Urban Adventures, Part 2

After schmoozing with the ambassador and a gentle night on the town (I found a great Germanmicrobrew in Seoul by the way, which made the trip worth it in itself) we woke up bright andearly and headed North to the DMZ. I didn't realize it before, but there are actually several tourist sites along the DMZ that you can check out--yet we got to tour the Panmunjom site, the quintessential image that most of you have probably seen (check out thepicture with the blue buildings). Native Koreans are not allowed on base here...for apparent"escape" reasons, and yet the tension between both sides hangs in the air heavier than the Korean humidity. Also, the dress code is enforced to the tee because, as they say, the N.Koreans will gladly take pictures of raggedy"gangster" clothing (their words, not mine) and useit as propaganda. We were shuttled around different points and got to spend a few minutes in the long rectangular building that straddles the border. If you walk across the center line, which of course I did (with the other side's door locked), you officially enterN. Korea--so I crossed off one more bullet from my bucket list this past weekend. It's a little nerve-wracking imagining some soldiers busting in through the door and carrying us off to the great beyond (which actually happened to a S.Korean guard scanning the room a few years back, though he was able to fight them off and get back to safety). If you look closely at my picture, you can see one of the N. Korean guards checking on us with us binocs.

After perusing some of the more touristy parts of the DMZ (secret N. Korean attack tunnels, railroads going nowhere,etc) outside ofthe military base, we headed back to Seoul to paintthe

town red. This time I headed over the the Hongdae area in Northwest part of town--straddled by Hongik, Yonsei, and a few more universities. This district definitely caters to the college crowd, and it's amazing just how many people turn out to party. The place, not unlike other districts in Seoul, is just packed to the brim with shops, bars, clubs, and any number of restaurants. I think Papa Gorilla takes the cake

for the sketchiest white-boy club, though (Don't go here, seriously), but kudos to David and his bucket, literally, of long island ice tea.

Needless to say Saturday night consumed pretty much all of Sunday morning, but I still got to check out a couple of the market districts and one of the old palaces later in the afternoon (check out the pictures). Again, I'm still amazed at the sheer number of people in this place--24

million to be exact--all of whom are out and about, shopping, shooting the shit or checking out the sites. We also had our Korean Language Class graduation at Korea University (basically the Harvard/Yale/Princeton/whatever of Korea) which included "class presentations." This is another one of those uniquely Korean things that's completely lost in translation to me. Another example is banners--they have massive, elaborate, banners for every conceivable event--and another is the class presentation: something like a capstone skit that everyone does. It's not so weird in and of itself, I am just curious as to how routine and, to some extent, integral these things are to Korean life. In any case, if you look hard enough online you can probably find a video of me strutting my moves to Korean K-pop--I'll leave you on that note.