The Best Christmas Pageant Ever.

Here's a video I took of my little girls singing their Santa Claus is Coming to Town routine. I want to bring them home with me.

... I bet you want me to, too!

Karen Teacher = Santa Claus

Bear (& Benny the Bear) came to school with me on Christmas Eve!

Then she played Santa for the kids:

Having a blast... Going to Toyama, Japan tomorrow... More updates to follow!

She's here!!!

And we're sleepy!

Bear plays Santa at school tomorrow... I'll take lots of pictures for you!

Happy Birthday, JOE!!!!!!!!!

Preparing for Christmas

Decorating for Christmas is something I always do very poorly. Somehow, though, being around kids who are so excited for Santa to come, just makes you want to dive into the holiday hysteria.

At school, Grace, Jasmine and I constructed a welcome message on our window. (This is the view from inside the classroom, I couldn't get a good picture going the other way)

The girls cut out snow flakes and I traced the HO HO HO letters for them to cut out. It was a blast!

Grace wouldn't take a picture with me, so I snapped one of Jasmine and I. (That's the headband I bought in the subway I told you about a month ago!)

My favorite part about Christmas is giving gifts. I ventured up to Insadong to buy some Korean tchotchkes for those on my list. I stopped, first, though, to get coffee at the only Starbuck's in the world who's name doesn't have to be written in English. (Suh-taw-buk-suh-kaw-pee)

The holiday Toffe Nut Latte is AMAZING!

When I got home from my shopping trip, I put up my borrowed Christmas tree and wrapped up my purchases while listening to Transsiberian Orchestra.

Then, the next day, I decided to watch Love Actually, but not without snacks. I ran across the street and bought some dduk boki (the red stuff) and a bag of fried veggies (carrots, onions and sweet potatoes).

Love Actually is all ready to be played on the laptop! It is one of my favorite Christmas movies. This is the first year that I teared up a little while watching! I must be getting old.

My favorite stories are the Portugese woman and the writer, and the little boy and his American girl. What are yours???

I have all my ducks in a row for the season! Bring it.

Christmas Miracles

In light of the holiday that is ever-so-quickly approaching, I thought I would share with you one of life's little miracles that I get to experience daily.

Teaching children sure has its challenges, and teaching children with no standards or rules except "keep the parents happy so they keep paying tuition," REALLY has its challenges. However, watching the learning process unfold is absolutely fascinating. I love seeing the little lightbulbs above their heads as a new idea or concept finally makes sense. This happens a lot more with Jasmine. Grace, well, if she can't figure something out she'll say, "Teacher, head down?" To which I must oblidge as Grace's mommy said sometimes she gets tired and needs a break.

Last Tuesday, Grace was sick. I happened to have my camera with me and managed to capture a "lightbulb moment" for Jasmine. This isn't so much a concept "lightbulb" as it is a memory click, but it was fun to watch, nonetheless.

Every morning, the class leader gets to write the date on the board. Last week we were focusing on where the commas go when writing "Tuesday, December 8, 2009." She picked it up pretty quickly. Here's her process on Tuesday:

Checking the spelling of December, and realizes she's missing something.

Thinking, thinking, thinking...

Ah ha! Teacher said 2 commas. One after day, one after number.

My girls are also working on their performance of "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" for the Christmas party next week. It is probably one of the cutest things I've even seen. I'll be sure to get a video and figure out how to post it on here.

Bear's here in a week! WooHOO!

Giving Thanks

Jasmine was my only kid for about two weeks. On Thanksgiving Day, I brought my camera, and decided it was a good day to have a photo shoot with my only child.

Happy faces.

Sad faces.

Goofy faces.

Our first period "Thanksgiving" class was making candy turkeys. Here's Jasmine with her ingredients. She's ready to get started!

From left to right: Belle, Michelle, Jina, Amy and Sarah and their essembled turkeys.

Evan with his turkey! Yummy peanut butter!

Kate with her turkey!

Then, we taught the kids the Polka. Why? Your guess is as good as mine.

Lunch was fried chicken, spaghetti, egg salad sandwiches, and "cho-bap" (like a cold eggroll stuffed with rice).

After lunch, Jasmine asked me what we were doing next. Very sarcastically, I said, "We're painting Chinese lanterns. That makes sense, of course, because we are celebrating an American holiday in Korea. Why wouldn't we paint Chinese lanterns?" I was speaking very swiftly and she just looked at me with this blank face and said, "WHAT?!?!?!?" It was the perfect response, but I don't actually think she understood me.

Jasmine's sister, Olivia, joined us for some fun! They're sooo cute, right?

It worked out for my waistline to miss Thanksgiving altogether. Our boss really wanted to show other cultures, too. So we did some polka and lanterns. The one thing I'm learning here is that you just have to go with the flow. Very rarely do things make sense, but when there are kids involved, it's always going to be fun and cute, so who cares?

Hope your Thanksgiving had a lot more stuffing!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, WEEZER!!!

Twilight!

A couple weeks ago, I went to Imae (a neighborhood in Bundang - just northwest of Yongin, where I live) to visit some Korean friends, bake cookies and watch Twilight.

After seeing the movie, I borrowed the book from my 11-year old Korean tutoree who had read the book in ENGLISH, and read it in a matter of 3 work days. Then, I downloaded the next three in the series (New Moon, Eclipse, and Breaking Dawn), finished them in the 3 days after that, and then New Moon, the movie, came out in Korea on Thursday and I went to see that.

I have leaped on the Twilight train full-speed ahead.

Here's some pics from the day that doomed my next two weeks into nerd-dome.

Funfetti cookie dough - Thanks, Emily!

Hyejun is in the middle. Her two friends came to watch, too. They helped us put the dough on the pan!

Cookies are done!

Hyejun (June) and I.

Jaehyun... not happy. He got in trouble for trying to microwave the cookie dough. It almost started a fire. His mom said, "He's good for one accident a day - at least!" I believe it.

It was a really fun day. I love that part of town. There is a narrow river with a bike and walking path that runs the length of Bundang. I usually only see it once it's dark, but this time I saw it during the day - in FALL! It made me wish I had made it a little earlier and could just putz up and down the river for a while.

Coming up next... Thanksgiving at school!

OH! - did you notice my nifty little countdown on the left side?!?!? I'm soooo excited for my sister to be here! So close!

GRACE IS BACK!

Grace is back! Grace is back!

I have a CLASS (sort of) again. She's way behind Jasmine, now, but I don't even care!

It's December 1 in Korea! It's all going so quickly!

I have a blog about fashion (I know I've been teasing you), our Thanksgiving party, and pictures from my Twilight movie time in Imae.

My computer's working a bit better now so I'll try to get some pictures up before the end of this week.

Happy December!

Monday, Monday

It's been a while since I've posted... mainly because NOTHING has been going on.


Jasmine came back to school last week, we we've had fun catching up and pretending to understand each other. The one on one time is nice, but if it lasts much longer I'm going to run out of things to do.


On a different, top secret note, I've picked up some Korean friends to hang out with after school. They are families with elementary students that need a little extra English help. Since it's illegal to earn money outside of the job that I got my visa for, I merely do it out of the goodness of my heart. ;-)


Mon-Thurs and every other Friday, I go to these people's homes to help in English and learn something about Korea.


On Saturday, though, the young girl (who had just finished reading Twilight) asked me to come over to her apartment to watch the movie together. I eagerly agreed. We baked Funfetti cookies (thanks Em and Erin), ate noodles and pizza, and enjoyed the film.


I'll post some pictures when I can get my computer to coorperate.


Their mother is a Korean-English translator so she speaks very well and I think she enjoys me coming over to practice her speaking. We seem to get along very well, and it was a great way to spend my Saturday!


Plus, they have an oven and I have been DYING to bake those cookies since I got them in the mail!


Sunday was another Molly day. My computer is on the blink, so it took me the better part of the day to catch up on my TV shows. I didn't shower and stayed in my pajamas allll day!


I have no definate plans for this weekend, but Jack Teacher's friend, Yuko (the one who showed us around Tokyo) is coming in for a visit on Friday. It will be fun to see her again!


Other than that, no news. Until I get my computer fixed, I may be a little slow on adding posts and for that, I am sorry. Please be patient with me.


We have a Thanksgiving party with the kids on Thursday! It should be fun...

Trick or Treat, Smell my Feet.

Well, here it is... almost a full week later!

Our Halloween party got postponed from October 30 to November 6, since we closed the school on 10/29 and 10/30 for Swine Flu avoidance. Our kindergarten Halloween party lasted all day, like the Chuseok party, with a variety of different activities to keep the wee ones entertained. Here's a shot of the five English teachers before the madness began:

From left: John Teacher (nameless costume), Jack Teacher (raccoon), Liz Teacher (clown), Dustin Teacher (backwards - you couldn't tell could you?), Molly Teacher (herself).

During first period, we had a Halloween "parade." We went to the gym to practice "trick or treat" etiquette and protocal. We taught them the song, "Trick or treat, smell my feet, give me something good to eat." It was hilarious how seriously they took it. Poor little kids. They're so easy to patronize.

We took a group shot to start off the parade! Our numbers are way down since the H1N1 disaster. Vaccinations started yesterday for school children, though, so hopefully the kids start coming back!


Then, we did our parade. Each student had to go up on stage and say their name and their costume. It was too cute.

My name is Gianna and I'm Minnie Mouse.

My name is Kelsey. I am a ghost.

I'm Daniel and Frankenstein.

Hello. My name is James. My costume Batman.

My name is Monica. I am Snow White.

I'm Jina. I'm Cinderella. (Which sounds more like Shinderella!)

I'm Stefany. I'm a wizard. (wijard)

My name is Aisha. I'm... I'm... teacher, what I am? ... I'm a pink fairy. Mommy made.

I gathered her mother made her costume.

My name is Ivy and I am a princess.

My name is Sugar and I am Snow White.

My name is Amy and I'm Belle.

Next, we broke into three groups to carve pumpkins. I worked with Liz Teacher in her classroom. We picked the right pumpkin, apparently, because both of the other two groups opened theirs to find maggots jumping out of them! ewwww.

Here's a picture of the girls using their hands to scrape out the goop inside:

Then, of course, they got bored, so Molly Teacher had to take over!


After lunch, we had arts and crafts time. We made toilet paper roll witches. They were so cute:

The last period, the kids watched a Halloween movie, and one by one went to the "ghost" house. We made a room complete dark and the boys dressed up in scary masks and jumped out at the kids. It was a riot, until the tears started. Daniel was scared of the movie, so he and I played Go Fish while everyone else experienced the Ghost House.

The elementary kids had one of their two periods to go through th ghost house, too. My friend, Anne, sent me a package with these cute little sunglasses for my kids. I gave them to my elementary kids, since I don't have any kindergarteners! They're pretty cool, huh?

From left: Clara (inspired by Dustin Teacher's costume), Daisy, Kei, and Ashley! MWF 2:30-4:00 pm class!

It was a really fun day. Like I said before, I got a package from my Aunt Barbara and Aunt Patty that was STUFFED with candy and chocolate. I shared a lot of it with my kids for Halloween. By 5:30, we teachers were wondering how we ever ate so much candy when we were kids. We were like zombies in a sugar coma.

All in all, it was a fun day! I love Halloween and parties, so it was the perfect combination!

I'm still without kindergarteners. I think they should be back 11/26. Just in time for Thanksgiving! I miss my little girls...

빼뺴로 Pepero Day!

Today is Pepero (빼 빼 로) Day!

Pepero is the name of a snack made out of a waifer stick dipped in chocolate and then often rolled around in something else, like crushed almonds or sprinkles.

Here is a photo of some super fancy Pepero I found:

I think Pepero is available in the U.S. Have you ever had them? They are a nice, light, sweet treat. Pepero is the brand name for the snack. Like Nabisco's Oreo or Tissue's Kleenex, Lotte's Pepero now kind of embodies all snacks that are stick-like dipped in chocolate.

Why a whole day? Well, today in America is Veteran's Day. November 11 is written as 11/11. All those ones look like a bunch of sticks (1 1 1 1) so it was named Pepero day. I've noticed that it is very much like Valentine's Day. Traditionally, I'm told, Pepero was given on this day romantically. However, Pepero is now given to anyone that you love, just like giving Valentines or candy to lots of people is commonplace in the U.S.

The sticks are always sold in stores, but lately there have been vendors popping up all over with Pepero gift boxes and special versions of the treat.

According to a story, Pepero Day began in 1994 by a group of middle school girls in Busan, a southeast coastal city in South Korea, who gave the gift of Pepero on 11/11 to each other with wishes to grow as tall and slender as the Pepero.

If you can find some where you are, give the snack a try today. If not, make some at home by dipping pretzel rods in chocolate and rolling them in your favorite topping. Maybe give them to your favorite veteran!

Whatever you do, enjoy your Novemeber 11. It's starting to get a bit colder here. Burrrrrr.

Info Overload.

Unfortunately for you, I'm one of those people that the more I have to do, the more I get done. And the less time I have to do it, the faster I complete it.

I realize I've gone about 8 days without a post, and probably 2 weeks without one worth reading.

I have finally uploaded my pictures at home from the Halloween party, so that will be coming your way soon.

I also am working on this fall fashion blog but am struggling with it. I'm trying to work out the right angle by which to present it. We'll see what I can come up with.

In other news, Liz and I went to Gangnam last weekend to "shop." This is code for "let's look at a few shoe stores before we make a B-line for On the Border for Mexican food." It's good to have friends after your own heart. And for both of us, chips and salsa are the way in.

I did buy a new headband though. It has stickers that say handmade all over it. It could be, the way that it's beaded, but I'm doubting it. I don't have my camera with me... but I'll add a picture as soon as I get home. It's really pretty!

I started November with a pledge to get 5 miles in everyday. I'm good for Saturday, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday so far. It's a mile to school, a mile home, and I like to get out at lunch to get one in. I got up this morning before school and walked 3, then walked my one to school, so I'm in like flint for today! My hip hasn't bothered me in a while... I'm nervous to run again (or just avoiding it), so I'll stick to walking for now.

My Sunday was filled with what I like to call a Molly Day. My Aunt Barbara and Aunt Patty sent me a package filled with candy, chocolate, toiletries, and magazines (and a package of tabacco, which is a mystery item of the week)! I took a long walk on Sunday between rainstorms, had lunch by myself at the 5500 and then curled up with my stack of tabloids for the remainder of the afternoon and evening. It was absolutely wonderful.

I've really grown accustomed to living by myself and having a lot of time alone. It's not something I used to like at all. In fact, I would sometimes ask people to study with me just for the body in the room. I would often go find my roommates in our house just to talk to (or at) someone. The solitude is growing on me, though. Thinking too much can get me in trouble, but hanging out with kids all day has made me learn to enjoy the quiet. Or, I'm just getting older... scary!

My sister is coming to visit for Christmas break. She gets here in 40 days and I'm sooooooooooo excited! Then, my friend, Marissa comes 8 days after that! It's going to be an awesome Christmas/New Year's Eve/birthday!

My life at school for the month is pretty funny. I get in at 9:15 am. I teach some of Liz's special classes, like music, arts and crafts, etc. but that only accounts for 1-2 kindergarten periods a day. I still have my regularly scheduled elementary afternoon classes from 2:30-5:30. By the time 2:30 rolls around, though, I've gotten pretty used to doing nothing and it's tough to switch gears. I've been helping some of the teachers with their curriculum, but there isn't enough to do to fill a month!

Speaking of, I should get Dustin's Theme Book done by the end of today...

I'll wrap up Halloween for you tomorrow and get that posted ASAP! Sorry for the delay!

Swine Flu Month?!?!!

It's Monday morning.

I just go to school to find out that neither one of my kindergartners, Jasmine or Grace, will be in today.

Not only that, they're staying home for a whole month to avoid swine flu.

A month!?!?!?!?!? I have no kindergarten students for a month...

I'm so bummed. I wanted to see them in their cute little Snow White outfits. I got them Halloween presents and everything! :-(

This weekend was pretty uneventful. Liz and I went to see The Time Traveler's Wife on Friday night. It was pretty good. Weird, but good.

I guess with all of my extra time, I'll have more than enough time to prepare super cool blog posts for you. In the works: Korean fashion and co-worker bios. Any other ideas?

Let me know.

Swine Flu Day(s).

So I like being a teacher because it's like being a student. When class gets cancelled, I get really excited!

Last week, I had my only two kids out in my Monday 4-5:30 class so I had a free period. I got a ton done in my class room and with my schedules.

Today, my boss caught wind of a local school, ILS, that shut down for two days because of a student with swine flu.

He was terrified... So, he cancelled all of our elementary classes for the afternoon and all classes for Thursday and Friday.

Naturally, we all started looking for flights, to see where we could go for the weekend. However, we soon found out that we are still required to come in and work. Though the sound of this initially made me want to throw a 5-year-old-sized tantrum, I got over it quickly and have gotten very excited about the organization and the work I'm going to be able to get ahead on!

I started teaching my first day at school, so I never really made my classroom, mine. I'm excited to take two days to rearrange, recreate, and reorganize. These two days are going to be amazing.

We don't have to come in tomorrow until ten... so we even get to sleep in!

It's like a snow day, except it's BEAUTIFUL out!!!

Our Halloween party at school is postponed until next Friday, so you'll have to wait for the precious little Snow White costumes.

I'll try to do something fun this weekend so I have something to write about.

TTFN!

I love Fall.

It sounds like the Midwest is kind of missing out on its Fall. I've heard stories of cold spells, rain, and to be honest, it sounds miserable.

Fall is my favorite time of year. In Korea, so far, Fall has been absolutely perfect. It's been about 60-70 degrees, the leaves are slowly turning rich shades of red and yellow. From my school window, I can see all of the mountains that surround Dongbaek. They are tree-covered and are simply breathtaking right now. Some are evergreens, while others are starting their winterizing process. They are like splashes of rainbows against a bright blue sky. It doesn't get any better than that.

I also love Fall because I feel like it is just an extension of summer. A slow progression into the paralysis of winter. I hate it when things come to an end (well, most things), summer most especially. Everyone is so happy during the summer, so productive, so... OUTSIDE! When Fall is perfect like it has been here, that mood continues on and can carry you a long way into the drudge of winter.

Fall also means a plethora of my favorite HOLIDAYS! The Halloween party is coming up at school on Friday. My girls have been counting down on our calendar since the beginning of October. Even toward the end of September they would say: "Teacher, today... September. Then... October... HALLOWEEN!" I'd say: "Yes. Halloween is in October, but it's not October for like 20 more days... and Halloween is at the end!"

Needless to say, Halloween has been long awaited at Kid's College. I'm kind of skimping this year because I'm being tight with money again (and it's soooo fun). I think I'm going to wear all black and hand make some cat ears and a tale and call myself a cat. It sounds like both of my girls are going to be Snow White? I can't quite figure that out. I ask them everyday and they just repeat what that other says. Something about "bootiful dress" and "bootiful shoes." We shall see.

The only bummer about Fall in Korea is that I will miss out on the Thanksgiving and Christmas anticipation. Thanksgiving (obviously) doesn't exist here, and Christmas, though celebrated, is "just another birthday." I've heard I may be lucky to find a few buildings with Christmas lights up.

As sad as I am about missing Christmas and Thanksgiving (my favorite holiday - the only day when it's totally appropriate to be a gluttonous pig), this weather is really making up for it.

I spent the weekend try to make my $20 last until Tuesday. Just for fun, not really because I needed to. So far it's been going very smoothly. I went for a long walk both yesterday and today. Running still beats up on my hip - I should probably get it checked out. eh. It was perfect t-shirt and pants weather. I stopped for some kimbap yesterday, then sat at the park nearby to eat it and people watch. There were so many families out playing with their itty bitty dogs (apartment living isn't really conducive to big dogs). Precious little Korean children were everywhere. The air even smells like Fall. I wish it could stay like this the whole time I'm here!

Here's a shot of the beauty that is all around me right now:

Isn't that just amazing?!?!?!

I hope you're doing what you can with your Fall. The snow and real cold will be here before you know it... soak it up while you can!

Happy end of October!

Thanks!

I've got a problem.

My co-workers are beginning to hate me because of the overwhelming amount of packages I have received since my arrival. My most recent package was from Mrs. Woodfill and her entire second grade class (complete with a letter from each - awesome)! Upon receiving this package, Dustin said, "I've been here a full year and you've gotten more packages in the last month than I have since I've been here."

Really, he's jealous of the Fiber One bars I have stocked up to get me through the winter (and maybe my outstanding supply of nail polish)! I've gotten two packages from my Grandma/Aunt, one from friends Emily and Erin, one from Steph, one from the second graders and their fabulous teacher, a wedding invitation from my friends Drew and Carrie (who could have easily just sent it to my house in the Fort) and have already caught wind of a few more on their way!

I am sooooooo blessed. One, it's fabulous to know that so many people are reading my blog... it keeps me motivated to keep up with it. Two, I'm pretty independent, but it's a great feeling knowing there are so many people rooting for me!

I wanted to take this opportunity to thank everyone who reads. Just knowing you give a crap about my little life on the other side of the world makes the days when I miss America so much easier! Your comments, e-mails, and general support are so comforting.

Please, keep them coming!

Hope all is well on the flipside (literally). I miss you all!

Molly

Kicking the Coke Habit - Day two

Day two is much better. I woke up this morning BEFORE my alarm went off! I wasn't foggy like I normally am pre-caffeine and I have yet to reach headache-ville.

I'm hoping yesterday was as bad as it gets...

Here's to a new life, free of addiction! haha.

Kicking the Coke Habit - Day one

I decided this morning that a Coke Zero (which replaced my former addiction to Diet Pepsi) every morning was not only unhealthy, but also getting rather expensive. I don't like to be attached to anything... so, today, I decided to quit.

I've had a Diet Pepsi every morning for about 2 years now. It's kind of disgusting when I think about it. On my walk to school today, all three of my regular convenience stores were closed, or out of Coke Zero. I saw it as a sign that today was the day.

It's 2:30 pm and my headache is bigger than my forehead (which is really a fivehead). I'm hoping the headache is only one day long. It's test week again, so I haven't had to do a lot of teaching, which is good.

I popped a couple of Alieve and am hoping for the best. Wish me luck...

A Step Inside North Korea

Like I told you before, I just finished reading the memoir, "The Aquariums of Pyongyang." Pyongyang is the capital of present day North Korea. The book details the life of a boy who, at the age of nine, is sentenced to ten years in a North Korean labor camp with the rest of his family for a "crime" his grandfather committed. Granted, all his grandfather really did was give his entire life and all of his money to the Party. The book, without sparing one single tragedy, accounts for the author's disgusting excuse for an adolescence. He and his family were prisoners at Yodok, which is a camp for "redeemables." Redeemables are those who didn't actually commit a crime against the Party, but have the blood of a criminal and are punished as well. The punishment is to purge them of wrong blood that caused their relative to commit a crime.

The camps in North Korea are very similar to the stories we've heard from those of the Hitler regime. Prisoners work long, laborious hours with little food and even less clothing. The treatment of the prisoners by the guards is simply de-humanizing. I remember a story from when the author was around 12. A boy around his age was beaten by a guard and then fell into a septic tank. It took him a couple hours to regain strength enough to get out, and 3 days later, he died from infection. Also, the only food that prisoners were rationed was corn, so in order to ward off disease from lack of protein and too much corn, they would eat insects and rats.

The author is released from camp at the age of 19. His family is assigned farm work in a small, rural town that is barely surviving. He eventually finds out the whereabouts of his mother, who wasn't part of the bloodline so was not sent to Yodok and was forced to divorce her husband. She still lives in Pyongyang. He goes to visit her a few times, but with great difficulty as you have to attain permission to travel about the country. A few years later, he catches word that the police are secretly investigating him for listening to South Korean radio. He knows if they catch him he'll die, or worse, go back to camp. So he and a friend decide to escape. The travel up to the Chinese border, cross the river in the middle of the night, and carefully make their way to a Chinese port. They stay in this port time for half a year before an opportunity to take a ship over to South Korea arrives.

The author now lives in Seoul and has no idea what happened to the rest of his family. It is assumed they were punished for his escape. He began writing this book as soon as he arrived in South Korea. He hopes that his story will bring about awareness and save more people from future hardship.

When I read books such as this, it makes me think that this place, this wretched place, that the author is in is somewhere long ago and far away. Well, a few months ago it would've been far away. Now, though, it is neither long ago nor far away. The author was released from the camp in 1987. He made it to South Korea in 1992. I WAS ALIVE while this was going on. It's still going on ... an HOUR's bus ride from where I am right now. I want to throw up.

On Saturday, I had the pleasure of traveling to the North / South Korean border, and the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) that surrounds it. It was a phenomenal trip, one that won't easily be forgotten.

A brief history: After the end of World War II, Korea was occupied by the Japanese. Since we dropped a nuc on Hiroshima and killed millions of innocents, they lost. So, we took Korea. The Communist Soviets were in charge of everything north of the 38th parallel, America was in charge of everything below the 38th parallel. The whole point was to hold elections and get Korea back on its feat as a unified nation. Naturally, the Communist influence in the north versus the Democratic influence in the south made this unification impossible. The Soviets postponed election after election until the South had no choice but to just hold an election of their own. Pretty soon after, the North appointed Kim Il Sung as its first leader. The country was now in two.

It didn't take long for the North to attack the South. The South was busy being a democracy and didn't have much of a chance to develop an army, after all. In 1950, the North pushed the south all the way back to Pusan, a very southeastern port town. An influx of UN troops, however, made a comeback possible, and the South pushed the North back above the 38th parallel. Three years after the 1950 invasion, an armistice was signed to "cease fire" in the Korean War. The border was set, and there was to be a neutral territory 2 kilometers north of it and 2 kilometers south of it. This area is know as the Demilitarized Zone. It is the most heavily militarized place in the world, but there is no fighting... just mines, lots of mines.

We had three stops on the tour. The first was the Joint Security Area. We traveled by military bus into the DMZ and on to the border. We were guided by military personell (Sgt. Walker, to be exact - he was from Alabama!) through the Freedom Building and into this:

The guards dressed in green are South Korean military personnel. The blue buildings are UN buildings, and the big gray building in the background is a North Korean Army building, complete with a KPA guard staring us down with binoculars. The concrete slab in the middle of the photo, that goes straight down the middle of the two blue buildings, yeah, that's the border. Here, I'll point them out to you.

Zoom in of the North Korean guard staring us down:

Then we went into one of the blue UN buildings.

This guard is standing on the border. The table is bisected by the bored. To the guard's left, is North Korea. To his right, is South Korea. I WENT INTO NORTH KOREA!

My feet in the North, Dustin's in the South:

After the JSA, we got some lunch and then made our way to Dora Observatory. It's a military post built into a hill that can see far into the north side of the DMZ. Unfortunately, there was a "photo line" behind which was the only place to take photos from. This is the best I got. The HUGE North Korean flag you see in the middle is 31 meters long, 25 meters high and weighs 600 pounds. It is flown amidst an uninhabited propaganda village that via loudspeaker boasts North Korea as the promised land, welcoming anyone who would like to come. Sign. Me. Up.

After Dora, we went to the 3rd (of four) infiltration tunnels that have been found by South Korea. These tunnels were built by the North after the DMZ was established in an attempt to attack the South in secret. They've found 4 of them, they think their may be between 25-30 of them. We weren't allowed to take cameras, had to wear hard hats, and made our way down to the dark and damp tunnel. It's pretty museum-y by now, but amazing nonetheless. It boggles my mind that these tunnels were built without anyone knowing! They better find the rest soon...

So, yes, for all of those who were worried... I made it back safely. I strongly recommend you read the memoir; it will make you very grateful... And just in time for Thanksgiving!