Baseball Season

For the first time in nearly seven years, I donned a baseball uniform. Wearing ManRam's number on a temporary basis, I went 2 for 2 and scored the winning run in my first game with the Banana Club.

It might still be winter, but it feels great to get out there.

D-M-Z Part 1

 

It might very well be the strangest place on Earth. To even contemplate the Demilitarized Zone of the Korean peninsula without having seen it firsthand is impossible. Yet, I will try to explain.

There are are two main perspectives of appreciation when talking about the four-kilometer stretch of land that divides South Korea, an ever-burgeoning capitalistic nation, from North Korea, what we believe to be an oppressed and oblivious nation.

The first is from the governmental perspective. Even on a calm day, the mood is tense. When walking upon the South Korean side, it's easy to see the anxiety that has come with more than 50 years of deception by the North. The barbed-wire fence which undoubtedly stretches the width of the peninsula is constantly watched. 

Their ability to detect intruders is not just visual, however.

At Imjingak Park, a famous landmark bordering the Demilitarized Zone, scattered throughout the fences are different types of stones each with a different ability to recognize intruders. Checking them is a part of the mandatory patrol which is done a at least few times daily. And with the amount of run-ins over the years, it’s an important one.

The bridge with the white cover is the Bridge of Freedom.

Looking across the Bridge of Freedom, the point where South Korean soldiers were returned to their country after the war, the eeriness grows. 

Through binoculars, the sight across the river is that of North Korean soldiers. They stand attentively yet still, like men who have more on the line than we can know.

The second and more evident perspective visible at Imjingak Park is that of citizens.

For at Imjingak, if you aren't a foreigner, there is a good chance you are paying respects to the family you lost. Not necessarily to death, but to the separation of a people broken in half by imperialistic manipulation.

Thus, many families were split on July 27, 1953. On that day a ceasefire went into effect between the two factions.

Imjingak is one place where family members can come to bow to their loved ones. As part of the reclusiveness that binds North Korean people to their leader's will, they are not allowed contact with the outside world, including loved ones.

Front of the Class

Taebek Snow Festival

So during the second to last weekend of January, we decided it was again time to leave the confines of our host city Cheonan.

Instead of surrendering to below 0 cold (remember guys, Celsius), we decided to make it our accomplice. Thus, we made our first trip to eastern side of the peninsula to a smaller town called Taebek. It was there that we traveled to see a Snow Festival.

So on Saturday morning, waking up before the crack of dawn, we caught a 6:15 bus to Seoul. Of course, we had to leave ourselves enough time to enjoy a delicious McDonald's breakfast. From there it was a four-hour bus ride to Taebek, the length of which I am still boggled by. I didn't think the peninsula had such latitude. Either way, the ride was full of one thing.

Sleep.

Upon our arrival in the Gangwon-do province, but before reaching the Snow Festival, we had the chance to go cave-walking.

 

The cave, which were told was in the biggest mountain in Korea, was extensive. At times it was cavernous, others like trying to go through a mouse hole. However, massive wires leading to underground lights and fountains was not very endearing. Nor was the lemming-like path we had to follow. 

Regardless, who can turn down a good cave walk.

Then came the snow festival, complete with an igloo cafe, rather large ice carvings and yes, a museum from the neighboring coal mine.

 

 

 

 

  

More pictures from the festival. 

Three hours allotted to us by our tour guides was a bit much, but we made do. And we got to enjoy a cold day with each others company. 

~Dave

Merry Christmas!

Well, it's already 1 a.m. our time, so it's December 26th. We just want to wish all of you guys the safest, happiest Christmas possible. We're going to (and by going to I mean "already are") miss the celebrations and the family and the food and the fun, at least as we usually know them.

On the positive side, with Christmas Day came the first heavy snow of the year. It's been snowing for a good part of the day, to the point where the ground is covered and the Koreans are driving worse than normal.

So, we've spent our time watching Christmas movies. Since we have gotten home from our Christmas dinner (Italian food), we've curled up and watched The Santa Clause, How the Grinch Stole Christmas (the original) and National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. It's been good. Unusual, but good.


Spending the day as best we can.

Merry Christmas,

Dave and Jess

Our next trip

Tomorrow we will move upon the 38th parallel, a line which cuts through the middle of the Korean peninsula. Here, after two hours of travel, we will find the DMZ. Also known as the Demilitarized Zone, the DMZ separates the Northern Democratic People's Republic of Korea from the Republic of Korea in the south. Further inside the DMZ lies the Military Demarcation Line, the exact borders on the day of a ceasefire between two nations in 1953.

Fifty-seven years later, with the Koreas still technically at war, we will travel to see the tightest border known to man. While there will be no such venture towards the MDL, I hope our trip takes us even mildly inside the DMZ. And we will be equipped with cameras, both video and stillframe.

Because we wouldn't be good journalists, or tourists, without.

~Dave

The soft streets of Buldang-dong

Half of a mile from our apartment, and four stories up, resides a row of classrooms inhabited by rows of desks, a whiteboard and a PC.

Sometimes, there are the eager sounds of Korean students wanting to learn. But mostly, it's just the sound of Korean students eager to whine.

Either way, existence in Buldang-dong, a neighborhood in Cheonan, South Korea is a peaceful one.  As evident here...