End of Korea/New Beginnings in Beijing

I'm back in Beijing and settled now after about 10 days in Korea. I didn't wrap up my time in Korea so here it goes. On last Thursday Charlie and I went to the DMZ on a guided tour. We met up with the group at a hotel in downtown Seoul which included some interesting people from the US who are living in Japan teaching English. They thought that Korea was cheap! And they talked about how everyone is so polite in Japan. I couldn't believe what they were saying. It was like talking to people from outer space. Later we made it to the DMZ and we were told we could only take pictures at certain places due to security. The DMZ was much different than I had imagined. Going into the DMZ seemed as if we were going into a war zone which we really were doing, I just never thought it would look the way it did. Its amazing to thing that the two Koreas have been at war for over 50 years and never signed a peace treaty. After entering the DMZ zone, we walked through the 3rd infiltration tunnel with hard hats. In the 1980s the South Koreans found these tunnels that were built by the North Koreans to invade. The 3rd tunnel was built to accommodate thousands of soldiers per hour crossing over the border. It was a chilling to walk around through the tunnels while water droplets seeped through the cracks of the walls onto my helmet. Later on we went to the observation deck and saw the demarcation line with our own eyes. Our last day in Korea began with pancakes. Charlie and I decided to make an American breakfast of banana/apple pancakes and orange juice. After this we met up with friends to walk around Yoonmi's school and a street selling traditional Korean crafts. For dinner we had traditional Korean food which was really tasty. Leaving Seoul was difficult but had to be done. It was great seeing Yoonmi and our other Korean friends for a while.

So now we are back in Beijing and almost settled in at Beida. Since the homestay didn't work out for a lot of complicated reasons, I'll be staying on campus in the international student dorm. It's actually a more much convenient since I will be right next to my classes. Classes are starting again and I've had some interesting experiences to say the least. One of these experiences has been the Silk Market. What was originally just a short shopping run to pick up clothes for my internship turned into a comedic workshop on bargaining. More on that to come. I've also made several trips back to Yao Fangzi (The Medicine House) which have been great. I had the spiciest and hottest Huoguo (Hotpot) I'll ever have. Getting to the Silk Market let me experience the Beijing Subway for the first time. I had my first Beijing Kaoya (Roast Duck) experience. I found out that I'll be teaching English to Chinese kindergarteners this semester. I even caught a glimpse of the Beijing music scene last night. This weekend (the 8th and 9th) is the Beijing Pop Festival which features Public Enemy and Nine Inch Nails. Not what a lot of people would characterize as pop music and not the sort of bands a communist country such as China would be likely to invite to the country's biggest music festival. Public Enemy has long been a revolutionary hip hop group and Nine Inch Nails just came out with a record about a fascist state overthrown by the people. Hmm. I'll definitely be there.