Smiling boys enjoying the circus

Here are the boys at the circus enjoying the show. They cheered and clapped for the performances. We could hardly get their attention long enough to take a picture or two. Both of them stood up almost the entire 90 minute show. They had a blast!

The Show must go on!

On Labor Day here on Post there was a circus. The performers were from the Dong Choon Art Circus. It poured rain all day long so most of the other activities were cancelled. The circus was set up inside a tent, which didn't hold up very well to the amount of rain we had. These performers went ahead with their acrobatics and stunts despite the tent falling down around them. In the second picture I am not sure you can tell, but the guy on the bottom is on a up on table and he is standing on a board balanced on a round tube so he is keeping his balance the whole time side to side. Then this second guy climbs up onto the platform on the first guys head. He also does the same balance board trick, but adds tossing and catching bowls on his head to the act. One raindrop coming through the roof could have been dangerous if it landed just right. In this picture and the one of the tightrope walker you can see the tent ripping because of the rain behind them. This was a fun little circus. The boys really seemed to enjoy most of the performers. We saw, Contortionists, trapeze artists, a tight rope walker, performing dogs, hula hoopers, a chair stacker, an acrobatic lady swinging from a rope, a break dance group, performing dogs and the Motorcycles in a cage. The boys were totally fascinated by the dogs, and thrilled by the motorcycles. I thought since we were so close to the motorcycle cage it might be too loud for them, but they were entranced. Apparently the break dancers are a world champion dance team named b-boy. Who knew that Korea had world champion break dancers. As part of the other labor day activities we had our family picture taken with a piece of moon rock and a guy dressed like an astronaut. Stew got to eat one of his favorite meals "Monkey on a stick". It is actually marinated chicken on a bamboo skewer, but Joe told him once that it was Monkey and the name stuck. Stew thinks it is great stuff. He is a goof. Despite the rain we made the best of things. We even went shopping in the "ville" the little shopping area outside of post and got some incredible deals because business was so slow due to the rain. After all of that walking in the rain we were soaked by the time we made it back home. We then dried off and took one of Joe's guys out to dinner because it was his last night in Korea.

The boys in Seoul

Here are a few pictures of the boys from yesterday on post in Seoul. We had a fun day walking around and shopping. It was a beautiful day.

Silly Boys!

This was just too cute to not take pictures. Skoebie was trying to ride Stew's bike and was having trouble pedaling. Stew decided he would get on and give Skoebie a ride. The funny thing is that it is not a banana seat bike. It just has a regular bike seat. It was so nice to see them sharing. They are total goofs. They rode from the bedroom to the living room like this to show Joe. I couldn't believe that neither one fell off. Also you can't help but notice, Stew's pirate smile. You tell him to smile and he says "Arrr". You gotta love these too cute boys.

The 3rd Tunnel

OK, OK, I know enough about the dangers of being on the border of North and South Korea. I had to share this picture from along the side of the road leaving the JSA. "MINE" - It is warning people to not go off the road because there are live mine fields on either side of the road. It is a two lane windy road that reminds me of driving up into the mountains. Don't wreck your car! You never know where you might end up. Here I am chilling out beside a statue of a Korean guard. Koreans like their cartoons so all of their mascots are cartoons. This is a picture of the diagram of the tunnel dug by the North Koreans for them to use in an invasion. The yellow sign tells all about it. I found it most interesting that the North Koreans rubbed coal on the walls and told the South that it was an old coal mine when you could look at the walls an tell that they were primarily granite. Also there is not coal in this area. I guess they need to find a better lie next time they try to invade. Unfortunately they won't allow you to take pictures in the tunnel and I had to lock my camera up before entering the tunnel. It was amazing how short the tunnel was for us to walk through. They say it is 2 meters tall by 2 meters wide, but I had to duck to walk through. Well, I hope you have enjoyed my DMZ tour experience as much as I did. It was fun to get to see a piece of history that so very few Americans get to experience. I must admit, it did make me a little nervous when they were yelling at us to remain seated in place on the bus and to not make eye contact or hand gestures with the North Koreans because they could perceive anything as a threat and use it to justify an attack. Overall though, I did feel very safe and secure. Thanks for bearing with me as I have been quite wordy, but I had to share.

I spy the DMZ

OK, are you tired of hearing about this trip yet? Good, I wanted to tell you more. I figured I better prove to you that I was really there. Here is a picture of me with Propaganda village in North Korea in the background. Then a picture of the Military Police Escort for our bus during our tour. Then the pictures get more interesting. You may have to click on this next picture to see it better. It is of Propaganda village, North Korea on the Left and Freedom Village, South Korea on the right. That line going horizontally across the picture that looks like a tree line is the border between the two countries. If you look closely you can see the two flags on their very tall flag poles. As you can see it is a beautiful landscape, too bad these countries can't learn to get along. Finally you have my most dangerous picture yet. It was taken from Dora Observatory. We were only allowed to take pictures when we were behind a certain area with a very large wall surrounding us. If we were caught taking pictures they would at a minimum make you delete the pictures. We had to stand on tip toes to even get very bad pictures of this area. The South Koreans are worried about people taking pictures of their border and troops and sharing them with the North Koreans. I had to be VERY sneaky to get this picture. The road running horizontal is the only road into North Korea from the south. A little farther to the left and you would have been able to see the several check points that vehicles have to go through. The brown fence line running almost diagonally is the border. North Korea is on the right and South Korea is on the left this time. This double walled barb wire fence separates the two countries and is 15-20 feet I would guess. The fence is filled with rocks so as the South Koreans do their checks if there are any rocks out of the fence laying on the ground they know that the fence has been tampered with by North Korea. I found this whole trip very interesting.

More about the DMZ

Here are some more pictures from our DMZ trip. The first is a "Rock Drop" These are all over the major road ways going towards Seoul from the North. They are designed that if the North were to even invade the South Koreans would detonate this and it would cover the road with rocks and block the road. They are really large as you can see from the size of the road in comparison. I also couldn't resist taking a picture of this South Korean soldiers pant legs. There is a hollow hoop in each leg with bearings inside so that when the soldiers walk it makes noise. Just think about Hula-Hooping when you were little with the marble inside. The idea is to make it sound like there are more troops than really are there. Of course I can't leave out the Visitors declaration that they made us sign to go there. It was a very interesting read about not making hand gestures or facial expressions at the North Korean Soldiers because they may consider it a threat. This is my Guest badge that I had to wear to go on the tour. I think it was just to make us feel important.

The DMZ

Today Tiffany and I went to the DMZ. The DMZ is the Demilitarized Zone between between North and South Korea which runs along the 38th parallel. This sign above is one of the first signs we saw from our bus as we were getting close, it is warning about land mines! The next photo shows propaganda village in North Korea. This village was built by the North to show how great it is there. Too bad no one lives here and the only people seen there are maintenance workers. The flag pole flying the North Korean flag is the tallest flag pole in the world at 160 meters high. They had to make their flag higher than the South Korean Flag which is flown at 100 meters high. Nest we have pictures of the Signs posted along the Demarcation line which is the center of the DMZ. The signs are all rusted, but you can still read that it says Military Demarcation Line. And Finally we have the bridge of no return. This bridge spans between North ans South Korea. This is the bridge that prisoners of war from both sides were brought to and lined up on either side of the bridge at the end of the war. They were allowed to cross the bridge once to the side of the bridge they wanted to live on forever, they could not cross back. They didn't tell us how many North Koreans chose to stay on the Southern side. I have more pictures to share so I will keep this short.

Are you ready for some Football?

On Thursday evening Joe went to play some intramural football with the guys in his unit. Me and the boys decided to go watch. Of course I couldn't keep the boys off of the field during their warm-ups. It was so much fun to watch the boys do the exercises too. They thought they were big stuff. The guys were really great sports to let the boys play. They told Joe they like the teams new mascots. I did my part and kept them off of the field during the game, but as soon as it was over they were back out there.

This makes me laugh

OK, I know it is silly but this blog that I cam across makes me laugh. It is called "It's lovely, I'll take it" It is all abouut wierd pictures found in actual real estate listings. I can not get over some of the pictures they have found. It is sad that people don't pay more attention to get the most bang for their buck on real estate. Anyway, if you want, join in my fun, have a good laugh. You can find "it's Lovely, I'll take it" here http://lovelylisting.blogspot.com/