Spain, Whales, England & Denmark...
I miss you.

Is it weird of me that sometimes I lie down, close my eyes and start imagining that I'm living in broken down worker quarters like what life would be like for a manager of a refugee camp? My bed becomes a cot (not difficult to imagine with how creaky and hard it is), one of my roommates on skype speaking in Chinese and the other on the phone rambling on in Spanish are the different dialects of my fellow workers who have come from all over the world to do aid work in this camp and I just imagine that the work I'm going to wake up to the next morning is life changing, beneficial to society... and not 8 AM Gen. Psych.

So I'm obviously feeling a bit depressed from being back stuck in one place when all I want to do is be on the road. Some good news though? I think I'm going to Costa Rica this December :)

I miss the ocean and the mountains.

I have a newfound love of Asians.

"The only time it's cool to wake up early is when you're about to travel, if you're not travelling, get a new job."

Words to live by eh?
Well anyways, I apologize for abandoning this blog again. Life is a beautiful, exhilarating thing and sometimes I get so caught up I forget to stop and record. As you all know I'm back from South Korea as of about a month ago, but what you may not know is that this upcoming Sunday I will be jetting off to Barcelona, Spain for a 2 week photography course & then staying on in Europe for 2+ more weeks touring around visiting friends and family!

I'm going out of my mind in excitment, have all my bags packed already and am pretty much living in my empty college dorm out of a suitcase just ready to bound off on my next adventure. Some stops within my trip should include:
Barcelona & Sitges, Spain
Copenhagen, Denmark
Malmo, Sweden
London & Shrewsbury, UK
Dublin, Ireland

I will most definitely be documenting & keeping this journal updated seeing as it's part of my final project for the class, so expect to see some neat photos on here in a few days :)
Until then!
Here are just a few more snapshots from my visit in Korea:

Steaming silk worms right before they were unravelled and woven into something beautiful.

Incredible statues at the Buddhist temple up in the mountains.

The temple was absolutely gorgeous, it took my breath away.

With the hands down, most adorable monk I've ever met in my life. He didn't speak any English but out of nowhere he just walked up to me and handed me a beautiful jade colored bracelet as a present, I nearly cried it was so sweet & I haven't taken it off since.

We went clubbing on our last night in Seoul & it was just about the coolest experience of my life. If you're ever in Seoul & looking for a night out on the town, I suggest either Korean Karaoke or hitting up the club we did, M2.

The trip was one of the most incredible things of my life, as well as one of my first exposures to any Asian culture. I loved every minute of it & the country absolutely captured my heart. My future plans are all over the place, but if possible I definitely have a dream of returning to Seoul for Grad School :)

That's all for now. But only 3 days until Europe!!

Return to the U.S.A.

So I made it back safely to Bloomington, IL, start class tomorrow and am already missing Korea like crazy. I've pretty much confined myself to my room blasting the K-pop I got in Seoul, munching on Korean candy and have been running through pictures for the past few hours. Coming home from abroad is always the worst experience and I miss everyone so much :(

But anyways, I promised you guys updates of my last few days back in Seoul and failed miserably to supply those, but I do promise that I will write up a summary and add the pictures on here soon! And to make up for the late posts, I threw together a video tonight of a bunch of short clips of things we did throughout the tour. I had never made a video before this and put it together in just an hour while teaching myself how to use Windows Movie Maker, so I hope you don't mind the poorer quality. This was the trip of a lifetime and I absolutely cannot wait to hit the road again!

Kicking butt & taking names.

I feel rather repetitive with some of my blogs seeing as the general concluding theme is South Korea is amazing, everything I've experienced is incredible and I'm exhausted. Which is basically how I'm feeling today. Just thought I'd post a brief update seeing as I might not have access to internet for the next 2 days because we're about to head on an excursion out of Seoul and into a more remote mountain village.

Today was filled with more interesting lectures on US/Korea relations, plus some cool time bonding with Yonsei University students. Here were two of my groups' Korean volunteers posing with us below at the college:

Also this evening, after a full day of classes, I had the best time of my life at a Taekwondo class taught by a local Korean Grand Master. All 75 of us were packed into one huge gymnasium and were taught the basics of this martial art. I actually studied Taekwondo for 2 or so years around the age of 13 and got up to green belt status, so I had more experience than almost everyone there. This experience actually came in really handy and funny enough, even won me a cute souvenir gold medal that the Grand Master gave to the top 5 students he observed. I won it at a front jump kick competition and then even got interviewed afterwards for the CIEE video, it was pretty bomb.

Unfortunately there aren't too many pictures of today because we were running around so much, there was so little time. Our evening consisted of some yummy street food, Korean raspberry wine and another relaxed evening in. I'm just finishing packing up my bags for tomorrow and then I'm off to Yongin! I'll be back with a massive load of stories and pictures for you guys in a few days! An-nyeong-hi-ga-se-yo!

Chilling in Communist North Korea, no big deal.

I don't think there are quite enough words in the world to describe the experience I had at the DMZ (Demilitarized Zone - the border between N. & S. Korea and the most heavily militarized border in the world) today but I promise you I will do my best. This was hands down one of the most unique and fascinating experiences of my life and looking back on it a few hours later, I know it's going to take some time to really process how amazing and important everything I saw today was.

We began around 8 in the morning and headed out of Seoul for the first time since we arrived. It was really shocking after being surrounded by one of the most massive, progressive cities I've ever seen to suddenly start seeing a bunch of rice paddies appear all around, less cars and really suddenly, an abundance of barbed wire, military station posts, video cameras and weaponry. After about a 45 minute drive we arrived at the first station of the DMZ and were greated by our escort who would be touring us around for the rest of the day:


He was a really friendly guy and made us feel pretty secure despite the hundreds of marching soldiers and military tanks surrounding us. He checked our passports and then gave us a debriefing on the rules of the zone, when to take pictures and when it was forbidden and basically how not to do something stupid enough that would risk provoking World War III.

Our first stop was the coolest by far, which was the JSA (Joint Security Area) where we stood on one side, which was South Korea's territory, and could literally look across about 30 feet and see North Korean territory with their soldiers staring straight back at us. And in the center of both sides was the Joint Security Conference room, which was a building we were allowed to walk in half of which was in South Korea and half in the North and is the only place where we are able to cross the border into the North.

And so for your viewing pleasure, here is me setting foot in communist North Korea:


(Sorry, couldn't resist)

We were warned that North Korea knew that 50+ U.S. University students would be arriving today and that they might have more guards on duty watching us and to make extra sure that we avoided all contact with them. We did however, definitely see them lurking around many different corners, watching us intently through binoculars, tracking our every move.

If you look closely there's one of the N. Korean soldiers staring back at us from his checkpoint as we were at one of the viewing points:
There were so many crazy sites to see and stories to hear about different incidents within this area that I couldn't even begin to scratch the surface of it. However, the two things that I found most interesting were the fact that as we passed one of the checkpoints called the Bridge of No Return, on the North Korean side just 20 feet away from us there were 3 dead, white dogs lying perfectly lined up in the middle of the bridge. It was horrifying and the soldiers said they had been lying there for about 3 weeks as it was meant to symbolise Americans (because propaganda there often refer to us as dogs) and that if we dare cross we'd be as dead as the corpses of those poor animals. It wasn't a pretty sight, but it's one of the realities of the kind of things that go on there on a regular basis.

On a slightly lighter note was the ridiculousness of the flag war that seems to be waging between N. and S. Korea. It all begin when North Korea hoisted a massive flag from it's border line large enough so it could be seen all across the border to taunt the South. And of course, maturely, the South decided to hoist their one too but insisted that it be raised a few feet higher than the North and ended up building the largest flag/flag pole known to that day. However, the North simply couldn't have that and reminiscent of our preschool days in terms of one upping each other, North Korea constructed the largest flag display on the face of the earth, with a 600 pound flag that takes 40+ men to hoist and is raised many feet higher than the South Korean one. Almost laughable at how stupid of a competition this is, but here is a view of the North Korean's flag from many miles away that we viewed on our way out:


All in all, it was serious stuff, but we had a great time too, Far too many Kim Jung-Il jokes were tossed around than were probably healthy for that location and we all left agreeing this was the best part of our tour so far. We stopped in a souvenir store afterwards and being the tourist I am, I purchased an actual piece of the original wire fence from the DMZ removed on the 50th anniversary of the Korean War. It's framed and put together on a placque and you can call me a geek but I'm ridiculously excited to hang it on my wall as one of the neatest artificats I've collected thus far. (I also bought a really cheap, framed copy of North Korean currency to commemorate my minute or so spent on the North side.)

Our day continued as we got to climb through one of the discovered tunnels that was dug by the North Koreans across the DMZ into South Korea as a sneak attack plan. It was like a really cool cave walk but unfortunately I don't have any pictures seeing as it was dark and dreary and technically cameras weren't allowed, (knowing me though) I of course snuck one along and I have some video footage that I'll post later so you guys can get a look at it.

(Christian in the museum: maturity at its finest)

The whole military tour took up most of the day, but after a very intense DMZ education, we returned back to Seoul and were given free range to wander about the city. Some friends & I attempted to subway system for the first time (I wouldn't have made it without them... most confusing system I've ever laid eyes on - although it's probably because 98% of the instructions were in Korean). We walked down one of the largest tourist streets in the area, ate some delicious fried pastries, I bought a beautiful new scarf for only 4,000 won and we just hung out and had a good time. I've only now just returned but as usual, I'm desperately in need of sleep after a long day and the fact that I have classes in the morning. I hope I didn't bore you all with so much writing, there was just so much to say and there's so much left un-said too, so just ask me questions and I'll be happy to spill multiple more stories for you all :)

Anyways, I should really take off. Hope you guys are having a wonderful day wherever in the world you might be. Until next time!

Seoul never sleeps...

But unfortunately I have to so this will be short. Today consisted of a lonngg day at the University with a crash course in Korean, history lessons on the Korean War & US/Korea relations, plus a tour of the MASSIVE Yonsei University. It is so ridiculously high tech and more progressive then anything I've ever seen I was so in awe the whole time.

Most of the day was spent in the above hallway where all of our speakers presented and we had a huge, delicious lunch, but wandering around the campus for awhile was a really neat experience too. I love that we're actually considered official exchange students here and have our own Yonsei photo ID (in all Korean) to gain access to the library and what not, it makes me feel pretty legit. We'll be back on campus in a few days for more lectures and a closer look at student life, but as for tomorrow we're off to visit the DMZ (Demilitarized Zone) which is one of the things I've been most looking forward to all trip and I can't wait to share with you!

Anna & Daniel looking out at the city on one of the Yonsei rooftops:

We had dinner downtown in a Korean BBQ place and it was probably one of the best meals I've had yet, I can't remember exactly what kind of beef they said it was, but combined with sesame sauce, sprouts, onions, more kimchi - and other pickled goods, I thought I had died and gone to heaven it was SO delicious.

Later we finally had some free time and I also finally managed to find a money exchange to gather about 60,000 won (1,500 won = $1). I went out shopping with Ryan from my school and roomie Anna and decided that I had a fondness for all of the ridiculous, butchered English slogans on their t-shirts and had to buy one. I found my all-time favorite one in a store called Uni Qlo, which was basically just a shirt with penguins on it and the text underneath said:

"These is penguins (I think Magellan penguins but am not sure) on an ice shelf in Argentinean Antarctica. Running away from me."

Literally. That was a direct quote.
I'm kind of in love with it and hope to wear it everywhere and get awkward questions about it many times in the future just for a good laugh. Pretty fabulous indeed.

That's about all I have for you right now though, I'm about to crash. However I leave you with this other glorious runner-up shirt:

"Friendship of Girl: There are big ship and small ship but best ship of all is FRIEDSHIP."

Oh how I love this country.