A week in photos

I promised to show pictures of the cafeteria. The picture above shows what we see when we walk down to the cafeteria. The pictures show what they are serving in each of the rooms/lines. They cover Korean, Asian, Western and Noodle dishes. Then you select which cafeteria to enter (A or B) and then which line to get in.

Beef bulgoggi from the cafeteria

On Thursday, we were craving some Mexican food so we decided to go to a place Julios. There they serve something called a "bulldog" which is a margarita with a corona in it! Crazy I have to come to Korea just to learn of this amazing drink! 

Tuesday and Friday of  this week I went to Norebang (I described it in a prior post). 

Yesterday we decided to venture out into the rain and go visit the Korean War Museum. The Museum is huge and pretty new. On the outside are tons of old airplanes, tanks, guns, trucks and boats. It's pretty cool to see all the old machines. The inside is a combination of history about war in Korea, Korean War history, and simulation activities.

Norebang, Korean Class and BBQ

So last weekend some of the interns were exploring our area and after dinner and a few drinks we thought it was time we checked out a Norebang place. Norebang is basically rooms that you rent with couches etc where you do Karaoke with your friends. Most of the places have bars so you can order drinks and hang out. The one we ended up going to was pretty nice with a ton of songs in English and Korean. Was a little bit of a step up from my 25th bday in Chicago's Korea town - but very similar experience. However this time they definitely had "I think we're alone now" :) I am waiting for my friend to send me some pictures and I'll post them, but wanted to tell about the experience - always love me some Karaoke!

This week we began Korean class. For someone who has only learned Latin based languages in the past, Korean is not very easy. For instance while there aren't as many letters as in the Chinese language, they are very complicated and confusing. For instance there are sounds that I do not characterize as even sounds we use in the English language. For instance there is a vowel that is kinda pronounced uh or ugh - combination, but I didn't even understand whether that was a sound that we use in English. Took me an entire class to understand how to say it. Also there are 3 letters that pronounce p/b - with slightly different intonations (see below for alphabet). Given the fact that different sounds have different letters its very difficult to remember when to use which. However, given that I'll be here for 5 more weeks, being able to read and somewhat understand how to say things will help enough. I still only know a few words, and despite the difficulty of this language, it is still nice to learn a little bit about the Korean language.

This week was full of Korean BBQ. Earlier this week I had dinner with 3 other GSBers that are also in Seoul for the summer. That was fun to catch up and eat some good Kalbi (beef) BBQ at Samwon Gardens.

Later in the week we went to this local seafood bbq place which was very Korean. We really had no idea what we were ordering when we ordered it, but it ended up being a pretty cool and interesting experience.

Went to North Korea!!

....well not exactly. On Saturday, we went on a tour to the Demilitarized Military Zone. The DMZ is the 2.5mi wide area that separates North and South Korea and is the most heavily militarized border in the world. Korea is technically still in war, as the war never ended officially. This area was created to maintain peace and ensure that people do not freely enter or leave North Korea. North Korea is one of the most difficult countries to enter, in large part because of the communist regime which has for years tried to prevent the inflow of information and news from the outside world. In fact there are NO internet cafes in all of North Korea. When the two countries were divided citizens were asked to chose which country they wanted to live in and that after they made their choice they were not allowed to change their mind. This means that some families are split up between South and North Korea.

During the tour we first visited one of the freedom bridges which were essentially established to allow citizens to cross into the country of their choosing (as mentioned above). Now the bridges are primarily used for exchanging prisoners of war. (The main bridge is in the background of the picture below)

Also on the chain fence near the freedom bridge and on the gate that prevents people from walking around messages of hope for the future unification of Korea in addition to wishes of safety and hope for the people of North Korea.

After the freedom bridge we headed to Camp Bonifas, which is the area operated by the UN to monitor the South/North relations. Here we were asked to basically sign a waiver that we understand that this area is extremely dangerous.

We then entered the official Joint Security Area. The JSA is the only place in the DMZ where South and North troops stand face to face. Here we entered a large main building on the South Korea side. Directly in the middle of this area and right on the divider line are little buildings that are owned/shared by both North and South Korea. This is where I stepped into North Korea! Also the South Korean guards are the ones in the photos, and for whatever reason some of them face directly at the buildings. The guy below is technically in North Korea.

On the other side of these buildings is a large building that is the main North Korean building. When the big South Korean building was built it was originally larger than the North Korean building but the North Koreans then added an additional floor to big taller than the South Korean building. They did this with their flag pole as well.

What is interesting about this area is that the North Korean troops only come out when there are tours. The day we were there there was only 1 and he was on the steps of the building - hard to see in the picture. During the time we were there he kept looking at his binoculars and making sure we didn't do anything - like run across the line which will get you shot.

All in all it was an interesting day!