To continue yet again...
Christmas in Namhae was absolutely fabulous. A great bunch of people, a great location, and a great and wide array of food and drink, just as it should be. There were 20-something of us in total, a selection of nationalities, Canadian, Brits, Australian, Kiwi, American, and a litle less selection with names, two Nicoles and umpteen Mikes and Michaels. It was strange to be away from home for the first time, but the general revelry and effort put in by everyone to make it all work was really great, and made it feel like a proper little Korean Christmas. We had fairy lights, stockings, and as for the actual dinner on Christmas Eve, you could not have had more dishes or more stuffed bellies if you'd tried. We went on a nice walk on Christmas Eve, u to a temple in the mountains that overlooks the bay. In the evening, after all the eating and drinking of warm spicy mulled wine, I celebrated the fact that I had some limes (sounds silly but 99% of the time, they are a myth in Korea), by mixing them with a good portion of a bottle of Bombay Sapphire, they are perfect partners afterall. Christmas morning itself was spent opening our stockings in the company of our makeshift Santa, complete with shades for that festive cool look, and trying in vain to finish all the food.
New Year was spent in the traditional Korean manner of eating delicious Italian food, watching some bands play, dancng around, drinking, more drinking, and for those of us with the stamina, heading to the beach to watch the sunrise and give ourselves as much good luck for the coming year as possible. Sadly, it was a cloudy affair, and by the time we'd waited for felt like hours for the sun to finally make it's beleagured appearance, we were ready to hit MacDonalds for hot chocolates and hash browns before heading home at the unseemly hour of 9am.
On the remaining spare weekend, a bunch of us headed off to Muju Ski Resort for some snow-accompanied fun and birthday celebrations. As we were setting off at the ungodly hour of 4.30am, a few of us decided to skip the sleep and just stay out all night (why we keep doing this to ourselves, I do not know). After a sweltering 3 hour bus ride, accompanied by the necessity of someone puking on the bus, thanks Nick, we arrived in Muju. As it turned ut, only 5 of us were actually skiing or boarding. This being my first time skiing, what better way to start than to have had no sleep, no lessons, a few wods of advice from my friends (do the A, dig your feet in...) and go to the top of the longest, and intermediate, run in the country. I can think of no better way....! It was a smashing time, quite literally for me all day. Every time I thought I was going too fast or losing control, I would just bail and throw myself to the floor in a tangle of skis, poles and padded clothes. Frozen hair and an ice-spattered face is the 'in' look for this season. It was good fun, despite the cold and the pain, and the winding shock of being swept off my feet by a boarder, and I'll do it again sometime, just maybe on a beginner's run next time.
Unfortunately, this all had to catch up with me at some point and by the Monday morning, I was sick. I spent all week sleeping and working, and then, feeling a little better and in the need of some human contact on Saturday, I celebrated the fact that I wasn't feeling as bad anymore by partying till dawn. Back to square one Monday morning. I never learn.
My last weekend in Korea was spent in Seoul, Saturday going on the DMZ tour, partying Saturday night (my one week advance birthday), and lunching and shopping on Sunday. The DMZ tour took us first into the Joint Security Area, and to Camp Bonfias and Panmunjeom, the UN village that straddles the border. It had quite an eerie feeling about the place. Next to the actual border, or the Militay Demarcation Line, there is 'Freedom House', built by the RoK government in the late 1990s for the purpose of hosting reunions between North and South Korea. Sadly, it has never been used for it's intended purpose, and is just a pristne, echoy shell of a building. In front, you can see the blue UN buildings, the length of concrete slab officially marking the division between North and South. And over on the other side, the North Korean's 'Recreational' Building - the one with the brown-uniformed soldiers standing in front. Apparently, this recreational building is not what it claims to be, and houses nothing fun or leisurely at all. All around the blue UN buildings are RoK soliers, some watching us, some watching the soldiers on the other side. We got to go into the main meeting room, where the main conference table does indeed straddle the border. There were two soldiers in there, one at the North Korean door, and another at the table, with one leg on either side. We were told by our US soldier guides that when the lovely George W. Bush visited a few years ago, some North Korean soldiers walked in, pick up the American flag that was hanging at one end and proceeded to blow their noses with it. Got to give them some credit for that. We also went to see the 'Bridge of No Return', and the despairing name matches the bleak setting, just a glorified concrete slab running over the border. From one of the lookout towers, we could see right over the border, and could get a mist-reduced view of the propaganda village (a 'stunt' village because no-one actually lives there), the industrial conplex, where South and North Korea are trying to do business together, and the tallest flagpole in the world, and hanging from it a 600lb North Korean flag. The highlight (and I say this very tongue in cheek because it wasn't a fun highlight as the term suggests) was the film we were shown before going down into the 3rd tunnel. All day we'd been hearing from our guide about North Korea's double-face, about how they keep making promises and they never do anything, how they keep back ing out of deals, and how much propaganda is prevalent on the other side of the border. At which point, we were then shown what can only be described as South Korean propaganda. The film starts off with the obligatory shots of Kim Jong-Il, weapons of all shapes and sizes, soldiers marching etc, and then descends into a story of a girl lost between the two countries, and much crying and melancholic music ensues. By the end of the film we are being told that the DMZ, rather than being regarded as a symbol of separation, war and hostility, is now seen as a 'symbol of peace, hope and unification in the 21st century'. Henceforth we see, as if by magic, green pastures, rambling streams, woodland, bright rays of sunlight and butterflies and birds flying through the sky appear, in what has to be the most farcical thing I've seen in a long long time. Peace when there are still thousands of armed soldiers guarding every kilometre of the border from west to east? Hope when the armed North and South Korean soldiers face each other off all day every day at Panmunjeom? And unification when the two countries, despite 'officially' working together on joint projects in the hope that it will bring them one step closer to actually unifying, are still slagging eachother off essentially? I don't believe it.
So that brings me to the present, sitting at Incheon International Airport, feeling oh so fine after spending last night drinking and intermittently dancing, and whiling away the latter part of the night in a soju bar. But still, I managed to get home, showered and changed before heading to the airport at 5.30am. How do I feel about coming home? Well, it's still not real yet, and probably won't be until I'm walking through arrivals at Heathrow (16 hours to go) and I'm surrounded by white people, the majority of whom will be speaking the Queen's English, and seeing my parents for the first time in over a year. Just the thought of actually being in England makes me feel giddy with excitement and a little nervous as well, it's been a while after all. This month has to have been the second hardest month of the year simply because I've been so impatient to get home - I don't want to go in 4 weeks, 2 weeks, 1 day, 10 hours, I want to go NOW!
This year has been an absolute blast, with a lot of ups and downs to begin with, as you'd expect moving to the otherside of the world on a whim. But, I've ended the year on a high, and as much as I'm looking forward to my time at home, I'm also looking forward to my second year in Korea - getting my black belt in hapkido, learning to surf in the summer (thanks Cheryl!) , seeing more weird and wonderful places, picking up my photography again in a proper and dedicated fashion, reading more books, planning next year's travels, and generally spending my extended free time doing things I love and enjoy and making the most of my time here and dodging responsibility in the UK while I can.
This weekend is my birthday (Korean age 28, fan-bloody-tastic...), and I'm very much looking forward to donning my England shirt and heading to the pub with my Dad to watch the rugby over a pint or three, before heading out with my riff raff for a night of partying. Must get some sleep before then though...!
Right, enough of me rabbling on. I'm off to find a bench to catnap on.
See you all very very soon.
Much love, Anniexx
