4am – Last Night in Korea

How ironic it is that I start my first posting on this blog being in Korea for the last night? I have been here since February 25th, 2008 exactly 4 months ago. I am terribly sad to be leaving, it has been a marvelous experience, the best of my life. All I want to do is come back already, even though I am still here. I can honestly say that it has marked me as a “one in a lifetime experience.” I still have yet to experience the culture shock upon returning to the “West.” I don’t even want to think about it.

I was in North Korea during Sunday and Monday. It’s almost indescribable if you are not in the country. Although I found myself in the ‘tourist zone,’ the undeniable truth of North Korea permeated itself through the green electric fences lining the tourist route into and out of the Mt. Kumgangsang region. The poverty is ever-present, and the military might is seemingly omnipotent. I ask myself continulously how people can live in the contemporary world of today with almost nothing. There were many North Korean girls working the booths with high-end fashion items underneath their noses, yet seemingly with no intention of having the ‘capitalistic’ influences break their will for the “Kim Il-Sung” fatherland.

I was almost rejected at the South Korean border because of the fact that I used my french passport, whereas upon arriving in Korea I used my american passport. In any case, the South Korean immigration eventually let me through. It’s funny how my family can never do anything the normal way. I came to South Korea with no student visa, in Japan I was almost blocked from going to South Korea. I love South Korea < 3 . I want to come back and do an internship here. The clubs, the people, the city-life, the girls, the mentality, the safety, the hardcore work-play life-style, the fashion, etc. etc., it all fits me. I can’t get over it. There is so much to say, but I am too tired to write it all. Bed time I’ll try to update le plus souvent possible.