38th Parallel Medical Conference in Seoul, South Korea

Here's some pictures from the 38th Parallel Annual Medical Conference that I attended this week. It was down at the Dragon Hill Lodge in Seoul, and was started in 1951 during the Korean War by some Doctors that wanted to be able to share information and new surgical techniques with each other. The 38th Parallel is the site of the DMZ (Demilitarized Zone) that separates North and South Korea.

I went up to the Seoul Tower which overlooks the city one night, the taxi could only go part way up, so I had a long walk up to the tower...


There were some shops, a restaurant and a temple up top....


There was this cool little soccer ball art display on the side of the tower, with grass growing out of the balls.


The view of the city from the tower...

Also, there were these ancient smokestacks that were once used to send smoke signals out to everyone in the city. I'm not sure how old they are and if they were used in the Korean War, or if they were much older than that.

A little sample of some Korean snacks...

On the last day I was down there for the conference, I stopped by the soccer field to watch my good friend Mike Gagnet's son play soccer. This is his youngest son Josh catching a piggy back and below that is Mike and his daughter. He's my mentor over here in Korea and has taught me a lot about medicine and about being an officer.