The DMZ, Global Gathering, and my new family

I've been keeping my weekends action packed, and last weekend was no exception. Paula and I booked a tour to the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea, starting at 7am Saturday morning, and going from there to the Global Gathering on Saturday night. Global Gathering is a huge dance festival featuring DJs such as Armin Van Buuren, Fat Boy Slim, and Justice. I had never heard of most of the DJs but was talked into going and really enjoyed it, although I was ready to get back to my bed after about 3 hours of it. Thousands of foreigners and Koreans showed up to dance.

Now back to the DMZ...a very worthwhile tour. We started by getting briefed by a U.S. soldier at camp Bonifas and signing a Declaration that said we understand the danger we are putting ourselves in by going on this tour (how exciting). I think Paula and I were the only non-military related people on the tour. The tour included a meeting in a building that is shared by both North and South Korea (they take turns using it and lock the doors so the other can't intrude), which is guarded by Korean guards who are in a constant, expressionless Tae Kwon Do pose, ready for anything. We were warned that even though they are there for our protection, if we touch them or get too close, they will hit us (this almost happened to me twice). We were able to see but not take pictures of the North Korean military posts/buildings and were told to under no circumstances make any contact or gestures to the North Korean guards. We were taken to various other sites along the border, including a lookout station that looked over and into the Propaganda Village (picture below), but again, we were prohibited from taking pictures past a certain point. The last part of the tour was a extremely long, hunched over walk through one of the tunnels dug by North Koreans during the war in an attempt to surprise attack Seoul. Next step: booking a tour in North Korea.

To make sure that there was no uneventful moment in the weekend, I was picked up from the bus station as soon as we returned, and moved out of my 4th apartment since coming here, and into another homestay! Long story short, when my co-worker who lived next door to me decided to disappear, that caused our contract with the landlady to be broken and she decided that I should leave, too (we foreigners are such a risk), so now I am living with a family again, but liking it much more than before. This family has two kids, william (7) and Lilly (12, a student of mine) and has lived in the U.S. for a couple years, meaning they speak some English so we can communicate! The father works in a different city so he is only here on the weekends, and the mother and kids are great. The mom makes me breakfasts (rice and curry counts as breakfast here) and lunches every day and I spent last night at the movies and arcade with my new little sister (Lilly).

I had planned a nice relaxing weekend in Jinju for this weekend, but of course, that is not to be had. I was talked into going to a city a couple hours away for a hot air balloon festival and an indie rock festival on Saturday, and was planning on coming back to be here Sunday until my Korean family found out I'd be in Daejon, where apparently they are celebrating their grandmother's birthday on Sunday and insisted I go. There goes my relaxing weekend, but it should be fun, anyway :).