So before I get into the meat of what will arguably be a large post, I feel the need to express a bit of the rage I've been feeling with Korea in the last day. When I went to upload the videos of the group bungee jumping onto YouTube last night, I was informed that YouTube Korea no longer allows comments or upload videos. Fucking load of bullshit, I agree. More details in link below:
http://www.pcworld.com/article/162989/google_disables_uploads_comments_on_youtube_korea.html
Obviously, I think the law is a load of absolute shit and a blatant disregard of freedom of speech. The surprise was that I have a soulless and faceless corporation to thank for protecting my freedoms, by shutting down the features to not allow people to give up their anonymity and allowing me to circumvent the rule. So I may never say this again, especially given my dislike for Google, so drink it in big boy: Thank you Google. God, the words hurt me just to write. What made me most angry was the reasons why such a law is necessary. What follows below may be deemed harsh and insensitive, so I apologize now. I know that Korea has a problem with suicide and that people will literally off themselves at the drop of a hat, but that is no excuse for such a law. If the actress in question really killed herself due to internet criticism, then maybe she didn't deserve the life she was given. The world is a harsh and ugly place and if you can't stand the heat, well, you know. Seriously, if insults from some anonymous internet douchebag named tittiesucker09 or ramrod6969 are too much for you, imagine the real world. I would wager that most people have gone through frustrating times, possibly even depression and contemplated suicide (this author included), but they struggled through, because that's what life is...a struggle. I just find it hard to have respect for people like the women mentioned in the article. That is all. On to happier events.
The DMZ trip. Wow, what a great couple of days. Now without further ado.
The trip technically started for me Friday evening, as the bus left from Seoul at 8:30 am on Saturday morning. Do the math in reverse and that roughly breaks down to me waking up at 4:30 am or so. Not happening. So I decided to crash at Jamie's place Friday night, which is on the subway line, and just go from there on Saturday. Nothing too crazy Friday, just heart-wrenching sadness when we found out the screen golf course was closed. Leave it to Korea to have a popular social/evening hangout closed on a Friday night by 10pm, you know, the time when most people would be done with work and dinner and might wanna smack some balls. Whatever. Saturday morning saw Jamie and I getting up bright and early to make it to Seoul in time for the bus. We badly miscalculated, in a good way, and ended up getting to the meeting point 45 minutes early, plenty of time to grab some Dunkin Donuts for breakfast. Being with Jamie means comedy is rarely far behind, and this day was no exception. The ladies working the counter didn't speak much English and they certainly didn't speak much English English. Poor, poor ladies. Jamie apparently confused and befuddled them so much that he got a free donut out of the mix. Breakfast in hand, we boarded the bus and settled in for the 2 hours to the DMZ. Our initial excitement, at least for Amy and I, quickly turned into mild horror as we got a glimpse of the company we would be keeping for the next 2 days. You know what they say, you can take the kid out of Wisconsin, but you can't get them the hell away from fucking coasties. Yep, as luck would have it, several of our tourmates were that lovable stereotype, down to the T. Just a quick example: when our small group packed it in after a campfire and drinking Saturday night, the coasties continued well into the night. We heard word the next day that there was drunken truth or dare that led to streaking, naked pushups, and topless cartwheels, among other things. This just in: College is over, time to grow up!
Only a minor inconvenience though, as we didn't have to spend too much direct time with them. Our trip took us first to Goseokjeong and the Hantangang. Our entire trip took place in Cheorwon country in the Gangwon province, and these two sites just happened to be the furthest south. The weather was still pretty lousy, with overcast skies and the threat of rain looming. The views however, were gorgeous, as I took more videos and pics than were necessary. Goseokjeong is the name of the large rock pillar in the middle of Hantangang River. The tour gave us an hour to poke around and I spent the vast majority just chilling down by the river, as the authentic vehicles from the Korean war and the small museum about the war didn't interest me too much, especially since the text was in Korean only. I even took a video of just the little waterfall down in the river valley, that's how into the scenery I was.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rAJlZrBIEoI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6ZiYn4MKyY
Next, our group moved to the 2nd Underground Tunnel. This is one of several tunnels the North Koreans built to sneak into South Korea. This one was surprisingly not found until 1975, many years after the war finished. I didn't get the chance to take any pics inside the tunnel, as we were forbidden to shoot, but that didn't stop Anna and Amy, so you'll have to look through their pics, which I linked to on my facebook page. Nothing too special about the tunnel. It was dark, damp, wet, and not terribly inviting. To make things less pleasant for me, it was constructed by and for 1950s Koreans, meaning I hit my head on the ceiling...alot. Thankfully, this problem had been thought of beforehand, as all visitors were required to wear hard helmets. Good thing, otherwise I would have suffered several serious concussions. In some spots the ceiling was about the same height as my chin, maybe a little lower, meaning it required some serious crouching to navigate. What made me angry was that, upon exiting, I was following behind a middle aged Korean woman...who didn't have to even duck once. Fuck. And the whole walk takes about 30 minutes round trip. My back hurt after it was over. Clearly.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_jMudgDSfco
Next, we moved on to the best view of the DMZ possible. Seeing as how nobody is allowed into the 4 km stretch of land for fear of being shot, it is the most protected wildlife preserve in the entire world. I knew this fact coming in, but I had no idea it would be so peaceful and beautiful. Just hills, ponds, streams, prairies and fields for miles. It really would wonderful to stay there for a while just basking in the quiet, until you got so incredibly bored with having absolutely nothing around. It was really hard to reconcile the blood spilled and the violent acts committed there with the sights I saw before me. I don't know what I expected the DMZ to look like, but it was definitely supposed to be a place that just screamed death at every turn. I'm glad it didn't though. Even the troops we saw, positioned along the fence, didn't have the somber mood expected of such a place. Wherever we went they were smiling and waving to us, taking pictures with us, and even exchanging heart signs with us (where you make a heart shape with your hands). Course, Anna does have the innate ability to melt even the coldest of Korean male hearts.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTJ7S5_MU7w
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1SEW8U4DrC8
From here, we moved on to the Labor Building. Just the remains of a building that was used by the North Koreans to commit horrible atrocities against the South and its sympathizers. Nothing too notable about a old husk of a building, but it was interesting to be on the outside looking in on such matters of history. The signs and information was intriguing as they were obviously sensationalized and demonized the North to quite an extent, even though there were certainly buildings and places where the South did similar cruel acts, but there was no mention of such acts. It was a war, shit like that happens all over.
With all the sightseeing for the day behind us, we finally settled into our accommodations. We were stationed at a small town just 5 or 6 km from the DMZ. Our small group of 4 was put up in a villager's home for the night. Quite an experience being housed in a very typical Korean country home. We were by no means slumming it and going without electricity and running water or something, but it is certainly different than the city apartments that we all live in. There was no sink in the bathroom, but otherwise it was modern business as usual. I found it funny that the family had a fancy flat screen TV that cost more than everything else they owned combined, but people everywhere make strange financial decisions. Once our bags were settled, we headed back to the town hall that was our group's dinner/meeting headquarters. We noticed that there were several tandem bicycles to use, so naturally we went for a spin through town. The town was just as quaint and quiet and wonderful as we had originally assumed. It's one of those towns, like the ones in the Southwest or something, where you can't see anything cept nature and empty land (in this case, rice paddies) in all directions, so much so that you can't imagine that there is anything else out there. Just this town and that's it. Now, as you can see from the pic on facebook, the bikes were a little small, so peddling was an adventure, but it was worth it for the ruckus we caused in town. Imagine some tiny town in the middle of nowhere, with kids on bikes and such playing in the middle of street, when 7 tandem bikes of foreigners start rolling through town. Clearly, we caused a fuss, with children running after us down the street and kids on bikes joining the procession. We even had some kids that tried to attack us with play swords and one boy who "shot" at us with his play gun. Should probably keep an eye on that one, as he clearly doesn't understand that we're liberators and I'd assume he also hates freedom.
Dinner followed shortly after the bike trip, which was then followed by a camp fire. The Koreans in this area know how to do fires, as they built a pyramid several feet tall, made of tree branches for kindling and broken down wood boards for the skeleton of the pyramid. Then, in true badass fashion, they doused the wood with not lighter fluid, but straight gasoline. Needless to say, the fire was quite hot and was several feet tall at first. Smores and alcohol followed, as is standard protocol. After everyone was good and liquored up, the tour guides led to a memorial monument for a "bravery game". All it was was the leaders telling a ghost story about all the dead souls that haunt the hill, as it was a very bloody battle during the war, then having us climb the hill one by one, while other tour guides jumped out and tried to scare us. Mehhh, at least we got to wander around and enjoy the gorgeous evening. Back to camp and straight away to bed, while the coasties continued drinking and taking their clothes off. Christ.
Sunday morning saw us heading back up to Baekmagoji hill, where we had the bravery game the night before. This time, we were given a synopsis of the fighting that took place there by a Korean soldier with quite good English. Again, it was hard to reconcile the idea that 20,000 or so troops lost their lives on this hill over the course of 10 days (the hill changed hands 24 times during that span), with the calm and peaceful feeling you couldn't help getting while you stand there. They set up a fun practice mine searching game for us. Too bad the radios they gave us were really bad at picking up the mine. Whatever, just an excuse to wander around a park in the sun and listen to Korean radio.
Now we move on to the real treats of the trip. From the mine searching, we moved to a rice paddie literally a fart away from the DMZ. Rice paddie, then single lane road, then hill and barbed wire of DMZ embankment. Nuts. We then dropped our shoes for some rice planting. Yes, playing in the mud for the win. There weren't enough waders, so most of us hopped in barefoot. Which turned out to be the better choice as the waders got stuck really easily in the mud, while bare feet did not. Not much to rice planting. Take your chunk of rice seedlings, which look like pieces of sod, tear off a few blades with the attached roots, then plunk those into the ground far enough to hold the plant upright and so that the majority of the blades are still sticking above the ground. Since we were already in the paddie and pretty dirty, the tour leaders decided to have us try our hand at catching mudfish. These slimy little buggers just got tossed into the paddie and we preceded to hunt them down and drag them back out. They were a bitch to grab as their skin was slick like an eel and the easily flopped out any time I tried to grab them. Most people (myself included) only managed to successfully hold on to one when they were so tired that they just laid down in your hand, no fighting or anything.
Around this point, the girls made the acquaintance of a group of 3 young children who were the kids of some of the local supervisors, I do believe. These three latched onto the girls pretty hard and wouldn't let them out of sight once we got back to our base camp. From tandem biking around town to lunch to badminton, these little buggers were mini shadows. I joined in for badminton match, as the youngest child, a boy, was obviously overwhelmed by all the estrogen around, due to his two older sisters and their 2 new female foreigner companions. The challenge was thrown up for a badminton match between the girls and the boys. Sadly, there was only 3 rackets, meaning I was to give it a go barehanded. Turns out, my hands are indeed big enough to play badminton with. Yikes. As it turned out, my teammate was just a younger me, as he erupted every time we lost a point, whether it be chucking the racket at the net or cracking it on the ground or barking at me in a mix of Korean and English. I returned the favor by barking at him whenever he sent the birdie way left and out of bounds. We barked at each other every time the birdie dropped between us, as it was obviously the other ones fault. Now, some might say that is rather petty and sad to be criticizing a 4 or 5 year old on his badminton skills, but mediocrity cannot be accepted at any age. It's a shame no video was taken during some of our tirades, as the site of a 4 year old stomping around the court with a 22 year old foreigner matching him step for step would surely have made for an amusing clip. Luckily, Amy did get a shot of me mid strike on the birdie, with the little boy looking on with the requisite wonder and amazement at my skills. I dare say its EPIC.
With the blood pumping after the badminton, it was time to take on the bungee jumping. We all loaded into the bus, said our goodbyes (some goodbyes took longer than others, as the kids stood outside Anna's window and waved goodbye for at least 10 minutes...then called her later in the day), and headed off to our date with destiny. We arrived on the premises and after a casual stroll along the river that runs under the bridge, it was time to jump. Jamie and I went in the first wave, so we paid our money then headed up to the top of the structure. We were fitted for our ankle straps and then we waited....and waited...and waited. There was a group of 6 or so Koreans going before us, so we had to wait and watch each one jump, get lowered into the boat in the river below, then reel in the cord and repeat. Finally it was our groups turn and out of the 8 or so of us, I was last. Jamie went before me and made for a humorous jump as it appeared he was trying to run to safety, ala every Looney Tunes character once they run off a cliff. Finally, it was my turn to step up. Before I stepped up to the ledge, I had been feeling just fine. That was probably helped by the fact that I had to take off my glasses and couldn't really see how far down it was, although the jump wasn't really that high, only 150 feet or so. When I got to the ledge and looked down, my mind kinda shut down. I probably should have been scared but I frankly couldn't process what I was seeing. Was that really the river, all those feet below my own feet? Then it was time to jump and again, I couldn't really process anything on the way down. Was the river really coming up to meet me that fast? Isn't it gonna hurt when I hit the water? Is there really a cord attached to my legs? My mind finally snapped back as soon as the bungee jumped into action, tossing me all about. Eventually, the bouncing stopped and I was lowered into the boat below, but not before the cord started untangling and thus spinning me around and around until finally I was placed in the boat. Total adventure: 2 minutes max. But totally worth it. Sadly, there isn't any video of jump, as I entrusted my camera to someone in the group who didn't get the shot. There is a 7 second clip of me right before I jump, then a 5 second clip while I'm bouncing, but none where you see the actual jump. There is a still mid bounce that proves I did it, which is all I need. Enjoy the following videos for everyone else. Supposedly, some girl took video of almost everyone, but she hasn't posted them yet, but if the video does exist I shall link you to it in the future.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=czN-fbMMK9I
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MhM5JGVHlbk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OmRVqysMgNk
Otherwise, its been a crazy weekend for Korean news. Obviously, North Korea went through with another nuclear test, that everyone knows. What everyone may not know is that the former president, who left office only a year or so ago, committed suicide by jumping off a cliff near his home. He had been under suspicion of taking bribes of upwards of 6 million dollars. Also, a foreign English teacher was confirmed as having contracted swine flu, so the 50 or so teachers that she went to workshops with last week have all been quarantined. The situation is getting a bit out of hand, as many Koreans in Seoul are starting to worry about their foreigner and all foreigners in general being infected. Looks like I picked a really bad time to come down with a sore throat and stuffy nose. One of the guys in quarantine has been writing a blog that is really entertaining and amusing.
http://underquarantine.tumblr.com/
And if you are bored, and wish to acquire some pseudo-news about Korea, then you can hop on over to the blog set up for our entire little group so we can ramble and rant about shit to entertain ourselves and each other. Enjoy.
http://waygookinconsulate.tumblr.com/page/1
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