Have you been in Communist North Korea? ...I HAVE!

This past week has been full of numerous highlight which I have found to be some of the best moments on this entire trip. The highlight was undoubtedly our trip to the DMZ (about 45 minutes north of Seoul) and our ability to step foot into North Korea - pretty crazy! I have some great pictures and was a crazy experience. We had the unique opportunity to sign over our lives if anything happened to us; something along the lines of "if anything detrimental to your health should happen today you can't hold us responsible" ...yadda yadda yadda. (Love you mom!)

We also visited the N Seoul Tower which provide us with a GORGEOUS view of the city. Many nights have been spent clubbing, bar hopping, and kareokeeing in Sinchon, which is the district just outside of Yonsei University where we are studying. It was Sara D's birthday the other night and celebrating that was a great time. Bars close here at six in the morning so when we came back at 3:30 it still felt "early" -- it was kind of ridiculous.

Thanks to my cousin Morgan who spent a year and a half here, and his friend Robyn, a list was compiled of numerous bars and clubs and things to do in this enourmous city and I am glad to say I am slowly but surely checking them off the list. We are still looking for "Rainbow" - a popular hookah bar. Hopefully we can try that out shortly. The highlights were definitely "Mr. Wow"'s hot dog/sausage stand and also "Red Mango" ("the yummiest frozen yogurt in the world").

Danny and I are starting to prepare for our week in Tokyo by looking into hostels and train passes. It is going to be more expensive than we thought which is frustrating, but let's face it: Tokyo is one of most expensive cities in the world, and we are only alive once and most likely never coming back. So we just are sucking it up. We are going to take overnight trains to avoid hostels (since we'll already have bought a pass) and probably not pay the extra for the sleeper cars to save some money that way...so excited! Currently our plans involve two days in Kyoto, a day in Nagano to go skiing, and three days in Tokyo. We fly out of Tokyo at 5 pm and arrive in Chicago three hours earlier at 2 pm -- gotta love the international date line!! So cool!

Much love to all, God Bless!

- CM