Our last two days in Korea can be described as a whirlwind of activity. On Saturday, 9/5, we were awed by a North Korean defector as he told us about his harrowing escape when he was a 9 year old boy. Then it was off to the DMZ (Korean Demilitarized Zone) which was created in 1953 to separate the Korean Peninsula into two zones. An agreement between North Korea (communist), China & the United Nations struck this deal without any input from South Korea.
Because there are no humans living here, the DMZ is one of the purest nature reserves in the world, home to thousands of species that are extinct or endangered elsewhere on the peninsula. The military presence on each side of the DMZ is heavy. The two sides remain basically at war. Both entering & returning from the Zone, a military official boarded the bus to ensure our passports matched what was provided to the military earlier. Only recently was the DMZ opened to the public.
After returning from this long & emotional day, 4 of us joined Mini, to witness the most amazing light show, illuminated on the outside wall of an architectural wonder designed by an Iranian female architect in 2002. We navigated the subway to get to the light show which was a chaotic adventure in itself. A late Korean dinner afterwards.
On Sunday, it was a bus ride to a folk village. Yea, an opportunity to get out of a high rise jungle. Another learning day both at the village & in the bus. Mini never stops her passionate educating.
We barely had time to get back to the room, before 6 of us departed for the most hilarious entertaining 1 1/2 hours I have spent in a long time. A group of 5 actors mimed a night in the kitchen of a Korean restaurant. It was a mix of percussion, think Stomp, comedy, spoofery. My eyes lost all moisture from laughing so hard. For me, this performance was a cross between Stomp & Blue Man Group, with lots of comedy. The show called Nanta does travel the world, including the US.
For our farewell dinner, we dined at a chain restaurant to experience Korean fried chicken with beer. Only our’s wasn’t fried, but still quite yummy.
The Korean won is quite favorable to the dollar, about 1400 won to the US $. The people are extremely polite, fashionably dressed, with the most beautiful skin ever. Such a pleasure to visit this small part of Korea. Wish the countryside would have been part of the itinerary, but then the trip would have been 4 weeks long.
topic with us. This young man, Pak YuSung, is originally from North Korea. As a North Korean he was led to believe that South Koreans were poor, hungry & homeless. Because his father went to China frequently to buy black market goods, he was able to learn from films his father brought back that that was not the case. He was 9 when he convinced his mother they should escape. His mother, with money from his father, was able to hire agents to smuggle them out of North Korea thru China. The entire struggle to escape took two years; time spent on the physical escape, time spent in refugee shelters, time spent getting through the South Korean bureaucracy. After finally arriving, he learned he was not accepted. He was deemed uneducated & unemployable. Only after learning English in a Christian school in Tyler, TX & more time in Alaska, could he finally manage to begin to build a life in South Korea. He studied film & produced a movie about escaping North Korea. He is also on the lecture series. He recently married a North Korean escapee. Marrying South Korean would have been impossible as her parents would never approve. He proudly shared a photo of his new baby. As far as his parents are concerned, they moved closer to the border where his mother was born in hopes one day there will be a unified Korea & she can return to where she was born. THE POWER of the HUMAN SPIRIT!
Dried chili pepper, sticky rice powder, fermented soy bean powder, yeast, rice syrup, salt water. Mix & ferment for one year. Mix with butter (80/20) to use on barbecue. Yes, I am using the jar & blue bag to take my creation home. We’ll see how it ages.
Served with a delicious rice cookie with sweet filling. Mini making sure everyone gets a fair share.
Lotus leaf wine ingredients: Rice, sticky rice, yeast, lotus leaf, pine tree needles & water. We did try our hand at making the wine.
Fish cake, eggplant, fried anchovies, acorn jelly, chili leaf, dried pollack, fried fish cake, fern, kimchi radish stem & radish soup.
The weather, for the most part, has been warm & humid with just a hint rain. Forgot to mention that shoes off in all cases of entering a private home, shrine or temple. Have experienced this custom in many Asian cultures.
Off to Japan on a 2 hour Nippon Airlines flight in the morning. More to come.
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