서울, 카드, 그리고 인자 Seoul

Eoddeoge Jinaeseumnikka? (how have you been)

Well family another week has come and passed and I am here to do my best in giving you full, vivid report. Tuesday obviously began with another exciting week of camp; we got Monday off for fourth of July. This week’s theme was Looking through the Looking Glass (Alice in Wonderland) and my club was photography club. Tuesday morning the kinders made their own rabbits to hang on the door and they learned their six new words of the week. In photography club I found out as we gathered for club that the centers cameras were m.i.a so I had fourteen kids trying to share the three digital cameras I could borrow from counselors, not pleasant. Our all camp activity was playing parachute games out on the field which was pretty fun. One of the main games is called sharks and lifeguards when one person is crawling around under the parachute while everyone else sits in a circle with their legs underneath shaking it. A lifeguard stands on the outside and when the shark tries to pull someone under the lifeguard runs over and pulls them back out. Easy enough normally but James was the shark and I was the lifeguard, he ripped those under the parachute so fast I didn’t even have time to see them fall down, it was pretty funny. Our regular center director, who is not the kindest of all women, is on leave for two weeks and we have had a stand in. The stand in is taking over the director’s job in August and used her leave to change everything in the center, she rearranged every room and bought a ton or new things. We predict drama when she returns at the end of this week. Tuesday afternoon I took the kinders to the pool and had a lot of fun swimming around with them, one little boy Alex isn’t very big so he has to be held and Devin, Jesa, and I just pass him around for the hour. I have huge bruises on my shoulders and arms from kids tackling me. We finished the day with closing and crashed pretty early. Wednesday was basically the same. I swam again with the 2nd-5th graders who are far more vicious. That night we all hung out and had a staff meeting and planned our future weekend. Thursday we went on a field trip to herb hills. Herb hills is literally on the side of a mountain and very hilly, the kids did not enjoy that much hiking. They made their own soap first which consisted of a small Korean woman trying to explain directions in broken English over a microphone to 56 loud American kids. They were suppose to use knives to cut up their soap to melt down. Not a good idea, kids were swinging knives it was slightly chaotic. So after a stressful soap making session, Devin and I took the kinders to ride the merry-go-round and the kiddy Viking ship. Then we returned to the soap place to make candles which consisted of poring layers of sand into a cup then putting wax on top, safer. We ate lunch with the kids then were pleasantly surprised when the new lady in charge told us she bought us all traditional meals up at the restaurant and we had a long break. After our Korean meal we took the kinders up to the petting zoo where they where the kids when bananas. They were flipping out over geese and a pony. One of our trouble makers, Keyona, had to be physically restrained after she tried to ride the pony. Oh and it wasn’t even a petting zoo because the animals were in open cages but the kids weren’t suppose to touch them, though every kid tried. We decided to stay for the animal show at 2:30, unfortunately at this time it was only one o’clock. We had to really kick our camp training into gear singing songs and playing games the whole time. We taught them iggle wiggle (a dance battle song) and played the game black magic. Finally it was time for the animal show. We walked them all in, oh and we are all wearing matching t-shirts, we we all pile in with other Korean families and take our seats for the show. We are about ten minutes early so James decides he wants to get a wave going and involves the entire crowd. Eventually the show gets started and it’s a Korean lady and man dressed in Tarzan attire speaking loudly in Korean. The ten Korean kids we have were dying of laughter so it must have been good. They had pigs, dogs, seals, monkeys, and birds that flew out over the crowd. One of the seals was being disobedient and refused to get out of the pool so that was pretty funny. Finally we packed up to go home and spent the rest of the night hanging out. My throat started hurting Thursday night and I was pretty sick when I woke up on Friday morning. Friday was a long terrible day. I was not feeling well and the kids were NOT on their best behavior. We have a new boy this week, Sammy, who is the most awful child I have ever met. He is always pushing and hitting and ignoring directions and of course he is a kinder. We had a “special treat” of going to the teen center and watching a movie, so the kinders and I watched fox and the hound in a freezing cold room on the floor, I had about ten kids crowded around me for warmth. In the afternoon we played with bubbles and did cream the counselor.

Friday night we packed up our bags and were out the door by seven, Jesa had to run back to the room half way through our walk to the taxi because she forgot something, then when we reached the taxi she realized she forgot her passport and we had to go back again. But eventually we made it to the train station and we were en route to Seoul. We picked the fast train which are really nice and got a family car with a table in the middle. The boys really wanted to teach us to play Euker which I still am not sure if that was a good plan or not. So after a long direction section we commenced play, Jesa and James vs. Devin and I. We picked it up fairly quickly but I have never played cards so competitively before or been yelled at for the way I played, it was a tense ride. We arrived at ten and took the subway to Itaewon and area right outside of base where my friend Amanda was going to pick us up and lead us back to Yongsan, the military base she is staying on. We got off the subway to a street of Baskin Robbins, Texas Road House, McDonalds, Burger King and a ton of embarrassing Americans. We called Amanda and didn’t get an answer. She called back about twenty minutes later saying she was watching the new twilight that she bought a bootleg version of for 3,000 won. She, Emily, and Kristine (our big boss lady) picked us up at the Burger King and led us back to base. Jesa and I shared a room that night and James and Devin shared a room. We stayed up swapping camp stories and rummaging to find jeans. Amanda got us all DMZ tickets from the hotel on base for 41,000 won and she just then read the dress code that required closed toes, jeans, and collared shirts. I borrowed a girl’s pants who were there, luckily James and Jesa brought a pair, and Devin had to borrow a pair of Kristine’s, pretty funny. We woke up the next morning bright and early at 6:45 and headed to the bus at 7:30. The bus driver was in a snazzy suit and tie so we knew the tour would be legit. Our guide had awful jokes and I spent most of the hour bus ride chit chatting with the group and arguing with Devin. We stopped at a park first for fifteen minutes that was erected for those Koreans whose families have been separated by the war. Then we stopped for fifteen minutes at an abandoned train station. Evidently South Korea asked North Korea if they would be interested in building a train up through to china and Russia. North Korea agreed and South Korea spent a ton of money building up this railway only to have North Korea change their minds when South Korea finished building. So they just have this abandoned train station. Next we drove to the border. It was pretty cool you walk up and there is a yellow painted line on the floor and you aren’t allowed to take pictures past it. If you put your camera away you can walk up to the line and look out over North Korea. I was expecting to see something, you could make out a city in the distance but really it was just a bunch of trees. We hung out there for about fifteen minutes then headed to the tunnels. Evidently after the war and the drawing of the 38th parallel they found a tunnel that North Korea had dug underneath the DMZ heading to Seoul. After further investigation they have uncovered four tunnels and recently discovered sixteen more, that’s a total of twenty tunnels heading to Seoul and apparently 30,000 soldiers can get through each tunnel in one hour. After watching an informational video and looking at a few replicas and Korean soldier mannequins frozen in war like positions it was time to enter the tunnel. We all put on yellow hard hats and walked down a steep 14 degree hill. It got colder and colder with each step and eventually we were down in a mine shaft like thing. We walked straight for a long time; fortunately my height is perfect for not ducking. At the end of the tunnel you can look through a small window and that opens to another section of the tunnel and another window and you can see through to the North Korea side. It was pretty cool, we headed back bought popsicles and bandanas and boarded the bus. Our next stop he said was Seoul Amethyst, we arrived and he said we would spend thirty minutes here. We spent less time in the DMZ than we did in this jewelry store. It was a fairly interesting tour but it got the job done. We returned to meet up with the people who didn’t go on the tour and headed into town for a little lunch and shopping. Kristine is half Korean and dinning with someone who knows what they are doing and how to order is a way better experience. We had pork and other things whose names and spelling I won’t even attempt. After lunch Jesa and I stayed around town to do some shopping and planned on meeting up with everyone else at the base in about an hour. I got some t-shirt and stuff and Jesa bought some gifts as well. We packed up our bags, James, Devin, Jesa, Amanda, Emily, and I, and headed to Mr. Kim’s Friends guesthouse. After getting incredibly lost, eating popsicles, getting lost again, we finally found Mr. Kims. We were actually picked up. Mr. Kim’s was pretty cool, we stayed in an eight person dorm with four sets of bunk beds, and one stranger who we never spoke to. It had roof access and we immediately ran up there and chit chatted for hours. The four of us have been getting along really well and maybe it’s just the spending ever second of everyday together thing but this weekend we did a lot of arguing and had one very large argument on the roof that night while the other two girls were off getting food. But we are always able to get along again about thirty minutes after any argument. Around midnight Jesa and I, the sick ones, went to bed and the other four decided to go clubbing. The next morning we woke up early to hang out on the roof alone and say our prayers before waking up the rest of the group they had some pretty funny dancing stories from the night before. We once again packed up our bags and headed back to base. The boys were really hungry and needed some greasy food so we decided to eat at the same restaurant in the hotel we ate in that first morning.

Jesa and I knew we needed to make their bellies happy if we wanted them to do anything we wanted today. So after overeating at the breakfast buffet they were ready to go and the four of us headed to Seoul Tower. The taxi took us almost all the way to the top of the hill but we had to hike up last section, which was the steepest hill I have ever climbed, right after breakfast. We eventually made it to the top and paid our 8,000 won and rode the elevator up. The view was crazy. Seoul is the fourth largest city in the world and it stretches out as far as the eye can see, and there are gorgeous mountains in the background. We hung out for a while then decided to hike back down the hill we were fortunate enough to ride up and find a metro station to take us back to the train station. The distance between us and the metro was much further than anticipated but everyone was getting along at this point so there wasn’t a problem. We have been playing the yellow game (which has become the pink game since that’s how the game always ends, there are a lot of pink cars) everywhere we go and we have added a few other games that earn points. The first game is spotting pregnant Koreans, who are few and far between and finding Koreans with moustaches, also a rare treat. We played a lot this weekend and it’s pretty fun. We bought our tickets and sat in another family section with a table. Immediately we had to play euker again and they were both getting really pissy about Jesa and my lack of attention and side chit chat. So after an argument, five minutes of not speaking we decided to just talk, a much better decision. Unfortunately it was raining when we returned so we ran back in the rain and Jesa and I spent the night relaxing and watching slum dog millionaire. It was a really relaxing weekend all in all and it was very pleasant to just hang out and chat every once and a while. I am having a lot of fun here and I am so sad that we are almost half way through our stay. I hope all is well at home and I can’t wait to see everyone!

Love and pregnant moustached Koreans,

Elizabeth

Oh and P.S. I finally have an address, address the envelope to this man, my boss and put my name in the return address!

Rick Silva
Unit 15746
Box 382
APO AP 96218