Korea - Columbus Day Weekend

Most people spend a holiday weekend partying or relaxing, but 11 teachers decided to go to Korea and visit a fairly hostile war zone! We took a day trip to the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) This is the 10 mile area between North and South Korea.  There are US and South Korean soldiers here "keeping the peace" between the two countries.

This is a slide show they give you before you head through to the boarder.

Me :)

The guy on the right is a Korean soldier put there to keep us from doing anything stupid.  The don't move or talk, however if you provoke them they will take you out.

Going through the door next to him technically puts you into North Korea and you would be considered a "defector" and they will try to keep you!

Me in N. Korea.

The big building in the back is North Korea.

Propaganda Village.  A fake village created by N. Korea to show how lovely their country is.

The Bridge of No Return.  Prisoners of war from both North and South Korea were allowed to cross this bride home one day after the war.  If they chose not to go home on this day they would never see their family and friends again.  You'd think everyone would have gone home, but converted to the other side and didn't want to go.

Ribbons for family that has never come back.

Laura and I.

I thought it was cool that these statues rose out of the ground.

This is the last train station before N. Korea.  S. Korea has built this for when North Korea is ready to allow people in and out of the country.  There's propaganda on both sides of the DMZ.