Gagwonsa and Korean Independence day

Yesterday we celebrated Korean Independence Day and so NO SCHOOL!! I must say I was a little disappointed that there wasn't much going on as far as Independence Day celebration (at least nothing that I found or heard anyway), like I had hoped maybe for some fireworks or some kind of a big celebration...maybe there was somewhere and I just didn't find it.

So with any day off here I had to take full advantage of it and so I wanted to ride my bike up to Gagwonsa ("sa" means temple). It was a beautiful ride, but I must say at the time of writing this blog my knees are quite sore. It was a quite a ride, I would say maybe between 15-20 miles round trip, and some pretty nice little hills too! It was a really pretty ride though...there are quite a few fields out that way and since it is a little more rural, just a totally different feel to it. The bike path led up the mountain by a small stream and there were a lot of birds and flowers as I rode past...the countryside here is amazing.

With it being a holiday it seemed like there were a LOT of people there worshipping, the parking lot was clear full and there were quit a few full sized tour busses as well. There were quite a few different worship buildings and then I think the huge building is like the main place of worship. That was where most of the people were and the Buddhist monks were singing and playing their little drum and handbell for what seemed like an eternity. I wondered if they get sick of doing that, because I swear it seemed like they played for well over an hour. I heard that the Buddha statue there was a the biggest bronze Buddha in the world, since then though there has been a bigger one built somewhere in China...I don't know for sure though. I DO know that the Buddha statue was huge and really cool...you could see the head poke up over the trees. I enjoyed walking around and just seeing all the beautiful sights and hearing the sounds. Little things like that have made some of the best memories for me. One thing I thought was really cool is that there is a cafeteria there and I believe the food is free...I had read somewhere that most Buddhist temples offer a free meal. Well...I had my bag of chips and water and was sitting there just relaxing and I had two different people say something to me in Korean and then gesture towards the cafeteria as if to say "go eat there!" HA! I thought it was really kind, but I just feel like that food should be for the people who have travelled there to worship and really might need it...but I did think that was very kind. As with quite a few of the trips I have made, it started to rain on my way home. It was a light rain, and as soon as I made it about 2 blocks from my house it started to rain...and REALLY hard. I was glad I had made it back just in time!

Gyeongbokgung

Ahhh, another Saturday! What a wonderful day Saturday is! I left for Seoul this morning around 9AM and headed off to Gyeongbokgung, a palace just north of Seoul. It was constructed in 1394...but like most other historic sites in Korea, it has been destroyed by the Japanese 2 or 3 times. The pavilion that is surrounded by water on the west side of the palace (called the Gyeonghoeru Pavilion) appears on the back of the Korean 10,000 Won note. One of the most amazing things at Gyeongbokgung is the changing of the guard ceremony which occurs several times a day. Cheong Wa Dae...the Korean President's "Blue House," sits to the rear of Gyeongbokgung and on the original grounds of the ancient palace. It was established as the Korean president's residence in 1948. Gyeongbokgung also houses the National Folk Museum. When the Japanese occupied Korea, they constructed their governor-general's house in the middle of Gyeongbokgung to show their superiority over the Korean people. After the Japanese left, the Koreans used this building as their national museum, but it was finally torn down in 1993 to restore the palace to its original glory. I can't remember which pictures I posted from when I went to Independence Hall, but pieces of the governor-general building were sent to Independence Hall (after it was destroyed) and I did get some pictures, I will post one with my pictures from today. One thing I thought was cute was that there were a bunch of groups of Korean kids who were with their hogwans (learning institutes like where I work, they have them for math, science, music, etc. Koreans are hard core with education) for a day trip I assume. Well...I guess their teachers assigned them projects to talk to English speaking people because I was approached three times today by kids...it was cute, they were all really nervous and said they just wanted to ask me a few questions if I didn't mind. They asked very basic stuff like "Where are you from?" "What is your favorite food in Korea?" etc. I am amazed by the talent from some of these kids...I have tried to learn just a LITTLE Korean and it is hard to learn another language, much less when you are like 9 or 10.

Seoul is an amazing city and I always enjoy being there...it is fascinating. After leaving Gyeonbokgung I went to Insadong...it is a cool place but there are so many Miguks (Americans) and for some reason when I am here, I feel weird and almost uncomfortable seeing other white native speakers, regardless of where they are from. Anyway...Insadong is a cool place, tons of people and just some shops and basically you can buy about anything in that area you might want. I just walked around for a good while sweating...I never really buy anything...just look. I don't think anyone can have buyers remorse more than me, and if they do, I truly feel sorry for them! HA HA! I swear...at this rate I won't have anything from Korea when I come home...and I'll wish I had bought more stuff...I have no idea why I am like that so bad...but anyway, that's a whole other post! :)

This week in general was OK I guess...I picked up a summer class of beginners and so that was interesting. I had a chance to go with the missionaries on Friday night, it was a lot of fun.

Anseong Observatory

Jacob and his son Hyekang (which means flowing river) picked me up around 5:30 and we drove out to Anseong Observatory...it was quite a nice drive and it was cool because I have not yet been out that way. There are a lot of really pretty fields filled with all different kinds of fruit trees, and that area is also filled with an abundance of grapes. We got there and it was quite cloudy so we were a little worried about the rain. I didn't really have any idea what to expect as I have never been to an observatory before. The guy in charge spoke for quite a while (Koreans love speaking through microphones with blaring speakers...at the grocery store there is a guy who talks nonstop the whole time I am shopping...so I have learned just to listen to my MP3 since I can't understand him anyway. Also when you walk down the street a lot of people out front of their store are speaking with a microphone and have the volume turned WAY up!) and talking about what all we would be doing that night. Jacob translated for me and said that basically we would be seeing some different telescopes they use, learning about different planets and our solar system, and then building a little telescope, and then if the weather held up doing some star and planet gazing.

There were quite a few kids there, and it seemed like a good array of events for kids and adults. We had a chance to see the telescopes they use and then just after we saw them it started to rain! :( The guy said we would wait and see if the rain stopped, since looking through the telescopes was the last event of the night anyway. He had a really cool 3D computer program called Starry Night and it highlighted all the different planets and was quite amazing actually. I learned quite a bit last night. I never knew that all the craters on Mercury were named after famous musicians and poets...I guess one of the craters is named after a Korean poet, but I forget his name. The computer program was very detailed and really interesting. I think I might have discovered a new hobby! I looked online and the basic program was only about $50, for anyone interested here is a link to the website: http://www.starrynightstore.com/stniso.html After we had learned a lot about all the different planets (Jacob translated as well as he could...I am sure that was pretty tough...fortunately the software program was in English so I could follow pretty well just with that) we built our own little telescope...it was fun doing something interactive and I think his son really enjoyed it. After we finished that it was getting late and they checked one more time on the weather. It was still raining and quite heavily by that time, so they issued us passes to come back another time and see Jupiter and some other planets and stars. I am not sure what all we get to see, but I think it will be fun. Jacob said he definitely wants to go back out and I told him I would love to go back too. He bought me a little button that has my Astrological sign and the name of the observatory. Sorry the picture is a little blurry...it was hard because with the flash off it is a little blurry, and with the flash on it shines off the button and you can't read it. Well...I can't believe how fast my summer break flew by! I have to teach two new classes for the next few weeks since the middle school is on summer break until around the end of August. I will be teaching beginners, so I guess I better brush up on my A,B,Cs!

Bowling!

Each week my friend Jacob (not Jake...he lives in Seoul) and I try to meet up at least once and eat supper or just go do something fun. Last week after we ate we had wanted to go bowling but the lanes were full for like 3 hours and his son was with us (he is 4 years old) and we didn't arrive until around 8:30 PM. So...we planned to go again tonight and he said he would call and reserve a lane for us. We met at our usual time at 6:00 PM at E-Mart (Korea's equivalent to Wal-Mart) and went out to eat some samgyeopsal. It was really good and we were sitting there talking and a big group of people came in and sat down by us...it was obvious that it was someone's birthday, since they were singing and had a cake. They were really loud, but seemed to be having fun and playing some different games with food and drinks. They could tell we were watching them and so an older Korean guy looked at me and motioned me over to their table. He said they were about to eat hot peppers and wanted me to join in. I'm here to tell you...hot peppers in Korea are like 10 times hotter than anything I have ever eaten in the States. So I politely declined and they all laughed and said ok. Well...the birthday guy ate an ENTIRE pepper (my friend Jacob ate a tiny tiny bite and about cried) and looked like he was in pain! When we were leaving they all told me "Goodbye" and I said thanks again for inviting me...then the birthday guy stuck out his hand to shake mine and I said "Man, you are crazy!!" and the whole table erupted into laughter. I guess Koreans really think the word crazy is hiliarious! It was my turn to pay...that is one thing here...people rarely spilt a bill, one person pays and then I guess the other person pays next time. While we were eating our supper Jacob invited me to go to the planetarium tomorrow night with him and his son...I have never been so I am quite excited!

After we ate we walked over to the bowling alley and bowled a few games. It was really fun...we had a good time and I bowled ok...not the best I have ever done, but it was still fun.

I rode my bike for about three hours today and got a little sunburned, so he helped me get some burn ointment at E-Mart...I was really glad, because it feels a lot better tonight!

Oh yeah...I am also going to post a few pictures of Korean Won. For as brilliant as I think Koreans are, I can't for the life of me figure out why their largest bill (that I am aware of) is 10,000 Won (equal to about $10). The three main bills that I see are 1,000 Won ($1), 5,000 Won ($5) and then 10,000 Won. When I first got here I exchanged the $500 I brought and I swear I had a stack of bills that was so HUGE I literally couldn't fit them all in my wallet. Funny stuff.

Independence Hall and Asan Folk village

Yesterday my friend Lee called and asked if I wanted to take a trip to Independence Hall, and of course I was more than happy to go with him. There were quite a few tour buses and he said that a lot of schools and universities take trips there since it is such an historic place. It was very humid and I must say that Korea blows North Carolina away in the humidity department...I thought I would be ok since I had lived in Carolina for so long, but it is nothing compared to here. I have to keep my Orbit gum in the fridge or it is so humid I literally can't un-wrap it, it just sticks! HA! So anyway, the first thing when we got there to Independence Hall was a walk up the stairs to the Reunification Bell...a bell that reminds us of the two Koreas and the hope that one day they will be together again as one Korea. I asked Lee how most Koreans felt about North and South Korea coming back together as one country...he said the P.C. answer is that yes...they should be one country, but he said that a lot of South Koreans don't want to come back together...he said that the South Koreans have worked so hard for what they have and they feel like if they came back together to form one Korea that the North Koreans would basically benefit from all of their hard work. He also mentioned that there might be some real problems with how the country was governed. I think a lot of the older Koreans have hoped for a reunification just since many of them still know people in the North that were stuck there as they escaped to the South...however I think as the memories fade and the younger generations grow up, they don't know anyone in North Korea and Lee said a lot of the younger people look at the Northerners as inferior and just dirty and poor. I was kind of surprised that the Reunification Bell was there since Independence Hall is really about the time of the Japanese Occupation of Korea...but anyway.

One of the most impressive scenes as we walked through the gates and up to The Grand Hall of the Nation was that there are several hundred Taegeuki, which is the actual name of the Korean flag. It was really cool to see all of them flapping in the wind. Inside the Grand Hall is a huge statue called The Statue of Indomitable Koreans...this statue was made from 274 pieces of granite stone.

There were seven or eight buildings that had photos and stories of the people who lived during the time of the Japanese Occupation of Korea. This was a very horrible time in Korea as the Japanese were very brutal to the Koreans not only physically, but also mentally. Japan took control of Korea (illegally and forcefully) on August 22, 1910 and they were under Japanese rule until the end of World War II when the US bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki, bringing the Japanese to their knees and eventual surrender to the Allies on August 15, 1945.

After the Japanese took control of Korea in 1910 over 170,000 Japanese migrated to Korea and basically took the Korean's land and started to use it for their own purposes. Japan's goal was to assimilate the Korean's and to root all elements of Korean culture from society. I think the article on Wikipedia explains this in a very effective way "In this period, the Imperial Japanese Army often discriminated, tortured, plundered, raped, summary executed and mass murdered innocent Koreans without valid reason. Major cultural genocides and war crimes done by the Japanese include forced sex slavery and kidnapping of young Korean girls and women for the Japanese army, human experiments on live Koreans, burying of live Koreans, burning down of Korean villages, banning of the Korean language and religions, complete censorship of media, unfair confiscation of land, food and cultural assets, forced name changes and Imperial education, which led to a strong rise in anti-Japanese sentiment and Korean nationalism, still persistent to this date in both South Korea and North Korea."

I am fascinated with history and I find it sad sometimes the things that people had to go through to make life what they it is today. That was one thing Lee and I talked about as we walked around was just how so many young people don't appreciate and respect what generations before have had to deal with to provide such wonderful lives for us now.

Independence Hall also features two incidents that kept the Koreans fight for freedom moving on including the March 1st movement in 1919 in which 33 nationalists read the Declaration of Independence aloud in a park in Seoul. They also signed the document and sent a copy to the Japanese Governer. Also the student uprising in November 1929.

The Koreans weren't really "free" until many years even after 1945 because of the Korean War which was fought from 1950-1953 (and technically still goes on today...they only signed a seize fire). I hope this wasn't too boring HA HA I just feel a need to let people know about the atrocities that people here had to deal with...obviously I don't know first hand, so I can never really know...but I think that a lot of people around the world have no idea what the Korean people had to deal with. If you are interested in reading a little more about the Japanese Occupation of Korea here is a link http://countrystudies.us/south-korea/7.htm. I asked Lee how he felt about the US dropping the bombs in Japan and he said "If I would have been alive I would have clapped my hands for joy". There is still quite a lot of animosity between Korea and Japan...not all people here hate Japan, but I would say generally speaking there is still quite a bit of dislike.

I know I went on and on about the history there, but I think to really appreciate the Hall you have to understand a little of why it is so important to the Koreans to now be free. It was cool I went to the bookstore and was looking for a small Taegeukgi to buy and the lady behind the counter told Lee (in Korean of course) that she just wanted to give it to me, she thought it was so cool that I wanted one and she felt honored that I even cared. Wow...how cool is that? I was floored and I have my flag hanging right about me here in the room! :)

After all that fun we drove to Asan which is about 15 miles maybe (all the signs of course are in km here) and we went to a Folk Village. It was really cool and just so peaceful...it was in a small little area at the base of a mountain and we just sat there and talked for several hours about life, and just how cool it is to make friends from different countries and experience different cultures. Lee spent 6 months in California and said he loved the experience and wouldn't trade it for anything. That is one thing that amazes me is how kind and open the Korean people are...if you even make an attempt they will do everything they can to make you feel welcome and appreciated.