North Korea, English Village and shopping, oh my!

If you squint real hard through the fog you can see North Korea in the distance. 

This is common food they eat in North Korea. It was made by a refugee now living in South Korea. It's basically the same that you can find here (bread filled with bean paste) only it's not as sweet.  They don't use any sugar and the bread has a weird texture to it because of their lack of ingredients they have available. 

"English Village."  This is a "village" that kids will come and learn English. The village is made to copy that of a city in England. It's actually a great idea and was thought up because so many parents sent their kids to live overseas to learn English. This is a much more affordable option.  

This was in a green house in the English village. There is no significance and you could really see this anywhere but I really liked it.  

Kids blowing bubbles in the English village.

Saturday was spent at the DMZ (kind of--more of an observatory that over looks N. Korea across a river), an English village, and shopping with my co-teacher and another teacher at my school.  While I know N. Korea is close to where I live, I never realized just how close! We got in the car Saturday morning and then about a half hour drive later we were there! Canada is farther away from Ypsi then N. Korea is from Paju.

The day was very foggy still in the mountain so it was difficult to see N. Korea but they showed a video of the view and gave a brief history. It was very interesting to see and learn about.  We also tried some food that is common to eat in N. Korea (when they have food) and saw what a typical classroom and house would look like.

Afterwards we went to the English Village and wandered around a little bit there. That was fun and while I have never been in England I felt as though they did a good job with making it feel like I was in an English town.

Then we went shopping. I have to admit that I had fun there and bought many things for the spring and summer.  $700 worth of clothing for only a little over $200! Sweet.  My only impractical purchase was actually bought the day before--a pair of tennis shoes.  I will probably very rarely actually wear these shoes, esp. now that spring has arrived but I didn't have practical shoes to wear for my day out. So now I own a pair of shoes that I can't wear with my dresses and skirts that I bought. Since I only own one pair of jeans in this country I will probably never wear those shoes.  Maybe this gives me even more incentive to join the gym...I keep trying to convince myself that I want to.

Overall it was a very fun but tiring day.