DMZ

OK so the DMZ! If you come to South Korea you need to go to the Demilitarized Zone. It's a really unique opportunity to learn about world issues that are still important today and see the world in a different way. Because I went with my Dad we went through the Osan Air Force which meant that we were able to see more areas of the DMZ than the average civilian but I'd still recommend the rest of the tour. It was definitely worth the trip but you have to realize that it's going to take pretty much all day. I would recommend going to the POW museum on Geoje Island before you come to the DMZ because it gives you a pretty good look at what was happening during the Korean War. However, if you don't make it out there it's not that big of a deal because the tour guides do explain a lot of things.

Geoje Island isn't just the location of the former POW camp, it's also the place where most of the ships that are out there at sea right now are made. The Museum was pretty cool because it gave us a good look at what was happening during the Korean War. Most of the prisoners actually had better living conditions than the soldiers at that time. They ate better food, were allowed to participate in leisure activities like plays and things, and pretty much just got to hang out while their country was at war. The North Korean Communist POW's didn't really seem to appreciate those facts though because they spent a lot of their time fighting with the POW's who didn't want to be Communist anymore. There were a lot of riots and some massacres. By the time the cease fire agreement had been reached, North and South Korea were officially split and the DMZ was set up. There was a prisoner exchange and at that point all the prisoners on both sides were offered a choice of where they wanted to live: in Communist North Korea or the newly democratic country of South Korea. Once they crossed the bridge over to either country, however, they could never come back. They call that the Bridge of No Return.

Anyway, with that information we headed to the DMZ. The trip from Osan took about two hours to get to the DMZ. The DMZ tour was different than I expected because we basically stayed in the tour bus for most of the time. Like pretty much every other tourist destination here in Korea, there were gift shops at every stop we made. The first stop we made showed us one of the trains that was involved in the Korean War.It was shot at a lot of times and then crashed. They brought it back and made it into a memorial. It was really cool. We were able to take some pictures there. We ate lunch at a Korean restaurant there. It wasn't the best Korean food I've had here, but it was a buffet so at least there were options. Next we went to Tunnel #3. Right after the cease fire order was in effect and North Korea had cut itself off from the rest of the world, they started trying to find other ways to get into South Korea and take over the country and create this big Communist country. One of the major ways they did this was to create tunnels underneath the DMZ. So far, four of these tunnels have been found but they think there are probably about 20 more still undiscovered. The tunnel was really small and really low in some parts. If you are tall, you will have bend down for most of the tunnel part of the tour. The hike back up really is a hike. It's steep. If we hadn't hiked Apsan a couple of weeks ago, I probably would have been dying! (OK, it wasn't that bad but it was a killer calf muscle workout. I am not kidding. But a pregnant lady did it so clearly it can be done.) When the tunnels were discovered, North Korea tried to say that it was the South who had made the tunnels, and when that didn't work they tried saying that it was a coal mine, but there were no traces of copper in the tunnels.

The next stop was an observatory where we were able to look into North Korea. That was pretty cool although the view from our side isn't super great. There are only two towns that are visible from the observatory. The first is Freedom village, which consists of some rice farms and the people whose families have lived in that valley since before the War and they still live there. The rice from the DMZ is supposedly better than the rice anywhere else so it costs a lot more. That little town is technically on the South Korean side but the men there are exempt from the mandatory military service. They can choose to join the ROK (Republic of Korea) military but they can never go back to the village as a resident again unless they marry someone who already lives there. The other town is on the North Korean side and is called Propaganda City because the North Korean government used to do broadcasts from there saying that the village was amazing and that all South Koreans should defect to North Korea for a better way of life. This city, however, is made up of mostly fake buildings. While the broadcasts and size of the city are made to make people think that it is highly populated, the soldiers stationed in the DMZ have never seen that many people in the city.

Sign at the DMZ

Everything North Korea does on the DMZ line is made to make themselves look good and South Korea (and by extension the U.S. and the U.N.) look bad. When the U.N. raised a flag for the Olympics back in 1988, the North Koreans put up an even bigger and taller flag on their side of the line in Propaganda City. There were a lot of tours going on but only a few tours were allowed to go on to the JSA (Joint Security Area) where the soldiers on both side of the line keep watch looking for signs of invasion or anything sketchy. When our tour bus went on that part of the tour we had to have escorts at all times. There were two tour buses going in and we had MP's with us. This was the part of the tour that really made me think. We were able to see something that most people don't get to see. We went to the part of the JSA where the peace talks happen and the line is right in front of you. Since both countries have soldiers here, we couldn't go past a certain point and we had a lot of MP's around us as security.

The whole thing was very different from anything that I've ever experienced. While we were waiting for our group's turn to go into the building, we were allowed to look over at the North Korean side. Most of the time, there is only like one guard there watching the tour groups, but while we were there about twenty or thirty of the North Korean soldiers showed up at the building across from ours. We were allowed to take pictures so we did, but pretty soon we noticed that they were taking pictures as well. It was so strange because on the one hand we weren't allowed to make any kind of gestures at the soldiers on the other side, but they were taking selfies with us in the background just like we were doing for them. I can't really describe how it felt to be there. Back when mingling between the two sides was allowed, there were a lot of fights. The North Koreans attacked the soldiers who were defending South Korea on multiple occasions, which then prompted the necessary separation. Now neither side can cross the line. At one point, a Russian soldier decided to defect and he ran across the line, yelling that he wanted to defect. The North Koreans tried to kill him, and succeeded in killing one of the U.S. soldiers. After that, while those protecting the South continue to watch North, making sure no one comes across the line who shouldn't, the North looks back on their own country, ready to stop any defectors from making it across the line. Knowing that and then seeing the North Koreans on the other side of the line, laughing and taking pictures of us, it was hard to know what to think.
These were obviously people like us - taking selfies and laughing and we even made jokes that they would be hashtagging them later on Instagram - but if they had been given orders to shoot all of us and start WWIII they would have done so to promote Communism and support their leader.

North Korean Soldiers on the other side of the Line

The mood as we entered the building was very surreal. Outwardly, we laughed and joked quietly, but seeing the ROK soldiers who were stationed there just as security for us really showed us the seriousness of the situation. They were practically statues, standing perfectly still and in a modified Tae Kwon Do pose (all of the ROK soldiers stationed at the JSA are black belts), looking intimidating and ready to defend us and their country if they needed to. It's impossible to accurately describe how it felt to be in that building, knowing that everything we said was being recorded by our side and we were being watched from the North. It's very strange to think of a place in the world that still faces these problems because in America we (the average people) are so far removed from these kinds of situations. Sitting in my hotel room as I write this blog post, safely on the South Korean side of things, I can't stop thinking about the soldiers who protect that line. The courage and dedication it must take for them to go there every day, seeing those soldiers on the North Korean side who hate everything they stand for, is amazing.

The only wars I've ever known have been far away from me. Even when we were attacked on our own soil on 9/11 it was on the other side of the country. This ongoing fight - though it isn't a physical fight right now - is only a couple hours away from major Korean cities and one of the tunnels even comes out some 50 kilometers from Seoul. To South Korea, it is never far away. While they still hope for a way to reunite the two countries - which would bring families together who haven't seen or heard from each other in generations, it's clear that the North Korean government does not want that to happen. I am completely amazed at the ROK soldiers who work in the JSA, defending their country and their freedoms all the while knowing that those people on the other side used to be their people, too. I'm also amazed at the U.N. soldiers who stand in front of the line (mostly U.S. Army) because they don't really have any kind of emotional stake involved except that they defend freedom wherever they go. But you can tell that they really do care about what they do there and they are proud of what they do. Right now all I can say is that I am so grateful for my life. I am grateful that I grew up in the U. S. and didn't have to worry about these things, grateful to have been given this experience, and grateful to come from a country where we believe in defending our allies around the world.

 Bridge of No Return

 

North Korean Flag in Propaganda City

Sign at Geoje Island

Vacation House Road Trip

It's been a while since I've updated about my Korean vacation. The past couple of weeks have been amazing! Last weekend we took a family vacation to Geoje Island to see the Korean Prisoner of War Museum, which was really interesting but since I'm headed to the DMZ tomorrow  I want to put those two blog posts together. This weekend was also really fun because I was able to take a small road trip with Master Song (the Tae Kwon Do teacher), Kiriko San (my step-mom's hula teacher), and my dad to the Korean President's vacation house while Takiko and the kids were at my brother's baseball game.

It took about two hours to drive to the Cheongnamandae Presidential Villa but it was worth the drive. This place is basically the Korean Camp David, but they stopped using it in 2003 and opened it up for the public to see. Before actually entering the house you take a tour through a kind of information building where they show pictures of all the Korean Presidents, dating back to the first one in 1948. Interestingly, the President now is the daughter of the Third Korean President. While the fact that Hilary Clinton is running for President here in America seems to be the biggest deal of all time, South Korea already has a woman president. What's more, when I asked Master Song about it, he just said, "Yeah!" like it was no big deal. They also show you some of the gifts that the Presidents have received from other nations over the years and the many different leisure time activities that used to be available there. And like pretty much everywhere else you go in Korea, they also have a snack shop attached to their gift shop.

The house itself is big but not as big as I'd anticipated it being. We had to take off our shoes and put on these little slipper before entering the house. In pretty much every room there was a TV. The Guest rooms look like they belong in a hotel. All of the decorations were really ornate. The sitting chairs and couches in the living and sitting rooms were also really nice. I told Kiriko San that we should vacation there! They wouldn't allow pictures to be taken inside the house but everywhere else was fine.

Probably my favorite part about the house was the grounds. There were fountains, a pond with fish, places to hike, and a gazebo to look over the view of the lake and mountains. The scenery surrounding the house is very picturesque, with the lake and mountains that are covered in green trees. I can definitely understand why they chose to vacation there. During the winter the pond freezes over and people could go ice skating.   There was even a little outdoor stage area where people were doing performances in honor of one of the Korean festivals.

View from the Pond

 View of the Presidential Vacation House

After we left the villa we went into one of the little towns nearby to have dinner before heading back to Daegu. We ended up splitting up because my dad and I wanted to eat pizza at this little place while Master Song and Kiriko San wanted actual Korean food. Although, if you ask me, eating pizza in Korea is it's own unique experience. I think I've mentioned that they put honey on their pizza here, but there's also a lot of other interesting ingredients that Koreans like on their pizza that I never would have thought of. Like potatoes and corn. My dad and I thought we'd play it safe by just ordering a Pepperoni Bite pizza (the picture made it look like your average stuffed crust pepperoni pizza) but playing it safe with Korean cuisine isn't really playing it safe. The crust was stuffed with sweet potatoes - which I didn't mind but it still doesn't really scream pizza, you know - but after the first bite we realized that this wasn't what we wanted. Beneath the cheese was about two layers of onions. Why they felt the need to hide the onions from us I'll never know, but since neither my dad nor I eat onions it made for an interesting experience. We had to try and pick all of them off, which was difficult, and ended up giving the pizza to Kiriko San to take home.

The whole trip was really fun and I enjoyed spending time with the friends that I have made here in South Korea. The Presidential Villa should definitely be on anyone's list of activities to do in South Korea.

Current President of South Korea

Breaking Down and the Seomun Market Part One

This is going to be a short post because even though it was a packed day we didn't get a lot of pictures.  We were supposed to go to Donghwasa Temple today and we kind of did but the car broke down right when we got there.  That meant that our adventure became a little more adventurous. While Takiko stayed with the car and waited for the kids' Tae Kwon Do teacher to arrive to help us out, I took my little brother and sister up to the Temple. It was really beautiful and peaceful. We went down to the meditation room and inside it was really nice.  We had to take off our  shoes and wear slippers. The meditation room was big and full of fake trees that had little seats in them with mats for meditation. I could have sat there all day bit I had two excited children with me and we had to get back to the broken down car. We have plans to go back later and see the rest of the property. 

Because the car is still getting fixed, Master Song took us back into Daegu and dropped us off at the monorail station. We went to the Seomun Market, which apparently is one of the biggest in the world.  It was amazing.  There are so many little shops and cafés there that it was hard to decide where to go. We went to a few souvenir shops and some clothing stores but we were pretty tired from the events of the day so after a snack we went to catch the bus back to the apartment. I'll be going back to the Market on Monday to buy more souvenirs so I'll post more then!  It is pretty amazing and I am excited to go back and look through more of the shops. 

My favorite snack: Korean Pancake! 

Seomun Market!

Korean Culture and a Nature Hike to Rival All Nature Hikes

So much has happened in the last few days! It's Thursday afternoon here in Daegu and I've pretty much had a full day every day that I've been here.

Monday was great because we sent my siblings off to school and then picked up my little sister at her break time to go to my step-mom's hula class. It was really fun and I was able to meet Takiko's friends, who are all very nice and fun, and then a few of us went out to eat lunch. We ate at this restaurant that had three levels and then a sort of hanging room that was Asian style sitting, so basically sitting on the ground. We went up there but we ate at tables and chairs. It was really great. We went through the Chinese Medicine Museum which was really cool. If you're ever in Daegu then I highly suggest you check it out. It is a really cool way to learn about Korean culture because that's the kind of medicine they still practice here and it's all about how all the parts of the body are connected. They use natural herbs and plants to make their medicine. We even got to try it. It was pretty bitter but actually better tasting than some of the American medicine I've had! Then we went to the market and had snacks at this street vendor. There was a whole alley way dedicated to easy to eat food, fresh caught fish, and other little things like that. Now, in America I would never eat food out of some random alley way, but here in Korea it's normal. We ate vegetable pancakes and the kids had fish kabob things. It was really good. After that we went to the Department store. When Takiko said we needed to stop at the Department store to pick up food for dinner I was pretty confused, but as soon as we got there everything made sense. Upstairs, there's clothes and perfume and shoes and all the things you'd expect from an American Department store. Downstairs, there's a huge grocery store with fresh fruit and meat and lots of sampling. I can really get behind this idea of clothes and food sold in the same place.

On Tuesday afternoon we went to the Lantern Festival that was held by the river. It was really cool to learn more about Korean culture. I thought the lanterns would be small, but they were huge! Most of them were bigger than I am! They also had music events going on like drums, dancing, singing and even a woman who played a traditional flute. It was all in Korean but the good thing about music is that it's pretty much universal. Even if you don't understand all of the words, you can still feel the music. The festival was packed with people and it was pretty obvious that this kind of community event is important.

One of my favorite lanterns from the festival

The next day, on Wednesday, I went to school with my little sister and I was able to observe her class. It was a lot of fun! Her teacher is really nice and all of the students in her class were really cute. They asked me a lot of questions like any other little kids would. One little boy even asked me if I was single and then gave me his Goldfish during snack time. It was quite cute.

Today, Thursday, was quite an adventure! My Step-Mom and I met one of her friends and went on a nature hike. It was amazing! We went to Apsan (Front Mountain). If you ever get a chance, this is one aspect of Daegu that you have to experience. The mountain has at least four working Buddhist temples, a cable car to take you halfway up the mountain (if you don't want to hike it) to a noodle restaurant, a bunch of exercise stations, an observatory where you can see the whole city scape and even a helicopter pad at the top. The hike up took us about 2 and 1/2 hours but we did stop a few times to take pictures and look at things. We stopped at one of the Temples and it was amazing. It was covered in lanterns because of the festival season. It was easy to see that this is a sacred place and I could definitely understand how someone could feel spiritual there. The Temple was nestled against the mountain and so beautiful. I wanted to stay there forever but we weren't even half way up the mountain! We made it to the observatory and I was really glad we had gone up there because the view was amazing! I knew Daegu was big but seeing it from that high up was incredible! It's kind of crazy - me coming from such a small town - but I love the hugeness of this city. Knowing that all of those apartments and buildings are full of people and stories fills me with so much wonder and amazement. Seeing it from that high up was amazing. Apparently people take the cable car up there and have picnics, which I could totally get used to by the way.

View from the Observatory

People put locks here as a sign that they were here

Part of the Buddhist Temple

I love the details throughout the whole Temple

Information sign about Apsan. 

There used to be a wall here for security purposes.

Because Daegu is surrounded by mountains, people needed to be just as tall to see what was coming.

We made it up to the restaurant right after that and since it was only like 10am we just had ice cream. Now, I don't mean to offend anyone but, Korean ice cream is infinitely better than American ice cream. I'm not even lying. In America, I don't really eat that much ice cream. I only eat it when other people want to and then I like to put so many toppings on it that it's not so much ice cream anymore. Here, the ice cream is really good and it doesn't need as many toppings for me to love it. Which might be a problem if I stay here for too long. Anyway, after we'd had our ice cream and bought more water, we hiked the rest of the way up the mountain to the helicopter pad. It was a pretty intense hike and by the time we made it to the top my legs were like lead! But it was definitely worth everything because that mountain is beautiful. We ended up taking the cable car back down from the 3/4 mark by the restaurant. It cut about an hour off of our hike time in about two minutes. By the end of the hike I actually wanted to go up again - later, of course! All I wanted at that moment was a shower and a nap (which I got) but I knew I wanted to go back. Maybe next week we will go back and take a different trail!



I've been having so much fun here in Korea! This weekend should be another full set of days, so I'll probably update the blog on Monday (Korean time) after we've gone to another Buddhist temple and Busan (another city). Basically what I've learned so far is that there is always something else to learn when you are immersing yourself in another culture. Everyone I meet teaches me something new. I think that is my favorite part of traveling: meeting new people and experiencing new things which then teach me more about myself and the world I live in. I love learning about other cultures and the stories that those cultures are built on. I can't wait to experience more of Korea!

The Thing About Jet Lag...

In a crazy and unexpected turn of events, everything is now in Korean as I look at my blog. Well, almost everything. The title is fine. And I can still write in English, obviously, but everything that explains what is going on, like the post button or any of that, is now in Korean. I'm hoping I'll be able to either a) learn to read Korean incredibly fast or b) figure out how to turn this whole thing back to English. As much as I would like to sit here and contemplate what's going on with my suddenly Korean computer, this blog post was actually supposed to be about my adventures with Jet Lag.

So, the thing about Jet Lag is this: it sucks. When I flew in to Incheon, which is sort of Seoul but sort of not, it was about 3 in the afternoon, but I'd just been on a plane for 11 hours and that was just coming in from San Fransisco. And I'd added another day. And I hadn't slept the night before I flew out because I was doing laundry and the dryer decided to be a pain and take hours to dry one load of my clothes. So I was pretty tired. But at the same time, I'd slept on and off the entire flight from San Fransisco and everything was so exciting and I knew I just had to get through Immigration and then I'd get to see my family. I felt pretty good, is what I'm saying. I foolishly assumed that since I'd been keeping weird sleeping hours before arriving in Korea I would not be as jet lagged as everyone said I would be. Here's the thing about that assumption: it was completely wrong!

As soon as I found my family (they had made the cutest sign welcoming me to the country!) we still had a pretty long drive to Osan Air Force Base where we stayed the first night so we wouldn't have to drive all the way to Daegu where my family lives. The drive was really cool though, because we got to drive through the Korean country side and see all of these rice farms. It was all very pastoral and yet still kind of foreign because the landscape is different than what I'm used to. Still, if I'd been an old school English poet I'm sure I could have written a ridiculously long poem about those little rice farms and the meaning of life in general and the futility of trying to rise above one's station or something. As it is, I'm not an old school English Poet so I basically just looked out the window and said, "It's so pretty" a bunch of times. So, at this point, I'm still operating under the impression that I'm totally fine, jet lag wise, even though my step-mom, Takiko, is telling the kids to make sure I stay awake. We're sitting in the backseat of the truck eating donuts which we purchased at the airport and I'm completely thinking that I'm fine. I could not have been more wrong.

When we reached Osan Air Force Base I needed a visitor's pass so after we did that we got checked into our hotel, which was half old barracks and half newly constructed building, and I put all of my luggage in my room. And that's about when the Jet Lag hit. I'm not even kidding. One minute I was completely fine and the next I was looking longingly at the hotel bed wishing we didn't need to eat food. It was like, 6pm or something. Not late at all. We ate dinner at Chili's on base with some of my parents friends, and I'd like to say I was mentally present, but I pretty much wasn't. I don't remember much of the conversation, but what I do remember is checking the clock constantly because I was officially allowed to go to sleep at 9pm. Anyway, Jet Lag totally kicked my butt that night and everyone knew it. So as soon as I was allowed, I took a shower and fell right asleep in my hotel room.

I slept for about 10 hours. For someone who was essentially an insomniac before leaving the States, that's pretty fantastic. So at this point I'm pretty much thinking that the whole Jet Lag struggle thing is over. I mean, I just slept for 10 hours and woke up on my own so things seemed pretty good. And Jet Lag only lasts one day right? Wrong. Of course, I didn't know I was wrong until later that night.  After brunch with Doug and Prisana (my parents friends from the night before) at the Officer's Club, we went into town to do a little bit of sightseeing. We spent the morning in town, looking for these amazing, thick, comfy blankets that I love and needed to send home to my cousin who just got married. After buying the blankets we looked through all the little shops. I pretty much wanted to buy everything but Takiko assured me that there would be better deals in Daegu.

Then it was back on the road and headed to Daegu. I was still feeling pretty good until about an hour into the trip. I started feeling sleepy again, but rationalized it by saying that I was always sleepy in moving vehicles, that I'd been walking around a lot and that I always wanted to take naps at this time on Sunday afternoons. Luckily for me, we stopped at a Rest Stop right around the time I was starting to nod off and that kept me awake. Now, if you're like me, when you hear the words "rest stop" you think vending machines and a few working bathrooms. In America you're lucky if you get a rest stop with some benches and a vending machine that actually has food in it. In South Korea, rest stops are basically like little strip malls. The one we stopped at was actually small, but it housed a food court, a little clothing shop, a playground, a smoking area, big bathrooms, convenience stores and a concession style food line.

We bought Korean style pancakes at the concession and even though they look like American pancakes on the outside, they are so much more involved. Korean pancakes are usually filled with something, and the ones we bought were filled with nuts and brown sugar and they were super rich and delicious. We bought three of them for about 3,000 Won (a little less than $3 or about that) and I could only manage to eat one. We also found Steak flavored Cheetos. They were interesting, but I had a hard time believing they were actually Cheetos and I probably wouldn't have except that Chester was right there on the bag. So apparently they were legit. We also found peach flavored ice which is apparently a thing here. Basically, when you are an American with little to know knowledge of the Korean language, going to any kind of food store means you just look at the pictures and hope it tastes good. I thought that would be weird and that I wouldn't like it but it's actually been pretty liberating. As long as you have the attitude that you'll try anything once, you can find some pretty cool things.


The road to Daegu treated us with a lot of interesting sights. We saw a few more farms, some incredibly green mountains, lots of wild flowers and even a legitimate traffic jam. By the time we got into Daegu it was time for dinner so we stopped at a restaurant called Italy & Italy. It was interesting because when my little sister bought pizza they brought out a little bottle of honey for her to put on her pizza. I tried it, and while I don't think I'll be pouring honey all over my pizza from now on, I do have to admit that it was pretty good. I ate a whole slice of it that way. When we made it to the apartment, I was feeling that tiredness again. I spent the night helping my little sister with her timeline for school and trying not to fall asleep while watching a movie with my dad. Needless to say, I didn't exactly pay much attention to the movie. I once again went to bed right at 9pm and I was out immediately.

Let's check the score shall we? Jess: 0 Jet Lag: 2

So, here's what I've learned about Jet Lag. You might as well just give in to it. Because it doesn't matter how much you're used to pushing the limits of when you sleep or how late you are used to staying awake late, Jet Lag will claim you. So you might as well just sleep. It's really not all bad. I mean, I've seriously never slept as well as I have since landing in Korea.

On the road to Daegu!

 Korean Snacks (and one American water)

 Korean "Sprite"

 The View from my Parents' Apartment

New Blog

So, I know I haven't blogged in a while and I think I finally figured out why. My old blog wasn't very focused and I pretty much just updated it when I thought I might have a good idea. Well, I think I have the answer for that. With my upcoming trip to Korea - Two Days!!!! - I've decided that maybe the best idea for a blog would be a travel blog. There are a ton of tourist-y things I've wanted to do around Tucson and I just haven't had the proper incentive to do them. So, I'll start with this 3 week trip to visit my family in South Korea and write about all the fun things I get up to while there. Then, when I get back from Korea I'll make a list of all the tourist type adventures I can find around Tucson and Arizona and then I'll start visiting them and blogging about it. While on my adventures I will try to get the most out of my experiences - taking a ton of pictures, trying new food, learning about new cultures, bringing along friends - and then I'll tell you all about it! Anyway, while I would love to be here writing a bunch of nonsense, I should actually be packing for my upcoming trip! Hopefully, by the end of May I'll have a bunch of new and exciting posts! Just stick with me! It will be worth the wait!