Sunday, November 8, 2009

weird statue


birds
Originally uploaded by laflame
i'm not sure i can describe it much more than that.

park 1


treegaz
Originally uploaded by laflame
there's a bunch of these gazebos and trees lining this man-made stone river. a lot of people have picnics and bring their families to these sorts of things to hang out. they're quite quaint.

ghost family


ghostfam
Originally uploaded by laflame
was out shooting with my friend roger tonight, who is infinitely better at this camera stuff than i am. he's slowly trying to teach me things but i'm a terrible student.

this one is in a great little park near the village. it was raining all day so everything was shiny. there was apparently a ghost family walking around.

Saturday, November 7, 2009

dmz adventure 10


Korea 1 003
Originally uploaded by laflame
the bullet holes in our bus. i swear they're real. look how shiny they are.

dmz adventure 9


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Originally uploaded by laflame
our tour guide on the adventure.

dmz adventure 8


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Originally uploaded by laflame
me trying to look terrified.

dmz adventure 7


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Originally uploaded by laflame
taylor, same deal.

dmz adventure 6


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Originally uploaded by laflame
larry with a guard. slightly further away. these guys are in a fighting stance all day, every day. they will drop you if you do ANYTHING you're not supposed to. they wear those sunglasses to be intimidating. they don't need them.

dmz adventure 5


Korea 1 012
Originally uploaded by laflame
clinton with a guard. technically in north korea.

dmz adventure 4


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Originally uploaded by laflame
this is the room where you can actually step into north korea. i can't remember why people were making faces, it might have been the woman we were scared was going to touch the guard. you don't want to touch the guard.

dmz adventure 3


Korea 1 026
Originally uploaded by laflame
that's north korea in the background. where the trees stop, that's where NK begins. even with the big binoculars in the picture, i could barely see one person in a field. you couldn't get any closer than where i was to take pictures. they freaked out on a guy who tried, took his camera, made sure all the pictures were deleted. hardcore.

Friday, November 6, 2009

dmz adventure 2


Korea 1 032
Originally uploaded by laflame
same with alex.

dmz adventure 1


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Originally uploaded by laflame
my friend clinton standing next to two random statues near the third invasion tunnel.

random bank museum


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Originally uploaded by laflame
i'm not sure why a bank museum needs to be this elaborate. but there's probably a reason. this is in seoul, taken from a bus on my way home.

emart


Korea 1 068
Originally uploaded by laflame
the omega store. this place has a bowling alley, a super-walmart, a movie theater, tons of restraunts, a fancy clothing store, and that's only like a few of the floors. it has pretty much anything you could want, a lot of foreigner money is spent there. you can also get soft serve ice cream cones for a dollar!

fancy bricks


Korea 1 067
Originally uploaded by laflame
lots of brick buildings i've seen have little pictures drawn into them with different colored bricks. usually it's trees or animals.

village garden


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Originally uploaded by laflame
there are a few empty building lots throughout the village. sometimes they just stay vacant, sometimes people store stuff there, sometimes people make gardens. you can often find things left out to dry along sidewalks, especially peppers.

outdoor gym


Korea 1 063
Originally uploaded by laflame
these public exercise machines are in parks throughout the country. i usually only see old people using them though.

village playground


Korea 1 062
Originally uploaded by laflame
one of a couple playgrounds scattered throughout the village. this one has a skate park, a playground, chess/go tables, and some workout equipment.

random street in the village


Korea 1 059
Originally uploaded by laflame
this is just one of the many small streets in the village. all of the buildings in this area are about three stories tall. surrounding the village are the 20+ story apartment buildings that are a little more korea-iconic.

path


Korea 1 058
Originally uploaded by laflame
a walkway that goes along our 'village' and one of the main roads. it's the path i walk to the bus every morning. it's much prettier when everything isn't on the way out for winter.

golf place


Korea 1 056
Originally uploaded by laflame
indoor is screen golf. outdoor is kind of an enclosed driving range. these are all over the place. i had no idea what these giant green towers were when i first got here.

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

andrew makes a discovery

Orange soda is apparently a very American flavor to me. There a lot of things here that are similar to home, and some that share a name but absolutely no resemblance. But orange soda just flat out reminds me of home. That's pretty weird.