Kimchi 사랑 Central!: Be careful of North Koreans and your toilet seats...

Something a bit whacky to start out today’s blog: using the Korean bathroom. Using the bathroom here is always an adventure. First, the toilet: EVERY home that I’ve visited, the toilet seats are all these bidet-like toilet seats that can do everything from warm your seats, clean the toilet, clean YOU, and all sorts of other things that from the pictures on the buttons looks interesting but I never tried (for the record, I never tried the bidet function either…at least on purpose). While these seats seem cool, I do miss my plain, straight up plastic seats that doesn’t try to spray you or spook you. Showering is always an adventure too. Again, in every home that I’ve visited, there IS a showerhead and tub, but there is always an assortment of buckets that always accompany it. I think you’re suppose to use a combination of showerhead/splash water from the buckets, but, I haven’t figured it out exactly, so I’ll just keep using it like an American. Oh, and no shower curtains either, so you just splash around in the entire bathroom (there is always a floor water drain in every bathroom). Now you know! :)

Korean toilet and shower...with buckets...??

Catching up the past several days…as mentioned in my previous blog, Saturday evening we had some good bonding time with one of my uncles who took us VERY close to the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ). DMZ is the line where North and South Korea and their respective allies called truce and agreed to split the country (at the 38^th parallel) that drew the Korean War to a close. Ever since then, both countries have technically still been at war, and at the DMZ, there are armed forces that have guns and weapons aimed at one another at all times. This is why ALL males in Korea, no matter what, must serve in the army for 2 years when they reach a certain age. We didn’t QUITE make it to DMZ, but we got really close and visited the Korean War memorial that had an observatory that allowed us to look into North Korea.

Look across the river, that's North Korea!

North Korea across the river

My brother Ji, having a romantic moment with the North Koreans

North Korean liquor

North Korean cigarettes

North Korean music

North Korean toilet paper and feminine product?

North Korean clothing

North Korean classroom

Lecturing in North Korean classroom

Korean War museum

The road leading up to DMZ, there are fences for miles and miles so the North Koreans don't swim the Han river and try to enter the country. I wasn't suppose to take pictures apparently, but snuck one in!

On Sunday, my mother and I went to DaeJun (대전) to visit her last remaining uncle who is a Catholic Priest. He was my favorite great uncle so it was neat to see him. His health is poor and we knew that this might be the last time we see him so it was great to see him. We then visited mom’s last remaining aunt (my great aunt) in YaeSun (예선) as well. She hasn’t seen this aunt for many, many years so it was a good little Park Family reunion.

Great Uncle, mom, and Great Aunt

Monday was another food crawl day, food pictures below :)

Tuesday morning began with a visit from one of my former Carmel students Yesung Na. Yesung is an extremely talented pianist who is entering his senior year at IU Jacobs School. We found it nutty to be in Korea at the same time so got together for coffee. We joked that it took motherland to get us to reconnect because I haven’t seen him since he graduated. We had a great visit and agreed to visit more in Indiana.

MyungDong KarGukSoo (명동 칼국수), noodles with chicken dumplings, ground meat, veggies, and DELICIOUS kimchi!

Don't judge me...I had to try Korean KFC. It was good, but I will admit, not as good as US. I remember mom taking me to this VERY KFC when I was little, it made me SO happy!

Yesung Na! My former Carmel student...very talented and a GREAT kid!

In the evening I went to visit with yet another cousin, who treated me to some yummy food and then I got to meet her son (who just called me his uncle). His name is ChongYun and was the cutest kid ever. It was great meeting him! The evening ended with me taking him to a toy store and buying him some Lego toys.