Wednesday was our Korean cultural tour. We started the day with, what else, more briefings. We learned about the partnership between the ROK army and the U.S. Army, we watched a video about twae kwon do, and a little bit about the Korean war. Then we had a short class on Korean phrases, that we could use during our tour through the city.
We boarded the buses after this and headed out into the city of Uijongbu to go to the authentic restaurant. I wasn’t all to sure about this since I am not big on oriental food, however I cant really complain about it. Most of it wasn’t bad. I wont list all the things we ate, mainly because I don’t remember them and I probably couldn’t spell them anyways. It was very, very spicy food. One of the things I ate was a soup that (I wasn’t keyed in on this little tip until after I had ate most of it) had sushi and seaweed in it. Yum!
After the restaurant we went over to a place called Home Plus. It is basically a three story Wal-Mart. Nothing special. Then we went over to the Gyeonggi-do government building where we watched a short movie that explained to us how the Gyeonggi province is one of the leading technology producers and how it affects the rest of the world. Just for going here everyone got a complimentary tea spoon set. Awesome.
Then it was over to our final stop. The Mt. Odu Unification Observatory. From here we could look out across the river into North Korea. We watched another short video about the observatory and North Koreas reaction to it. Korea is the only country in the world that is still divided.
This is looking out over the river into North Korea. You can see a small farming village along the shore. The observation tower was built in 1992. North Korea responded by building this villahe along with others like it along the river to show the ROK that the Norths economy was thriving. Funny because no one lived in these villages for several years until farmers eventually moved in.
This is looking back into Seoul South Korea from the observation point. Seoul is only an hours drive from the DMZ.
Here is a building in South Korea that was near the observation tower. I dont know what it was I just thought it was cool looking.
One of the buildings in the North Korea village was open al the time so that the villagers could go there and idolize Kim Jung Ill. That was all there was for that day.
On Thursday we shipped out to our permanent duty station. I ended up going to Camp Eagle. It is a very small post with out a lot to do but it is one of the more laid back places which is nice.
Here is a view out my window. You can see part of the flightline in the corner with th Apaches.
Here is a better view of all the Apaches. It's cool to be able to look out your window and see them all right there. We also have a ROK air force base right to the left of camp eagle and it gets pretty noisy with the jets takeing off and landing but it's cool to see them flying around.
Here is a view of the motor pool from my window. That is where all the trucks and humvees get parked. Not very exciting but still part of the post.
Wow, that was a long one. I think that this is all for now so let me sign off saying stay agile, mobile, and hostile. Hooah!
Andy
