Seoul & DMZ Trip

As discussed, I decided to stay in Korea for my winter vacation in order to save some money & finish seeing some places here before I go home. I had a general idea of what I wanted to do & all I was aware of at the beginning of January was that I would be teaching until the 20th, and after that I had no idea what was expected of me at work. I told my teacher I only planned to go to Seoul for the few days after the Lunar new year holiday.


So, on the last day of work in January (a few minutes before leaving), my co-teacher finally brings me a piece of paper with my official vacation dates. On it, it says, January 25th, and then February 14th-24th (10 official work days off). I immediately remind him that I only had plans for Jan 25-29th. He then proceeds to tell me that I only have to come to work from Feb 6th-10th and that the rest of the days are "secret vacation" days. While I did enjoy those "secret" days, I was somewhat frustrated that they did not tell me my vacation dates sooner so that I could make plans. Awhile back I had asked them if I could take my vacation at the end of my contract so that I could go to France before going home, but they said I must be here on the last day of my contract due to the pay period (they just wanted to be difficult).


That puts me to where I am now. I took my "stay-cation" trip, but now I'm also going to France! I dropped that bombshell of information on my school yesterday, my first day back to work, lol. He seemed surprised, but I told him that because they told me my dates (literally last minute), I planned this trip last minute. All's fair, right?! He was not happy because he had wanted to do some paperwork next week, but I explained I wouldn't be here. Like I'm gonna use my official vacation days to do paperwork when I could do it this week? Nice try! So now I have this massive to-do list before I leave this Saturday, but it's worth it!!


Going back to my "stay-cation" I headed to Seoul at 6am (the only train time available due to the holiday) and then met up with Cindy at our hostel. The first day we basically went sight-seeing around the city w/ another friend Lucille (to a palace, a famous tourist area, & of course shopping). I had ripped my last pair of jeans I owned early that day, so shopping for jeans was a must. And if you have to buy jeans as a foreigner here, your best bet is to go to Seoul to find your size. 

Cool structure :)

 Han River

 changing of the guards @ the palace

Lucille & I @ Gyeongbok Palace

 traditional Hanbok clothing

 my Chinese zodiac

The next day Cindy & I decided to do both mature things & child-like activities. So, in the morning we went to the Seoul Museum of Art  where we saw aerial view pictures of the world. It was pretty cool to see & interesting to learn what kind of effect we are making on our environment. There were a lot of pictures like the last one below (army tank trash pile) that show how wasteful we are with our land. 

Blue Lagoon in Iceland

 Icebergs in Antarctica 

 The Heart of Voh in New Caledonia

Wasted army tanks 

Then in the afternoon we went to Lotte World! Lotte World is basically Korea's version of "Disneyland" in that it's an amusement park with lots of characters & rides. Cindy & I rode a few rides, took pictures w/ some trick art & ate some ice cream...basically just like the little kids were doing :)

Inside the amusement park

 Trick Art

 Trick Art

Ice Cream :) 

Outside of the amusement park

(waiting for the Gyro Drop ride)

The 3rd day I made the dangerous decision to go shopping again, lol. Cindy had to get back to her town, and Tracy was joining me later in the evening so I went back to Forever 21 & H&M to browse again. :) Once Tracy got to Seoul we met up for dinner then headed to bed early for our early early tour of the DMZ the next morning!

We woke up before 6am in order to get dressed & venture over to the USO to begin our tour. The bus ride took about an hour and a half to get to the DMZ. We thought we'd be able to nap on the bus ride, but the tour guide was insistent upon keeping us alert. Her stories were pretty interesting though & it was her last day of working as a tour guide. Once we got there we went to the JSA (joint security area) first, where N.Korea and S.Korea meet in a small blue building to discuss things when necessary. Across from us we could see a N.Korea soldier diligently observing our every move through his binoculars. While inside the building if we were standing on the right side of the meeting table, we were technically on N.Korea territory. This is where I took my picture with the ROK soldier :)

JSA

After this area we went to some different areas around the DMZ line where I learned all kinds of stories & information that I never knew about the two countries. We were able to see the propaganda village (which is a fake village set-up by the N.Koreans to convince the S.Koreans to move to their side...nice try! lol) as well as the freedom village, which is where some S.Koreans live & don't have to pay any taxes to the government. In order to live there you must either be born in the village, or a female may marry into it. 

We were also able to walk down one of the tunnels that the N.Koreans attempted to dig in order to attack S.Korea. This was the 3rd tunnel of 4 known tunnels. They believe there are many many more out there though. We ended the trip by going to an area where we could look out over a big part of N.Korea & then to the last train station in S.Korea that leads to N.Korea.

Propaganda Village

 Monument for the "Axe Murder" incident 

 "Bridge of no-return"

 Tracy & I after our "mini-hike" in the tunnel

 Peace sign picture of course :)

 Looking into N.Korea

So, other than eating lots of western food in Seoul, that sums up my stay-cation! Right now I'm sitting at work for my final week! I was told I'd be desk-warming, but of course they misinformed me & some classes have come in but I just give them free time, so it's basically like desk-warming. Plus it's my last few days of work, so I can't complain too much! Besides, soon I will be in France with my brother, sis-in-law, niece, nephew, & father. Then 12 days after that I will come back here to Korea to gather the rest of my things, say one last good-bye to a few friends, & hop on yet another flight to officially move home to TEXAS to see the rest of my family & friends! :) 

I will try to blog a couple more times if I get a chance, but most likely not until I'm back home. Will definitely write about my trip to France! Until then, I must continue the packing process this evening! So far it looks like I should be able to fit everything back into those same 4 bags I brought here with me! 

XOXO,

Amanda