Day Two - Insadong and DMZ

It's 4:30 a.m here and I can't sleep, so I'll try to get caught up on this blog. We had a relaxing and fascinating day on Saturday. After breakfast, we wandered around Insadong-gil. It is an incredible street with shops, restaurants, art galleries, antique stores, etc. by our hotel. It was very fun! Then we headed back to the hotel to meet our tour for the DMZ. We toured with 15 other people and a young, hip, crazy knowledgeable tour guide. She was amazing. Our trip took us to some fascinating places in the DMZ - the Demilitarized Zone that separates North and South Korea after the Korean War. For you history buffs, they refer to it as a war, not a conflict here. It was a very moving experience.

I won't be able to do it justice here, so I'll just highlight a couple of the stops. Our first stop was outside of the DMZ at Imjingak - a unification site where South Koreans can express their pain, sadness and desire for unification with the North. Many in the south have relatives who were in the north and now have no contact with them due to the tension and current situation between the 2 Koreas. The pictures tell a better story for this site. Check those out - especially the Freedom Bridge, the letters and prayers, and the Bell of Freedom.

After passing through a highly guarded area and having our passports checked, we entered the DMZ and made a few different stops. The most fascinating for all of us was the 3rd Tunnel. In 1974, a defector from the North came to the South and warned the government that there were as many as 20 hidden tunnels, dug by the North, existing in the DMZ with the purpose of a future attack on South Korea. Only 4 have been found so far. We saw the largest tunnel found which is also the closest to Seoul - about 30 miles. No pictures were allowed, unfortunately. We were able to walk through about a 3rd of the tunnel that was dug through to the South side of the DMZ. Experts say that the North could get 30,000 soldiers through the tunnel in 1 hour. They certainly could not be Barton's height as he had to duck his head the entire time - but the thought of that is amazing. The entire situation is so sad. It is the people who are suffering. Many are starving in the North - the South does send food and supplies to them, but it's not enough - and family and friends are separated. Perhaps one day......

After we returned to Seoul, we were pretty tired. Still dealing with the jet lag. We found a restaurant I had read about - Jirisan - in Insadong. It is a traditional Korean restaurant where you sit on the floor at your table. The food was amazing. Tyler's favorite was the fish. He couldn't get enough of that. He is definitely a meat eater and you get lots of vegetable dishes here. It's all so healthy. He's been a trooper though and is trying everything. We'll find him another Korean BBQ tomorrow with lots of meat!!

Only one more day until we meet our babe! I can't believe it's almost here. It helps to be keeping busy while we're here so I'm not thinking about it all of the time. Our meeting is at 1:30 p.m. on Monday with Laynie and her foster mom. We don't get to keep her yet, just meet her first and ask questions of the foster mom. Then we'll come back and pick her up later in the week - either Wed. or Thursday. We're hoping for Wednesday, but we'll have to see at our meeting on Monday. We're also meeting with Malea's foster mom while we're here. I can't wait to tell her about spunky Sa Rang (Korean name). We'd appreciate your prayers for our meeting with Laynie. I can't wait to see her and hold her!