DMZ tour

Long long post ahead!

Yesterday we went on a tour with KUBA to the DMZ (Korean Demilitarized Zone)! It was with Pris' group though. I jumped to the chance and registered for this trip with them since they allowed members to bring friends along, only to find out several days later that my own group was organizing the same tour for April. 

We gathered at the school's main gate at 12pm and were split into 3 buses for the tour. My bus had about 30 people so it was a rather large group of people heading out together. Along the way, our tour guide shared some background information on the history of Korea and how it became the two separate countries. We also learnt that we were going for the DMZ tour, and not JSA (Joint Security Area) since JSA is only open to foreigners and not local Koreans. The JSA is another place I'd like to visit in the future too. It's where they have a table with a line down the middle indicating the North Korean and South Korea sides.

We stopped by at Imjingak (임진각) while the guide purchased tickets for later parts of the tour. Imjingak is now a park and had huge open areas for families to spend time together. They also had quite a number of monuments relating to the Korean war but we didn't have time to check those out.

After, watching a document and visiting a small museum, we went to The 3rd Tunnel which is a North Korean infiltration route discovered beneath the DMZ. Photos are forbidden inside due to the sensitivity of the location. We had to don yellow hard hats and it was a long long walk inside. The entrance of the tunnel was sloped very steeply and inside the tunnel, air was quite thin and we were all breathing heavily by the time we exited, after turning back near where the MDL (Military Demarcation Line) was. It was estimated that 30,000 soldiers could be moved through this tunnel per hour from North Korea to South Korea. The height of the actual underground tunnel was quite low at about 1.6m in most places so it was a blessing to be short (for once) since we didn't have to bend our bodies for that few hundred meters. It was cool and moist inside, and we were surrounded by jagged walls all round.

We then went to Dora Observatory (도라전망대) which is the viewing observatory furthest up south, closest to North Korea. There, we managed to take pictures with friendly soldiers. All the girls on our tour were going crazy over the guys in uniform, queuing to take pictures with them. We also managed to catch a glimpse of North Korea and some clusters of their villages in the far distance. The view would've been clearer on days with better weather, though. It was slightly foggy when we visited.

Our final stop was Dorasan Station (도라산역). It was built in 2002 after agreements from the North and South Korean governments to link the two countries. But somehow that day never really happened and now this station sits here awaiting for true unification to begin so that it can begin operations. It's part of an extended railway system that will link Korea to other parts of the way such as Russia and Europe. It's the last station in South Korea and it goes towards Pyeongyang.

Oh, and this is something random that's common in toilets here that I've never seen before in other parts of the world. The blue blobs are soap bars attached onto the metal handles. Rather convenient! Most places usually have liquid soap or just no soap at all.

The toilet doors at this particular train station were quite unique too. They have cute pictures on all of them and red wording will appear whenever they are occupied. So yes, I took this picture outside an occupied cubicle whilst hoping that the person inside won't suddenly swing the door open and scare me to death.

As we were returning to our coach, there was a little girl with the cutest expression that make everyone fall in love with her; which also explains the crowd following behind her. As you can tell, the KUBA crowd is an international bunch! There's people from China, Uzbekistan, Germany, USA, Canada, Brazil, Puerto Rico, etc etc etc. 

Finally, home-bound back to Seoul! 

Having read quite a few biographies and watched documentaries about life in North Korea, this tour managed to materialize all that I've seen and heard. You know how some things just feel they really became real after you see it in person? This is one of those cases. I was left marveling at the realness of the situation and how North Korea is not just a place that appears in books and pictures. It is a real, actual country with people living (and suffering). We can only hope for the day that both Koreas will be unified. Till then, the world will be waiting....

skype perspectives

Just got off skype with my parents and it was our first skype session with me in Korea. I realized that there were two very different of how the skype call went. Here's photo examples:

(1) their perspective; all happy and looking good VS 

(2) my perspective; bad angles and unflattering candid expressions. 

Can you guess which was the one uploaded onto facebook? Hahaha. Luckily my parents are active enough on social media to know only to post nice photos (most of the time). No wonder they said I looked good. The lighting made me glow! The camera of their Samsung tablet on the other hand.. leaves more to be desired. :P 

Anyway, I had a pretty rough day in school today so the skype call was a great mood lifter. Was up late the night before rushing a reading log so only had 5 hours of sleep. The peanut butter and margarine sandwich I prepared for breakfast lasted me till 4pm and it was the only thing I had apart from water till 6.15pm. I was up since 7.20am and was busy with school/work the entire time and couldn't even take a break for a proper meal :/ Thank goodness I had a good dinner and it made me feel alot better too. Well, that's my Monday for you. Busy busy busy.

day twenty-one

Week 3 in Seoul has passed and time seems to be flying by! 

Add/drop week has finally ended and I can't be more relieved. It's been a handful trying to coordinate all the modules and also attempting to add new ones into the system. All classes in Korea University that allow exchange students have a 15% limit based on class size set for us, so if there's other exchange students in the class we may not be able to register though the class has empty slots. Case in point: clothing construction class which initially had 13/20 people registered and the number later dropped to 11/20 but I still couldn't register till the very last few hours. zzzzz. All these made my stress rash patch act up again but thankfully it's subsiding now. I guess stress does have a noticeable effect on one's physical well-being. *sigh

I joined my KUBA group for an outing to Seoul Forest yesterday. KUBA is great and my group organizes so many outings (2 meal meetings on weekends and 1 outing on Saturdays) but I don't join very often because eating out can be costly especially if you're with a larger group and the money is split evenly regardless of how much you eat and drink. It's not worthwhile imo if you're one who has a small appetite and doesn't drink, like me. Plus I prefer eating home cooked food most of the time!

Anyway, we were split into groups for the activity and had mini games ala Running Man style. It was great getting to know new people but my favourite part of the day was.... getting to see and feed deer! The moment they suggested going in to the enclosed area to feed them several girls including myself rushed up to the front excitedly. We got to feed the deer some food and it was sooooo nice to be up-close with the deer :') On that note, I am really looking forward to the day where we visit pet cafes!!!! I hope I find a pug and persian cat to make friends with.

We ended the day with the traditional Running Man game where you had to rip others' name tags off. The final winners won based on numbers (they moved about in a huge group of 10 people) so anyone who went near them would find themselves on the ground in the next moment struggling to keep their name tags on. 

After we left Seoul Forest, I went to join my friends at Namdaemoon for street food. We had the best mushroom japchae ever in a small tent stall. So soooo tasty. I also tried savoury hotteok for the first time. We then walked to Myeongdong from Namdaemoon and window shopped while having even more street food. Thus sums up my Saturday! Looking back at days like these, it makes me feel that there's so much yet to be discovered in Seoul and Korea in general. Will definitely have to make good use of my time here to experience as much of the city and country as I can. I'm pretty much in love with what I've seen and tried so far. 

Till the next time I'm back with more adventures, Bin xx

Gwangjang market 광장시장

Hi!!! I just returned back home (yes, we do refer to the livingtel as our home now~) but I felt that our trip to Gwangjang Market or 광장시장 was rather eye-opening and thus deserved a quick post before I get swamped with schoolwork or forget details from this outing. Some of us had class till about 4.30pm today so we set off for the market together after that.

The temperature in Seoul now is still pretty low and it was about 0 degrees celsius when we explored the area. The overall structure of the place does not provide much warmth although when we reached the food section- easily identified by the bare bulb lights illuminating the rows of stalls- the entire place seemed a lot more lively and was bustling with activities and people. We entered via exit 10 of the underground shopping area of the metro station and first found ourselves in the textile section of the market. There were quite a number of stalls selling gifts, ginseng, etc as well.

We quickly got drawn towards the food area and were welcomed by this very obliging ahjumma who happily gave us samples of several types of banchan. She even gave us mini bottles of yakult with straws for free! It is quite rare to find a friendly ahjumma because most whom we encounter, even at the food stalls, look quite fierce.  Needless to say, all our banchan purchases of the day were from her stall. We bought 3 types - those with bamboo shoots, octopus and anchovies. (*28 May 2014: I later returned to her stall another 2 to 3 times within the span of 2.5 months to buy more banchan!)

After that, we moved on to the cooked food stalls. We first settled down at a stall and shared odeng 오뎅 (fish cake), ddeokbokki 쫄볶이 (rice cake) and japchae 잡채 (stir-fried glass noodles). We then shared kimbab as well as bindaetteok. It's nice traveling in a large group because we can order small portions and try a lot of different food without getting too full. Plus it's cheaper this way!

This is the bindaetteok 빈대떡 (mung bean pancake) stall we patronized. Most stalls have grinders similar to those that are used to grind rice and other beans, and mung beans are ground to a paste-like consistency before being fried up with other ingredients. It was crisp on the outside and soft on the inside, and served with a vinegar/soy sauce/garlic mix. The crispy bits were the best parts in my opinion.

The final thing we ate in the market was kimchi mandoo and kuksu (handmade noodles). The stall we ordered from had extra seating slightly further down their main stall area so we had a table all to ourselves. It was a luxury since there were limited seats in the market stalls and most were right in front of the stall holders. Something interesting we found was that seats looked like any ordinary bench with some form of foil wrapping but they were actually heated!! It was sooo comfortable at first but when we were about done with our food it kind of felt like our bottoms were on fire....... ~___~

Last food item of the day! I finally tried hoddeok 호떡!! It's a sweet pancake filled with sugar, nuts and cinnamon, then pan fried. The end product is a slightly crisp dough with molten cinnamon sugar/honey on the inside. So yummeh and perfect for snacking in the cold weather! Mine leaked from the middle so you can see what the filling is like. At SGD1.20 there's really no reason not to have it every time there's such a food stall in sight.

And here's a short clip I took at the market so you can see the market in action. The starting bit of the video was filmed for fun so I could capture the breath vapor, since it probably won't get much colder in Seoul for the rest of the time I'm here.

First week of classes

Just felt like popping by for awhile. School's started officially this week! Though it's the first few lessons and also the tentative period where we confirm modules to ultimately take or drop, it's been tiring. I've been attending extra classes just to get a feel of how other courses can be like, and also to see how other lecturers conduct lessons. All in all, it's been pretty fulfilling thus far. Apart from a food sciences module which I'll definitely be dropping, I'm pretty lucky that I have managed to get sufficient modules confirmed during registration period previously. So right now it's more of testing waters to see if I'm able to find other modules which I might enjoy more :)

The temperature these couple of days will dip, which makes me kinda sad. Rachel Livingtel only has floor heating (my room has an air-conditioner which I had turned on for the past week though) which isn't enough to keep me happily warm sometimes. So on colder days like today, I'll be wearing a three-quarter sleeved top plus a long sleeved sweater, as well as long pants indoors. It's already better than other places though. My other friends staying at Allive Goshitel had to purchase their own heater because their rooms didn't have any form of heating at all.

Oh and I finally brought my camera out for an outing the other day so there will be better photos to come! Pictures from previous posts were all captured using an iphone 4. Am off to get ready for classes (and the cold outdoor weather)! BYE~

** update at 7pm: It snowed light flurries for the entire afternoon today! First snow I've seen this year :D