Friday Night:
A group of us went to see the movie: The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. Joseph declined seeing this movie, so it was myself, Amy, Lee Ann, Giselle, Danny and Jeff. Lee Ann was the only one of us who had read the book and also saw the Swedish version of the movie. If you haven't seen it, you should. It isn't a feel good movie, and something funny about it is the Korean translation: The Girl Who Hates Men. That will give you an idea about the movie. Despite that, it's a pretty intense movie yet all of us would recommend it.
After the movie was over the girls had a sleep over at Amy's. All of us girls are 30 or 31 so our version of a sleepover was a bit different than 20 years ago. By the time the movie was over it was already 2:30am so we got a snack from around the corner and took it back to Amy's, ate, talked and went to sleep. That was the extent of our sleepover. Nothing cool like pillow fights in our undies, putting make up on ourselves and dressing up, crank calling the boys or anything else that would be as much fun. Alas...
Saturday
The next morning we woke up around 9am (see? not a normal sleepover since we went to bed at about 6am) and in between sleeping, talking, eating real bagels and watching TV until we finally got ourselves together and out of the apartment by 1pm.
The Cupcake Experiment. This experiment began when Amy and I were walking around one day just chatting about wanting to take a cooking class. We didn't care what kind, we just wanted to take one while we are here. Enter The Flying Pan. This restaurant has 3 levels and on the top level is a Cooking School. You can take Korean cooking classes and learn how to make traditional dishes (coming soon) or make Cupcakes. Yes please!
We signed up for this and invited Lee Ann, Joseph and Lily!
We had a blast as the pictures clearly show. The cupcakes were already made and our job was to simply decorate them but we didn't care. It was a great time.
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| Lily, Amy, Joseph and Lee Ann |
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| Serious Students |
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| Real icing! |
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| I did it! |
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| Dedicated... |
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| Voila! |
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| Rock those cupcakes! |
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| Pretty in Pink (and Blue) |
After cupcakes we went back to Amy's and put our cupcakes in the fridge then went to eat around the corner at a Chinese Restaurant (not like home and delicious). Lee Ann's foot had been hurting for a few days so she decided she wanted her foot to be checked out because we were going to the DMZ the next day. The 3 of us trekked to the nearest hospital to get her checked out. It was laughter from the word go. The taxi driver woman didn't want to drive us 5 blocks so cussed us out all the way there in Korean and broken English and it didn't help when we laughed. We arrive at the hospital and the entire hospital world is different than in the USA. You are seen very quickly, and taken care of very quickly. Everyone is treated in a general room/area and beds have the curtains for privacy. Traumas and other emergency patients have actual hospital rooms but the ER is a wonderful experience compared to home. Take notes America. Our laughing fits continued not only because of how Lee Ann was being treated but somehow we found something to laugh at. We were not laughing at the patients, that's terrible; but we were laughing at how the meds were delivered to the ER (think the drive through bank tubes!!) and at the other equipment being being used on various patients. We all have great imaginations and between the 3 of us couldn't even come close to guessing what they were for.
Sunday:
DMZ
This was simply an amazing trip. It was not scary and we had a wonderful time with Lee Ann and Josh. Our day began at 4am and after coffee, Joseph and I met Josh downstairs (who hadn't been to sleep yet) and went to the train station to meet Lee Ann. Took the slow train north to Seoul and got a bite to eat and were on the bus to the DMZ (3rd Tunnel) by 9:30am. To learn more about our trip please copy and paste the small print at the end of this blog into your Word program as I made it small print to save some space. I would like to mainly show pictures on the blog about the DMZ.
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| 3rd Tunnel Location |
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| Lee Ann and Elizabeth Freedom Bridge behind us |
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| Slow train to Seoul Joseph and Josh |
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| Seoul subway Joseph, Josh and Lee Ann |
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| Bus in Seoul to the DMZ |
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| Imjingak North Korean Money |
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| Imjingak Souvenirs |
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| Freedom Bridge (kinda) |
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| Freedom Bridge (kinda) |
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| Freedom Bridge |
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| Elizabeth, are you sure this is okay?? |
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| See? It's the Freedom Bridge |
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| Hello North Korea! |
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| Opps? |
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| Our tour group All of the food we ate was made in the village here |
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| Pretty river we crossed to get to the 3rd tunnel |
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| This is where our food came from in the restaurant |
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| Joseph, which one are you hiding in? |
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| 3rd tunnel museum |
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| Anti climatic 3rd Tunnel entrance |
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| Photo bombed Lee Ann's photo She had no idea what we were doing and each of us didn't know the other was doing it either. |
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| See the guard towers? Soldiers and hard core gunnery present |
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| Where you can view and take pictures of North Korea but do NOT cross the Yellow Line! |
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| North Korea is behind him |
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| There was actually a train coming... We were getting yelled at to move |
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| Train taking workers back home |
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| Customs area ready to go! |
| ImjinGak Imjingak is as far as civilians can go to the North by themselves without permission Imjingak was built to console those who had to leave their homes in the North. It has Manngbaedan, an altar where those who cannot go back to their homes get together and pray for their ancestors on the New years day or Chusok Korean Thanksgiving day. Peace Bell was put with starting New Millenium 2000 for wishing a peace and unification between two Koreas. In addition, you can walk on the Freedom Bridge, the discontinued Kyongui Line, where the sign says, “The train wants to run". The Freedom Bridge also used to exchanging the prisoners after Korean War, so its been called "Freedom Bridge" The suspended Kyongui Line will be reconnected within 2001. The 3rd tunnel The 3rd tunnel was first discovered in 1978, was dug by North Korea to infiltrate into the south It is 2m in width, 2m in height, 1,635m in length, and 435m from MDL. Visitors descend about 300 meters at a 14∼15 degree angle before reaching the North Korean infiltration tunnel, which is 73 meters below the surface. Its almost like 25∼30 stories building. The floor of the tunnel (interception & infiltration tunnel) is covered with rubber mats and the wall with charcoal which was applied to give some possibility to the North Korean claim that the tunnel was part of an abandoned mine. This tunnel would allow about 10,000 armed or 30,000 unarmed soldiers to invade Seoul within one hour. Dora observatory This allows visitors to get a view both of the DMZ (Demilitarized Zone) and of the Kesung city the second largest city of North Korea. You can also see a "Propaganda village" Kijongdong designed to give visitors the impression the North Korea is a prosperous nation. Visitors can see the Daesungdong, freedom village of South Korea. The village has got some benefit from the government such as free of tax, exemption of Military service. Also visible from the observatory is a head of train, which used to run between the North and South Korea. The National Ministry of Defense built it in 1986. Tongilchon (unification village) There are two villages inside DMZ. The first one is Daesongdong just near the Panmunjom and the other one is Tongilchon. You can notice the life of the people who live near the border. The thieves cannot sneak into the village. Therefore each house doesnt have any gates and addresses. The village is famous for rice, soybean, Jinseng especially the rice and Jinseng are popular among the people. The villages been holding "Soybean festival", every November (since 1987). If you want to take part in it, come to Imjink with your passport or ID card issued by south korean government | |||||
