Cool Korea

In late August I went to the World Leisure Congress in Chuncheon, Korea. I've attended several of these conferences over the years including those in Sweden, China, Canada, and now Korea.






The conference was held at Kangwon National University. Many of us stayed in a residence hall and ate in the dining hall. This was a typical noon meal of kimchi (a Korean favorite made of spicy fermented cabbage), beef with glass noodles, rice, fruit, and green beans with peppers.




Pond at a city park








Here we are at a cultural museum event.









Traditional folk music








Marta and I have known these Iranian professors and their wives since 2006. They are exercise physiologists from a university in southern Iran. They are good people.






Here is the poster of our session at the conference.








And here I am with my co-presenter from Hungary, and a colleague from Malaysia.






Chuncheon was a 90 minute drive to the border between North and South Korea, otherwise know as the DMZ or the Demilitarized Zone.






Here's a picture of the country side from the bus. There were lots of green houses along the route. The infrastructure (highways, airport, cyberhighways, were all top notch! It is a very modern and clean country filled with tiny cars that all have TVs and other neat gadgets!





You can see the South Korean side of the DMZ on the top of this mountain. The zone spans from east to west over rugged terrain such as this. Soldiers from both countries guard the length of the DMZ, and the actual zone is 4 kilometers wide from one country to the other.




This is at the top of the mountain where the barb-wired fence separates South Korea from the DMZ. You can see the mountains of North Korea in the background.





Another view of the fence and a walkway for the soldiers. A soldier told us that the North Koreans fly their flag and play patriotic music from their side of the zone on national holidays. He also said that it's easy to spot a North Korean because their uniforms are the color of dirt and they are short (supposedly due to malnutrition). When asked if the soldier would like to see North and South Korea united one day he answered yes.


Back at the university dining hall, you can see the weekly breakfast menu. Click on the picture to see the interesting options.







Hmmm









Street vegetable market








Hot red peppers!







My room in the residence hall with the city scape in the background.

At the DMZ they wanted to take a group picture, so I photographed the photographers. While only in Korea for 5 days, the country felt safe and the people were friendly and helpful.