As soon as Martin's plane hit the ground a couple of weeks ago, we had nearly every hour planned for the first few days! Right away Friday night, we were invited to my co-worker's house for dinner and some cultural ceramics making! It was a fun night hanging out with them, but we had to call it a night early because of our busy weekend schedule! Saturday morning, we had to meet at the USO in Seoul to go on our DMZ tour. After signing a waiver, we loaded onto the bus and drove north.
At this point, we were still on South Korean land, but we were surrounded on three sides by North Korea!
The soldier in the back is there for intimidation--he has his taekwando stance and aviator glasses ready to face the enemy! We heard lots of interesting bits of information about the division between the Koreas. I'm glad our country doesn't have the same hostility within our boarders!
Here is a South Korean soldier facing his enemy. He stands half behind the wall and half out in case he needs to move quickly. There is a horizontal line between these two buildings that divides the north and the south. As soon as the North Korean soldiers came out to curiously watch the tourists, the South Korean soldiers discretely placed their hands on their guns...creepy!
We were told that we witnessed history as this group of officials crossed back into South Korean territory. I have a couple of quotes (basically saying the same thing) and links to news articles to show what happened if you are interested in reading up on your current events:
"In a symbolic move to show its commitment to the international nuclear deal, North Korea toppled the cooling tower at its plutonium-producing reactor on Friday." (http://www.newsdaily.com/stories/pek298375-korea-north/)
"In a gesture demonstrating its commitment to halt its nuclear weapons program, North Korea blew up the most prominent symbol of its plutonium production Friday." (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/28/world/asia/28korea.html?hp)
We broke for lunch and ate bipimbop and these appetizers! Pretty good meal...
Something else cool that happened on this trip is that I re-met a girl from MN who I met for the first time on my trip to Japan! It was so cool--I love when this stuff happens! When I was in Tokyo, I stayed at a hostel where I was quite sure I was the only person from MN. Well, some of the British and Australian guys were telling me they just met a girl from MN--I could hardly believe it, so I went over and talked to her for a few minutes! It turns out she is from Thief River Falls and had been living in Japan for two years! Well, on the bus two weeks ago at the DMZ, I noticed a girl sitting nearby wearing the same shirt I was, but in a different color. As I mentioned to her that we were wearing the same shirt, she realized that we had met before! So weird, right? We figured it was fate--she was in Seoul for a couple of days (her first time here)...how does that stuff happen?? We exchanged info since we figured someone, somewhere wanted us to meet... I will keep you updated if anything comes of it! :)
Getting back to North Korea: The last stop our tour bus made was at one of the tunnels the North Koreans built to be able to quickly and secretly invade South Korea. The tour guides invited us to grab a hard hat and go inside. After walking down a long, crowded hallway, we entered the tunnel and started lumbering through the damp, dark passageway. The tunnel was wide enough for two or three people to walk side-by-side, but wasn't quite high enough for all of us westerners to comfortable walk through. I could walk the majority of the tunnel upright, but had to duck my head many times. Overall, this tunnel was not the highlight of the tour. The best line I heard all day was from Kara, who isn't really a huge fan of tunnels...she commented in a very sarcastic way something like this: "we're walking in a tunnel. to North Korea. what are we, crazy?" The one thing that made me smile throughout the weird tunnel experience was hearing all the western guys scrape their hardhats on the moist rock ceiling before letting out an utterance of pain! :)
