Today we are going to the Demilitarized Zone. We had a long day ahead of us as we were leaving at 9 am and not returning until 11pm. It was a long 2 hour bus ride to get to the DMZ. My group and I made a super secret super awesome handshake. It was very elaborate and was my favorite part. We got a bite to eat their, and i got kimchi dumplings- the perfect amount of spicy on the inside.
Right after we were given hard hats and walked down this extremely long wet, dark, cold, tunnel. North Korea had built it to get to Seoul after they had agreed to be at a standstill. They had build 3 other tunnels, that we know of, all on their way to Seoul. I talked the our Korean tour guides and their view on North Korea was surprising to me. They had sympathy for the people there and hoped to become one big country again because they see them as one big people. My idea was that they would be enraged. The North Koreans did terrible things to the South and killed so many people. Its beautiful that they can still have sympathy.
We were bussed to another place. At the top there was observation binoculars. They were bolted into the ground and you could look into North Korea. They were serious about the photography policy. My friend took a photo and was hunted down for him to delete it. I am upset I don’t have any photos of such a cool experience.
We had another 2 hour bus trip to the very famous, from what upperclassmen say, baseball game. I was told before hand that the most popular demographic is women in their 20s- very different from America. We had the best fried chicken I had eaten in my whole life in the seats to start. The game started with a very beautiful performance from the cheerleaders. It was an elaborate choreographed dance number. I was enamored with the whole thing. Later, I was confused to see the other side of the stadium doing synchronized dancing. It was the strangest thing. When did all these people learn the choreo. Then it was our teams turn to bat. The cheerleaders stood in front and did a different dance for every batter that played. It had its own chant too. It was a glorified dance battle. This is baseball I can get behind. The demographic was starting to make sense. There were definitely some over enthusiastic men there, but when it was time to dance, they locked in. The replays were dramatic. People were watching the umpires talk about the plays on their phones. People were so invested. Another thing about the culture is they do NOT boo- a huge thing in American sports. People also stay the entire event, no matter the score. By the end of the game, I had no idea what the score was neither did I care. I just knew I was having a great time cheering for my team and laughing with my friends. I think America can learn a couple of things from how they do baseball in Korea because it was much more enjoyable.
