The Only Country in the World: Haze of the North, Fog of the South: Ice Cold

When I told people that I'd be teaching in Korea for a year, I would invariably receive one of two different responses. The first was "Why?" The other was "Which one?" (And then, after specifying South Korea, people often asked if that was "the good one or the bad one"). Well, last weekend I broke the bonds of capitalist oppression and went to the North. That's the bad one.

That little strip of concrete in the middle there is the official Military Demarcation Line. This whole area is called the Joint Security Area, and there's a nice symmetry to the place. Or, there would be, if the North Koreans didn't insist on making all the buildings on their side of the MDL just a little bit bigger. Perhaps they think that if their side of the border is heavier it'll make the whole peninsula tip toward them and we'll all just fall into North Korea. Huttah! Over on the other side, if you squint, you can see a North Korean guard watching us. Sometimes they walk around the JSA and swear at the tourists, but we had no such luck.

The blue building on the left is neutral territory where negotiations between the two countries take place. Here's an inside shot:

Those guys in there, for all that they look a bit like bad guys, are the good guys. They're South Korea's very best; seventh-degree black belts who will punch you if you touch them and look great in aviators. They don't talk and they don't move, they just stand there. Cool.

This guy's job is the best. He gets to stand right at the border. The left side is South Korea; the right side is the North. The other guy in the room guards the door to North Korea proper, and as long as you stay out of roundhouse-kick-range, you can get someone to take your picture with him!

Max was down with the photo taking too. I'm not sure why they let him wear that bandana - it's a map of North Korea.

We drove by the Bridge of No Return, which is pretty much what it sounds like. I chose to stay on the south side. Note the haze of Yellow Dust, which wafts over in great clouds from the Gobi Desert in China every spring and makes my all my outdoor photos blurry.

We also visited a tunnel that the North Koreans dug under the DMZ in the early 70's. The South discovered it by accident, and in a wonderful twist of capitalist irony, they now charge people to go into it themselves. It's about 6 feet high and 6 feet wide, and very long. We weren't allowed to take pictures in the tunnel itself, but it's worth mentioning because Max got saddled with a 9-year-old ADHD poster child named Eric. His mom is claustrophobic, and when she said "I don't think I can go down there" to her son at the informational meeting, Eric simply pointed at Max and replied, "That's okay. I'll just go with him!" And he did. Max did good, though - after we came back from the tunnel, Eric made him mom buy a blue bandana so he could wear one just like Max. Awwww.

*commercial break*

Max teaches chemistry, and wanted to procure a little dry ice for a lab activity. The school's secretary may have misplaced a decimal point when she made the order, because a 50 pound box was delivered to the school this morning. Yes, that's 50 pounds of frozen CO2. Science!

Everyone learned a lot. For example, the 11th graders learned that you can pour dry ice fog on each other. You can also stab it with a knife.

The 8th graders learned that if you wear lab coats while playing with dry ice, you might get yourself into the school's advertising pamphlet.

And Gabriel the 3rd grader learned that he can look cute and a little goofy while holding dry ice soap bubbles.

Anyway, despite my best efforts, we still had about 30 pounds of the stuff left at the end of the day. It doesn't keep in the freezer very long, so it had to be used immediately. Good thing Max and I have a bathtub. I said science! Science again!