The gang solves the North Korea situation

I ride the bus everyday to and from work. It usually takes me half an hour or so to go one way and costs 1100Won (95cents American.) Yeah, thats right America, suck it; South Korea rules in public transportation. Anyways, there is this older man who gets on halfway to my town (Jeongok) and loves to sit next to me to chat. He is a Vice-Principle at some Elementary School and his English is soso. Enough for us to hold conversations but hard for me to catch every word he says. 

The second week here our bus was stopped by Korean military guys with full face-paint on and in full military garb. Once we came to a stop be waved for someone to come out of the road we were in a T intersection with. Out come five large artillery guns similar to the picture on the right. I start to freak out a little and ask him whats going on. He says not to worry that it is very common to see exercises like this in South Korea so close to the border. I calm myself down and he laughs and just keeps repeating do not worry. Do not worry, we want peace and not war. Do not worry, the North will never try anything against us. 


Fast forward to now. The South Korean Government has officially declared that a ship that was sunk two months ago was hit by a North Korean torpedo. North Korea has come out and said that they did no such thing; that this is the South fabricating lies and the North will never apologize for something they did not do. All the South wants is a apology and for the men responsible to be held accountable for the 40something South Korean lives that were lost at sea. The North is....well...the North are acting as North Korea always does: crazy. South Korea has said it will stop trading with the North until they admit they were responsible. In other words, tensions are starting to get a little high here. It's not so bad I feel as I should jump on a plane and head home but enough to where even the Koreans are starting to worry a little that peace between the two might break which leads me to the funniest thing that has happened to me since I have been here.


Yesterday I was riding the bus home from school. The previous week I was at camp so I did not see my older Korean friend at all during said time. He boarded the bus and I waved him over to come sit next to me. After a little small talk I asked him about the tension between the North and South being so high and what he though about it. He said those words I have been wanting to hear "Don't worry, Don't worry" except he added a little twist to the end I was not expecting.


"Don't worry, Don't worry. All Christian South Koreans go to heaven."






.........I had to hold in the nervous laughter.








Footnote: I am not worried and anyone reading this should not be worried either. The chances of something happening are relatively very low.