Welcome to the twilight zo...I mean the demilitarized zone.

Last weekend me, Kristi and our friends Ryan and Laura went to the DMZ on a guided tour. Unfortunatly you dont have much freedom to move around on your own, which I guess makes sense as it is a military complex. Anyway, we were shown quick documentary that was accompanied by some propgahdist montage, all of which was shown on 3 screens with 6 projectors! For all that set up, they really do not take advantage of the hardware. We got to see a tunnel that the north allegedly dug after the agreement (sorry no pics were allowed) and an observatory station where you can look into north korea (pictures were limited, as you will see). There was a museum that has some cool features, like a glass floor with a tiny model of the DMZ underneath it. Mind you, their use of dollar store plastic animals gave the set up some serious scale issues, but I guess that just adds to the cuteness. I found the monochrome feature on the camera and got a little too trigger happy with it, but at least the pictures turned out okay.

Afterwards we hit up Hongdea for some coffee and browsing around.

Until next time,

Cheers!

Explosions require a tripod, or common sense.

Kris and I went to see a massive fireworks festival in Seoul on Saturday night with a big group of friends. Apparently over one million people attended, which in ways does not surprise me. We took the subway two hours early and it was absolutely packed with people. What would usually be a 3 minute walk from the train to the exit of the station ended being almost a 3o minute affair. Anyway, there were kites everywhere, and most of my firework pictures have trails because I am a genius(read: idiot) and decided to use a slow shutter without a tripod. The faster shutter photos actually look good despite being dark, so in the future I will take that route. You live and learn.

I don't teach, I just search for treasure.

I don't have to teach all week because my students have exams. On Wednesday all of the teachers went to a local mountain a did a little scavenger hunt for prizes. Afterwards we had a delicious dinner where, like usual at a korean meal, people push soju on each other as much as possible (you only drink if someone fills your glass, which usually isn't a problem). Anyway, here is some pictures of the faculty, a pagoda where the scavenger hunt is, as well as some random nature and architechture photography. The pictures of the meal at a small table are from a day when the head English teacher took me and a new substitute out for Urbap (rice cooked in a stone pot and covered in fish eggs - delicious)

The man on the left is a P.E. teacher who organizes all school gatherings. The guy on the right is a math teacher who is a formidable drinker

Notice the skilled placement of my fucking finger

I couldnt control the focus here, so its a bit blurry.

The man in the middle front with the white blazer is our principal, hes pretty cool.

Rock on,

Jnid.