The War Memorial of Korea

Color guard rehearsal at the War Memorial of Korea

One of the last things on my Korea bucket list was a visit to the War Memorial of Korea, a museum dedicated to Korea's bellic history. It may not be as exciting as shark diving or bungee jumping, but I enjoy visiting museums on my own. When I go with a tour, there is never enough time scheduled to see everything at a properly slow pace, and when I go with friends, we always end up separated anyway because our interests differ. So, I first paid a visit to the museum with Monica on Monday, and although we caught the tail end of a really interesting color guard rehearsal taking place in front of the museum, we found out that the museum itself was closed, as is the case every Monday.

So, I went by myself a few days later, and the following photos are from this second visit. I'd heard that its exhibits are extensive and worth an entire afternoon's visit, and indeed, I spent a good four hours wandering its halls.

A South Korean flag carried by a member of the student soldiers' battalion during the Battle of Pohang (August 1950).

Memorial to the soldiers who sacrificed their lives at White Horse Hill

What surprised me straight off the bat was that it was not a museum about just the Korean War, fought from 1950-1953. True, the museum had more than two floors dedicated to this important and transformative period in Korean history, but it actually was meant to cover the entire war history of Korea. That being the case, the exhibits actually began with coverage of the wars fought between Korea's ancient kingdoms, as well as confrontations with Japanese invaders leading up to the twentieth century. I didn't find these very interesting, though, so I hurried on through.

The next thing that surprised me was -- for lack of a better way to describe it -- the entertainment value of the exhibits. Of course, I don't think a museum should be boring, but the way this museum chose to keep up interest for visitors, particularly children, was rather odd to me. Take for example the re-enactments of famous battles using animatronics and CGI bombs and explosions. It reminded me, unfortunately, of North Korea's war museum in Pyongyang, which I visited last February. Having been recently renovated, that museum made use of state-of-the-art technology to immerse visitors in as "realistic" a recreation of the war as possible. I use scare quotes because the information presented as fact in Pyongyang's museum is clearly distorted to present a DPRK-positive account.

Life-size diorama and multimedia display of one of the battles along the Han River during the Korean War.

"Shooting Area" for the kids to experience what it's like to use an assault rifle in a wartime situation. Classy.

In any case, I remain amused at the cornier aspects of the museum, but at the same time impressed by the depth and breadth of the exhibits. All the important information was provided in English and Korean, and many interactive screens provided additional facts in Japanese and Chinese. There were many tour groups visiting, as well as many people just wandering the halls on their own, children running from the prop guns to the model fighter planes. This was one drastic difference from my experience in Pyongyang: there, I had to stay with the tour guide at all times and listen obediently to her propagandistic explanations of history. There was only one other tour group in the museum, and otherwise all was silent and cold. In Seoul, I had the freedom to go anywhere in the museum that I wanted, and overall it was louder and felt more alive.

On that note, I also happened to visit on a "fourth Wednesday", which is the one day each month when soldiers from a local garrison give a free public concert in the main hall of the museum. The performances were extremely diverse, from traditional Korean instruments to classical opera to a guy who played "Fly Me to the Moon" on the harmonica. I like how a museum can be an active performance space that engages the community instead of just an inert building to walk through.

These tenors sang "Funiculì, Funiculà", and they were really good! This was the firs time I've seen opera performed live by Koreans.

These two soldiers performed the traditional Korean instruments 해금 (haegeum) and 장구 (janggu).

I think my favorite exhibit in the museum, or at least the one that touched me the most, was the hall on the third floor dedicated to the UN forces sent by sixteen countries to aid in the Korean War effort. Not only was it well designed, it was also extremely detailed. The exact statistics on how many soldiers each country sent, who led them, and what special things they did were all listed, and their uniforms were on display along with small things like soldiers' diaries. I think it was noble of South Korea to devote so much space to thank the international community that helped them.

In contrast, Pyongyang's war museum presents the conflict as one of Korea versus the evil United States and barely mentions Russia, China, or the UN. There is supposedly an exhibit that covers the Chinese troops' (invaluable) participation in the latter half of the war, but it certainly was not part of our tour.

A memorial for the UN soldiers who participated in the war effort. The words on the wall read, " With the US as main force, 21 countries dispatched combat froces and medical aid units for the freedom of the Republic of Korea.

The last part of the museum that I visited was its outdoor display of ships, plans, tanks, and rockets used in various modern war efforts. Again, I couldn't help but compare it to the display of military artifacts in Pyongyang's museum, which consists entirely of abandoned and captured enemy vehicles. American and British tanks, planes, and even the USS Pueblo. North Korea keeps all of these old hunks of iron as "war trophies" and uses the more-recently captured vehicles liberally in its propaganda. In Seoul, however, all the vehicles are replicas, just another exhibit.

A few tanks, including one that looks almost cute!

Ships and planes at the War Memorial of Korea. You can see Namsan Tower in the hills in the background.

Well, that's all for the War Memorial of Korea! I spent a good, long afternoon there and learned a lot. I'd recommend it to anyone who wants to know more about modern Korean history. It's especially important for people living in Korea to understand the Korean War and get the story as told by South Korea (while comparing it with other accounts for balance and perspective).

The museum is located in Yongsan, not far from Itaewon. To get there, you can take the subway (lines 4 or 6) to Samgakji Station (삼각지역). From Line 4, leave from exit 1 and turn right, then following the road for less than five minutes. From Line 6, leave from exit 12 and follow road until you reach the museum. It is open from 9am-6pm every day except Monday. More visitors' information can be found here.

War Memorial of Korea

Jindo Miracle Sea Festival

The question is: was it worth going to the Jindo Miracle Sea Festival?

Actually, the question is: What is this festival, anyway? And what are they wearing? And what time is it???

Was it worth traveling from Changwon to Gwangju (3 hours) and then Gwangju to Jindo (2 hours) on a rainy day without time for a proper meal?

Was it worth actually missing the scheduled bus to Jindo and having to wait an hour for the next one, moving our arrival time to even later on a cold, drizzly evening?

Was it worth joining a pension (a rented house) with over thirty other people crammed so full that there was nowhere to sleep but the ground?

Was it worth staying up all night and not sleeping at all because we had to leave for the sea-parting ceremony at three in the morning? Or missing the first caravan and consequently actually leaving at four?

Was it worth arriving at the beach, having just missed the fireworks, to find hundreds of people carrying torches, already returning from the sea-crossing since the tide didn't go down low enough to make it to the other side?

Was it worth standing around in the dark, damp morning, waiting for the sun to rise, but not even seeing it due to the fog?

Was it worth waiting in the cold for a taxi to take me back to Jindo, then a bus to take me back to Gwangju, then another bus to take me back to Changwon, during which rides all I slept more soundly than I have for about a week?

Hm... 모르는것 같아...?

No, just kidding. The answer is: YES. It was totally worth it.

It was worth traveling for five hours in poor weather because I've sorely needed to get out of my city for a while. It was worth missing the first bus to Jindo, because I ran into other Fulbrighters at the terminal -- we missed the bus together -- and got to know them much better. It was worth being packed into the pension because it was full of new friends and old, and we ate, joked, played music, caught up on old times, and simply had a great party all night. It was worth not sleeping because instead, I played some fun games and took a walk outside and felt just a little bit like I was in college again, forgoing sleep for the sake of making memories. Even missing the first caravan was no big deal since it gave us more time to sleep and/or eat breakfast.

It was worth getting to the beach after everyone had ventured out into the water because the sight of the crossing from afar, with torches flickering and people wading around in knee-high water was breathtaing. It was worth waiting around for the sunrise, because we found a beach and seashells! It was worth all the travel and trouble because in the end, I just spent a weird and wonderful weekend with people that I like and love. I got to know a bunch of the first-year Fulbright teachers a lot better, and I also technically crossed something off of my Korea bucket list. The sea-parting may have disappointed, but literally everything else about this past weekend was great and totally worthwhile.

So here are some photos: 

Monica and me, who barely made it into the water before the "Miracle Sea Road" closed again. Taken by Neal.

Fulbrighters as excited as humanly possible at 5:30am on a cold and rainy beach!

So I like fire. Taken by Neal.

I also found Moses! Just before he got into a car and ran away. 

Emerging from the sea...

Later, we went to a sand beach and went in as far as our waders would let us. It was fun! Modo, our would-be destination earlier that morning, is behind us.

롤러 코스터 - Rollercoasters (Daegu pt. 1)

A native Korean speaker might have a hard time saying that...

A view of Daegu from E-World.

Last Saturday, I traveled to Daegu with my host family. The plan was to spend the afternoon at E-World (previously known as Woobang Land), and then my host family would take off to meet their extended family, and I would be left to my own devices. Although I was kind of anxious about the latter half of these plans (you know, like, not having a place to sleep), my mind was completely worry-free for the few wonderful hours we spent at E-World. Why? Because there were ROLLERCOASTERS.

Rollercoaster yayyyyyyyyyyyyy

Dear friends, I love rollercoasters. I have ever since I became tall enough to ride The Demon at Paramount's Great America. One of the best birthday presents I ever received was the computer game RollerCoaster Tycoon. I used to spend hours surfing through the rollercoaster database, memorizing types and records and locations, making a list of every amusement park I'd visit before I got too old to ride the tallest, fastest, and most vomit-inducing terrors out there.

So when my host father tells me that there's a 놀이 공원 (noli gongwon, or amusement park) in Daegu? Before you can say "No hands!", I say, "I'm in."

Well, we arrived at E-World at about 3pm, due to traffic, and that left us only about two and a half hours to do everything, since I was going to meet friends for dinner later. Fortunately, that was actually plenty of time for us. E-World is quite a small park, with only three coasters and a dozen or so other attractions ranging from awesome carnival-type thrill rides (a Top Spin, an inverted pirate ship) to typical kids' fare (merry-go-round, haunted house).

My host brother and sister got passes that would allow them to ride anything they wanted. My host parents bought me an adult ticket, which meant that I needed to buy individual tickets for each ride. I decided to save my money for just the coasters: Hurricane, Camelback, and Boomerang. (They were $3.50 to $4.00 each.) The best of these by far was Boomerang, which is a standard boomerang coaster but also was, curiously enough, the first of its kind that I've been on. (Great America's Invertigo is the wicked older sister of this type of coaster, and I guess having been on that one many times spoiled me for the original ride, such that I never bothered to ride it anywhere else.) But the other two had their perks, too: Hurricane was like what The Demon would be if it were forced to exist in an space only half as large, which was neat, and riding on Camelback gave me an absolutely gorgeous view of Daegu.

A daring photo I took with my phone while on Hurricane with my host siblings!

Besides the coasters, I also enjoyed just looking around and trying to figure out what it was that made this amusement park Korean. One aspect was how overtly the whole place was catered to couples. Every few feet there was something cute and romantic and neatly positioned at a photo spot. Then there was the influence of American culture in a not-so-American way. I mean, yes, there is a KFC in the park, but I'm talking about more... subtle indicators. Like the Philly Love Park sculpture, re-appropriated only as one would expect for the lovey-dovey theme. And the fun house attraction named "Aladin".

Hi, Philly, I've missed you. Because I LOVE YOU. (Also of note: the Ghost Adventure in the background.)

Somebody call Disney. Something horrible has happened to Genie.

And one thing I'll briefly mention: over Chuseok weekend, the park was doing some kind of promotion for foreigners ("Foriegner Invitation Weekend" or something like that), which included an international food fair and a singing contest for foreigners. They were trying to appeal to the growing population of immigrants from west and southeast Asia, and I think it was a nice initiative. As a foreigner myself, I took a "Where Are You From?" survey at the entrance of the park, but there wasn't a spot for 미국 (USA), interestingly enough.

I definitely enjoyed my first Korean amusement park. A trip to Everland or Lotte World in Seoul is on my bucket list, though, so this only whetted my appetite a bit. Also, I'm happy that I got to spend more time with my host family, since I'm going to be out of town for a few consecutive weekends.

My host family and me at E-World! (Minus my host father, who took the photo.) Please note the two derpy dogs in a stroller.

Okay, and here is a photo of my host siblings tumbling around a pool inside giant inflatable balloons, just because. 그냥.

Hahaha!

The Bucket List Lesson

My bucket short-list, an in-class example.

As of today, I've finished teaching my first unit to my second-year students. The theme was "Dreams", and in the last lesson, I taught about bucket lists (with video supplements from the 2007 movie and a nice TED talk).

I tried to emphasize putting realistic dreams and goals on these lists, knowing that if I simply said, "Anything is possible!" they would all write that they would marry Suzy or Won Bin or live on the moon.

As a result, I got lots of great bucket lists. The majority of them, of course, were nothing out of the ordinary: my students want to travel to all sorts of countries, meet celebrities, find love, learn musical instruments, and get good jobs. (But there weren't as many "become very rich"-es as I expected).

And what surprised me the most was that, given that I was compiling each class' Bucket List Top 10, all of the dreams and goals they came up with were so original. With about twenty-two students in each class, each of them writing five things on their list, I actually got eighty to ninety unique bucket list items.

So now, I will present some of my favorites, the ones that made me laugh or think for a moment. (And I am quoting verbatim, so please excuse their syntax!)

"Before I die I will raise a hawk."
"Before I die, I will spread many money, standing on a building's top"

"Before I die, I want to make my mine. I want to dig my own mine."

"I want proud myself"

"I will meet David Tennent"

"I want to catch fish with hand"

"I will to be a VIP at Outback"

"to do a speaking at TED"
"Crash a wall on my punching."

"believe religious"

"Be someone's eternal knight."

"have dramatic love"

The ones that should be on my bucket list:
"Before I die I will make a very very Big cake"
"eat cheese that is most delicious cheese in the world with honey"
"Meet very handsome and rich guy and make him mine."
"be with Polar bear"

And now, the best of the bunch:

Runner-up: "Take a nap under the warm sunlight in the green field."

The winner: "punish my middle school music teacher"