Welcome to Belgium

For my Christmas vacation this year I decided to go visit my friend Stephanie in Belgium. The trip started out a little nerve wracking with my first flight delayed and having to run to catch my re-booked connection, but I was able to make the flight from Philadelphia to Belgium on time so it all worked out.  I was extremely lucky on the final flight to have, not only a seat up near the front, but only one seatmate so I was able to curl up across my seat and the middle seat to get better than normal airplane snooze time in.  Arrival in Brussels went smoothly, with just a quick stamp on the passport before proceeding to baggage claim, where my bags were a couple of the first ones out (fringe benefit of being late with connections).

My first couple of days here have been fairly lazy and restful ones.  The first day Stephanie drove me around the countryside a bit to go get lunch and groceries on base, then to a farm to get locally produced cheeses and fruit juice. It looks a lot like where I grew up with rolling hills and farmland, just a European version of it.  One of the first things I noticed was the architecture.  Most of the buildings seem to have steeply peaked roofs, which made me think that the style originated in a place with lots of snow.  Another thing I noticed was that all the vehicles are just a tad smaller than American versions, and so are the roads. Nearly every non-highway road that I've been on has been very narrow and curvy, with traffic intersections that don't always match up well or make a whole lot of sense.  A road can also go from two way to one way and back with no warning that I can see.  There are a lot of different traffic signs, but it does make sense to have signs using symbols and colors to give direction rather than words in an area where you may have people from all over driving.

Last night we visited the Christmas market in Binche.  It was quite tiny and there wasn't really anything there that I wanted to buy, but it was interesting just to walk around.  There are quite a few old-looking buildings scattered around, and ruins of who knows what, but since it was dark I was only able to snap a picture of one cool building that was lit with Christmas decorations.

Soraksan Trip

On October 21 I took another group trip, this time to Soraksan.  It was a very scenic trip so I'll just tell the story in pictures.

We arrived at the park and took in some scenery

Had lunch near some interesting fountains 

 I wonder what this gate says

Of course I had to get a picture in front of the big statue

Playing with the panoramic feature

 Over the river and through the woods...

 You have to walk between these guys...

 ...to get to the temple

 We went for a waterfall hike

 The waterfall at the end of the hike

Finally we get to rest

And feed the squirrels who were collecting nuts for the winter

We took a cable car ride (I got a great spot)

 Reflections aside, not a bad photo

 Such a beautiful day, chilly, but beautiful

An oceanside city, I can't remember what it's called

Beautiful fall colors

These photos were all taken by my iPhone5 because I forgot to bring my camera.  Not bad for a phone!

How to Improve Your Korean: stay in a local hospital

So this wasn't so much an adventure as a misadventure.  After being in Korea a little over a month I got sick.  Most people do, they call it the Korean Crud.  Apparently my immune system wasn't up to handling it though because it settled into my lungs.  After the first week of cold-like symptoms I went to the doc who said it was allergies, suggested I might have asthma, and gave me a nebulizer treatment, inhalers, mucinex, and flonase.  Allergies, right...  Last I checked, allergies didn't cause fevers, and the following week I had recurring fevers of 100-101+.  (I only knew this because my buddy loaned me a thermometer, sanitized in vodka because he didn't have rubbing alcohol.  Yup, this is Korea!)

Finally after 2 weeks of hacking up a lung, I went in to the ER starting to panic with chest pain, difficulty breathing, and what felt like a knot near my heart.  Say what you will (and I do) about military medicine, when you walk in with symptoms that could be a heart attack, they flat out MOVE!  After running a few tests, having me chew some aspirin and a nitroglycerin pill (to explode the veins so blood moves faster through them?) they hooked me up to oxygen (beautiful, wonderful oxygen) and transported me to Hallym University Dongtan Sacred Heart Hospital.

I was a little nervous about this because I'd never stayed at a hospital, much less one in a foreign country, but in was very nice and the staff were all very kind.  After a few days and seemingly every heart and lung test in the book, they settled on a diagnosis of pneumonia and put me on antibiotics.  My only female friend here, Stephanie, came up and stayed with me the first couple days and nights.  It is so comforting to have friends around at such a time!  After 8 and a half days of treatment, I was finally released with another week's worth of oral antibiotics.

A few notes about the Korean hospital:  the beds are just like other Korean beds.  Rock.  Hard.  Fortunately, as they are hospital beds, it's not so bad because they adjust multiple ways.  The Korean-style shower is perfect for a hospital.  Since it's just a shower spigot in the bathroom with a drain in the middle of the bathroom floor, there's plenty of room and it's handy when you're unsteady and have to move carefully.  The food was plentiful and mostly good, but a bit strange.  I opted for western style meals rather than Korean, and nearly everything was covered with one or both of two sauces.  One seemed to have a soy-sauce base, almost a teriyaki, and the other was mayo based.  Apparently mayo goes on everything.

My Korean definitely improved!  When I first got there, my medical Korean was limited to "it hurts" and "medicine."  I had a couple nurses who spoke at least a bit of English, and between that and my broken Korean we got on pretty well.  After spending over a week entirely surrounded by a foreign language, I understood a great deal more than I had in ages and was much more fluent with simple communication.  Not the way I would choose to work on language skills but, meh, it works.

DMZ trip

Well, I've fallen behind!  I should have posted after each trip while it was fresh in my mind, but instead I'll have to post brief synopses of the few trips I've taken.  Some pictures will have to wait till I find the connecting cord for my camera.

On September 12, 2013, I took a trip to the DMZ with some of my friends.  We were given instructions ahead of time about what to wear (i.e. shirts with collars, no shorts), because when we're at Panmunjom the North Koreans take pictures of us and if we're dressed in any way inappropriately they can use it as propaganda.

We boarded a bus around 7 or 8 in the morning and headed north.  A person who'd been to the DMZ multiple times acted as our tour guide.  About when we hit Suwon we were informed that we were now within range of North Korea should they decide to start shelling were encouraged to enjoy the rest of our day.  Nice.

We stopped by a museum along the way commemorating one of the early battles of the Korean war.  It was strange walking around the grounds while we waited for the museum to open and realize that we were walking around the site of a battle.  We had a semi-guided tour of the museum, where a Korean gentleman told us the story since we couldn't understand all the Korean writing.  The overall theme seemed to be thanking the US soldiers who fought there - there was a lot of "we will never forget you."

I forget all the places we went on this tour, but one place I remember most is Tunnel 3.  The North Koreans have dug tunnels under the border into South Korea, and every so often one of these tunnels has been discovered.  This one was open to the public as a tourist attraction.  The part that we could walk started with a steep decline - so steep I felt I had to hang on to the railing to keep from falling forward.after that the tunnel got more unfinished and smaller.  The farther we went in, the rougher the construction and the lower the ceiling.  Thanks to being short I was able to walk upright farther than most guys, some of whom were bent nearly double in places.  It was fortunate we were provided hardhats for the trip because we hit our heads a few times on a low rock or pipe.  At the end of the tunnel was a wall with a door and a little window.  We could look through at was supposedly the wall with a window in it to the North Korean side...though I have a feeling we were stopped far short of North Korea.  It was still kind of creepy.  Then we got to go back UP the incline.  When I got to the top I actually stumbled a bit because my feet couldn't remember how to walk on a level surface.  After the requisite tour of the gift shop, we walked around the grounds and some of us took pictures behind what we thought was a prop.  At least...I hope it was a prop:

Am I Supposed To Be Here?

We went to a couple more places, including the last train station before North Korea and an observatory where we could see into the country through binoculars (though we couldn't see much because of fog or smog), but the main event was going to Panmunjom.  We were briefed very carefully every step of the way and cautioned to follow all instructions exactly.  We signed a release just in case we did something stupid and got shot.  That was fun.  We got to enter one of the buildings they use for meetings that straddles the border, step across the line, and take pictures of each other in "North Korea."  (Since it was within the DMZ it wasn't technically North Korea, just the North Korean side of the zone.)  Afterwards we stood on steps and looked over into North Korea.  There was a guy at a window on the North Korean side looking at us through binoculars and taking pictures, and we were encouraged to return the favor and take plenty of pictures.  It was a little funny and creepy at the same time.

All in all it was a good trip, but I was just as happy when it was time to leave the border behind and go home.  I gotta say, I respect the young soldiers who are stationed up near the border.  Little more than kids, they truly are the first ones in line should the shit ever hit the fan here, and the one I met seemed to take it very matter-of-factly.

Lost in Itaewon

Lost in a foreign city is definitely NOT how I wanted to spend Erev Rosh Hashana.

I got a pass from work to attend services at the Army Religious Retreat Center on Namsan Mountain in Seoul.  The plan was to go up there on Wednesday evening and return Friday night or Saturday morning.  The pass finally got approved at the last minute so I rushed home, packed a bag, and called the base taxi.  My first mistake was asking the driver to take me to the subway.  He drove onto base thinking I meant the subway restaurant!  As soon as I realized this I remembered the Korean word for subway and asked to go to the "jihachul."  At the subway I figured out the route I needed to take to get to the Hangangjin station.  I had been told the retreat center was very close to it, only a 6 minute walk, so I figured even though I didn't have super clear directions, I'd be able to find it.  WRONG!  I ended up wandering around Itaewon as it got darker and darker without ever finding the place.  The city taxis didn't know where it was, even though I had an address - apparently it wasn't the right format.  I also didn't know how close I was to Yongsan base so I didn't know if I could call a taxi from there.  Finally with a dying phone, I found my way back to the subway and went home.  I had been gone for 6 hours and never really made it anywhere.

The next day I asked around till I found out the closest station to Yongsan and called the Yongsan taxi.  Fortunately the driver they sent knew where to find the place and even pointed out interesting sights on the way.  Turns out, I had gotten to within a 10 minute walk of the place, but it would have involved walking up a hill, up a bunch of stairs, under one highway, across another, and finally up a winding driveway through the woods.  Perhaps it's best I didn't try this in the dark!