DMZ

Here's a brief history lesson of Korea's DMZ.  We went on a tour and learned a lot of cool history.  First, we went into one of the infiltration tunnels that North Korea dug.  The tunnels are all granite, but the North Koreans claimed that they were just mining coal.  So they even stuck coal powder all over the walls.  We weren't allowed to take pictures down there, but we were about 25 stories underground when we got to the barrier (obviously, they're not going to let us keep walking to North Korea).  The ceiling got as low as maybe 4.5 feet so everyone had to wear a hard hat.  

A statue of people trying to push the two Koreas back together

The highlight of the trip was the Joint Security Area (JSA).  Soldiers from both sides just stare each other down all day.  The South Korean soldiers stand in a modified Taekwando stance and wear sunglasses so they look expressionless and intimidating.  

We went into one of the buildings where they sometimes have meetings.  There is a door on each side of the room; one goes to North Korea, and the other to South Korea.  They lock the door to the North when tourists from South Korea come in.  And the same goes for the North Korean tourists.  Half of the room is in North Korea...

We're in North Korea!

One time when a South Korean soldier was locking the door on the north's side, three North Korean soldiers pulled him through the door and tried to kidnap him.  Luckily, all of the soldiers are black belts so he was able to escape.  But now whenever they lock that door, one guy holds on to the corner of the wall with one hand and holds the other guy with his other hand.  This way, they can't get pulled over as easily.  

The guards take two hour shifts of staring down the North Koreans

When people from North Korea tour the DMZ, the North Korean soldiers actually turn their back towards the south and look to the north.  So all of the soldiers are facing North Korea.  The South Koreans are making sure that they don't get attacked.  And the North Koreans are making sure that no one deflects to the south.  

Look closely.  There's a North Korean soldier.  There's another guy looking out the window next to him and taking pictures of us.  

Looking into North Korea

There's a village in North Korea that's called the propaganda village.  They build nice buildings to make everyone think that they are living well.  But most of these buildings are hollow inside.  Some of the doors and windows are even painted on.  There's a 160 meter flagpole.  The flag on it weighs about 600 pounds!

"Propaganda village"

There's a train station that's ready to connect to NK when they're ready

North Korea in the background

We only have (about) 82 more days! Here are the highlights from the past month or so...

I know, I know.  We look more Asian every day.

• Carson got accepted to the University of Arizona!  He'll be getting a masters degree in public health management and policy.  Wahoo! 
• I had a student today tell me, "Teacher, your hair is very noisy today."  Whatever that means
• I have a new class that just started this week.  It's just two little boys who are about 5 years old.  They speak like ten words of English, and they're so cute.  Obviously, I don't speak Korean so we don't communicate very well.  But yesterday we just sang songs, said "hi" over and over, shared a snack, and I gave them about 100 high fives.
• We had a meeting the other night about Korean culture.  The gist of it was that we need to study the whole time and not play games.  When we play games for the last 5 minutes of class, some kids tell their moms that all they did was play games the whole time, and it makes the parents upset.  Our director told us that his 13 year old daughter goes to school at 8:10 every morning and goes to bed at one or two in the morning.  And she's studying or going to class the whole time.  He doesn't enjoy seeing her to do that, but that's just the way it is.  If you don't go to a good college, you won't get a good job.  That is Korean culture.  I had a middle school student tell me that she doesn't ever do things with her friends because her dad tells her, "Study now.  Play later."  It's a really common philosophy over here.
• Oh yeah, and we've become less picky-eaters.  We eat tofu, kimchi, sprouts and weird vegetables that we don't know the English name for, and Carson even eats the fish cake patties! 

 99 days until we come home!

Down to the double digits

 It's finally warming up.  On our breaks between classes, we sometimes take a gander through the park. Or we like to work out on the outdoor fitness equipment.  Our school has a lot of stone and concrete so it's usually warmer outside anyway.  

At the park

I can't wait for the grass to turn green

 On Sunday, we played some basketball at the park. There were a lot of kids there, and they kept saying hello to us.  They would be so surprised and excited when we actually said hello back to them.  There were two little twin boys who kept walking up to us.  We rolled the basketball to them, but they just wanted to kick it like a soccer ball.  They were so cute!

Last week, we moved apartments.  It's in the same complex, just a different unit.  Now we're on the 20th floor and this is our view from the balcony.

We also moved desks at work.  Here's my new space.

Carson's desk

These are my two bad students, Jack and Samuel.  They're twins, if you couldn't tell

We had kindergarten graduation a couple days ago.  It was stressful and chaotic, but it turned out to be really cool.  I didn't get many pictures because I was backstage helping kids change costumes, and Carson had to watch all the younger kids the whole time.  But here are a couple pictures we snapped.

Nanta Drums

This is Sara and I love her so much!  She would always bring me erasers, candy, stickers and other things to class.  Whenever I saw her in the hall, she would hug me and say, "Oooh I love you Tausha teacher," then kiss me on the cheek.  She asked if I was going to still be her teacher.  When I told her no, she teared up a little bit and hugged me, burying her face in my stomach.  She's so sweet.

This is Becky.  She's wearing crazy makeup because she was one of the belly dancing kids.  Check out the video below.  She's the one in the middle.

Here's a list of some of the things I've missed since coming to Korea.  I'm not complaining so don't get the wrong idea.  It's just a little glimpse of how things are on this side of the pond.

Things I miss about the US:

*Speaking.  I'm ready to be able to talk to people in grocery stores, the bank and restaurants.  Last time I went to the bank, the teller kept talking and talking.  She was asking me questions even though I repeatedly told her I don't speak Korean.

*Dairy products. I'm living in the land of Kraft Singles, and they're expensive.  A package of 8 slices will run you about $4.  I saw a rare can of whipped cream at one of the larger grocery stores, and it was $10.  Real butter is $8 a box... you get the idea.

*Driving.  We take the bus and trains all over, and we're lucky that the transportation system here is so awesome.  But sometimes I just feel like going for a drive.  On a side note, I miss all my CDs I left in our car too.

*Bountiful Baskets.  So right before we left the States, we discovered a fruit & veggie co-op where we got a laundry basket full of local produce for $15.  Today I saw a single pear at the grocery store for $6.

*Family and friends.  We've met so many good friends through work and church and we're so blessed.  And we're so lucky that we live in a world with Skype, Facebook, and e-mail.  But it's just not quite the same as hanging out with your family for Sunday dinner.

*Pandora and Netflix:  Some websites just aren't available in our region.  

*My clothes:  I seriously look like the biggest bum these days.  It's freezing cold everywhere and the hallway windows at my school don't close properly.  I have 3 or 4 hoodies and a couple pairs of jeans that I just cycle through over and over.  Everything we buy over here has to come home with us in a suitcase so we don't see a point in acquiring much of anything.

Things I will probably miss when I leave Korea:  

*Not having expenses.  Our utilities are all bundled together here, and we usually pay under $100 a month for electricity, gas, cable TV, and telephone.  Plus, the school pays for our apartment .

*Being able to travel.  In the past seven months of living in Korea, we've been able to go to the Philippines, China, and all around Korea.  It's much cheaper to fly to Asian countries when you're already in Asia (duh).  

*Trash & Recycling.  You don't get a monthly trash disposal bill here.  Instead, you buy special trash bags for your garbage.  Every apartment complex has areas where you can dump your trash and sort out all your recyclable materials.  The recycling is free. You don't need any bags; just toss it in the bin. Only your garbage has to be in a bag.  You pay the city for trash removal when you purchase the trash bags.  So the less you throw away, the less you pay.

*Living close to everything.  There are three grocery stores that we can walk to within five minutes.  There's not a lot of room for storing food in our apartment, but it's so easy to just buy whatever you need every day.

That just about sums it up.  I'm sure there are a million more things I could add, but this gives you an idea of some of the differences between living in the US and Korea.  I keep telling myself that I'm just ready to go home now, but how many people can say they spent a year in Korea?  I've learned a lot about Korean culture and language, getting around without a car, acting out scenes instead of just using words like a normal person, and I've learned a lot about myself from being here.  We only have 4 1/2 more months, and I think it will fly by.

Carson and I went to the Philippines for a couple of days, and it was so fun!  The people there were so laid back.  It was nice to get away from all of the hustle and bustle of Korea.  The first place we went to was Magellan's cross.  Since it is a tourist spot, there were a lot of beggars there.  There was a lady with a baby right as we got out of the taxi.  Then we just got swarmed by a bunch of people asking for money.  It was really overwhelming at first.  There was one little boy who was particularly persistent.  He kept putting his hand in front of us and saying, "Please, Please.  Hungry."  I felt so bad because we didn't have a ton of cash on us, and it was all in bigger bills anyway.  
A lady at the cross asked what our names were so she could pray for us.  She couldn't quite pronounce Carson's name so she said something like, "Cawkson."  When she was praying for us, the little beggar boy started laughing.  He just kept laughing then said, "Cawkson, my friend."  
The picture at the top of this post is us riding in a horse-drawn cart.  We didn't really have anywhere to go so we just paid the guy to take us around the neighborhood.  After, we asked if we could take our picture with him.  Carson gave him the camera and told him what button to push.  I don't think the guy had ever seen a digital camera before.  He first pointed the camera the wrong way, like he was taking a picture of himself.  Then we told him to turn it around and he was really surprised that he could see us in the screen.  Not a bad picture for his first time right?
Later that night, we were walking around the area that was near our hotel.  We started to walk up a hill and a guy asked us if we wanted a ride on his motorcycle.  He said he could take us to our hotel for the equivillant of  $1.  So the three of us all rode up the hill on his little motorcycle.  It was pretty fun!

We saw Wicked, and it was awesome!  We sat on the highest balcony, and for some reason there were tons of kids there.  It must have been a field trip or something.  That or someone decided to bring her 18tuplets.  Before the show started, the lady who was showing the people to their seats told us that there were a lot of kids there, and if we were uncomfortable we could let her know.  I think she was trying to say that if the kids were annoying and loud, we could tell her.  The kids were actually all silent during the whole thing.  But I wonder what she would have done if we complained?  Move us down to the front maybe?

We stayed in Gangnam.  And at one of the malls, there were some people dancing to Gangnam Style.  It was pretty much all foreigners and they tried to get us to dance with them.  I can't get away from that song!

We went to a mall where was an aquarium, a kimchi museum, a casino and a hotel inside.  We went to the aquarium and it was pretty cool.  We got to see a guy feed the manatees.  So cute!  Then there was a tank full of Dr. fish that we put our hands in and let the fish eat our dead skin.  It felt so weird but I liked it.