DMZ, Yeah You Know Me

Someone finally made it official...

DMZ Tour Shuttle Bus Driver: Are you Korean?
Me: Hanguk saram aniyo. Philipin saram. (I'm not Korean. I'm Filipino)
DMZ Tour Shuttle Bus Driver: Ahh, you look Korean.

Attention LeeDongWook or YooGun! If you're reading this (don't you guys always?!), we can have very cute Korean-looking kids.

Today, I went on a DMZ Tour (Panmunjeom + Third Tunnel). I took the Seoul subway system for the first time this morning to get to the USO office by 7am. My goodness, Seoul is so calm (ahh, there's truth to the "Land of the Morning Calm" monicker) in the wee hours of the morning. It was so calm that none of the bakeries were open; I had to settle for a 7-Eleven breakfast of water and red bean paste bun.

I thought it was all marketing, but the Korean DMZ really is quite tense. It's just in the air...and don't wave like you just don't care because they will shoot. I was actually scared to stand next to one of the soldiers for a photo-op, but I eventually did anyway. ;P

I don't have a fetish with men in uniforms unlike some women, but I swear some of those SouthKoreansoldiers were darn cute in their fatigues. One of them actually spoke straight American English (I had to make sure it wasn't Shinhwa's EricMun) which was just too much icing on the cake. *Drool.

The surprise of the day? I didn't know that visiting the Third Tunnel was a strenuous exercise. My goodness, they need to say something about this on the brochures! As if that wasn't enough, I actually had enough strength later on to walk from the USO office to Itaewon, which was darn far (and uphill!). I thought two subway stops meant a very short distance between the two, but as always, don't ASSume.

Thankfully, I capped off the night with a kalbi dinner with Cathy to recoup all that lost calories and energy. Earlier in the day, I had bulgogi for lunch and while waiting for Cathy, I found the elusive hotteok stall in Myeongdong! Fighting! HaHa! Leave it up to me to fulfill all my food desires ASAP. ;P

As I mentioned to Cathy, I love Seoul. Actually, I just love being anywhere in Asia. I feel quite at home whenever I'm here. Maybe I really do need to figure out a reason to stay here for an indefinite period of time (LeeDongWook, call me!).