2. Kimchi. If you don't know what kimchi is, let me explain. Basically fermented veggies seasoned with hot red pepper sauce, garlic, and whatever else. Korean families make their own kimchi each year by chopping up the vegetables (cabbage is very common), mixing everything together in a huge clay pot, burying it in the ground, and letting it ferment. And then they enjoy it for 3 meals a day, 365 days a year, all the years of their lives.  Every time you go to a Korean restaurant, you will get a variety of kimchi to eat with your meal.  I generally push those little bowls as far away from me as I can.  Not only do I despise the taste of kimchi, but the smell is awful too!  Maybe before living in Korea the smell wouldn't have bothered me.  It smells like red chili paste with a sour twist.  Spicy but sour.  Not bad unless you've smelled it for an entire year.  I've noticed that many of the older Koreans actually smell permanently like kimchi.  Well, kimchi and mothballs.  I swear... they all smell like that!  Not a good combination on smells.  I certainly will not be missing anything to do with kimchi when I get back to America.

3. Smog.  I know South Korea is definitely not the only place with smog, but oh my gosh it's so bad here!  I've never lived somewhere that was smoggy.  Until I moved here, I lived every day of my life in Indiana.  Sure, I've traveled to big cities and other countries, but the smog in Korea is just terrible.  There are beautiful mountains all over South Korea; some very close to where we live.  Unfortunately, I've never gotten a very good view of them from our house because the smog is so thick that it blocks my view.  If I stand at the top of the big hill on base and look out toward the city of Osan just to the north, I can rarely see the big buildings through the fog.  Smog is so thick here that when it's actually foggy outside, it's like staring at a white wall.  Driving on a foggy day is super fun.  The smog even blocks most of the stars at night.  Only after a good rain does the smog disappear just long enough to get a glimpse of the mountains or the stars.  I can't wait to look up into the sky back home and see ALL of the stars!

4. Korean bathrooms.  Public bathrooms in South Korea are adventures.  Sometimes they are clean and normal bathroom stalls with toilets that flush and a roll of toilet paper on the wall.  Other times They are normal toilets that flush with NO toilet paper on the wall.  That's when you have to grab the toilet paper from the sink area of the restroom and pray you have enough to make due.  And then sometimes.. you get the kimchi squatters.  Kimchi squatters are these very special "toilets" that are basically urinals laid on the ground.  I would rather pee outside in the woods than pee in a kimchi squatter.  You have to take your pants completely off, which sometimes requires you to take your shoes off!  The floors are always wet, probably from pee.  So imagine taking your shoes and pants off and trying to avoid touching the floor with anything.  Once all of that is done, you have to straddle the "toilet" and aim to make it.  To top all of this off, kimchi squatters do not usually come complete with toilet paper.  It's a drip dry kind of system.  Really fun to do.  (Related to the kimchi squatter is the kimchi squat.  When you bend both knees but still keep your butt off the floor.  You know, how little kids bend down?)  If I run into a kimchi squatter, I usually refuse to pee.  I'll hold it... no matter how badly I have to go.  Oh yeah.  And I forgot to mention you aren't supposed to flush your toilet paper.  In any toilets.  Anywhere.  Not even in your own home.  (We do, but we also have a clogged toilet like 4 times a day.)  You're supposed to throw all toilet paper, no matter how it was used, in a trashcan.  Imagine how lovely public restrooms smell.  Yum.

5. Songtan regulars.  Just outside the main gate is a strip of stores, restaurants, and bars known as The Ville.  This is generally where we go on the weekends to hangout with our friends.  We frequent bars like Think Lounge, known for their impossibly delicious Soju Teas, and Cowboy Grill, where Black Rosary used to perform.  It never fails though, no matter where we go on a Friday or Saturday (or Wednesday) night, we always see Songtan Sally and the Flower Lady.  Songtan Sally is the infamous hooker who walks up and down the strip asking anyone and everyone, "You wanna go?"  Currently pregnant, somehow Sally still gets people to "go".  I can't imagine being so drunk that you'd go anywhere with this woman.  
The Flower Lady is another regular who just really knows how to ruin fun.  This woman goes from bar to bar all night long selling roses.  "You wan flowa?  For you, 2,000 won."  No.  We do not want a rose.  No.  We do not want a flower.  No.  Go away.  We don't want.. okay jeeze.  Here's some money.  Now give me a flower and get out of my face.  That's usually how the conversation goes!  This woman does not take no for an answer.  She once kissed Drew on the cheek over and over until he gave her money.  Then she walked away without giving him a flower.  Lovely woman, she is.

6. Monsoon season.  All I need to say is, nonstop rain for 2 weeks at a time, a few days of rest in the middle, and then a few more weeks of rain.  Enough said, right?

7.  Produce prices.  I would do anything to eat an entire watermelon right now.  I could go to the store and get one, but I don't really feel like spending $15 on a piece of fruit.  Grapes are $7 or more.  Strawberries are the same as grapes.  Blueberries, apples and oranges off base are ridiculously expensive.  It's really impossible to afford eating fresh fruit.  I once bought grapes that I found for $5 and Drew and I ate them like there was no tomorrow.  There better be a watermelon and some strawberries and blueberries waiting for me when I get home.  (Thanks mom.)

8.  Not having a yard.  Dear Lord I really hate having dogs and NOT having a yard.  Do you know how annoying it is to have to put a coat and shoes and walk downstairs, get the dogs behind the garage (in the mud pit) and then let them pee!?  I can't wait to have a house with a yard and be able to open the back door and let the dogs out.  That will be one of the happiest moments I have when I get back! :)

9.  Being stared at.  Everywhere we go, everyone stares.  When we get on a train, all eyes turn to us.  When we walk into a Korean grocery store, everyone stares at us as we walk through the aisles.  If we go into a restaurant that isn't frequented by Americans, people stare the whole time we eat.  Waiters and waitresses stand by our table and watch us eat.  If we drop one thing with a pair of chopsticks, they immediately bring us a fork.  People don't want to sit next to us on the train.  They will keep an open seat between us.  They'll stand rather than sit.  They'll sit as far away from us as they possibly can.  Like we have a disease or something.  It honestly cracks me up.  Americans have been in Korea longer than I have been alive, yet they still look at us like they've never seen anyone like us.  Some people hate us and want us out, some people love that we are here, some are indifferent.  You never know what the person next to you thinks of you.  I understand; if I saw a group of people speaking another language back home, I would probably stare.  I've just never been on this side of things, and I won't miss being in the minority!

10.  The garbage system.  First, it is easier to find Waldo than it is to find a trashcan in South Korea.  Seriously, don't buy snacks or drinks on the street unless you want to carry the trash with you for the rest of the day.  (Or unless you can find a sneaky area to hide your trash when no one is looking.)  There are NO trashcans in public places.  It sucks.  Second, in Korea you have to use special trash bags to throw your trash out.  They're big white bags with all this writing on them, and they cost an arm and a leg.  Think you can get away with buying regular trash bags at the commissary?  Nope.  You're looking at a $1,000 fine.  We have never been fined, but we got close to it!  Now we take our trash to base.  Probably not REALLY allowed, but Drew still has a dorm room, so I think it's okay!  Third, there are no garbage disposals in Korea, so you have to throw your food trash away in a separate bag from your regular trash.  Instead of the big white bags, you have to use smaller orange bags that also cost an arm and a leg.  Put all of your food scraps for a whole week in a bag and let it sit there til trash gets picked up.  Smells super good.  Also, since it's so expensive just to throw trash away, people dump there trash wherever they can!  It's illegal, and you can get a huge fine if you're caught, but people do it.  They find woods, or fields, or abandoned property and dump all of their old furniture and garbage and food.  It's terrible.  There is litter everywhere.  Korea is such a dirty place.  I never thought I'd miss a garbage disposal and those huge, rolling, outdoor trash bins so much until I lived here!

11.  Strays and animal abuse.  I think you've all realized by now that I have a problem.  Well, a few problems.  But my main problem is wanting to save every animal everywhere.  My problem has only gotten worse since moving here.  There are at least 6 cats living in our garage area.  I see the same ones every day, but I also always see new ones.  They eat out of the food trash that people put out at the road every week.  You've never seen strays so fat in your life!  Besides cats, there are also stray dogs everywhere.  In Korea, dogs are disposable.  If your dog runs away, get a new one.  If you old dog comes back, get rid of the newer one.  Your dog got ugly when it grew up?  Get a new one.  Your dog had puppies?  Throw them away.  (This just happened near us last week.)  People treat dogs like crap here.  Their "national treasure", the Korean Jindo, is chained up, locked in a cage, starved, not played with, abused, and even sold as meat.  I've seen trucks carrying dogs in cages on their way to the meat market.  I've found puppy mills full of Jindos surely bound for the market.  Injured dogs running down the street.  Puppies with broken legs still chained up in the yard.  It's so sad and it breaks my heart into a million pieces.  At least we can say we've saved one little baby!

12.  Fashion.  There is nothing I hate seeing more than every girl in the entire country wearing gym shoes with EVERY outfit.  Cute skirt and top?  Pair it with gym shoes.  Cute dress?  Better make sure your gym shoes match!  Shorts with tights underneath?  Gym shoes.  They seriously wear gym shoes with every single thing.  I just really want to see some normal fashion again.  Cute shoes.  Normal shoes.  

13.  Ajummas.  Old, cranky Korean women who are respected by everyone, given seats as soon as they get on the train or bus and even reserved a special section seating on the train, but are still always mad about something.  They push you out of their way.  They bark at you if you do something wrong.  They're just so mad about life.  They will yell at you if your kids aren't perfectly bundled up in the winter.  They're pushy, they steal seats, they elbow you, they have complete disregard for others and they are just rude.

14.  On that note, let me end by saying the thing I will not miss the most about living here is the general rudeness of everyone.  I don't think Koreans try to be rude.  I don't think they are a rude people.  I just think politeness is different here.  Koreans are very respectful.  But I've learned that that does not mean they are necessarily polite.  It's not normal to hold doors open of the person behind you.  People don't smile and greet each other on the streets.  People just seem rude.  And I can't wait to be back in a place where you smile at people as you pass.  You hold the door for the people behind you, even if it means waiting a few more seconds.  You wave at people you don't know. 

Yesterday we wasted about $120 and 8 hours of our life that we will never get back.

Because I have FOUR weekends before I leave, we want to jam pack fun trips and activities in everywhere that we can. Unfortunately, we waited until the last minute to make a plan for yesterday, so we ended up choosing a Korean amusement park called Everland on some kind of whim.

I guess we should have known an amusement park would be absolutely packed on the first Saturday of Spring, but we clearly didn't do a whole lot of thinking! Imagine how many people would go to Cedar Point and Kings Island combined if they were to pay people $100 to go in. Now multiply by 10 and that's still not as many people that were at Everland yesterday. South Korea is the same size as Indiana, but it has over 49 MILLION more people! Someone it always seems like all of those people are in the same place at the same time.

Every line at the park was ridiculously long. 40 minute waits for little kiddie rides. Even an 80 minute wait on the ski lift type "ride" that ever amusement park has. You know the one. Slow, not scary, takes you from one end of the park to the other. The one for the Aunt Sues of the world who come into the park but don't want to ride anything :)

We walked around for a little bit and then found a huge wooden roller coaster at the back of the park. The wait said 2 hours, but we got in line anyway. That's a pretty acceptable wait at any park, I guess. We waited and waited and waited. Drew held our spot while I went to get us food. Which, to my happiness, was reasonably priced. Almost 2 hours after we got in line, we thought we were about to get on the roller coaster! But. Jokes on us, we still had to wait inside a huge building. Ugh.

At least we had lots of fun people watching. There was so much matchy-matchy, I was in heaven. I had to point out every couple wearing matching shoes, shirts, hats, or even entire outfits.

We FINALLY got on the roller coaster, and it was actually super fun. I haven't been on a roller coaster in forever, so it was awesome. But just like THAT it was over. And we were back in the crowd of crazy Koreans.

We got in line for a 4D movie of Rio, which was a 40 minute line. I went to a 4D movie a long time ago and it was awesome, but this did not deliver. It was about 6 minutes long and once again, a major disappointment.

After Rio, we decided to just cut our losses and head home. We were both super disappointed, but I guess that's what we get for not planning in advance!

Here are some pictures of Everland.

So, overall I would give Korean amusement parks a 1/5 (only for the delicious food!)

We certainly will not be going back to Everland haha. But, super excited for next weekend because we will be going to Haesindang Park, so known as Penis Park haha. Don't worry. There will be lots of pictures!

Only 34 days left in Korea!! Can't wait to be home:)

As of right now, I have 40 days left in South Korea.  For the last 10 months, I have lived my life in this foreign country.  I have made a home in South Korea.  I have learned a lot about the Korean culture.  I have learned the every day customs.  I have learned about their holidays and traditions.  I know that you always give something or take something with your right hand, while holding the inside of your elbow with your left hand.  I know that you never pour yourself a drink, but always pour one for everyone else.  I know that you take your shoes off before you enter someone's home.  I know that there is no such thing as the Sea of Japan; it's the East Sea.  I know that you don't point, you don't whistle at night, you don't rest your chopsticks in your rice bowl, and that almost everyone is a Lee, Kim, Park, Choe, or Lim.  ;)
I have learned some Korean words and phrases.  
I know how to say hello - an-yeong-ha-se-yo.  
Goodbye if I am the one leaving - an-yeong-he-gyea-se-yo
Goodbye if I am the one staying - an-yeong-he-ga-se-yo
Thank you - kam-sa-ham-ni-da
Yes - Ne
No - an-ie-yo
Sorry - mi-an-ham-ni-da
Here - yogi
and I know how to say the name of the school across from our house (we use this to tell taxi drivers where to take us.) - Gwan-gwang go-deung-hagg-yo  (I never say this right and always have to say it in English)
I have survived 10 months in a foreign country only knowing how to say 9 words.  Both impressive and sad at the same time.  I cannot understand a word of Korean, either.
Being in South Korea has been the most amazing experience of my life so far.  I am so fortunate to have had this opportunity to come live here with my husband and immerse ourselves in a culture that is so completely different from our own.  For an entire year we were outsiders.  WE were the minority.  We were stared at constantly.  People wouldn't sit next to us on the train.  One time we weren't even allowed to go into a bar because we were Americans.  Most Koreans liked us, or at least didn't mind us, but there were some that definitely were not happy that we were here.  Overall, the people of South Korea are kind, helpful, and respectful.  However,  I have learned here that respectful does not mean polite.  
So before I write a book about that, I'm going to jump right into the real reason I am writing this post.  What will I miss about South Korea?  Lots of things.  It's funny because I know you won't understand most of these, but this is what my life has consisted of for the last 10 months.  If you don't know what some of the words or names are, Google and Wikipedia are going to be your best friends!  OR you can comment here or on Facebook and ask me!  :)  Enjoy my list!

1. First and foremost, I will miss Korea's food.  Not all of it, (kimchi and most of the weird side dishes at meals) but I will miss most of the food.  After I leave Korea I won't have an excuse to eat rice almost every day!  I won't have delicious bulgogi beef, grilled right in front of me on my table.  No more Meat Restaurant where we stuff our faces with all of the delicious grilled meats, chunks of garlic, mandu, rice, noodles, and green plum tea.  No more bibimbap!  No more fresh udon with delicious seafood.  No more taro bubble tea.  No more green tea ice cream.  No more odeng, chicken on a stick (or is that dog?), hotteok, or fried anything you could want from the street vendors!  No more peanut balls or corn choco.  No more corndogs with potatoes in the breading!  No more shrimp chips, kimbap, bingsu, choco pies, crab chips, or gourmet ramen flavors!  No more Oodles of Noodles Khaw Soy!!!!!  It is seriously amazing that I have not gained any weight since being in Korea.  Don't get me wrong, American food is mmmmmm mmmmm delicious, but Korean food will always have this special place in my heart (and stomach.)  I'm sure you don't know what most of this stuff is, but take my word for it; it;s all amazingly delicious.  

2. Public transportation!!!!!!!!!!  I miss my car a LOT, but having access to public transportation, like the train, is SO awesome.  It's so much easier to hop on the train and ride for 2 hours up to Seoul rather than sitting in traffic all day trying to get there.  I also love that there is usually a taxi right around the corner when you need to get somewhere close.  Well, unless you have an appointment, because then the cabs seem to disappear.

3. My big kitchen.  Our apartment has an awesome kitchen with tons of counter space and lots of cabinets.  I will definitely be missing this kitchen once I leave. 

4. WET BATHROOMS!  Oh my gosh.  Korea has it going on with their wet bathrooms.  The shower drain is on the floor, usually in the middle, of the bathroom.  The shower we use doesn't even have a shower curtain.  This makes cleaning the bathroom SUPER convenient.  Spray bathroom cleaner on the whole bathroom, scrub a little with a brush, and rinse the whole thing down with the shower!  Washing dogs is also way easier in a wet bathroom.  No need to worry about splashing water on the floor or on the walls!  One day, I will build my own house and have a wet bathroom again.  

5. Paris Baguette.  So, this probably should have been included in the food, but oh well.  This place is so amazingly delicious.  The first time I had Paris Baguette was in the Incheon airport when I waited for my flight to Spain.  They have pastries, muffins, corn dogs, pizzas, cakes, rolls, EVERYTHING a bakery could ever dream of having, and it's all good!

6. Korean movie theaters.  I HATE going to movies.  Unless it's a movie I really want to see, I would rather wait a few days and watch it online in the comfort of my own home.  However, I have actually enjoyed going to movies in Korea.  Mostly for the movie snacks.  (Again with the food!)  We can get regular popcorn, caramel corn, seasoned popcorn, dried squid, grilled squid, butter squid, beer, pop, ice cream, and so much more.  Every movie theater smells the exact same; lots and lots of caramel corn!

7. Soju.  Seriously, soju is such a dangerously awesome drink.  I will really miss not being able to buy one $6 drink from a bar and getting drunk enough for the rest of the night.  Our favorite place to go out on the weekends is called Think Lounge.  Their specialty drink is soju tea, which is served in a pitcher for $6.  A whole pitcher of soju and tea for one person.  The unspoken rule at Think is that you never have more than one soju tea.  If you break the rule, you'll probably end up puking your way to the cab line by 10:30pm and sleeping on your bathroom floor for easy access to the toilet.  (Not that I know from experience or anything.)
I will also miss kettles, Karaoke, and my Filipino, bassist player boyfriend.  (All related to soju.)

8. Our friends.  Most of our great friends that we've met in Korea have left, but we still have quite a few that we will be leaving behind!  We've met so many awesome people while being here.  I'm so glad I got to come with Drew so I could have these people in my life.  Liz and Ayron are in Germany now.  Jeff and Sara will be in Italy soon.  Our downstairs neighbors are going to Japan.  Our across the street neighbors just got here a few months ago!  It has been hard making such great friends and having to say goodbye so quickly, but it's a small  Air Force, and hopefully we will see each other again!

9. My job!  Can't beat going to work in yoga pants and no makeup every day.  Also can't beat homeschooling!  Although I work a lot of hours a day, homeschooling only takes up about 3-4 hours of each day!  As opposed to teaching for 6-7 hours straight, PLUS coming in early and staying late at a regular school, my job rocks.  I also get to hang out with 4 pretty awesome girls every day.  They can even be bribed with snacks to play with my hair and scratch my back!  

10. Medicine.  Korea knows where it's at when it comes to medicine.  Remember when I had my surgery?  I got the best meds ever for that!  They take great care of you at the hospitals and definitely make sure you'll feel great at home.  They even package up your medicine in daily doses.  Teeny little baggies with the dosage instructions written on it.  Sort of excessive and much bigger than a bottle of pills, but it's pretty convenient after you've had surgery and you have to take about 9 pills  a day!  
Slightly related- I will also miss Korea's vets.  Everything is so much cheaper at the Korean vet than the American vet!  Rooney got a 10 day prescription of pills and antibiotic ointment and scrub during that whole ringworm incident, and it only cost like $36!!!!  Hoosier has had 3 sets of puppy shots, he's been dewormed 3 times, and he just got microchipped.  All of that cost less than $150!  It's unbelievable! 

11. The money.  I'm just going to say it: we make a LOT of money here.  Way more than we will when we come home in May! (sigh)  I will definitely miss Overseas Housing Allowance when we get to Virginia!  I will probably cry when I see the difference.  Also, a lot of stuff is so much cheaper here.  When I realize that, I will really cry.


That is my list of the 11 things I will miss about living in South Korea.  I also have a list of things I WON'T miss about South Korea, but I will save that for another day.  It's a little bit longer than 11. haha
I cannot believe I am coming home so soon!  I spent the entire day today cleaning the apartment and organizing all of our junk.  Drew has to schedule TMO to come pick up all of our household goods, I have to talk to our realtor about moving out, I have 25 more days of work, and then I'm home sweet home.  At least for a little while!  Then off to Virginia to house hunt and move into our first home together!

Can't wait to be back..  See you SO soon!

Remember last weekend I said our day at Hwaseong Fortress was my favorite day in Korea?  Scratch that.  I have a new favorite day, TODAY!  After being in South Korea for 297 days, we finally made it to the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ).  We had been looking forward to this day since before we even got here!  
Today we took a tour of a place that required us to sign a paper accepting responsibility for injury or death as a direct result of enemy action!  Even so, it was probably the coolest experience of my life.
Our trip started out at Imjingak Resort Park.  Imjingak is the farthest north that anyone can travel in South Korea, without special permission.  Our tour guide said that South Koreans that travel beyond this point wait for months to get the permission to go on a tour.  Imjingak is a little memorial park that has many different statues and monuments regarding the Korean War and the reunification of the peninsula.  The park also had a small amusement park, which was weird haha.  

On a lighter note, here's us next to some cutie statues.

After we were done at Imjingak, we got back on the bus and drove to the Third Infiltration Tunnel.  Unfortunately, we were not able to take pictures inside the tunnel.  HOWEVER, I found some online, so I'll include them at the end.
There are four known tunnels along the border of North and South Korea, and believed to be up to 20 more.  These tunnels were dug by North Koreans as a way to invade South Korea.  The Third Infiltration Tunnel was discovered in 1978 based on information given by a North Korean defector.  The tunnel begins in North Korea, obviously, and ends just 27 miles north of Seoul!  The tunnel is 1.1 miles long, and supposedly 6.5 feet wide and high.  I say "supposedly" because we walked through it and even I had to duck most of the way.  I am not 6 foot 5 haha!  This tunnel was built so that as many as 30,000 North Korean soldiers could move through it every hour!  That's a ton of tiny little men running in the same direction!  South Korea has blocked off the tunnel at the Demarcation line by 3 GIANT barricades made of concrete.  These things are HUGE.  We were able to walk all the way to the third barricade, which had a hole cut in it so we could see how thick it was and how far it was from the second barricade.  Ain't no body getting through that tunnel.  
This is the only picture I was able to take.  I'll explain it in the caption!

Walking through the Infiltration tunnel gave me such an eerie feeling.  It was so cool to see though.  Just crazy how close they got to Seoul!  AND that they dug past the Demarcation line.  Naughty North Koreans... breaking all the rules.  Or, as one of our guides said, only following rules when it suits them.
After we walked through the tunnel, we climbed back up the super awesome incline and explored above the tunnel a little bit.

After exploring a bit, we were ready for our next destination; the Dora Observatory.  The observatory is located on Mount Dora, which is on the Korean side of the 38th Parallel.  It is the closest you can get to North Korea without going into the DMZ.  This was such an awesome place.  While we were here, we had zero cell phone service and no access to internet on our phones due to the jamming towers in North Korea.  They are in place to isolate their citizens from the rest of the world, but they worked on our phones too!

We were able to see North Korea clearly with just our eyes, but we could also use telescopes to get a better look.  While we were there, a convoy of box trucks was coming down the highway that connects South Korea to Kaesong, North Korea's Industrial Region.  This is an area where North and South Koreans work together as part of a collaborative economic development.  
*(Ignore the random speck of dust on the right corner of the lens.  I just noticed it as I was uploading the pictures.  OF COURSE it's in every single picture!  I'm so sad!)*

 I hated thinking this, but from all the way over here, North Korea looked beautiful.  So full of nothing.  It was honestly just a refreshing change from the complete chaos and busy-ness of the Korea in which I have spent the last 10 months.  I like to think of South Korea as a muffin top.  You know, just way too much "person" going on to fit into such a small pair of jeans.  Those poor, beautiful jeans bursting at the seams.  They could be so stylish, so fashionable, but there's just too much person getting in the way.  Those jeans are South Korea.  Such a beautiful country, filled with so many people and so many things, that we just can't see how stylish and fashionable it really is.  Compared to that, this little glimpse into North Korea looked so peaceful.  Of course, I know that looks can be deceiving, and they certainly are in this case, but I couldn't help but to think just how beautiful it looked from there.  

After we were done at Dora Observatory, we got back on the bus and drove to Dorasan Station, the only train station that connects the two Koreas.  

Everyone was able to walk inside the train station, that is actually still used twice each day.  It's only purpose, besides being a stop on DMZ tours, is to bring a train, from Seoul, full of tourists who are taking a DMZ tour.   From 2007 - 2008, the train actually went into North Korea to deliver South Korean materials to North Korean companies in Kaesong.  

In addition to being able to go inside the station, we were able to buy a 500 won ticket to go inside to stand by the tracks!

The train station was pretty awesome.  After we were done there, we went to lunch and then it was time for the best part of the trip!  We finally got to go to the DMZ and the Joint Security Area (JSA)!!!
We arrived at Camp Bonifas, the United Nations Command military post that is part of the JSA, also called Panmunjeom.  This post is named after the US Army Captain Arthur Bonifas, who was one of the two men killed by North Korean soldiers in the Axe Murder Incident.  (More on that later, I promise!)  We were not allowed to take any pictures of the base.  However, I have a sweet post card that has a picture of it, so here ya go.

So, once our IDs were checked and we were escorted into the post by a US soldier, we had a briefing about the DMZ, JSA, and everything we were about to see.  The briefing is where I got most of the info I'm sharing with you in this post.  I could have sat there and listened to the dudes talk about North Korea for hours.  I was in the zone today.  I am ashamed that I didn't know very much about the Korean War and the DMZ before today, but a fire has been lit and I am ready to learn!
After our brief, we got back on a bus and drove into the Demilitarized Zone.  Amazing.  We got to see the fields that are farmed by the villagers of Taeseong-dong, or "Freedom Village", one of only two villages that were allowed to remain in the DMZ.  (One village is on either side of the Demarcation Line.)  Villagers of Taeseong-dong are some of the richest farmers in South Korea.  They don't pay taxes or rent, they are exempt from the mandatory military duties, and each family farms about 17.5 acres of land, much more than the average 4 acres per family on the rest of the peninsula.  These families are part of this elite community because they, or their direct ancestors, lived in a certain village before the Korean War.  The families farm the land on the Southern side of the DMZ and they make somewhere around $85,000 a year doing so!  There is an elementary school in the village, but if families want their children to get a higher education, they have to leave and go somewhere else.  Since these families are all extremely wealthy, their children often go to very prestigious schools.  The families in this village live in very nice homes that they don't even have to pay for!  There are many rules and regulations in Taeseong-dong, such as an 11pm curfew, but they are still free citizens of South Korea.  Another interesting fact is that women are allowed to marry into the village, but men are not because of the mandatory military service for all South Korean men.  

As mentioned before, North Korea has their very own village on their side of the DMZ.  Their village is called Kijong-dong and is a little less than a mile and a half north of Taeseong-dong.  According to the North, Kijong-dong, or "Peace Village", is a collective farm made up of 200 North Korean families.  There is also a child care center, elementary, middle, and high schools, and a hospital.  However, in reality, Kijong-dong is a fake village.  No one lives there.  No one works there.  The houses aren't even real!  They are concrete boxes with most of the windows and doors painted on.  Some are real, but none of the windows have glass in them!  There aren't even floors in the buildings.  They are just hollow boxes of concrete.  For many years, Kijong-dong blared propaganda messages over a loud speaker for up to 12 hours a day, which is why it is referred to as "Propaganda Village."  North Korea built the village to be the most noticeable feature when looking across the border, in order to entice South Koreans to defect.  They also built a giant flag pole in their village, 60 meters taller than the flag pole in Taeseong-dong.  Their flag is the fourth largest in the world and weighs 600 pounds!

After driving through the Demilitarized Zone for a bit, we reached the Korean Freedom Building.

The Freedom Building is right in front of (or behind depending where you are) the actual JSA and Demarcation Line.  The building was built in order to house reunions between North and South Korean families who were separated during the war.  Unfortunately, this building has never been used for that purpose, since North Korea won't let it's citizens cross the Demarcation Line.  I do know there have been a few reunions that lasted a couple of days, but I believe they were held in North Korea.  Don't quote me, but I saw it in a documentary.
Also-- another fact about this picture.  The grassy area in front of the building is in the same place that the Sunken Garden used to be, which is the site of the Soviet Defector Incident of 1984.  That incident occurred when a Soviet tourist defected into the South and was followed by North Korean soldiers.  A gunfight broke out and it ended with one South Korean casualty and two North Korean casualties.  (The soldier that briefed us said he has heard five North Koreans were killed, but who knows.)  If you're like me and wondering what happened to the Soviet tourist, he successfully defected and left his communist country through another communist country.  Lucky dude.

MOVING ON.  (I am sorry this post is so long.  There's just a lot to say!)
After walking through the Freedom Building, we were at JSA, Panmunjom, the border of North and South Korea.  We were being watched by North Koreans.  We were literally staring at the enemy.

The South Korean soldiers who stand guard at the JSA are handpicked.  There is a height requirement and they have to be the most intimidating soldiers South Korea's got.  They stand in a taekwondo stance and wear sunglasses to be as intimidating as they can be.  Notice that the two soldiers on the side stand with half of their bodies behind the buildings.  This is so they can give hand signals and communicate amongst each other, and in case North Korea would start shooting, they are already halfway covered.
North Korean soldiers stand guard on their side too, but not all the time like these guys.  The way North Korean soldiers stand guard is very interesting.  

The Mac building is where the North and South come together to have discussions.  The building is split down the middle- one side is South Korea, the other is North Korea. When they come together for meetings, they sit on the appropriate side and never cross the Demarcation Line.  There's not an actual line, but there is a table.

We were pretty excited to go over into North Korea!

After we left the JSA, we drove further into the Demilitarized zone to a part that was surrounded by communist North Korea on THREE SIDES!  Better hold hands so they don't pull us over... Kidding. 

And last, but not least is the site of the Axe Murder Incident.  The Bridge of No Return was used regularly by the North Koreans until this incident happened in August of 1976.   I'm going to make this a long-story-short-version.  At that time, there was a giant, 100 foot poplar tree that stood in the way of two United Nations command posts.  It blocked the line of sight between a checkpoint and an observation post.  North Koreans were trying some pretty crazy stuff, trying to pull people from the South into the North, so Joint Security Force Company Commander, Arthur Bonifas, decided the tree needed to come down.  
So, there were over like 30 people that went down to this tree to chop it down.  Captain Bonifas was not armed because there were rules against how many armed soldiers could be at one place at one time.  The Korean workers brought axes to prune the branches off the tree before it was chopped down.  After the trimming started, a group of North Korean soldiers appeared and watched the trimming for a while.  Then, suddenly, the North Korean commander ordered them to stop trimming because Kim Il-sung had personally planted that tree there and blah blah blah, lies lies lies.  Captain Bonifas told his men to keep working and ignored the North Korean commander.  More North Korean soldiers showed up, but Captain Bonifas told them to keep cutting.  Then all hell broke loose and the North Koreans attacked with axes, crow bars, and clubs.  Captain Bonifas was beaten to death and all but one of his men were injured.  Finally, they were able to retreat and escape the attack.  Once they were to safety, they realized they were missing Lt Barrett.  It turned out he had found a dug out to hide in, but the North Korean soldiers found him.  He was beaten with an axe that had been dropped by the Korean workers for over 90 minutes.  He was rescued by a search and rescue team, but died on the way to the hospital.

All in all, today was the best history lesson I could have ever hoped for.  It was also eye opening and just amazing.  I told Drew that we have to get stationed here in Korea again just so we can take this tour again when people visit.  I would go every weekend if I could!  
If you are like me and can't get enough of these stories and history lessons, start watching the documentaries on North Korea.  There are two on Netflix that are decent.  You can also find TONS of others online.  "10 Days in North Korea" is a really good one.  The History Channel also has an awesome one that focuses on the War and the DMZ.  Seriously, there are so many with so much information.  It's an interesting, but scary topic to learn about.  
The division between the two Koreas is so sad, and was never meant to be such a permanent thing.  The North Korean government is just... crazy, and the North Korean people are prisoners that don't even know it.  I am so thankful for all of the men and women who have helped and who still help protect not only my home country, America, but also this gracious country, South Korea, that has opened it's doors to me.  I know that one day, trips to the DMZ will be just for a glimpse at what was.  The people of North Korea will no longer live such terrible, isolated lives.  One day there will be no North and South Korea; just one, unified, free nation.

Today was another awesome day in South Korea!  It was the USO Spring Troop Visit!  We just found out that this was happening last weekend, but Drew was able to get half of the day off so we could go!  BECAUSE... some of our very favorite people were going to be there!

Drew and I were so excited to get to see some of the Colts all the way over here in Korea!  They were really the only reason we went!  BUT we were pleasantly surprised by some of the other guests!!
The show was introduced by the Vice Chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff, Admiral Winnefeld, who coined 500 service members after the show!  (Drew was one of them!)  Dude is super important and I am so jealous of his wife, who got to travel around with him and the rest of the people on the tour!!

The first to come out was Dennis Haysbert, the dude from the Allstate commercials.  His voice is so awesome.  He had lots of kind words to say and asked, "Are you in good hands?"  haha!!  

The second performers were Dianna Degarmo and Ace Young.  They were both American Idol winners and actually met on a USO Tour and got married!  I had no idea any of that happened, so I thought it was a sweet story!  They performed a couple of songs for us.

After these two, Wee Man came out!!  For you oldies that don't know, Wee Man was in all the Jackass movies with Johnny Knoxville... no?  Still don't know what that is?  Oh well.. He's a tiny little dude with a GIANT personality.

After Wee Man talked, he introduced the next guest with a little "song"....

Miss America!

She was sweet.. Apparently her boyfriend or fiance or whatever is a Marine stationed in Afghanistan.  They actually were able to surprise her at the show that they put on at Bagram Airfield.  Her boyfriend (we'll go with that) actually came to the show to surprise her!  She hadn't seen him since September!  Ahhhh can you imagine how adorable that would have been?  I would have loved to see that!  I would have cried like a baby.
After Miss America sang a little bit of Happy, it was time for the moment we'd all been waiting for!

It was seriously so cool to see those guys over here in Korea.  We would have never thought to see such a big piece of "home" all the way over here.  
After the Colts (and David DeCastro from the Steelers) threw some passes, gave away some shirts, hats, and balls, it was time for Phillip Phillips.  Okay.  So first of all, I truly did not even know that American Idol was still a thing.  Phillip Phillips won American Idol in 2012.  I've heard a couple of his songs and I recognized his name; who couldn't?  But I had absolutely no idea he was such a good performer!  OR THAT HE WAS SO INCREDIBLY ATTRACTIVE!  The dude can sing and the dude is even better at playing guitar.  He was so good!  
He sang a few songs, one of them being his version of Thriller by Michael Jackson.  I found out after getting home and creeping him all over the internet that that's one of the songs he sang during his American Idol audition.  Anyway.  Without further adeu, here is the incredibly attractive Phillip Phillips.

The show ended with everyone singing "God Bless America".  I was hoping they would do a super cool version of the National Anthem, butttttt... no such luck.

After the show was over, we were able to sort of "meet and greet" everyone.  They all sat in chairs in a single row and 10 people at a time were able to stand behind them and have a picture taken.  Our picture will be on the 51FSS Facebook page tomorrow, so I'm looking forward to seeing that!

  I had a love connection when I looked into Phillip Phillips' eyes haha.. I almost tripped on my own feet because he was so attractive.  (Sorry Drew!)  I was standing behind Wee Man and in between Dwayne Allen and Pagano.  I shook hands with Dwayne Allen and then said, "Coach!" and Pagano turned around and shook my hand.  After that, Wee Man said he was jealous of all the love the Colts were getting, so I shook his hand too! haha.  I tried to take a picture of Pagano, but Wee Man bumped by hand and it turned out like this...

I tried to at least look at Andrew Luck, but the security force guys were not about that.  They pushed us right out of there.  Like actually, physically pushed us haha.  These people on this Spring Troops Visit have literally been around the world in seven days!  They went all over and tonight they were flying out to Hawaii!  They had a busy week, but we are so lucky they gave up part of their normal lives to come visit everyone overseas!  
Today made me even more excited to come home so I don't have to miss anymore football games!  Something like 60 days until we are back in the great ole U S A!  And a LOT more than that until football season haha!

Today was probably my favorite day in Korea so far.  We've done lots of cool stuff, but today was just all around perfect.  Today, we FINALLY  walked along the entire wall of Hwaseong Fortress in Suwon.  The first time we went to Hwaseong was lsat summer.  It was too hot to go for a 4 hour walk around the city, so we put it off for another day.  MONTHS later, we finally went! I am so excited to show you all of our pictures, that I cannot type this fast enough.  Today seriously rocked.
The weather was AMAZING.  It was sunny, clear skies, and upper 40s.  We walked around for hours without coats, gloves, hats, anything winter related!  The sunshine and zero humidity had me in such a great mood.  Judging by the hundreds of other people walking around Hwaseong today, I think the weather put everyone in a great mood today.
So anyway.  Suwon.  Hwaseong.  Suwon is our favorite place.  Maybe it's because we got so familiar with it while I was going back and forth to the hospital after stabbing myself, I don't know.  Whenever we can't think of anything to do... Suwon.  So, we headed to Suwon this morning and planned to walk all the way around Hwaseong Fortress.

I have been getting VERY frustrated in the big crowds of people lately, so rather than walking along the main road to get to the fortress, I led Drew down some side streets.  I "knew" exactly where I was going haha.  I have a pretty impressive internal compass here in Korea, but sometimes my compass leads us the LONG way.
We sort of got lost, but it ended up being worth it because we got to see some pretty cool things!

Let the adventure begin!

The walk took us about three hours.  It's a little over 4 miles all the way around the fortress.  We had so much fun seeing everything and trying to imagine what Korea was like all those years ago.  I really wish I knew more about Korean history!!
After we finished walking around the fortress, we went to Coco Ichibanya for some delicious curry.  And ended our day with a wonderful bubble tea.  
Today was fantastic and I cannot wait for spring to come so we can have more adventures like this!  Next weekend is our trip to the DMZ!  After that, we will have about 8 weekends left in Korea.  Can you believe it?? We're down to 2 months or less!  Can't wait to be home!
Miss you all and see you soon! :)