Way-gook-in' it up in Korea!: Hwachon Tomato Fest & DMZ (but no Peace Dam)

Today has been a little nerve-wracking for me. I woke up at 7 thinking it was 8, and when I turned on my computer, I saw that Ike left me a Skype message saying that Georgia was under attack from Russia, and that Heather (my roommate) would likely be evacuated in the near future! I have not heard anything from her, so am still very worried. I am anxious to hear that she is alright and what will happen as far as her placement goes.

I laid back down for a bit and then it was time to head off to the DMZ with the group. I guess Korean tours like to throw in random WTF moments, so we were taken to the Hwachon Tomato Festival! Hwachon is the city that actually set up our trip and paid for everything. The festival was AWESOME!! Our bus pulled up and we were all given these Tomato Fest t-shirts and told to put them on. We then got out of the bus and it seemed as though a parade had just started. We actually became part of the parade then! It was fun to walk with all of them and have the Hwachon taking pictures of us while we were taking pictures of them. We got squirted with water guns which I actually didn't mind considering it was about 95* again here. I took lots of pictures! I was sure we were going to get tomatoes thrown at us, but we managed to escape before the dirty festivities began. We saw a truck full of tomatoes and I saw a shovel full of tomato paste. They had big plastic areas set up... I think there was going to be a massive tomato fight or maybe tomato wrestling. Who knows what the crazy Koreans will do next! :-)

After being rockstars and having a great random moment, we got back on the bus to see the DMZ. We did not go to the touristy part (the part with the 2 blue buildings), but instead went to the Seungri Observation Point. We got to look out over the DMZ and into North Korea. It is one of the narrowest parts of the DMZ where we were. Our guide told us that if we stepped one step beyond the observatory we would surely be shot! High tension stuff! It was also interesting in that the DMZ has been virtually human free for the past 50 years, so it is like a wildlife refugee! I'm sure there is some neat stuff to study there for biologists/ecologists/etc.

We then had a late lunch back in Hwachon paid for by the county government I think. I slept on the bus ride home and am now trying to figure out what I'm going to do tonight besides a bit of studying. It is soo hot to go outside right now.

Enjoy the pics below! I will shortly send out an email with all that I took from the trip today.