My First VLog

Hey!

Hope everyone is doing well.  I tried my first video update this week and I think it turned out alright. 

Enjoy.

Ahh, I miss that smell.

Not of Busan.

And I do miss the smell of MN, but not as poignantly as I probably will come fall.  

I miss the smell of books.  There is something about a book, that smell of the pages when you open it up, it always seems to be the same, no matter what.  I forgot about the smell.  My kindle does not have that 'book' smell.  It's awesome that I can carry nearly all my books with me in a convenient package.  But it doesn't quite provide the satisfaction that the smell and feeling of a book provide.  

I found this book while we were in Seoul.  My friend probably thought that I was absolutely bonkers, I practically hit the ceiling with my excitement.  It's not often that I forget the title AND the author of a book, but somehow with this book only the storyline sticks with me.  I have been trying to track it down for several months, wracking my brain for either the title or the author to no avail.  In the bookstore, the distinctive cover art jumped out at me, causing me to literally knock a stack of books off the shelf.  Now I have my very own copy, and won't have to worry about forgetting it again.  :)

Less money, more time on the train!

 Hi!  
Since my last post my vacation has started, which has been relaxing and fun so far.   I haven't been cooking as much, as I've been meeting with friends often; but I did make some 'hotdish' about a week ago.   I hadn't purchased hamburger yet since coming to SK, but found it in the Woori Mart that I shop at and was excited to try something new (new for my life in Korea).  
I cooked the macaroni in water while the hamburger was browning.  Then I mixed together the cooked noodles, hamburger, some pasta sauce and some shredded cheddar cheese.  Since not having an oven puts a bit of a dent in the cooking process, I put it in the microwave for about 5 mintues until the cheese was melted.  
It was delicious!

Last weekend I went out with some friends on Saturday night.  We had some fried chicken for dinner and then went out for drinks.  It was a lovely evening!

I think Kimmy makes a great pirate!

Mmmm.  Beam.

 I made it to the 13th Annual Busan Rock Festival last Sunday.  There was a good mix of people there, many of which you would expect to see at a rock festival.  It sounds weird to say something like that, but conforming is much more likely here than dressing for individuality.  There were also people of all ages, from older couples to teens to young children.  The music that we encountered was pretty good, one from a geeky looking band and then a more traditional looking Korean rock band.  The last one was a British band, who though seemingly loved by the Koreans was not appreciated as much by us waygooks.  

Regarding the pic above right, yes, there was a woman taking video on her ipad in the very front row.  A terrible video might I add, the band was definitely not video-worthy.

I was invited last week to help celebrate a friend's birthday on the beach.  We had a great night chatting on the beach complete with 3 dozen doughnuts and fried chicken.  

 

On Wednesday we left to go to Seoul.  We took the long train there, which took nearly 6 hours, but was most cost effective.  It was a long trip, but beautiful while the sun was still out. We had a great time talking and laughing the whole way there.  

On our way to our hostel.  

 Thursday was our first day in Seoul, and we had a great day despite the heat.  We had heard that there was Taco Bell in Seoul and were delighted when we found it.  I myself had been craving Taco Bell.  Strange when I barely even eat it at home.  It was nearly as good as I remember.  After not having tacos for so long, I completely forgot how I order them, without lettuce.  So it was packed full of lettuce, of course.  But the nachos bellgrande were good.  :)

After leaving Itaewon (where we shopped and ate Taco Bell) we took a bus to Namsan Tower.  

 

At Namsan Tower there are locks, as declarations of love.  There is an old belief that if you declare your love on Mount Namsan that it will last forever.  So many people have linked locks together and thrown away the key so that their love will last forever.  In Busan, there is a place where many people do this as well.  Some of the locks are old and rusty, but some are brand new.  We also saw some people possibly trying to find the locks that they had linked together in the past.  I'm not sure if they were successful in their search though. 

Georgina adding our lock and message (on a cheap phone case) to the lot.  

Our Busan group, the Toffee Otters!

On Friday we took a DMZ tour.  In the past, I had felt completely ambivalent about doing a tour of the DMZ, I decided that if the people I was traveling with wanted to do one, then I would as well.  If not, oh well.  When my friends said that they definitely wanted to do one, I stuck with my plan and was in 100%.  It turned out to be a good tour, they picked us up from our hostel, and then we took a bus with other waygooks.  First we went to the Odusan Unification Observatory.  From there we could see North Korea on the other side of the river. Because it was a bit foggy, they showed a video, which seemed full of propaganda.  They are very quick to denounce the propaganda that the North Korean government share with North Koreans, but didn't even present the most up-to-date, accurate information (i.e. that Kim Jong-il passed away nearly a year ago and his third son Kim Jong-un has inherited the communist regime).   Now I'm not saying that North Korea is right because the video was propaganda, but I am saying that I think that there are other ways to get the message across, possibly using more refugees' stories rather than just bits and pieces of stories. ** 

The shoreline opposite is North Korea.

Shown below are images near the Freedom Bridge, where only 13,000 refugees were released from North Korea from South Korea after the war.  The train on the right was sitting in the DMZ, and is now on display in all of its' rusted glory.   

 

After seeing the Freedom Bridge we drove a bit farther until we reached the outskirts of the DMZ.  The DMZ stands for De Militarized Zone.  This is somewhat ironic due to the fact that the border between SK and NK is the most heavily fortified border in the world.  Anyways, the DMZ is 4km wide and runs all along the border between SK and NK.  2km of the DMZ is considered SK, and the other 2km is considered NK.  The border directly in the middle is called the MDL the Military Demarcation Line. There is one location that falls in both territories, the JSA.  The JSA houses the one place where the leaders of SK and NK can come together to negotiate, though it is not often done.  

In the JSA it is important to follow the orders of the military personnel who are there strictly for our safety.  We were assigned two US Military officers, one for each bus of our tour.  They stayed with us the entire time and helped to guide appropriate behavior.  There are many limits in the JSA, as to what/when you can take pictures and no pointing/making rude gestures of any kind.  Pointing is considered rude in Korean culture.  

My guest pass at the JSA.

The concrete slab between the two buildings represents the border between North Korea (left of the slab) and South Korea (right). 

This is the table where the leaders of SK and the UN (left) and NK (right) come together for negotiations.  The microphones and flag in the middle of the table represent the SK/NK border.  

Posing with the Korean soldier.   

Soldiers faced the North Korean border at all times, for our protection.  

On Friday night, after a day of touring the DMZ, we were all knackered and a nap was in order.  We wanted to try some Korean food after eating both Taco Bell and Subway the day before.  We decided to try Shabu Shabu, which none of us had had before.  

According to a recommendation by (possibly) the owner or at least the nice gentleman who helped us, we ordered half/half.  This just means two different kids of soup.  It is pictured below on the right.  You can see the different kinds of soup, the one on the left was sort of smoky in flavor, while the one on the right was spicy.  Both of them were delicious.  It started as just broth, and we got to add our own assortment of bean sprouts, mushrooms, dumplings rice noodles filled with cheese and beef.  There were also some noodles that came with it, which we added after our first round of veggies, and had some rice as well.  Delicious!

Beef for our Shabu Shabu.  

 

After dinner we found a nice hookah bar to settle in to.  Here I am with some Baileys.  

On Saturday I met up with some friends from Busan who were in Seoul as well.  We went to Gyeongbokgung Palace.  

Chinese Zodiac, I'm a rat!

It was a great weekend, though exhausting.  I was very glad to get home to my apartment and sleep much of Sunday away.  :)  I'm just about rested and ready for more adventures.  :)

**The thoughts and knowledge contained herein are mine alone. The information is as correct as I understood it to be from my tour, however if it is incorrect then it is due to my ignorance not the lack of the tour and I sincerely apologize.