Jan. 4, 2008: Winter Vacation

안 녕

Happy New Years!!!! Well I hope everyone had a great holiday season. I have to admit it was tough being away from everyone this time of year but I made the best of it. I'm really looking forward to starting off the new year right and enjoying the rest of my time here. As of today I've been in Korea for 8 months, and the time seems like it's flying by. I feel like this last 4 months will be a blur. I've been getting a lot of questions about my return, which will most likely be at the beginning of May.

Well I am on the last night of my holiday vacation which has been pretty low key. I decided to stay in Korea to try and save some extra money. With the tumbling economy here and abroad I thought it best to play it safe. Nonetheless I had some adventures and took care of some business.

One part of my vacation that I didn't really enjoy were the multiple visits to the dentist. It's a frequent habit for foreign Koreans to get dental work done when they return to Korea. With the national health coverage it's extremely cheap for people to have dental work done so I made a couple visits over break. To give you a perspective of the cost, the two wisdom teeth on my right side were removed in the US for $800. In February I'm having the other two on the left side removed which will run me about 12,000 Won, equivalent to about $11, amazing huh?

On the brighter side of my vacation I felt I had a very "big city" New Years Eve celebration. So in typical fashion my evening started really late, met up with some friends around 11:30 PM. I know this may sound absurd to many of you but Seoul doesn't really shut down. In my 8 months here I've only heard "last call" once and it was at 4 AM. So we visited Hongdae a very popular spot and rushed to a bar where we enjoyed some drinks. From my prospective it didn't seem that the stroke of midnight was that big of a deal. There was no elaborate countdown and most people didn't really acknowledge the occasion. Nonetheless the night continued on, which led us to a couple of clubs and eventually 5 AM. Now by this time we decided to head home, but getting a cab in this area can be very difficult and expensive. So we decided to get a bite to eat and wait for the subways to open at 5:45. When it was all said and done I finally hit the sack at 7:00 AM. To say the least Korea is always an adventure.

After New Years Eve I spent the next night visiting Seoul Tower with Mindy and her friend Dawn from the US. I'm not really a fan of tourist attractions so I generally leave those things for when people visit. We took a gandula up to the base of the tower and rode an elevator up 777 ft to the observation room. It was a really clear night so we had a great 360 degree view of the city. The thing that I found most interesting were the city names posted all around the observation windows. Each one was placed in the direction of the city and how far away it was from the tower. You can see an example in the Picassa. Another interesting tradition I learned about was the fence of locks. There is a fence at the base of the tower that is covered in locks, and I mean covered. Apparently couples use these locks to symbolize their love, throw the keys away. I can only imagine all the keys that sit at the base of this hill.

Over the break I also had a chance to visit the DMZ, which was far more interesting then I expected. With the US military presence in Korea my friends and I were able to take a tour through the USO. During the tour I actually had the opportunity to see North Korean soldiers only 50 meters away. In the picture above I was actually standing in North Korean territory; fortunately that 6'6'' Korean soldier was guarding the doorway. It's incredible that these soldier who hate each other have to face off everyday with nothing to stand in between them. If you get a chance take a look at the picture of the North Korean flag that flies just across the border that has a dry weight of 600 lbs!

Well I wish I could extend my vacation longer but someones gotta teach these kids English. Hope all of you are doing well and I'd love to hear from all of you.

~Sunny

PS: Check out this hilarious video of Korean cuisine.