tour was interesting for a couple reasons. First of all our tour guide Angela was hysterical. She was telling us stories about how North Korea has been trying assassinate S.K official but fail every single time. It was a very interesting tail. 

When you arrive at the DMZ you have to go through a military check point where they check the passports, though I am pretty sure they do that just for the tourists. Then we started to drive towards this train station. As we drive, we pass "freedom village". Freedom village is inside the DMZ but they get some great perks. First they do not have to pay any bills, they dont have to pay taxes, they live rent free and i am pretty sure they get a small check every month. Of course the downside is the whole living in the DMZ. There is another village that was called hope village or something. 

So the first stop was this trainstation. It is a station that is supposed to connect North and South but that has been put on hold. So right now its just this huge and beautiful trainstation, that is not being used at all. It did have the nicest bathrooms I have seen so far in Korea!

After the station we headed off to the 3rd tunnel. In the 70s S.K started to find these tunnels that connected the two sides. It was discovered that N. Korea was probably planning to bring their troops through for an attack. So they these tunnels have been found and the 3rd tunnel is the biggest. All the tunnels have been cut off so now you can go for a visit in it! So we rode down the tunnel in the "roller coaster", their name not ours. On this roller coaster we had to wear helmets which we thought was funny until we started walking. As we walked in the tunnel we had to keep ducking, which was okay for everyone except Todd. He smacked his head 3 times, one time so much that it stopped all the tourists. On the way back up we walked which was the hardest 10 minute hike of my life. 

After the tunnel we had to watch this video. It was one of the craziest movies ever. First it starts with this rapid video flashing which did nothing for my hangover. Then there was a little girl who was crying as she sits in a land mine field. They then go through all the history of the two Koreas. Then they explain that in the last few years there have been major changes with the friendship pact. Then a butterfly comes down and starts to make the barbwire disapear, and the mines and all the war like things. The next thing the butterfly did was make benches pop up. The video then explains who Korea when reunified will show everyone in the world how to live in peace......um

......well

.... right....

I am going to assume that this was down when someone was on a lot of drugs one night and could not have guessed that North Korea was going to set off a bunch of nukes this week....

Anyways after the crazy propaganda video we headed to this big hill where you can looking N. Korea. Its actually very silly but hey it in was interesting. We paid 50cents to look through really high powered telescopes to look in to the villages, it was a little creepy.

So that was more or less the DMZ tour. It was a little silly and I feel like it marginalized the conflict just a bit. But I am glad that I went on it. There aren't many pictures though because they would not let us take pictures in more places, in case we were spies, but the ones I did take are pretty funny! 

 

AHHH

Can't believe my last post was 3 weeks ago! No good! I promise I will get an update in sometime this weekend!

April downpours brings wet soggy flowers

                                                                    ** tried a new way to put in the pictures.... did not work. I am aware the format is shit. could not be bothered to change it this time**

On Saturday last week (before the lantern festival) I decided to trek up north to Vehlow's neck of the woods. We decided to go to a flower festival, even though it was pouring. It might have not been the smartest idea all year. It was pouring rain and even though much of it was indoors. We still had to walk around outside to get to one exhibition to the other. By the end of our trip there my jeans were wet up to my knees. We went out to dinner later and I sat in front of a heater. It took 4 hours for my jeans to dry, it was a little more than crazy. Anyways here is a couple pictures from the day. The first is a cool waterfall thing that had all these different designs with falling rain, fairly impressive.

There was also this cool screen on the floor that as you walked across flowers sprung up in your foot steps. This is Christina dancing her way across it. 

                   

We were a little shocked at all the pictures everyone was taking. So we decided that we would find the best thing in the whole place, that would be the water purifiers. Justin was just a little too excited to pose in front of it! 

They were really into these flower hearts. We went to take a funny pictures then a guy grabbed my camera and made all four of us get in... then other people started taking pictures of us... and a guy with a newspaper camera.... it all got a little weird.

Christina got left at the alter, Justin was supposed to join her in this union, but he ran.
    

  
There were scorpians, I was impressed. Though they also had a "butterfly" cage which ended up just being a bunch of dead butterflies pinned to leaves, not impressed. 

Lanterns, lanterns and more lanterns

Last weekend there was a lantern festival all weekend. On Sunday was the final day where there is a big parade at sundown. Before that, one of the major streets in front of the main temple was closed off. Along the street there were all these tents set up that were offering anything you could imagine. There were tents that were offering free yoga, a tent for playing Korean games, a tent for Korean food, there was even a guy giving out free hugs. The best tents though were letting people make their own lanterns!!! As many people know I LOVE making crafts, I especially like making pretty crafts. So after much harassment and being really annoying, I convinced Kiwi to make a lantern with me. After about 2 minutes though we realized we did not have the patience to make one so we joined forces and made one together. Kiwi was gracious enough to let me keep it (though this was probably because she knew I would wrestle her for it). We also went to the temple which was so crowded it was not really my oasis that I had written about earlier. It was still pretty though to see all the lanterns. After that we went to get dinner at a very traditional Korean restaurant. I ended up with this delicious soup. It was an entire chicken in a soup kettle. The chicken was stuffed with this really good rice and ginger. 

After dinner we headed to the parade. The nice thing about Korean parades is they set up chairs along the parade route! Not shitty chairs either, they were the really nice sturdy plastic chairs with arm rests. They have two rows of them so you can just sit and watch. And if you don't get a seat at least if you are 3 people deep you can still see since the people in front are sitting. It is pretty genius and enjoyable

The parade itself was beautiful. There were thousands of lanterns and probably that many people who were walking in it. Many people were dressed in traditional Korean wear but there 

were also people dressed in normal clothes. There was actually one group of older women dressed in hiking gear, it was pretty funny. Also, as the people were walking they were handing out their lanterns! Jennifer got a lantern which I also somehow managed to keep (pretty excited about that too). One of the best parts about the parade were the actual people in it. They were so happy to be in it! We were towards the end of the route yet when they got to us there were still huge smiles and they were waving. It was just so genuine and it made the parade that much moreenjoyable. I just love how proud Koreans are of what they do and how they put there whole selves into it.

Things they are a changing

As mentioned before, moving to Seoul was not a hard move. I have settled in pretty easily. What has been shocking about this move though is that it has changed me, for the better. Some of the things that I thought I was incapable is no longer true! For any of you who have lived with me or know me really well you know that "neat" is not really in my vocabulary. I have lived my whole life keeping my clothes on the ground and piling up dishes. Well since I have been here that has greatly changed. It first started off with doing my dishes every night. Though I must confess this was originally because I was trying to keep the bugs away. Then slowly I started making sure my apartment was clean every night before I went to bed. My place is so small that the only way to stay sane is to stay neat. I think cleaning would just shock people but there is more! I cook! I cook actual meals that can be eaten! Of course I have not tried feeding other people, I am not that confident yet, but feeding myself is a first step!  Those have been the three main changes and hopefully my next change will be running! I am currently training for a 10K race in Jeju Island and I hope that I will catch the runner bug!! 

While there have been some changes, somethings will never change! Today I transfered money from my account to the Jeju race account... of course I managed to leave out one number so either my money is now bouncing around in ATM world or got transfered to some weird account. I guess the small things will always slip away from me!

Below is a video of my apartment! It is pretty boring, its more for my parents and family but if you want a mini tour watch away!

bills for my... ovaries?!?

Bills are kind of a weird but wonderful thing here in Seoul. So you get the bill in the mail and you just bring the bill to any bank. Then you either pay the teller or put it in this machine with your bank card and it takes it right out of your account. I am pretty sure this is the only way that you can pay bills here (which causes its only problems since the banks are open from 9:30 to 4:30). The other odd thing is that there is no (or hardly any) penalty for the bill not being paid. I paid a bill 5 days late today and there was no extra charge or anything. People at my school say they go months without paying for a bill. Since there is no penalty for not paying, it does not seem people give a change of address. So at my apartment I get bills at least a couple times a week. I have gotten bills for my car payments, 2008 taxes for my child's school, my land line, at least 4 cell phones that I seem to have and then other random sheets of paper with money amounts on it that I tend to just chuck out. Sometimes I bring the bill to my school and ask someone to translate it for me just to make sure I dont have to pay for it. Sometimes, when I get really ambitious I take out my trusty phone dictionary and I look up the words on the bill. 

Today was one of those ambitious days. I looked at the categories and saw there were two. I looked up the first word and it meant car. I was very impressed that I got it and tried the next word.... this time it was ovaries.... yea so it seems that I have to make a payment on my ovaries. Thankfully though they are only going to cost me 7,920 won which is only about $6, really I wouldn't pay a penny more!