Saturday, December 31, 2011

hello i disappeared



hellllo folllllks
yes, i have returned from the grave.
what has been up with me, you ask?

-cambodia and vietnam trip.
^woah, amazing^
-sadly, from all the amazingness above, i kind of came home and was really sick.
^well, at least no school^
-and this brings us to tonight. i moved host families !

i went from this;
gif make



my beautiful host mother, i love you.


to this;
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such a cute, quaint house !

i can not wait for my new adventures with my new family !

i will miss you, family #1.
love you guys !

Monday, December 19, 2011

f-f-f-f-four s-s-s-s-seoul


On the fourth, and final full-day of our Seoul trip, we went to DMZ -- the border between North and South Korea. It was an unreal experience unlike anything I have ever experienced before. The fact that North and South Korea are technically still at war is not prevelant until you go to the border.

It's eerie, it's a little too quite, and it's a little too close for comfort.


"brand new" toys from noth korean children's collections.
these were actually made 1985-1990ish


a typical north korean house.
these can have anywhere between 3 and 7 people living in them,


a north korean schoolhouse replica.
notice how there are photos of Kim Il-Sung and Kim Jong-Il above the blackboard?
it's like this everywhere, it is illegal to not have both the portraits in at least one room in a building.






it was so foggy! :-(
but if you look closely, you can see the land mass (picture one)
and the same land, zoomed up on (picture two)

THATS NORTH KOREA !
wow..
1 year ago, i never would have imagined seeing it in person.
and there i was.

it's just a little too close for comfort.


traditional music festival!
below -- getting a beauty treatment with acupuncture !



scary, right? -_-

crazy icecream for one dollar!



this was a traditional chicken soup that started in seoul.
we had to wait for 2 hours to get a seat, but it was SO worth it!
mmm






^^ all above: a traditional lantern festival^^

all in all, a great trip !
i love seoul!

lets go back again soon..

Saturday, December 3, 2011

seoul three








all of the above photos are from the Korean War memorial museum.
it was a really interesting place, made the war move into reality




at another palace!
had a few people come up to me and ask if they could take my picture...



chicken soup with a whole chicken in it..



and let this final gift show how much i love this traditional korea candy:



BYEBYE!