Last Friday, I met Aunt Christy (visitor #2!) at our hotel in Gangnam. We ate dinner there and had an early night because we'd both had a day of travel. We woke up early (5:30) the next morning and took a taxi to the U.S.O. for our trip to the DMZ!!
The DMZ is a 2km wide and 241km long stretch that is a no-man's-land between North and South Korea. It is very fortified and the wildlife has flourished there. It is an active war zone. There are two villages within the boundaries, one belongs to the North and one to the South. They are called Freedom village and Propaganda village. Freedom village, which belongs to the South, has actual inhabitants and they farm the land within the DMZ. Propaganda village belongs to the North and is fake. We went to the joint security area (JSA) first and saw North Korea and a soldier across the line that defines where North Korea ends and South Korea begins. We went into the conference room that belongs to South Korea (it's bright blue, while North Korea's buildings are grey). I actually stood in North Korea. I had been so excited and actually being there was crazy. I got nervous after they told us about all the instances in the past (80's) when N.K. has launched surprise attacks or Russians try to defect. Put it into perspective a lot more than I had before when preparing to go. These soldiers stand face-to-face with their enemies every day. We heard gunfire in the distance but apparently it was at a North Korean firing range and they were "out of range." Uhhh.. yeah.
We went from there to Dorasan, the last train stop before North Korea. We ate bimimbap for lunch there. Bimimbap is a bowl with rice, egg, and vegetables all mixed together with a red pepper paste on top. Next, we went to the Dora observatory where we could look through platform binoculars into North Korea. Absolutely no pictures passed the yellow line (which was ten yards from the view finders), in case our troops were on patrol. Finally, we went to the third tunnel (of four) that N.K. has dug. This one actually reached the south side of the DMZ that belongs to S. Korea. We walked down the 11deg decline into the tunnel, it was long and hard work to come back up. Seoul is not that far away from North Korea.. only about 50km.
We took the bus back to the U.S.O. and posted up in a coffee shop to regain energy . It was decorated for Christmas and I felt like I was home. We then took the subway to city hall and wandered around the lantern fest eating street food again. We found a book store and I bought a book because I needed it.
The next morning, we had breakfast at Tom N Toms then went to Yoido, the biggest church in the world. 12 services a week. 12 orchestras. 12 choirs. 12,000 in my service alone. I was in awe (an orchestra!!). And I had nice big headphones for a translation. If you give them 24 hours notice, they can have any language translation for you. And they have a haven called Prayer Mountain that I'm going to have to try. I took Aunt Christy back to the airport via the train and we said our goodbyes.
I met K at Seoul station on the way back, we got some Christmas lattes from Starbucks and went on a walk catching up. Somehow we walked all the way to Namsan tower (almost 2 miles). The road was perfectly fall and I thank God for his artistic hand. The tower itself was cool, too. You could see so far in every direction and they told you how far it was to other cities on the windows (ex. Anchorage, AK). Then we walked back, said goodbye and I ate a tuna salad rice ball for dinner before taking the KTX home. We had our first rain-slush-snow that night.
Monday: went to Cheonan and met some (awesome) new girls at a coffee shop (we planned to meet there, I didn't just run into them). We got ear piercings and I laughed so much. They know a girl in my complex and go to the international church I go to. We're seeing Hunger Games 2 on Monday!
Thank you, Jesus. I needed community.
ALSO - IT SNOWED MONDAY, NOVEMBER 18.
What I figured out: South Koreans are not allowed to go to the DMZ unless they are very special. And Chinese tourists can visit from both sides (in theory, at least).
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