Daejeon National Cemetery

Awake at 5:00am... even this time seems way too early despite going to bed at 10:00pm last night! Grrr... >.<

My aunt and mom made kimbap (Korean version of sushi) for breakfast and lunch, but since it was so early I didn't have any of it... besides we were running late. Yes, we always run late. :P We took the local bus to Seokgye (I think that's how it's spelled) Station where we took the subway to a major Seoul train station where they got the fast trains. :D It was super crowded. OH! And did I forget to mention that I've started seeing more and more people of different nationalities? Mostly I see Germans and Indians though... Kind of strange. I haven't seen too many Americans. Depending on where we go I have also noticed Chinese people in abundance.

 See that yellow M behind me? Yes you guessed it! You won't have to miss McDonald's while you're here!

The Seoul Train Station! Und meine Familia

Anyway back to the current event... We rode an older version of the fast train to get to a subway station that would FINALLY get us to Daejeon National Cemetery. Talk about a maze! It was huge there, at the cemetery. However, it somewhat paled in comparison to the serenity of the Arlington Cemetery... not like I was comparing or anything. :P There were antique military vessels parked beside many of the grave stones that lined the grassy grounds, consisting of tanks, helicopters, and other such vessels. On each stone was written the name of the soldier who had served. Behind it was engraved a number so that it could be organized among the thousands that were there. Beside each gray stone were flowers that family members and friends had laid or placed in a cavity where they could remain without being tossed around by weather conditions. Here and there were piles of old flowers that had faded. I say faded because they are all fake flowers. From a distance they look real enough. I suppose they all put fake flowers at the grave sites so that they last longer, since they cannot come any time of the year to constantly change real flowers if they had placed them there.

Real enough yes?

Antique fighters

A small portion of the cemetery

After our visit to the cemetery, we ate a big meal of the kimbap that we brought along, whilst sitting among tons of big carpenter ants ewwwwwww!!! I got SOOOOO buggy by the time we were done I was itching everywhere. As a matter of fact, on the way to the bus, I was being bitten by one on my poor big toe! I was screeching and whacking it fruitlessly. My poor sister got hit by my flip flop that I flung off in an effort to rid myself of the little monster. In the end, my mom swiped it off with a single brush of her hand. Bleh.... :P

When we made it to the bus stop, there were several people already waiting to catch the ride. The small shuttle bus only comes once every half hour, so if you're not willing to wait for a half an hour for the next ride, you gotta hop on the bus fast! As I am totally not used the Asian culture, I was quickly beat to the door of the bus and the bus was filled in a flash. But we had to get to the subway so we wouldn't miss our train back to Seoul... So with a huff and puff and shove and pull my family and I managed to cram ourselves in among the now complaining older Koreans. By the time we managed to fit though, I was laughing so hard I could hardly breathe! The door couldn't even close either. Ahhh I wish I could have filmed it! After all that though, the bus driver said that the bus wouldn't make it with all of us in it (sure it wouldn't...). So guess what he did? He booted us out and said wait for the next bus!... Grrrrr >.<

It does not look as crammed as it felt!

My cram jam face... she must think I look stupid

We tried to flag down some passing buses and taxis, but nobody stopped. A few of the buses held military soldiers though... so I'm not too sure I would have wanted to know where they were headed. They must have thought we were nuts, waving our arms at whatever car drove by. Finally we saw a small van screech to a halt beside us. The side door was already open and the driver said "Hop in!" For a brief moment I was reminded of a runaway scene and gangsters. A van, an already open van, screeching to a halt, and desperate ditched hitch-hikers. :P Thankfully that was no recipe for disaster in our case. We crammed in like sardines and were zoomed off to the subway to catch our train home. We were just five minutes ahead of schedule by the time we made it to the train station! :D Yay to our van driver!

~HUGS and KISSES!!~

... not to the van driver though I AM thankful... :P