Ah, my dear friends and family! Sorry for the delay if anyone's been checking in regularly hoping for an update (Mom :) )! I've been finding it tough to find time lately. There's always so much to do around here. Anyways, there a lot to say so I will try to sum it up as best I can without getting to wordy.
Last weekend Sarah, Muc and I packed up our things and headed to Seoul late on Friday night. We got there after midnight but still had enough energies to enjoy a couple of beers outside the convenience store that was near our hotel. We B.S.ed with some local peoples who seemed eager to practice their English along with their hospitality, and then we headed off for a few hours of sleep in our skeezy over-priced hotel.
The next morning, we met up with a group called Adventure Korea and sat in the back of their bus as it quickly flooded with foreingers - 'waeguk-eun' as we're called here. Our first stop was the Demilitarized Zone - famed as DMZ - which is the area surrounding the deadly border between North and South Korea. For an area a couple miles deep and hundreds accross said to be 'demilitarized' there sure is an aweful lot of military personell around. Can't say that I blame the south since the north was found to be digging invasion tunnels all along the border during the 70's. Four of such tunnels have been found over the years and the search continues for what they believe to be another dozen or more that exist!!
Although the media is continuously ominous about the Korean situation and there is a constant high strung tension at the border are, it has been years since any actual physical conflict there. The talks from both sides are wanting to unify so they have that in common! Only problem - which is no slight one - is that both sides want to unify with one condition... that their government system prevail.
It was an awakening and educational experience - truly felt like standing on a tower looking over into the Berlin Wall.
All able-bodied South Korean men are required at least two years of military service before their 30 years old. Most of them do-so straight out of secondary school so the DMZ - especially touristic areas of it - are manned with young guys like the fella in this picture who seemed to enjoy a good hug-five as much as the next reasonable person.
If you think that 2 year mandatory military service seems harsh, you should know that the north requires something more like 15 years!!! From age 18 to your early 30's in a military run by a communistic dictator (or so we were told by our South Korean tour guide). It warps your brain to know that people still live like this in our world!!!
Last weekend Sarah, Muc and I packed up our things and headed to Seoul late on Friday night. We got there after midnight but still had enough energies to enjoy a couple of beers outside the convenience store that was near our hotel. We B.S.ed with some local peoples who seemed eager to practice their English along with their hospitality, and then we headed off for a few hours of sleep in our skeezy over-priced hotel.
The next morning, we met up with a group called Adventure Korea and sat in the back of their bus as it quickly flooded with foreingers - 'waeguk-eun' as we're called here. Our first stop was the Demilitarized Zone - famed as DMZ - which is the area surrounding the deadly border between North and South Korea. For an area a couple miles deep and hundreds accross said to be 'demilitarized' there sure is an aweful lot of military personell around. Can't say that I blame the south since the north was found to be digging invasion tunnels all along the border during the 70's. Four of such tunnels have been found over the years and the search continues for what they believe to be another dozen or more that exist!!
Although the media is continuously ominous about the Korean situation and there is a constant high strung tension at the border are, it has been years since any actual physical conflict there. The talks from both sides are wanting to unify so they have that in common! Only problem - which is no slight one - is that both sides want to unify with one condition... that their government system prevail.
It was an awakening and educational experience - truly felt like standing on a tower looking over into the Berlin Wall.
All able-bodied South Korean men are required at least two years of military service before their 30 years old. Most of them do-so straight out of secondary school so the DMZ - especially touristic areas of it - are manned with young guys like the fella in this picture who seemed to enjoy a good hug-five as much as the next reasonable person.
If you think that 2 year mandatory military service seems harsh, you should know that the north requires something more like 15 years!!! From age 18 to your early 30's in a military run by a communistic dictator (or so we were told by our South Korean tour guide). It warps your brain to know that people still live like this in our world!!!
Muc and Sarah in one of the infiltration tunnels - a very interesting thing to see, but when you get down there you realize one thing that should have been obvious all along.... it's just a tunnel. :)
A panaramic view from one of the observatories into North Korea. Here we are, free as the day we were born and to be two miles north means you have no life of your own - strange feeling!
Finally of the last things we did on that eventful Saturday was to track down this beautiful bridge....... and bungee jump off of it! All 3 of us got the job done - it being the first time for Muc and I. We all LOVED it and came out unscathed minus some popped blood-vessels in Muc's eyeball. It actually looks pretty cool and he's been able to torture his young students with it in the meantime! Here is a link to my video below if you haven't already seen it on facebook. listed in 'videos' on my profile, there are a couple more videos of the weekend too - one being of us trying to catch catfish with our bare hands in a rice patty swamp marsh; some kind of Korean rite of passage?? :)
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=185106315&v=app_2392950137#!/video/video.php?v=617182740532
I've been here for 2 and a half month now and have been with Sarah mostly everyday since day 10 that I arrived. She is fast becoming one of my best friends and we're really doing well aside from missing all of our family and friends back home!
I can't belive the wedding is coming up in a couple of weeks!! I have some big things to do in the meantime too however - including rock climbing and baseball yet today, Seoul next weekend to meet Sarah's mom and sister when they land to visit, a half marathon the following day and Jeju Island the weekend after that!!
I love you guys and will seen you soon!! Thanks for reading! :)
in 3 weeks, we'll both have gotten to see family (and friends for you!) :) you're one of my best friends too babe, it's easy when everything just fits! xoxo
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