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| Matt (12), Jenny (19), me (22), Kelly (16), Danny (21), & Kona |
It has been awhile since our last post and as most of you now know our last entry was filled with one tiny, white lie: spending our winter vacation snowboarding. I prefer to call it a cover story now that the secret is out, but I was able to go home and spend Christmas with my family. Although Kyle would have loved to go home as well, he opted to stay in Korea since his flight back to NJ added an extra 12 hrs to his trip and he felt it just wasn’t worth all of the travel for only 7 days at home. Kyle has also adjusted much better to life in Korea than I have, and even though I was only home for 8 days, it was so incredibly worth it. Definitely one of my best and most memorable Christmases ever, especially since only a few people, Mom, Dad, Danny, and Kyle’s family, knew about the surprise. I will spare you the details of the surprise, but everyone was very shocked and in disbelief when I magically appeared to them on Christmas Eve and many happy tears were shed. I do want to give Kelly Merritt & Amy Withey a big shout out for best reactions. And a special thanks to my parents, who while I’m sure they know how ecstatic I was to be home, made the Christmas miracle possible. I am not allowed to go into detail about all of the delicious food I gorged myself on while I was home because I will make Kyle sad, but I did return to Korea with 10 cans of tomato soup, an obscene amount of Christmas cookies, and other treats for Kyle to make up for abandoning him for a week. Kyle enjoyed spending time with the guys while also finishing his second TESOL course.
Shortly after being back in Korea, we needed to give Mrs. Kwon our 2 months notice that we were not renewing our contract. We had been very anxious about how she would react since she doesn’t have the best record when it comes to dealing with foreign teachers. We had Nadia translate our letter into Korean since Mrs. Kwon really doesn’t speak English and we wanted to make sure there were no misunderstandings. Afterwards, everyone wanted to know what her reaction was. Mrs. Kwon’s reaction: "It’s in Korean!” That’s what we got. About a week later we had a meeting with her and one of the other Korean teachers, Anna, played translator. She told us that we could leave 2 weeks earlier than planned since the kindergarten was on leave before the new school year started. We said that we would be happy to leave early, as long as it didn’t jeopardize our bonus. (Legally, we have to have worked for
exactly 356 days, so if she didn’t/doesn’t pay us we can no longer go to the Labor Board and argue it since she now doesn’t
have to pay us). While this makes us a little nervous since we know she’s sneaky,
we haven’t actually had any problems with her specifically. We will keep you posted on how everything turns out. She should be paying us our bonuses asap, and we should be getting our money for plane tickets and our last paycheck by Feb 14. Fingers crossed that everything goes well and that our final weeks in Korea end on a happy note.
With 2 weeks taken off of our sentence we can really start to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Only 13 teaching days left! We’re almost down to the single digits, and yet some of our classes seem to last an eternity. With so little time left in Korea, Kyle and I realized that we still had some unfinished business in the ROK.
For instance, we hadn’t been to the DMZ yet, a must for all foreigners living here. So, this morning, we woke up at 5am, to catch a bus into Seoul and arrived at the military base by 7am. We took a tour bus to the Joint Security Area (JSA) where we watched a short slide show on the history of the DMZ and then toured around the JSA area. We were able to see Taesongdong (SK), one of 2 heavily guarded villages in the DMZ where the residents have a curfew of midnight and don’t have to pay taxes, and the North Korean village, Gijungdong, which is a propaganda town and has the largest flag pole in the world.
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The world's largest flagpole in Gijungdon, DPRK.
Then we went to Checkpoint 3, where we were surrounded by North Korea on three sides. After that we drove by the Bridge of No Return |
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The Bridge of No Return
and then went to the Freedom House, which was built so that families who were separated could be reunited with their loved ones although the North has yet to send any of their people over to the South. Behind the Freedom House is the Military Armistice Commission (MAC) where meetings between the North and South take place. It is in this building that you are able to cross over into North Korea. For most people, the northern inside part of the MAC building is as much of North Korea as we will ever see.
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| I'm in the DPRK - aka North Korea |
The MAC building is located in between the Freedom House and North Korea's Panmungak Pavilion building which is used as a waiting room for North Korean representatives.
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| Our tour guide and behind him a North Korean soldier who is watching us through binoculars, and standing on the Panmungak Pavilion. |
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| North Korean soldier in the back and 2 South Korean soldiers on the right. They stand very close to the wall. I'm still not sure why, maybe to protect 1/2 of their body if there was an attack? |
Then we left the JSA and went down into the Third Infiltration Tunnel, the South has only found 4 tunnels that the North has dug to Seoul, but they expect that there are still several more out there. After the tunnel we went to the Dora observatory and got to have a closer look, through binoculars, of Gijungdong and Gaeseong, an area where factories are located that employ both North and South Korean workers. Lastly our tour took us to Dorasan Station, which is a train station connected to North Korea. |
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| Dorasan Station |
If and when the Koreas are reconciled, the train station is ready to go with the quote/slogan, "Not the last station from the South, but the first station toward the North.
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| She's got a ticket to ride. . . to North Korea. |
That is all for now. We hope you are all doing well and staying warm. We miss you! Love, K & M
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| It was insanely cold & windy |
