South Korea part 2

Things I were already taking for granted in Japan but have a new appreciation for:
1. Heated toilet seats. Now, I know I talked about them a lot in the beginning. But, like everything else, you just start getting used to it. Well, go to South Korea for a week and you will quickly realize how important those heated seats really are to you. I mean, for real, it was a shock every single time I sat down in Korea. Even when I knew it was coming. I just don't get how America hasn't caught on to this idea yet. You might laugh, but just live a few weeks with heated seats and try to go back. You will understand.
2. My water heater. I can set my water to the exact temperature that I want and it automatically goes to that temperature every time. No messing with trying to get the hot and the cold perfect together. It just is. There is a little box on the wall in my kitchen (and one in the bath) and I just press up or down to set the numbers. Set it for one temp for your shower, another for doing dishes. It really is nice. I hated trying to find the right temperature in Korea. Always too hot, or too cold. This might sound petty to those of you who have to do this everyday and think nothing of it. But, if you had the automatic temperature, you would soon learn to appreciate it as much as I do!
3. Cleanliness. Japan is such a clean country. You do not see trash on the streets, and you don't even see trash cans! I do not understand how there are no trash cans anywhere, but still people do not throw trash on the ground. It's pretty amazing, really. South Korea was so dirty. I mean, sure I have see dirtier, but compared to Japan, it was dirty. I like looking at clean sidewalks and streets.

I can't remember exactly where I left off on what I did in South Korea. We went to the Korean Folk Village. This place was hyped up in the travel books and online to be the one place to go if you couldn't go anywhere else. Well, it was a dud. There was nothing there. We did see a traditional wedding, got to try on some clothes and take pictures, a cultural dance, and an acrobatic act. But, for how big the place was, there really was nothing. There was this one tree with all of these pieces of fabric hanging down. At the bottom there was something hard. We thought it looked cool, and being rude Americans, decided to try to swing on the thing. Well, this one family walks by and tells us that it is a suicide tree! And, they keep saying, "Dangerous!" Haha, whoops. We swung on it anyway. We weren't the only ones though. As soon as we got off another couple of people got on. So, we didn't feel as bad. :)

We also went shopping again this day. I'm pretty sure we shopped a little everyday. We also ate at TGIFriday's. Back home, this is one of my favorite restaurants! I was a little disappointed that my Caesar salad tasted fishy.

On Saturday, we went to the DMZ (Demilitarized zone between North and South Korea). Our tour picked us up at 7am! I am so glad that we got to do this tour. It was very interesting, and kind of crazy to think that this all is still going on even as we were there. Usually you go look at stuff that happend 100 years ago or something. Our tour guide, Mia, was amazing. She was down to earth and fun and told us all kinds of stuff you probably wouldn't get on most tours. We got to go down into the 3rd tunnel of aggression that North Korea tried to build to invade South Korea. We didn't get to go all that far, but did go down about 300 meters, I think they said. It was a little intense to think that on the other side of where we were was North Korea. We also went to the railroad station that is right between the two. There were guards standing there and we all go pictures with them. We also went up to this platform to look out over North Korea. There was a yellow line a ways back that you had to stand behind in order to take pictures. They were very strict about picutres beyond the yellow line. You could see the North Korean flag and the South Korean flag right on the border across from each other.
Funny story from when we were up on the platform. There were soldiers from all over there. Switzerland, Korea, America. People were so thankful towards the American soldiers. Shaking their hands, wanting pictures with them. It was really nice to see, actually. At least we are appreciated in what we do, you know? Anyway, there is this American soldier, and he just happend to be black. He had a huge group of people around him saying thank you and wanting pictures. Then I hear one lady say, "Obama?" And she just kept saying it. And then like a minute later she was like. "Obama brother?" I pretty much almost lost it, this lady asked this dude if he was Obama's brother because he was black! I mean, for real.. He was pretty much done taking pictures at that point, but I think he thought it was funny.

We ate at Outback Steakhouse that afternoon and I got ribs. You won't believe it, but my ribs tasted fishy! I made Sarah try them to prove I wasn't just going crazy. I think it was in the sauce. Disappointing. They were still pretty good though..minus the fishy-ness.

Sunday we went to the biggest church in the world. Well, the biggest church member wise. They have over 800,000 members. They had a special section for us foreigners and took really good care of us. We had headphones to listen in English. The songs they sang were the same as ours, so we just sung along in English. It really was incredible to watch all of these Korean people pray and praise God in a language that I can not understand.

On our last night there, we went to a martial arts comedy show called Jump! It was hilarious. We had a really good time. I saw a lot of awesome things in Korea and had a really good time. It probably was not a country on my list of places that I want to go, but I am so glad that I did.

Now it is back to work. My kids come on Wednesday. I can't believe it. I am so excited, but so incredibly stressed out. My classroom is nowhere near ready and probably still will not be finished when we start. I am just trying to get the big things done and have it look put together for when they come and then I can work on the other stuff that they can't see later. I just hope I get it all done though! I can't wait to have my own class everyday. I've been here almost two months exactly, so it's time to do what I really came to do!