Today was a very early start. Problematically early. Having just gone to Hongdae the night before, my body was not at all prepared to meet at 6:10 AM today. I did buy myself an egg sandwich last night so I still had something to eat. The problem was that I was exhausted. Luckily, we took the bus today so I had plenty of opportunities to power nap.

Eventually, we made it to the DMZ. Kay ran out the bus to get our tickets, and we found a small food market to eat, because not everyone had the chance. I went ahead and bought some really good dumplings and we eventually did see Kay again who took us to our tour.

It had 2 different locations. One was near the awkwardly placed amusement park where we saw many historic pieces. I learned more about the Korean war and how its end really wasn’t what most people wanted. Many still hope that one day all of Korea will be reunited. There, we also learned about the multiple tunnels secretly built to attack South Korea and even got to tour one of them. It was incredibly cold and incredibly slanted. The second location was a platform where you were able to see the divide between North and South Korea. We saw the two villages between, Daesong Dong (South) and Kijong Dong (North). I read many stories about the two villages’ sour interactions and how both militaries protect the people living there. I was able to use a telescope to see the North Korean flag.

Fun fact, Kay told us that since South Korea built their border flag first, North Korea responded and built theirs twice as high.

Originally we did plan to visit the Hanok Village. However, due to the really late end yesterday and really early start today, most people were barely half-awake. So unfortunately, this is where today ends.

-Therese