DMZ

Busy, busy, busy!

I'm in the last 10 days of this great big adventure, 7 of them teaching. I've got all my souvenirs bought, my bags almost packed, I've got my flight itinerary set and things are going smoothly.

Last weekend was the group DMZ trip. Everyone mentioned in the Busan post went up to Seoul on Saturday and then Sunday we toured the DMZ. We didn't go on one of the trips that takes you to technical North Korea, which is of course a bummer, but it was really neat to see the observation towers and what not. It's weird because you don't usually think about it, but the Korean war is still, technically, on going. So visiting these places you aren't visiting the remnants of a war gone by, like when you tour civil war battle sites in the states. There are a lot of restrictions about where you can go and what you can photograph, and theres a large military presence, because the war is really only at a pause.

The coolest part of the tour was walking into the giant infiltration tunnel that was (supposedly) dug by North Korea. I say supposedly because each side says that the other did it.

While In Seoul I was able to visit the National Folk Museum, which was tiny and kind of a bummer. However the National Palace Museum is pretty cool, even though their wasn't much in English. I was not able to see any of the Palaces, I almost went up to Seoul this weekend to see one, but rain was forecasted. It didn't rain in Gwangju, I sure hope it rained in Seoul.

Unfortunately I'm really uninteresting now, unless you want to hear all the trials and tribulations of suitcase packing, which I'm sure you don't.

I'll do a round-up post before or right after I leave here.
Take care everyone!
~Hannah

Busan

Blogger is currently NOT letting me upload any pictures, so I apologize, I had a really nice one to head this entry with. I'll try to edit it in later.

Also, this entry might get a bit long, there's a lot to catch up on!

We'll start with Cinco de Mayo, which we had off, because in Korea it is Children's day! There's no school, and apparently the children get presents. I enjoyed having the day off. Unfortunately I had to work that Friday, while my friends didn't. We were all heading to Busan for the weekend and they got to head out a day early. I left for Busan immediately after work and arrived at about 1 am.

Busan was the first time since I'd been in Korea that I was reminded of South America. Coming into the city and seeing colorful buildings creeping up the hills reminded me of Quito. The city on the beach reminded me of Rio, right down to the wave pattern on the sidewalk. Of course I felt about 1000x safer in Busan than i did in either Quito or Rio.

I met up with Mieka, Shanna, and Angel at our love motel, where I promptly went to bed. Love motels are for one of two things: prostitutes or a cheap place to stay. Our love motel seemed mainly to cater to the latter. It was actually pretty nice. It was right on Haeundae beach, which is a big foreigner hangout in Busan.

Saturday I woke up with a sore throat and a stuffy nose. Two advils later I was up for a delicious American brunch and then a trip to the Busan aquarium. Rather than bore you with all the fishy details I will say that the highlights for me were the silver arrowana and the oceanic sun fish!

From there we went to Haedong Yonggungsa Temple. This temple is unique because it is built on the rocks overlooking the ocean, as opposed to the traditional forest and mountain locations. Because of Buddha's birthday (which is today, the 10th) the temple was decorated with hundreds of brightly colored paper lanterns, which added to the amazing visuals of the temple. Ironically though, the lanterns proved problematic as they blocked the view of the East Sea (or Sea of Japan, if you're not in Korea) and of the temple's golden Buddha statue. Even with large crowds of people surrounding me, this temple still felt serene and peaceful, and it is right up there with Mont St. Michel on my list of incredible places.

Unfortunately by the time we finished the temple I was fading fast. I now know I have a sinus infection, and that's what was knocking me out, but at the time I just felt inexplicably horrible. We all headed back to the hotel and while everyone else got ready for a night out I lay down and felt awful. I pulled myself out of bed to get dinner with the group. We went to an Irish pub where I got fish and chips and would've enjoyed myself and the food immensely were it not for the fact that I was starting to feel feverish. As soon as I finished I gave Mieka the money for my portion of the bill and went back to the hotel, where I was in bed by 10.

I felt better on Sunday, but do to cosmic shenanigans we didn't get the chance to do anything. Still, I would consider my first and only trip to Busan a success.

We had to work on Monday, but we have today, the 10th off, because it is Buddha's birthday. I thought about going to one of the local temples, but it's been really rainy, and I have a lot of things that I can get done here around the apartment. I also need to rest up and get healthy, because this weekend is my final trip to Seoul and a DMZ trip with the aforementioned friends. I really don't want to be all sick for that! It's back to work tomorrow. I only have 23 days left in Korea! Exciting!

I'd also like to just send a small note out to the Elmira College community. Dr. Kiskis was an amazing man and fantastic professor. The school will truly not be the same without him, he will be dearly missed. I hope that everyone is holding up well, and you're all in my thoughts.

~Hannah

May 18th

Statue at the May 18th Memorial Park

I've been so busy trying to complete the dreaded grad school funding applications that I haven't really done ANYTHING since my last post, except write letter after letter after letter. Well, I have started packing, shipped boxes of stuff back to America and slowly but surely began to clean and sort through the apartment and my stuff. In the very near future (IE any minute or so!) I'll be getting a new desk, courtesy of Mr. Kang. I only have 32 days left, so I don't really care about the new desk, but it will be nice for the next person. It also gave me the forced motivation to clean the entrance way, and do a complete clean of the bedroom, complete with dusting, sweeping, and mopping.

Yesterday Mieka and I took advantage of the nice spring weather (even if it was SO WINDY) and crossed another site of my 'things to do before I leave Korea' list. We went into Sangmu and visited the May 18th Park. Both of them.

A little bit of history: May 18, 1980 is the day that pro-democracy demonstrators started taking to the streets in Gwangju to protest the corrupt government. The protests quickly turned very, very violent, with thousands of people of all ages (including children and the elderly) imprisoned, tortured, and killed by the local military. People who had no involvement in the protests were still taken into custody and tortured until they confessed. It was a horrific time in Korean/Gwangju History, and in the 90's the government came forth and decided that the sacrifice of these people needed to be recognized. No longer where they rioters, the people who died on and because of May 18th are labeled as martyrs, people who sacrificed their lives for what they knew was right. The government acknowledges that this happened and is making sure that the history is remembered. I'm thinking of some other governments that could learn from this example (Hi, Turkey...).

There are two May 18th parks, something neither of us knew when we started this adventure. We began at the May 18th Liberty Park, which is the restored site of the police barracks where the prisoners were held and tortured. It's not really much of a park, but it does have a nice visitor center that gives a chronological recount of the events surrounding the May 18th protests. Neither Mieka nor myself new any details about the history, just that something had happened, so it was great to actually LEARN about the event. We were then given a guided tour of the barracks by a kind old man who didn't speak English, and communicated almost entirely in gestures. Fortunately each building had a placard that was translated in English, telling exactly what each building had been used for. After we finished there we got directions to the May 18th Memorial Park, which is where we had intended to go in the first place.

The Memorial Park is much more of a park, with pagodas, flowers, and fountains. It also has two monuments, one commemorating the May 18th events in general, and a second honoring the middle and high school students who were killed. From the monuments you can hike up to the top of the hill and then climb the observation pagoda, which looked out over Gwangju. From there we hiked back down to the city and searched for dinner.

We ended up eating at a delicious restaurant that served Naju Baehanwoo (if I'm remembering correctly) which is a traditional soup from the city of Naju (if I remember I'll replace this text with a link to the blogpost where I talk about Naju). It was pork in a broth with TONS of delicious vegetables, cooked at your table a la galbi and sangyapsal. It was incredible!! After eating Mieka and I parted ways, and I managed to catch the bus right as it started to pour! Good timing!

Prior to adventure we stopped in the Gwangju cat cafe downtown, where beleaguered cats looked cranky as people harassed them. It was kinda sad, but really nice to actually have the chance to pet a cat. One cat decided that he was just going to eat my paper shopping bag, and he did a pretty good job of it.

I don't know if I mentioned this in my last blog, but I'll be flying out of Korea at around 530pm on June 2nd and arriving in Syracuse, NY around 1130pm on June 2nd. Then, slowly but surely, I'll be working my way across the northeast to NH!

I'll see you all soon!
Hannah