Two Updates for the Price of One

That's right, folks, you're getting TWO updates for the price of ONE!  Chalk it up to me (gasp!) actually forgetting about the blog for a little while I had a little fun over the weekend (and today, now that I think about it).  First, take the time machine all the way back to Friday...

We took a class day trip to Cheorwon (철원), a small town near the DMZ.  It's mostly deserted except for some military outposts and cultural museums, which include an observatory.

Yes, I know I got more sky than I meant to.

Yes, we actually got to creep on North Korea from afar.  You see, this observatory has a deck where you can look out over the DMZ itself and, just 2 km away, the North Korean border (right).  What surprised me the most about the DMZ, though, was that it's not the barren wasteland a lot of people (who haven't been there) make it out to be.  We found out that it "accidentally" (for lack of a better term) became a wildlife reserve, due to lack of human activity in the area for the last 60 years or so.  It's a bizarre juxtaposition, the tranquil wildlife preserve with the observatory, telling of Korea's war-torn past.  It's probably the biggest irony the world has.

We also got to see one of the tunnels (left) the North Koreans dug to invade the South.  I couldn't take any pictures inside the tunnel itself, but it was quite the trek, never mind cold inside.  I wasn't terribly happy about hitting my head on the low ceiling about 10 or 11 times (thank goodness for that helmet they gave us), nor was I too pleased with these Korean schoolkids (probably middle or high schoolers) who were going in as we were coming out...and wouldn't get out of our way.  I mean, the tunnel's narrow enough already, and yet they insist on walking two-by-two anyway?  I was just about ready to pop my huge umbrella open and charging through to the end of the tunnel, bowling over any poor saps that happened to be in my path.

Also of curious note was this sign (right) that was just outside the tunnel.  That's 21,172 days since the cease-fire agreement that ended the Korean War all the way back on July 27, 1953.  (Well, by the time I publish this post, that'd be 21,176 days...)  It almost seemed--to me, anyway--that they're still waiting for something to happen.  Reunification, a northern attack, a plan to invade the north, whatever--just something so that they can stop counting the days and start anew.  I guess this is their way of saying the Korean War really isn't officially over, per se.  Eerie, if you think about it.  Just brought to light how tense the situation really is out there.

Anyway.  A long Friday in Cheorwon led to a day or two of rest (and writing a paper that was due Sunday at noon).  Saturday I got to meet up with my grandparents again for lunch, as well as some family friends who had moved back to Korea a few years prior for dinner.  Though this didn't exactly do me any favors when it came to writing my paper that night, at least I didn't write on an empty stomach.

Sunday itself was rather uneventful, thanks to most of the group going to the Mud Festival in Boryeong.  To Hao-Hua, Caroline, and I, rolling around in the mud all day didn't exactly sound like our idea of fun, so we decided to stroll around E-dae and the surrounding area instead.  We decided to make the trek to Hongik University via subway for lunch--Hong-dae, as it's called, is known for being a more hip hangout for college students.  It's certainly busier at nighttime, although we didn't feel like going at night (when it tends to get pretty crazy, in more ways than one).  We managed to find a pretty good Chinese restaurant in Hong-dae for lunch--victory for Hao-Hua, who had been craving good Chinese food since we got to Korea.  For dinner, we went back to E-dae and went to our reliable sullungtang restaurant--victory for Caroline, who was in the process of getting over a bad bowl of said soup from the day before.  And both of them are hooked on my favorite Korean dish--victory for me, who will eat said dish any chance I get.

(pause to catch breath)


Class resumed today, although most of us spent a good part of the day today in Apgujeong (압구정), a busy shopping/dining district not terribly unlike Hong-dae.  We met up with Esther's SAT tutoring student (who had been taking lessons from her in the States), who took us around.  After much discussion about what to go eat--most of us didn't care, although Matt adamantly insisted we have K-BBQ for the 24,198,687th time this trip--we wound up finding a chicken BBQ place, which actually wasn't too bad--it reminded me a bit of Mom's homemade 춘천 닭갈비 (Chuncheon-style chicken, for the Hangul-challenged).  Although I made the mistake of eating one of the raw Korean peppers; flesh, membrane, seeds and all.  Even though it wasn't so big, needless to say, I was in a world of hurt for the rest of the meal.  How can that puny little pepper be spicier than all the spices rubbed onto the chicken combined...?

Fight on, Wendy.  Doesn't it look good?

The rest of the night consisted of a board game café that smelled vaguely of cigarettes, though I definitely had a lot of fun playing (and failing at) pool, as well as learning some card games from Janina (pictured above, left) and Julie.  I'm pretty sure we were the loudest people in the room, as I was too busy laughing my head off at our ineptitude at some of the games, as well as our rather baffling explanations of the rules.


If there's one thing I can't stand about this trip, though, it's our consistent "what the hell are we going to do now?" meetings that we hold basically out in the open.  Most of the time (after wasting about 30 minutes figuring out what the hell we're going to do) they result in half the group splitting off to go drinking/clubbing/something along those lines, while the other half hoofs it to the nearest subway station back to E-dae so as not to show up to class with a hangover the next morning (or at least not running on <4 hours of sleep).  I'll leave you to figure out which group I went with, although one of the guards was, again, hell-bent on stopping me before I got through the gate, only to be foiled by my key card.


I swear, that guard must have it out for me or something.