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