Friday, May 11 - DMZ and Namdaemun

Friday May 11, 2012

Today we were able to attend a tour of the Demilitarized Zone of Korea also known as the DMZ. Although we had to leave by 7:00am, I think our group ended up enjoying our time!

It took about an hour an a half to get from Hoam Faculty House to the DMZ, this is with a few delays and bus transfers of course. Once we reached the DMZ, there were plenty of restrictions and regulations that we were warned about by our awesome tour guide CK (Crazy Korean) lol. It was crazy to hear the history of how things came to be between North and South Korea. I also can't lie. I was pretty nervous that something could abruptly happen, like a missile being shot over or something. Of course that's unrealistic, but we never know. I noticed that everyone in our group was very engaged in the exhibits and our tour guide's story.

Also we were able to enter one of the tunnel's of the DMZ. I think that was quite the bonding experience since it was a small and enclosed setting. It took a while and was definitely a workout, but I think it was a great experience that we're all glad to have said we did. I also think that everyone enjoyed shopping at the DMZ market where we were able to buy North Korean wine and products that were exclusively made in the DMZ. 

Secondly, we had the opportunity to explore the markets of Namdaemun. Everyone split up due to different food choices. However, some of us did meet up. The "copy" culture was everywhere! There were Louis Vuittons, Chanel, Pumas, and plenty more for less than half the actually price. As we noticed that there were tons of stores selling the same products. It's obvious that many markets are competitive of one another, especially in a such a busy city like Seoul. Many different forms of advertisements were used to attract different customers. For example, there was a crew of people trying to sell these "OMG cookies." They knew like 5 different languages for there presentation in order to better market their product to foreign customers. I thought that was CRAZY! 

As for our group dynamics, I can see that people in our group are becoming more comfortable with each other. Everyone is more open and flexible with sitting with others. I think part of it may be from the random buddy and the other part from just being with each other everyday. A few people are starting to get sick now, but nothing too severe. I hope that we continue to get along with no problems, so that we can have a great time with each other and enjoy the rest of our stay at Seoul! =]]