DMZ in Seoul

Last weekend I went to Seoul for the first time. Corinne and I were going primarily to see the DMZ, or Demilitarized Zone. You must be on a tour to see it, so we got up at 6 am and got a bus. It was quite the experience.

This year marks the 60 year anniversary of the end of the Korean War, and so there were a lot of events around the area - a concert set up, some sort of march with people with little numbers pinned to their chest, and this carnival.

This is one of the trains that traveled through the DMZ to connect North and South, it is no longer in use (though there is now a modern train, you'll see the station at the end of this post)

I found this very interesting, it is in the only place I have seen so far where the US and Korean flags were not posted right next to each other.

Corinne inspires me to eat street food, this is spicy chicken (maybe?) on a stick.

These are bridges, which were used to exchange POWs between the North and South. The one that is on the left in the picture is called the "Bridge to Freedom," and the one on the right is falling apart, and is no longer used.

You can walk partway up the "Bridge of Freedom." The ribbons are hooked up to the fences and were beautiful. I just wish I could read Korean so that I could tell what they said.

Corinne took these two. We went to an observatory where you could see the North Korean Propaganda Village.

You couldn't take pictures right up at the viewfinders, so this is the best picture I could get. The village has the world's highest flagpole. There are giant speakers that play propaganda recordings, but I didn't hear any.

North Korean forces have dug four tunnels under the DMZ towards Seoul, and the third one is open for tourists to walk down it. We walked down until we were about 120 m from the Military Demarcation Line (Armistice Line), which is the actual border between North and South.

You cannot take pictures in the tunnel, which I think is mostly for security reasons. This is a picture of a picture from when they discovered the tunnel, to give you an idea of the size. They told us that 30,000 troops plus artillery could travel through this tunnel each hour.

This is the new train station to North Korea.

Really, it looks a lot like every other train station I've been to in Korea.

Overall, I would recommend anyone going to Korea to take the time to see it. It really was enlightening to see all of the things you study about in person. Pictures cannot do something like the DMZ justice. As for Seoul, it was really overwhelming. I knew it was the fourth biggest city in the world, but I have gotten so used to Daegu, where you can get around on the subway easily, people don't walk smack into you, and generally you can walk next to your friends.. Seoul was a bit of a shock. I left feeling glad to be heading home, and really think I made the right decision choosing to live in Daegu. I'll be heading back to Seoul maybe next month, they have a ton of cultural sites and museums, temples and palaces.

My cat's really weird. This is how Trenton likes to relax. Her front legs are sprawled out on each side of my leg. She also sleeps on top of me - I lay on my side and she likes to lay down on my waist or thighs. This is problematic because I move around a lot in my sleep, so she gets mad and meows until I wake up. But, she is cute and sweet and I am happy to have her.

Most of the family probably already knows, but if you haven't heard, Tricia (my sister) has a blog about her experiences in China. The website is http://triciareneem.wordpress.com/

I took lots of cute pictures of the kindergarten students dressed up for our Halloween party, so expect that post to be up soon!

Swimming field trip, cat, and Daegu National Museum

Its been a little bit since my last update, which I apologize for, but now I actually have some friends (!) so I have had things to do, and also writing September's lesson plans, which has had me a little overwhelmed/less interested in sitting around after work to type.



It has been a fun week though, because we went on a field trip! We took the kindergarten classes to a pool on Thursday, and it was probably the cutest thing in the world. This is me with most of my "homeroom" class, looking incredibly adorable. All the kids wear swimcaps, most brought huge tubes and squirt guns. The next picture is my co-worker and friend Corinne and her class, you will hear more about Corinne later in the post, though (also, the Korean woman in the middle is Michelle, the director of my school). I'm really glad I brought a one piece swimsuit, most women in Korea wear them, from what I've gathered. Also, a bikini wouldn't have been very effective when I was running through the water dodging kids splashing and spraying water at me while dragging two tubes of screaming kids behing me. It was a great time. Since the trip some of the more shy students seemed to warm up to me, and the kids I don't have a class with now run up to me and say hello. I feel lucky to start with a field trip, it has for sure helped the kids and I to get to know each other better.




After swimming the Korean staff (the teachers with the girls, and even the bus drivers with the boys), took the kids to shower and dry off. Yes, I did say that the bus drivers helped the boys shower, which would never, ever happen in America - the parents wouldn't allow it, the bus drivers would charge extra by the minute. In Korea, its just accepted as normal, which is nice. I haven't lived in a place were it is assumed that people are intristically good and trustworthy. Then we all had a picnic, the close up is me with Suzie, one of the students from my first class of the day. She is one of the sweetest kids I have ever met.


Back to what I was saying though, friends. I have some. Corinne for one, she's been here for 9 months, and is really supportive and inclusive with me. Inviting me out with her friends and helping me get around the city. It is really nice to feel like someone understands what I am going through, as she did it nine months ago, and since she lives in my building and works at my school, she knows the area well. She is someone I feel like if I met her back home I would be her friend - which is saying something, really.


Corinne put me in touch with her friend who was leaving Korea this month, and gave me my cat! My cats a girl, and is starting to get more friendly with me, I've had her less than 24 hours so far, but she seems darling. She is very "vocal" as in, she meows all of the time. I am debating naming her Trenton, which is kind of a masculine name, but am not sure yet. Suggestions?


Another friend I've made is Chris, who is a Korean guy living semi close to me in Daegu. This is us at Burham's Burgers with Western style burgers and beer. We met because he followed me at midnight down the side street to my house and asked me to get a drink with him so he could practice his English. I said yes, and laughingly informed him that to befriend Americans he should be aware that if I was in the US I would have called the police, because you just don't follow women around at night! He's learning English for his job, which is something with designing phones. Chris is smart, and his English is actually pretty good considering how recently he started learning. There are times when I will say something and he won't understand, then its a short game of charades, miming, drawing, Chinese writing (some Korean words are still based off of Mandarian), and dictionary searching. He doesn't get frustrated and give up when he struggles to find the words for what he is trying to express. This weekend we went to the Daegu National Musuem together. It was a lot of fun, he helped me, since the captions were mostly in Korean, and we went to the kids' area and did traditional Korean printing.




This is wet printing. He was okay at it, I was kind of terrible, but basically you take thin handmade paper, lay it on the metal plate, wet it down, use a cloth and then a bristle brush to press it down, then take the stamp pad in the top left to imprint the image. I was much more interested in the (much easier) dry printing. This you had a metal plate that you rubbed ink on, then set a sheet of regular paper on, and rubbed the paper to print the image. We spent about an hour doing a ton to send back to some lucky people in the states. I was hoping I could just buy some in the gift store, since mine were flawed, but alas, we could not, so we did our best. Luckily Chris was a sport and helped me make a bunch. Interestingly, the museum was free to get into, and two slices each of thin and regular paper were just 500 won, so it was a steal.


There was also whole room full of clothing from around Asia that was just beautiful. Most of the pictures didn't turn out, but here is one of a traditional Japanese wedding dress and the Confucian monk's traditional robes.



Alright, that is all for now. I will update on Daegu's night life soon, but its monsoon season, and I haven't bothered taking pictures downtown in the rain. I got my ARC Friday, soI should have the internet in my house on Thursday, which means Skype soon!


Also, packages. People who mail me things get things in the mail back, because they are special. This is related to the fact that I did not bring my address book to Korea. If you do not know my address, you can email me, and get it from me. I am most interested in handmade art and things that would remind me of you. You don't need to ship frames or anything of that nature, just something small and light. I am also interested in packages containing Kraft shape mac and cheese and Reese's cups. There is no need to mail me books, as there is a huge English bookstore here. There is good snack food here, and the chocolate is different but not bad. They have lots of American candy bars, even Mr Big, my favorite Canadian candy bar that I couldn't even find in the US! Bye for now!