Not the last station from the South, but the first station toward the North

Things at school have been going pretty well recently.  The H1N1 flu has scared the entire country and tons of people have been getting it.  There has been over 108,000 "confirmed" cases here in South Korea, with 104 deaths. Needless to say many kids have been gone from school.  Students can take "breaks" whenever they feel like, I believe they still have to pay the tuition so their spot doesn't get filled by a new student. I have had classes where a handful of students have been gone this entire month.  In one class, there are 6 students but in November only 1 girl has come to class each time.  I feel really bad for her because she must be bored out of her mind to be the only one in class.  I guess one positive for her is that we usually get all the work done in class so she does not have homework that often!  A few weeks ago our director said that a kindergarten class would be shut down for 1 week if any of the students in that class had the flu.  At the beginning of the week one of the classes were closed for the entire week.  Later that week our director made the decision to close all kindergarten classes on that Friday and following Monday, giving the kids 4 days to get better.  I know of at least 2-3 kids in my class who got the flu so my class was closed from the Thursday-Monday.  It was really nice only having to teach 1 kindergarten class on the Thursday (I teach reading/library to another class).  Then, on that Friday and next Monday we didn't have to come to school until 2 p.m.  It was awesome to be able to sleep in 4 days in a row! My director had also brought to our attention that if the government shut down all the schools in Korea for 1 week that our winter vacation from December 25-Jan. 4 would be moved to the week when our school closes.  Thankfully by closing down the kindergarten for those few days we got around that situation and our winter vacation will remain the same.  I was worried for a few days because we had just booked our plane tickets to Thailand for winter break only a couple days earlier.  Other than the flu scare at school, things have been the same.  We had another birthday party on Friday celebrating the kindergarten students who had B-days in November.  Sometime in December we are having an open class for 1 period of kindergarten classes.  This is where the parents can come and watch us teach!  From what I have heard it's kind of stressful since the parents just sit there and stare at you.  I'm curious to see how well my class behaves, since they want to impress their parents.  I can only hope they are all perfect angels! (which happens very rarely).

This weekend I went to the DMZ with Emily and 8 of her co-workers.  It was an awesome experience.  Hundreds of thousands of tourists/Koreans visit the DMZ each year.  We went with a company called Adventure Korea.  This group hosts a ton of weekend adventures through out Korea, such as skiing, DMZ, hiking, weekend trips to Jeju (the korean hawaii), ice fishing trips, etc.  We started off the morning by driving to a town named Imjingak.  This is the furthest point that civilians can go.  Our passports/ARC cards were collected by the tour guides and they had to ask permission to allow us to continue closer to the actual DMZ. In Imjingak there were a few statues and a peace bell.  People come here often and say prayers that peace will eventually come between the 2 countries.  All around the fences of this area people have put peace ribbons up.  Many of them say things on them, written both in English and Korean.

A few ladies had little shops set up next to the fence selling DMZ souvenirs and ribbons which cost 1,000 won (about $.80).  The shops had a lot of cool traditional Korean goods.  I ended up buying a plaque that has a small piece of barbed wire taken off a fence at the DMZ on the 50th anniversary of the Korean War.  The city of Paju guarantees that the wire is legit.  I also bought some commemorative Korean stamps. Those 2 items were the first souvenirs I've bought since being here.  Next, we found a train that had been traveling between North and South Korea and was attacked by the North.  The train has over 200 bullet holes and a couple of major holes, probably from an explosion.

 A little Korean soldier

Next, we walked to Freedom Bridge.  This bridge had been the site of the recovery of over 12,000 Koreans after the war had ended.  It is not open right now, and many more ribbons, and clothes offering prayers cover the entrance to it.

The bridge from a distance

Entrance to the bridge with Emily

After receiving permission for our tour group to go further we went to a very tiny town named Paju.  Here we ate a traditional Korean meal.  Our group had over 100 people and we took every single spot in the restaurant.  Traditional Korean restaurants have the tables very close to the ground, so you sit on the ground. Also, shoes are not allowed inside.  You have to take them off in the entrance and set them in a little room.  I have been to a few restaurants so far where you sit on the ground.  It's really tough on the legs especially if your tall like I am.  The meal consisted of rice (who would have guessed), kimchi, porridge that had no taste (first time trying that), seaweed squares, a soup with tofu that had clams and noodles (also first time trying clams), a spicy tofu, some nut gelatin thing, and fish cakes.  The food was very good.  Here are a few pictures of the food and all the people eating.

 The restaurant had 3 long tables from one end to the other.  I sat at the end of the middle table with our group.

After leaving this small town we went to the 3rd tunnel.  So far, 4 tunnels have been discovered.  They range from the far west to the eat side of North Korea.  There are speculations that 10 more tunnels exist.  Everyone had the chance to go into part of the 3rd tunnel.  We had to wear hardhats and could not bring cameras down with us.  Since I couldnt take my camera I found this picture from Wikipedia.

The tunnel is only 6.5 ft high and 6.5 ft wide.  It is 1 mile long.  The walk down to where the tunnel begins was a very steep walk.  The entrance to the tunnel is 240 ft. below ground.  The entire time we walked through the tunnel I was forced to crouch because there were many poles, and only a few points was it actually about 6 ft. high.  At the end of the tunnel, well as far as we were allowed there was a door with barbed wire on it.  You could actually see into the next room.  More of the tunnel for about 50 ft. and then there was another door that looked exactly the same and had a hole in the middle so someone, whoever it may be can look through it.  That part was rather creepy.  After finally getting back to ground level a few of us bought North Korean beer from the gift shop.  The beer was pretty good, it tasted like the Canadian beer Molson.

Emily and I in front of the DMZ sign

People of North and South Korea attempting to push the 2 countries back together.  On one side South Korea is raised up and on the other side North Korea is raised up off of the sphere.

After leaving the 3rd tunnel we went to Dora Observatory.  This is the spot where you can actually look into North Korea.  The front of the viewing area had binoculars that you could use.  If you wanted to take pictures  you could only do so in a certain area.  There was an official photo line painted on the ground that you couldn't pass with your camera.  The place was full of Korean soldiers.  It kind of stunk because it was pretty foggy so we couldn't really see much.  The only thing I was able to see was the North Korean and South Korean flags on huge poles.

Looking into the abyss a.k.a. North Korea

Finally, we went to Dorasan Train Station.  This train station is the the very last train stop in South Korea.  I really liked this part of the tour.  The train station was absolutely immaculate looking.  Very few people actually take a train to this station so everything is very clean there.  It's also kind of weird being in the station because everything has been set up and it appears that it's a normal train station, which is not the case.  In order to ride this far north in South Korea you must apply for a train ticket.  Starting in 2007, one time per day every weekday, a train from this station goes into North Korea with materials and takes them to an industrial park.  The train then returns later that day with finished goods. We had the chance to buy a train ticket and have it officially stamped.  We were allowed to go outside to the train tracks where some soldiers were standing.  While outside and train came from the second to last stop in South Korea and maybe 10 people got off.  It was weird to see a train actually come.  On February 20, 2007 (my birthday) President Bush and the Korean President at the time had a peace meeting here and they both signed their names on a big piece of concrete which is displayed inside the station.  The motto of the train station is, "Not the last station from the South, but the first station toward the North."

When/if this station ever opens into North Korea, the plan is to connect this line with the rest of Asia and Europe.

We have our boarding passes for the first train into North Korea!!

Waiting for the first train....I might be there awhile.

This Korean Soldier took pictures with many of us.  When I stood next to him he stood on his tippy toes in order to be a little closer in height to me haha.

Entrance to the train station.  A little empty?  Perhaps

Spiderman, Spiderman, does whatever a spider can!

My school had its Halloween party last Friday.  After classes Thursday all the teachers stayed after work for a bit to get their rooms ready for the party the next day.  For as little time as we had to prepare our rooms they all looked pretty cool.  Friday, all the kindergarteners got to dress up in their costumes.  As you might assume just about every girl dressed up as a princess and alot of the boys were ninjas.  I decided to dress up as Spiderman.  It was quite the costume.  I got it at a halloween shop (only a few stores) in Seoul.  All of the kids absolutely loved my costume.  There was a number of activities going on during the day.  We started off the day by carving a pumpkin.  It was the first time I have carved a pumpking in a long time.  I managed to only break one knife!  In my defense the knives were quite dull! Next, we made spiders using styrofoam balls, pipe cleaners, and googly eyes.  The kids liked making these since they were able to "customize" their spider after they put it together.  During the activities a few of the classes would go around to the other classrooms and Trick or Treat.  The teachers as well as the students handed out candy to the class that came to Trick or Treat.  I believe that I ended up with more candy than I started out with because whenever I gave a kid 1 piece of candy I seemed to get 2 or 3 in return.  Toward the end of the kindergarten classes the kids got to watch the movie Monsters Inc. 

All of the teachers (North American and Korean)

Korean teachers with Spiderman!

During lunch time that day a bunch of the teachers went to get lunch and walked around our area for a little bit.  To my surprise, not as many people gave us stares or weird looks as I would have imagined.  You would think that if Spiderman, a cowboy, a panda, someone in a suit wearing a Disney World style Mickey Mouse head, and a bee would cause nearly everyone to stop in their tracks and stare.  It was funny for the people who did stare at us.  Their eyes got really big as we walked by and looked confused!  A few people stopped us to take pictures with them.  It would have been fun if the rest of our day consisted of walking around Seoul trying to amuse people.  During the afternoon classes we taught a few classes and also gave the kids candy and played some games such as Halloween bingo and pin the nose on the pumpkin.  Not as many kids dressed up in the afternoon, since the Halloween party is mostly geared toward the kindergarten kids. 

Another picture of the infamous Andy.  He was a Korean drama character from TV.  His twin brother was the exact same character!

The Hummingbirds all dressed up!

Spiderman and Spiderman Jr.

A few weeks ago I went to Bukhansan National Park to "climb" a the mountain with Emily, Ray, and Matt (co-workers of Emily).  This park was just outside of Seoul and took about an hour to get there on the subway.  The mountain is the 2nd tallest in the Seoul area (I believe) at 2,744 ft. above sea level.  If you know me then you know how afraid I am of heights.  We began to hike up the mountain which was a very good workout.  At one point the hiking got very intense as the path got steeper and steeper.  Needless to say I did not make it up to the peak!  I made it about 3/4 the way up before the heights got to me and I didn't want to try and go farther.  Word on the street (Emily) is that the hike only got harder and scarier.  She said right before the peak you literally had to hold onto either a rope or pole to hold yourself from flying over the edge and dying?  The hike itself didn't scare me since it was very wooded, but at one point there was a wide open shot of Seoul which started to freighten me.  By the way, Seoul had so much smog that you could barely see the city.  So instead of trying to climb higher I hung out the trail for awhile with Ray, he didn't want to leave there all alone.  Thanks ray!  Walking up a mountain, hill, or anywhere in Korea is always a challenge since Koreans don't have a consistent walking pattern.  They walk EVERY direction possible.  You're always dodging people as you walk anywhere.  One thing I liked about the hiking was the funny outfits Koreans wear when they hike.  They all get completely decked out.  The huge backpacks, sun visors, sunglasses, hiking shoes, ski pole looking walking sticks.  They take hiking very seriously here!  I'm surprised I didn't see any women hiking in high heels because it seems like women do everything in high heels.  Just like how men at the gym I belong to wear their golf shoes when they "lift weights". 

Stream while hiking up the mountain

Up at the top is the peak.  This is a very popular spot for rock climbing. 

Peak from a farther distance.  No way you could ever get me to go up there!

Outskirts of Seoul?  I know, I can barely see it too

Random picture of the Korean hiking attire

On another note, Emily, Cindy (Emily's co-worker), and myself just booked a trip to Thailand for winter break.  We are set to leave Christmas Day and get back on Jan 2nd or 3rd.  We don't have much planned as of yet but we plan on staying in Bangkok for a few days to see/do some of the stuff there, then head down to Phuket which is where the beach is.  I'm really excited for this trip since it will be awesome to get of the the cold weather for a week!  After going from around 65-70 degrees Saturday to 30 degrees Monday, I definately can't wait for warm weather. 

The past few weekends I have been able to not only listen to the audio but actually watch the Iowa Hawkeye games live through various websites that stream sporting events, movies, tv shows, etc.  I have no idea how they were able to pull that game out on Saturday.  I got back from celebrating Halloween Sunday morning and I found the game and they were losing by 14  I think.  On top of that I watched Stanzi throw 2 more of his 5 interceptions!  But I still stayed up and watched the rest of the game.  I can't believe they came back to win.  It was very exciting to watch!! Lets hope these last 3 games go in their favor.  It would be awesome to see Iowa in a BCS bowl game.  It's always weird watching a college football game at 1-4 a.m. here when its only the early afternoon back at home.  As long as they keep winning I won't complain! 

92 yard touchdown!