Our Final Days

I have to confess that I am now safely back in the United States, after an
exhausting 30+ hour journey back to my home in Florida. I have had a few days to enjoy the creature comforts of my own home as well as the happiness of being reunited with my husband. I am slowly beginning to reconnect with friends and family and am realizing – I have so so much to share with everyone! I can’t wait…okay, I can wait (it’s just two more weeks), but I’m very excited to see my new and old students and share stories with them too!

Monday 19 July 2010

The last few days were busy as always. Our final lectures at Korean University explored Korean culture, the Korean education system, and art history and were again rich, interesting lectures that enabled us to learn even more about the country’s past and present We were free the rest of Monday, so I spent the afternoon exploring the city on my own – which meant I got very lost and realized that there is no actual standardization of where North is on a map. Sounds crazy right? Seriously…on my tourist map North was up, on the subway map North was to the right, and on the map at street level North was left. Now, I understand that many other foreign cities would have no map at all…but still – the lack of standardization of North and the lack of street signs presents quite a problem when you are actually hoping to walk and find something! After a harried two hours of speed walking through the city I caved, collapsed in a cab, and returned to the hotel to get ready to meet up with Jenny’s family again.


Jenny Park, her mom, and her aunts making me feel incredibly welcome

Monday night I met with Jenny Park (my student from MCC) and her extended family and found myself warmly welcomed in the home of Jenny’s maternal grandmother and quickly surrounded by her many aunts. In no time I felt like family and spent the evening laughing and talking with Jenny and her mother, father, brother, grandmother, aunts, and cousins as we ate an absolutely delicious Korean meal. We finished the night off at a beautiful lounge that overlooked the Han River. In the midst of such a foreign, bustling city, I had made very dear friends.

Tuesday 20 July 2010

Day 14 - Changdeokgung Palace and end of the program

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Tuesday was the last official day of the program with the Korea Foundation. The Korea Society arranged for us to have an additional day in Seoul through the Freeman Foundation (Wednesday), but our formal schedule ended Tuesday. We began the day with a trip to the Changdeokgung Palace gardens which were beautifully lush and serene. After that headed to Korea University for one last lunch, a self-guided campus tour, fill-out-the-evaluation-packet-time, and closing ceremonies. We all changed into suits/ties or dress/heels and discovered we were glad we did…the closing ceremonies were much more formal that I had anticipated. We were each recognized and given a very pretty certificate and cover emblazoned with the Korea University symbol. We soon found ourselves being ushered back onto a bus and over to the Samsung building downtown where we had a very extravagant meal to officially end the program. We got to feel like royalty one more time as we enjoyed skyline views of Seoul and watched the newly made DVD of our field trip (which we all can't wait to receive and share with our friends and families!)

Wednesday 21 July 2010

My Final Day - The Japanese Prison and the Blue House

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One final day to make the most of Seoul…the question was could we all fight through our exhaustion to truly enjoy it? I met a few of my friends for breakfast and immediately enjoyed the pace of breakfast - if I took five extra minutes I wasn’t going to be late for anything! It was a wonderful feeling! Once we were all ready we set out for the Japanese Prison. The prison was created during the Japanese Occupation (1910-1945) and became increasingly full after the Koreans launched their rebellious March 1st independence movement in 1919. Throughout the occupation the prison was used to execute, torture, silence, and imprison the rebellious spirit of the Korean people and as we walked the grounds we could definitely sense the spirit of the people and the dark periods of oppression they had experienced.

We also wanted to see the Blue House, which is the Korean equivalent of the US White House. We walked a beautiful avenue leading up to the picturesque home which is a gigantic version of a traditional Korean home. After that we visited an English book store that was full of Korean history books (and even though I was already worried about the weight of my suitcases coming home, I found an incredibly intriguing book about North Korea and couldn’t resist). From there we branched off and I spent the afternoon wandering the Insadong market and procuring the last few gifts I needed for my family.

I spent the latter part of my afternoon attempting to pack and hoping that I could squeeze all of my new books in…(which I did!). Our last act of the day was gathering together to enjoy one last Korean BBQ (kalbi). The next morning we all navigated to the airport on our own – LeeAnn and I were forced to acknowledge that we had an embarrassingly large amount of luggage (but we both made it!), and after a fourteen hour flight to JFK we all headed our separate ways to fly on to see our families. I flew into Orlando and was greeted by my husband at the airport – who after eighteen days of dealing with the thirteen hour time difference was definitely happy to see me. After thirty hours of travel and over a month of living out of my suitcase, I was home!!! :)

I have to admit that I was more nervous to visit Korea than I have been to visit any other country. In my defense, this was the first country I visited that had a great number of customs that were truly foreign to me. But, in the end, I found myself pretty comfortable in Korea. The country is captivating and the more I have learned about Korea the more I have felt compelled to learn even more! As I strove to learn about the history and culture of the Korean people, I was reassured that a genuine interest in someone’s country, a friendly smile, and the desire to understand, goes a very long way. The Korean people didn’t expect me to know how everything works in their country, but I often found myself comforted by the kindness of strangers when I attempted to understand how everything works. Humbleness can be a beautiful bridge to understand other cultures. I am incredibly grateful and humbled to have been given the opportunity to learn about Korea first-hand so that I could learn for myself that Korea is indeed, an impressively vibrant country full of hard-working, strong, determined, prideful people who have a wonderfully rich past and an incredibly bright future.

Hodge Podge: Hanbok and Korean Baseball

Saturday 17 July 2010 and Sunday 18 July 2010
(yes, this is a little late, but better late than never!)

Day 11 - Exploring Cultural Traditions

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Saturday began with the promise of our first free day since our intense pace had began and we all pushed through Saturday with the knowledge that Sunday was ours. We started our day with lectures at Korea University. The first was an insightful lecture on US-Korean relations that even involved a Forrest Gump reference and the second was an interesting lecture on Korea’s economics that was full of lots of facts and figures that kept you thinking.

After our lectures, we enjoyed lunch in Insadong, which is quickly becoming my favorite shopping area. It stands out from other markets because many of the goods are higher quality and are classic Korean souvenirs/gifts with an artistic slant on them. After lunch, we headed to a place called the Yoo’s Family House and learned about some different aspects of Korean culture – but it was essentially a playing-Korean-house session. We did a tea ceremony and took turns pouring for each other, we made prints from wood blocks, and then we played dress-up.

Dressing up in hanbok, traditional Korean attire, was everyone’s favorite. Imagine thirty-four adult men and women dressing in bright, colorful clothing, with thirty-four cameras being passed back and forth. It was a little nuts, but a lot of fun. My friend Leeanne and I were given bridal gowns to wear, so we had extra fancy costumes! One of my other friends, Mark, ended up in a ridiculously ornate red and gold guilded outfit that would have been one of royalty (and he was loving it!). We all had a lot of fun, took way too many pictures, and laughed at how ridiculous we all looked.

Day 12 - Korean Baseball = Awesome!

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And then we were free for Saturday night and all day Sunday! Hoorah! I am going to admit that I crashed really hard on Sunday (please bear in mind that I’ve been going non-stop since June 21). I slept in, enjoyed a leisurely morning and afternoon, and then headed to the Korean Ballgame. I had high hopes of doing so many other things, but I could feel myself recharging as I took it easy and decided it was more important to survive the remainder of the trip.

About two thirds of us attended the Korean Baseball game, and it was another event that was one of the highlights of my trip. I am not a huge baseball fan, but the experience itself was awesome! From the second we stepped off the subway we were transported into Korean-baseball-mania. Our senses were assaulted by the fragrances of dried squid and other dried fish as we reached the top of the stairs and found ourselves on street level. We were soon weaving between stands selling various forms of seafood, beer, water, and souvenirs for the game.

Click on the links below to view videos I took from the stands:
The "Mary had a Little Lamb" cheer

Some glimpses of baseball mania

The fans were hard core and were engaged in elaborate, coordinated cheers through the entire game. To enhance their noise level, the majority of the fans used thundersticks (which I quickly bought to join in the fun). The cheers were led on each side (the Giants side and the Bears side) by four dancing cheerleaders and one male who would take turns standing on a stage and leading the crowd. There were also mascots circulating through the crowd (I was on the Doosan Bear’s side) that were not your normal mascots. I watched one of the mascots pull a thunderstick out of a spectator’s hand and hit them over the head with it. When the mascot came up to the top deck, where we were all hanging out, he was very physical and friendly with the people who tried to pose for pictures with him. One of the chants that the crowd was most into was one to the tune of “Mary had a Little Lamb” and many of the other cheers involved clapping out creative rhythms with the thundersticks. The game was a LOT of fun and to make things even better, the Bears (whose side we were sitting on) won the game!

Visiting Panmunjom and the DMZ!!!

Day 10 - the DMZ and Panmunjom (Joint Security Area)

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Friday 16 July 2010

Today was intense.

Most of us woke up feeling a little edgy this morning. People visit the DMZ nearly every day without incident. But that doesn’t mean it is safe. We were about to go to one of the most tense military locations on the planet! We were all excited, but a little on edge.

I have tried to make sure this is as accurate as possible, but I do apologize if I have made a mistake.

Once we reached Imjingak village and we looked over tall barbed wire fences into an expanse of green…we knew we were about to head into the thick of it. We were allowed to take plenty of pictures here, but soon all of the rules were going into effect. To visit the DMZ you have to pre-register with South Korea’s government (with your passport) and there’s only a few agencies to work arrange your visit through. I may be wrong, but it’s my understanding that Koreans living in the Republic of Korea (South) can only get as far as Imjingak, the northernmost town.

We had ten or fifteen minutes in the village and then headed onto the first checkpoint where they looked at the zoom on our cameras and checked our passports. Then the rules that had been shared with us started to go into effect as we headed to Panjunmon, also called the “JSA” or Joint Security Area, which is the area monitored jointly by the United States, the United Nations, and the Republic of Korea. We pulled up to the JSA and were briefed in a building at Camp Bonifas, which is named after Captain Bonifas, who was killed by North Koreans during the Axe Murder incident. Captain Bonifas and a group of men were chopping down a tree that was obstructing their view of the bridge that led to North Korea. The North Koreans came across the bridge, overwhelmed the men, and murdered Captain Bonifas. The motto of the JSA is “In Front of Them All” (meaning, they’re the first line of defense for the people living in the Southern half of Korea).

So we entered Camp Bonifas and received our briefing. These are some of the rules we had to abide (some of these were disclosed before we left, some later):

1. You must wear long pants (no jeans), a collared shirt, and closed toe shoes.
2. For the shoes it’s recommended you wear ones you can run in.
3. No gum or drinking any liquids
4. Once past the checkpoint, no standing up on the bus
5. Do not put your hands in your pocket
6. Do not wave or point at anything or anyone
7. No photographs, unless told otherwise
8. Go only where the guide allows you to go – most of the green fields contain live mines
9. Do not speak/shout to anyone (meaning N Korean soldiers, or anyone on the other side)
10. If you consumed any alcohol prior to visiting the DMZ area, you cannot participate
11. No video recorders
12. Do not touch anything in the conference room
13. You must walk in two single file lines
14. You can carry nothing but your camera with you, no case, no purse, nothing that could hold weapons and make you seem suspicious to the North Koreans – meaning you had to find a place to put your passport and money…I used my money belt.
15. You must sign the Visitor Declaration form that recognizes “the visit to the Joint Security Area at Panmunjom will entail into a hostile area and possibility of injury or death as a direct result of enemy action.”

Wow. To top it off, in one of our previous lectures we talked about North and South relations and were reminded of the recent Cheonan incident, the two women who were hiking and were arrested, and the S Korean tourist who was shot to death by N Korean military on a beach.

It’s tricky to explain all of the details of what happened after the briefing – it all happened pretty quickly, tensions were high, adrenaline was pumping a little, and so it’s kinda tricky to recount, but here’s the highlights:

We exited the JSA briefing area with our new UNCMAC Guest badge…that had the UN logo on it!!, and boarded a bus…only it wasn’t our bus, it was a military bus that was driven by a soldier. We now had an assigned guard standing at the front of the bus that was from the Republic of Korea. We were told to do everything he said. (The ROK guys have to be bigger than the average soldier, are chosen based on their appearance, their ability to fluently read and write in English and Korean, military performance, and must have a black belt in a martial art).

We drove for a while…suddenly the South Korean flag was waving on a pole as we caught a glimpse of the South Korean village of Taesong-dong (the South Korean village of people who didn’t want to relocate when the Military Demarcation Line was drawn). As we drove on the road there were two big blue poles that we drove between and we were told we were officially in the de-militarized zone – which they reminded us is ironically very militarized. Then, off in the distance we caught a glimpse of the red North Korean flag waving over Propaganda Village – wow! Fun fact? North Korea erected a flag pole in their propaganda village, the South Korean village put a boastingly tall flag pole (around 100 m) up, and to best them North Korea constructed the world’s tallest flag pole at 160 m in height.

We pulled up to the Freedom House and were ushered out of the bus and into two single file lines where we were march up and down some stairs and suddenly found ourselves outside again, this time facing conference row with the North Korean building mirroring on the other side. Wow!

I only saw soldiers on our side, but they looked fierce. We entered the conference room and they shut the door. We had two soldiers in there with us, one stood in the center of the room the other with his back to the door North Korean soldiers would enter. We were told touch nothing, do not go past the edge of this table, and we had a few seconds to take pictures – go! In succession there were 30-40 cameras powering up, lens caps popping off, and clicking commencing. I was technically past the Military Demarcation Line that ran through the center of the building and was standing in North Korea!

I managed to get a few pictures – I even dared to step near the edge of the table and our tour guide took our picture. And before I knew it “No more photos!” was shouted, and out of the corner of my eye I saw three North Korean soldiers goosestepping towards our building – I think I audibly gasped, felt my heart skip a few beats, and had a personal yikes moment. It was all real. I was suddenly incredibly aware that I was standing at one of the greatest military hotspots in the world. W were rushed out of the room with no explanation and lined up on the steps of the Freedom House, facing North Korea.

Suddenly, there were several North Korean soldiers between the MDL (the line) and their building and a flock of tourists came out onto the steps and started snapping many pictures of us. …Maybe that’s why we were supposed to dress nicely (long pants, no jeans, and a collared shirt generally spells out business attire). Hmm. Our guide suddenly said we could take photos and again we all started clicking away. “No photos” was commanded again and we were quickly led back through the building onto our bus. We drove around the building, and when we were driving by conference row we were again given photo permission…but it was taken away in seconds.

We had another “photos” and “no photos” moment when we pulled up to the Bridge of No Return that links N and S Korea, and is also the site of the Axe Murder Incident. As we drove through the demilitarized zone there was a beautiful flock of white birds (the DMZ is essentially a no man’s land and has become a haven for bird life since it is all undisturbed territory) and our guide again let us take pictures as the bus idled, but we had to be given permission to stand. “No photos.” We again drove within sight of the propaganda village with the gigantic red flag waving overhead. But, no photos. (I have since researched this, because I had a friend who went to the DMZ and had photos of the village. Typically when at the Freedom Building tourists are allowed to climb up a pagoda that has an observation deck and take pictures from above. We were not given this opportunity. I think it’s because of the sinking of the Cheonan a few months ago, but I have not confirmed this yet.) The tourists on the North Korean side went up to an upper level of their building and took pictures...they don't exactly have to worry about a US or ROK soldier arbitrarily shooting them.

We whizzed through the rest of the demilitarized zone, crossed a very creepy as-far-as-the-eye-can-see stretch of fencing and barbed wire, and soon found ourselves driving past the blue poles again. We pulled up to the JSA area and piled into the gift shop where we made a mad run on all of the goodies. I am very proud to say I am now the owner of a piece of the DMZ (I have barbed wire) and a few other cool things that will make my history classes even cooler. :)

They had switched out our buses while we were in the gift shop (they were very ninja with the bus switching) and we were headed back to safer areas. As exciting as it was we all breathed a sigh of relief as we passed the last barbed wire checkpoint and were allowed to take pictures again. Whew.

We had a great lunch – another meal where we got to cook our own beef on a table grill and had a free mid-afternoon in Seoul. I took a nap and accidentally ended up in a coma in which an alarm clock, two calls from the friend I was supposed to meet, and another friend banging on my door could not rouse me. Yikes. …I guess traveling since the night of June 20th is catching up with me. I'm sure the adrenaline rush didn't help either (although, I am relieved to say, this rush was not nearly as severe as the adrenaline rush I had during the bomb scare in the Israeli airport)

Today was an awesome one – I was always jealous of people who went to Berlin before the wall fell. Hopefully things will improve between North and South Korea and I will witness the reunification in my lifetime.

Historical Sites around Gyeongju, Bulguksa Temple, and Hyundai Heavy Industries

Day 8 - Historical Sites around Gyeongju and Bulguksa Temple

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Day 8: Wednesday 14 July 2010

Today will be a shorter entry. We visited many sites all around Gyeongju today, but they will be best described in the album. I am guilty of caving and going to pizza hut for lunch. I have eaten many traditional Korean meals in the past few days and needed something that tasted the way I expected to…and will confess…it tasted fantastic. We spent the afternoon at the Gyeongju Museum viewing many beautiful artifacts that were excavated from a few of the Silla tombs in the area. We also visited the Seokguram Grotto, which is the last official stop on the Silk Road! It is a cave carved into the side of the Gaya Mountains that houses a beautiful statue of Buddha, looking out over the valleys and at the Sea of Japan (which we could see from the hill!).

Because of the danger of being looted and pillaged along the Silk Road, “hotels” were set up along the mountain that were caves carved out of the sandstone. They were up on ledges and could only be reached by ladder. The idea is that you would carry all of the goods you were selling up to your room and then pull up your ladder so that no one could reach you or steal your goods. And thus, they carved out a cave and placed a Buddha inside to protect those on the Silk Route. Really cool!
From there we went to another UNESCO world heritage site that was absolutely beautiful – the Bulguksa Temple. We were even able to stick around and watch the monks sound the bell! I have a great video to share with my students when I get back!

And then, we enjoyed a yummy, yummy dinner of kalbi, or Korean BBQ in which we sat at tables of four with a grill in the middle of our table and grilled our own ribs (like the meal the Parks had shared with me). It was a great end to our evening and we all sat outside enjoying the weather, grilling out, laughing, and recounting our favorite experiences from the past few days.

Day 9 - Hyundai and Seoul

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Day 9: Thursday 15 July 2010

Today’s entry will be a quick one, so I’m combining these too. We were around Gyeongju and the surrounding area until about one o’clock today as we visited one last Silla tomb, Hyundai heavy industries, a seafood buffet, and a loooong 4-5 hour bus ride back to Seoul. Hyundai heavy industries was pretty cool. They make so much more than cars! The corporation was founded by a guy named Asan who built an incredible empire. Along with cars, Hyundai also constructs many different large freight and tanker ships, submarines, construction equipment, engines, industrial robots, power plants (electrical, nuclear, wind, and solar), offshore oil rigs, oil and gas plants, process equipments… you name it, they make it! We got to take a bus tour of the shipyard and dry docks and were blown away at the magnitude of the ships – holy cow! We also learned that the benefits for the employees are extremely good – education is free for everyone’s children and they have 18,000 apartments available to be rented by their employees.

Our tour guide (not our Hyundai guide, but the one who has been with us on the bus for many days), explained to us that in Korea everyone wants to graduate and work for the large corporations because the pay is much higher than smaller businesses, the benefits are much better, and it is the iconic job to have. She said the average Korean makes $2,300 a month, but the average Hyundai employee who has been working as a constructor for ten years makes $5,000 a month. Big difference. She says there is a major need for people in the smaller industries because everyone desires to work for the large companies (Hyundai, Samsung, LG, etc) that it’s all or nothing – some people continue on the graduate school rather than work for a small company.

We are supposed to have a free evening when we arrive in Seoul tonight and I think we’re all looking forward to a few hours of shopping and leisure time – it’s been a crazy schedule during the field trip, but an absolutely amazing one.

Tomorrow….we are going to the DMZ! I am 98% excited and about 2% apprehensive…but I think the apprehensive part of me is the part that will keep me grounded in reality and will keep my wits about me tomorrow. I’m so excited about it, but cognizant that this is not the place to mess around or bend rules. I will take pictures wherever I can, but can genuinely guarantee that there will not contraband pictures.

Learning the Confucian way at Oksan Seowon and Yangdong Village

Day 7: Oksan Seowon and Yangdong

Day 7: Oksan Seowon and Yangdong Village

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Today was one of my favorite days of the trip. We did two things that I can genuinely say I would have never had the opportunity to do on my own. We began our day by visiting a Confucian Shrine-Academy called “Oksan Seowon.” To reach Oksan Seowon we had to enter the woods and step down a beautiful trail that led us over a stream to the walled-in academy in the mountains. We walked through the academy and all sat down on a large open porch to listen to Dr. Peterson’s lecture. (this means that we removed our shoes, stepped up onto the wooden porch with socks, and sat on the floor in whichever way was most comfortable). The main focus of this lecture was Korean education – we were in an academy after all. We talked about the exam system that existed in Korea for centuries and the tests that people would take to become civil servants, leaders in the military, or technical positions (lawyers, doctors, accountants, scientists, and translators). There were three levels of exams in the civil service category (which was the most difficult and seen with the greatest regard) that were at the provincial, national, and palace level. For the national civil service exam, it was only offered every 3 years (although over time, that rule was bent and it was offered more frequently) and only 33 people pass the exam every time. I hadn’t realized it was that difficult an exam! Wow!

After about an hour and a half we left the beautifully peaceful academy and headed to lunch in Yangdong Village. The village was wonderful. The village is maintaining the exterior of its facilities as it was during the Choson dynasty. The houses were all nestled in among the hills and were all tucked away down one garden path after the other. The homes had gates that led into the courtyards of beautiful thatched houses. It was just precious.

We started out with a lunch in which we sat on the floor at low tables and enjoyed a meal of rice and many of the classic dishes. From there Dr. Peterson took us on a tour of the village and led us up and down many earthen pathways and described his connection to the village. Dr. Peterson has a long running relationship in Yangdong and has been there many times, both on his own and with students. He actually brought a group of BYU students to the village to stay for six weeks. The village agreed to allow him to stay with 15-20 students in a house in the village and because they were students refused to allow them to pay any rent. On a different occasion a couple invited Dr. Peterson, his family, and sixteen students to live with them and cooked them meals for over a month…again for free. The generosity of the Korean people astounds me. He explained that they worked in the village and taught English to the village children to return the favor. But still…how amazing! The simplicity of the village, the peacefulness of the sleepy mountains all around them, and the closeness with nature was just wonderful.

After visiting many significant spots around the village we had the distinct honor of meeting with the village elder who was the 17th elder in his family. Wow. We were invited to sit on his large meeting porch (again with socks, communally of the floor all at the same level), as his wife offered us cold plum tea, watermelon slices, and homemade rice cakes. The village is very Confucian. As elder he is the leader of the people and has a duty to respect and take care of them, as they are very loyal and respectful to him as well. He openly admitted that it was a little awkward to sit in the meeting hall with all of us, because women from the village do not meet on the porch with men.

We sat mystified as Dr. Peterson translated back and forth between us. We learned that his grandfather had protested the Japanese occupation by not cutting his ponytail after the top-knot decree and refused to enter the Japanese education system. He also explained some of the finer details of some of the five Confucian relationships, discussing especially the relationship between parent and child. He outwardly claimed Confucianism is a living/practiced belief system, not a religion. And he said “democracy is not the best thing for Korea, but it is probably better than anything else.” It was all fascinating! At the end of our meeting he said he was going to go to dinner with us but we had to promise not to ask him any more questions, he explained that he finds speaking as the sole representative of his village is a very heavy burden because he feels great responsibility as the only one explaining the perspectives and beliefs of his people. Wow. I can guarantee you that we left him alone.

We enjoyed a really unique dinner at a lotus restaurant that creatively served all parts of the lotus plant and flower within the meal. The breaded seed pods that were lightly fried and then cooked in yellow curry were my favorite. It was really great food. I had had a few iffy meals at lunch and at dinner the previous night, so I was very hungry and ate unabashedly. And yes, after sitting on the floor for an hour and a half at the academy, about an hour for lunch, another hour for a lecture in the village on Korean literature, and an hour or two with the village elder, we ate dinner at the lotus restaurant on the floor. My age gave me away, because I was feeling pretty decent and everyone else was miserable. We ended the dinner with a great performance of a traditional pansoori song from one of the elder’s sons as he boldly stood in front of forty of us and sang. We boarded the bus and drove away waving vigorously add the elder and his family as they stood in modern clothing, grinning, and waving right back. It was a perfect way to end an amazing day.

A Day Delay....(Mrs. Hals needs some sleep!)

Yesterday was one of my favorite days of the entire trip...so I have LOTS of pictures and lots of information to share! Today was another busy day that involved quite a few interesting stops. I am exhausted. And thus, I am officially behind.

I will post as much as I can very soon. Things to look forward to? I will tell you of my visit to a Confucian Academy in the mountains, a visit to a beautiful village that still exists as it did during the Choson dynasty, and a conversation our group had with a 17th generation village elder on his five hundred year old porch! Sounds amazing? It was!

We are spending the morning at Hyundai tomorrow, but I have four or five hours on the bus in the afternoon to nap, listen to Dr. Peterson's lectures, and work on catching up on the blog, and I fully intend on doing so!

More very soon! :)

Haeinsa, Tripitaka Koreana, and the Silla Tombs

Day 6: Monday 12 July 2010

Day 6 - Haeinsa and Silla Tombs

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If anyone has questions, please don't hesitate to ask me! I would be more than happy to work on getting an answer for you - and comments are always appreciated!

We checked out of our beautiful hotel and headed on for Haeinsa. I was especially excited about this excursion – and it did not disappoint!

Generally you have to hike up the hill as part of the process of readying yourself to enter the Buddhist Temple. Here two there are gates that protect you as you pass through them. Technically, walking up the entire mountain would be a multi-day journey, again to prepare you for your arrival on sacred grounds. Due to time constraints we actually drove up most of it, which was a little disappointing, but by doing so we witnessed the sounding of the bell that called everyone to prayer. The sounding of the fish calls all of the creatures of the seas, the cloud calls all the birds and heavens, the drum calls all the animals on earth, and the ringing of the bell temporarily relieves those in hell from anguish and calls the people to prayer.

We made it into the Haeinsa Temple complex with enough time to hear the bell sounding and then witness the prayer service. We watched the beauty of the service as one of the monks voices lilted through the courtyard that overlooked rolling green Gaya mountain range that peaked out from misty clouds. The interior of the main temple was very beautiful, but again, taking pictures would have been offensive.

We were soon led to lunch and briefed on the “rules” about how to eat among the Buddhist monks. There were two rules. One, no talking. Two, everything on your plate must be eaten. So, we approached the buffet style line (that contained a few modest dishes) and carefully placed food on our plates that we knew we would have to finish ourselves. We ate quietly, contemplatively, and reflectively. It was actually quite nice and made you reflect on how much food you truly needed. Some of us were more concerned about being able to finish all of our food than others, but we all made it!

After lunch, we visited the Tripitaka Koreana, which was something I was very excited to see! This is a collection of woodblocks that the Buddhist monks carved to create a comprehensive collection of the Buddhist documents on 81, 258 wooden blocks. The Mongols invaded in the 1200’s and burned the collection to the ground, but the monks persevered and recarved the blocks in 16 years. Thus we stood outside one of the most comprehensive collections of Buddhist documents, admiring the 700+ year old works. Pretty awesome.

We enjoyed the nice long walk down the mountain as we wound through the peaceful forest path that ran along side a beautiful babbling brook. Our next stops were sights that were of historical relevance to the beginnings of the Silla Dynasty, which historians claim lasted from 57 BCE – 918 CE. It was originally one of four dominant kingdoms, but later unified the peninsula in 668 CE under its authority. Our first site was the site of an old well that was claimed to be the place where the Bak Hyeokgoese, the first Silla King, was discovered. We also visited Orung which means “five tombs” and houses most of the first five Silla Kings. Last, we went to another well site where Alyonyjong, the woman who became the first king’s wife, was supposedly found.

Dinner was a classic Korean table dinner where we sat on the floor and ate a meal from the many different dishes on the table which ranged from potatoes, mushrooms, kim chi, shark, and whole fish that stared you in the eye. My pictures don’t truly do justice to the beautiful sights of the Gaya Mountains that I soaked in as a stood at the steps of the Haeinsa temple, but hopefully you will enjoy them just the same. It was a wonderful day - I could spend hours standing at the steps of the temple soaking in the beauty of the Gaya mountains as they slip in and out of fog.

Field Trip! King Sejong's Tomb and Cheongju

Day 5: Sunday 11 July 2010

Day 5: King Sejong's Tomb and the Cheongju Printing Museum

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Our field trip starts today! We are taking a five day field trip to explore some of the historical sites around the rest of the Southern peninsula. Today we started out with a two-ish hour drive to see King Sejong’s Royal Tomb. When we got there Dr. Peterson explained that when entering tombs or other holy sites there are three paths. The central path is usually raised, or more ornate, and is designated for the spirits. Thus, as a humble person you enter on the right and walk the path on the right side to enter and then walk the path on the left side when you exit. You also pass through several gates on the way that guard against. As you pass through the gates, you are preparing yourself to be on sacred ground.

When we reached the tomb, there were stone statues of men, rams, and tigers all guarding the tomb, as well as a stone altar to offer the spirit food. King Sejong was the leader of the Choson dynasty who created the hangul alphabet for the common man. Before this point Koreans used Chinese characters, but the amount of time needed to thoroughly learn all of them meant that only scholars and elite were literate. King Sejong wanted to created a way of communicating that would be open to all. He also greatly encouraged scientific research and development and there are many useful inventions from this time that were either created by King Sejon himself or were constructed with the help of his patronage.

After we left the tomb, we headed to a different city for lunch which was a very traditional dish, chicken ginseng soup. Each of us received a bowl full of still boiling liquid with a small baby chicken that had been stuffed with rice, dates, chestnuts, and ginseng, and then boiled for hours. It was delicious. We had a few spare minutes after lunch and walked through some really neat shops and markets.

Then we headed to the Cheongju Printing Museum where the world’s first moveable type printing press was created in 1377, seventy-eight years prior to Gutenberg. We learned how the monks made the character stamps with beeswax, clay slurry, and bronze. The only Cheongju printing press left is currently in France. It’s a point of contention, but the French claim they bought it and have the receipt.

After exploring the process and the museum, we were led to the “experience room” to make our own books. Which sounds like fun, right? It wasn’t. It was neat to take paper and get an ink rubbing from a woodprint and it was fun to decorate our covers by rubbing them on woodboards with wax…but…there was a very specific way they wanted us to do everything. This was not an open, friendly crafts project. If we messed up they took the book/material out of our hand, impatiently did it for us, and handed it right back. If it wasn’t perfect it was not okay. And we soon found ourselves trapped, trying to perfectly compile our book so that we could get out of there. We made paper too – but I messed up a tiny bit when I did it myself and the woman scraped my work off, threw it back in the water and then did it for me…but made me “help” as she did everything for me. I was bummed because I thought it sounded like a lot of fun, but was really not.

Once we were done the bus took us to our hotel and we actually had tome time to crash – I took a thirty minute nap!! We enjoyed a great buffet dinner and were free. I walked around town with some other teachers – and called it a night! Another great day!

Korea's National Museum and Miso

Day 4: Saturday 10 July 2010

Day 4: Nat'l Museum and Miso

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We started off our day with two lectures at Korea University. The first was about the demography of Korea. The country has urbanized quickly. 80% of Korea’s population was once living in the countryside, in a matter of decades, 80% of Korea’s population now lives in the cities. Thus, apartments are a sign of success and wealth as opposed to a rural house. There are some interesting trends in Korea, such as the dip in the fertility rate in Korea. As of 2005, the fertility rate dropped to 1.08, the lowest rate in the world (except for HongKong and Taiwan). There was a decrease from 6.2 to 1.08 from 1960 to 2005. Why? Because the emphasis on education and attending university has heightened and been applied to women as well, so women are waiting longer to have children and are having less children. There’s less space for children in apartments and the amount of money Korean families pour into education and extra classes for their students is astronomical, so less is more.

There is also a traditional preference for boys that has not left society yet. The preference of boys was further enabled and caused further gender imbalance by the ability to determine gender with ultrasound. This causes a surplus of men who want wives, but girls want to marry city boys, where life is easier, not marry farmers. To find enough females to marry the men, Korea is going to have to open to international marriages; nearly 50% in the countryside are international marriages; in the urban environment around 11%; 25% of marriages in the country are international marriages. For the farmers, many are using agencies to find girls in Thailand or the Philippines to bring to Korea and marry.

We also had a lecture on Modern Korea that was given by a very dynamic professor who had a lot of inside stories. After that was ate a quick lunch and were headed to the National Museum of Korea where we were briefed by the museum director himself. We learned about the history of the museum and how the artifacts were collected. Then we were provided with a tour of the museum and were able to see the famous Silla crown, several beautiful Buddha statues, and many other beautiful statues, pots, etc.

We ate a delicious dinner in the museum. It was a very traditional Korean dish in which you have several different vegetables in a large bowl, you add in rice, the other dishes on your tray, and red chili paste. You mix them all together and yummy!

We spent an hour wandering around a little section of Seoul before the show started and ran into a fish restaurant alley. One shop after the other offered different types of fish. Almost all the shops had fish aquariums in the window to advertise. Puffer fishes, eels, you name it.

The theatre production, Miso, was very good! A young girl falls in love with a boy who is called up to the military. While he’s away a local magistrate is infatuated with the young girl and asks her to be with him. She turns him down and he locks her in prison. Her true love comes and breaks her out of jail and they have a beautiful wedding. There wasn’t any talking, but lots of music, a singing narrator, and lots of dancing. My favorite scenes? There is an awesome drum song where a very involved rhythm created with 10 or 15 people drumming at different tempos to create a really cool song. My other favorite scene would be the man tassels – there were four guys who wore hats with tassels that had a six foot white ribbon attached that by gently nodding their head would swirl around like the ribbons in rhythmic gymnastics. …They even did them in a coordinated way all in time together. It was pretty cool. The costumes were all traditional Korean clothes that were very bright and colorful. At the end of the show, the actors and actresses all climbed up the stairs of the theatre and led everyone out to the courtyard where they did another dance and then posed with us to give us a chance to take pictures with the performers.

We are all in the midst of packing because we head on our field trip tomorrow! Everything is awesome so far! :)

Korea University Seminars, Teaching at Daeil High School, and a Home Visit!

Day 3: Friday, 9 July 2010

Day 3: Korea University and Daeil High School!

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We met very early this morning to head to Korea University and were really quite a comical site. We are all dressed professionally for our university seminars and also for our guest teaching sessions this afternoon. But, we are also all hauling all of our presents, trinkets, teaching materials, etc in various travel bags for our epically long day. We also have gift bags/wrapped presents that we are carrying for the family that will be hosting us tonight.

Korea University is beautiful! Really, absolutely beautiful. The campus reminds me of Duke if the stones were a different color. Korea University is one of the “SKY” universities. These are the three dream universities for Korean students; SNU is the best. (Seoul National University). The two rival contenders after that are KU and YU; Korea University and Yonsei University (So S-K-Y…get it?). Annually 870,000 students apply to these three schools, 15,000 attend. To be accepted the most crucial element of your application is an extremely high pressure content based test that they say is most easily translated as “Korea SAT”. A university student told me today that each question you miss on the test could be the difference between getting into a really great school or a not so great school, and to miss five questions or more would be a disaster. Pressure is incredibly high.

For us, the honor of attending lectures at KU is amazing. We pulled up to the campus and our jaws dropped, it was beautiful. Then, we entered the International Studies Hall and were shown to our seminar room, and again, we were very impressed. The seminar room that we were assigned was a beautiful, formal conference room with long tables, individual mics, and executive chairs. We also were given a packet full of books, lecture notes, pens, a name tag, and a formal placard to identify us at our seat. We were then told that we would be the only people in the room over the next two weeks, so our work area is our own. Very awesome!

We had a lecture with a very dynamic, expressive professor named Mikyung Chang that was entitled “Easy Korean.” I regret to inform you that Korean is not easy. …Not at all. There are 28 characters, but it is based on sounds. …Only you combine the characters to combine sounds. Consonants can’t be alone. You can combine up to three different characters and then have to throw the phonetic sounds together. …It’s very difficult. My name basically has to be Beh-tuh Hallsah…or something like that. You can check the picture for what it actually looks like. I had to get some help. Luckily she ended the lecture with lessons on how to say some basic, essential phrases. I still have a fear of butchering them, but I am going to continue to try to get it right!

Our next lecture was on North-South Korean relations. There were a few nuggets I found especially intriguing. According to Dr. Seongwhun, North Koreans make about 50 dollars a month and 40,000 people are working to provide for 200,000 people. The total population of North Korea is unknown. The South Korean government actually provides assistance for infants and children in North Korea in terms of milk/formula and medical support (like anti-malarial medication, vaccinations, etc). Industrial workers receive basic living goods as payment; rice coupons, clothes coupon, etc. and one of the benefits of being an industrial worker is that in some of the factories you have a better chance of getting a regular warm, regular shower (at work after their shift). North Korea does not have air conditioning in the summer or heat in the winter. These were just a few things, but were some that I thought you might find especially interesting. We also discussed possibilities of unification, which the professor said he believes is feasible in time, especially because he believes North Koreans are becoming more globally aware, which makes them more aware of the disparity between the quality of life in North and South Korea and more likely to demand change.

When we pulled up to the school and there was a full out banner welcoming us as honored guests at Daeil Foreign Language High School and my stomach sunk just a little bit as I had the thought, what have I gotten myself into? The nerves started kicking in. We took the elevator and were greeted by students holding signs to individually greet all 35 of us! How awesome! Then, we were told that these were the students were from the classes we would be momentarily teaching and that this was also the student who would be taking us to their homes!

Our classroom experience went very well. We were very warmly greeted by a group of energetic students and dove in! I had two MCC foam bees that went to the two students who won the map challenge we posed. That broke the ice. After that we put them in groups and my partner and I gave out our gifts. Greg had brightly colored bracelets with a note and a pin (like the one Obama wears) and I passed out the postcards my students brought in this spring. The postcards each had messages on them from my students. The Korea students were very excited! The postcards were a huge hit and I used them as a conversation piece for a while, as I shared different things about Florida and got them to speak up and participate. I asked them if anyone had special locations on their postcards and used that to cue my transition to the Kennedy Space Center. I polled the students on what they knew about NASA, shared some fun facts with them, and talked about what kinds of food astronauts eat and then I got to share my freeze-dried ice cream with them – they loved it! The kids were very excited and enthusiastic. My partner Greg then dove in and did a quick lesson on Einstein and his quest as a historian to discover whether Einstein had lived in Greg’s home in NJ or not. (He did!)

The class period was over before we knew it and soon we found ourselves heading to a gift giving ceremony and then met with a teacher from the high school and had the opportunity to pepper him with questions. When we asked about discipline, while he said it is not normally an issue, he informed us that they use corporal punishment. He also explained that to become a teacher you have to pass a government exam to be a public teacher.

After that we met up with our students and they took us home. Taeyeon was very shy at first, but opened up quickly. She showed me her room and pictures and continually asked me questions – especially about my travels. Her mom was very very sweet and her dad worked for Samsung and was very gracious as well. They lived in a Samsung apartment with a beautiful view of the Han River. Dinner was excellent - beef, romaine leaves, hot noodles, kim (seaweed) which you would wrap with rice, and other delicious dishes. I was so flattered that they had gone through so much trouble! They even had a gift for me, a beautiful Korean mirror set. The mirror is supposed to reflect hope of a beautiful life, or something along those lines, I think some of the meaning was lost in translation. I gave them a Wynton Marsalis CD, a favorite of mine and my husband – I really hope they like it!

To end the evening, we went for a walk along the Han River in a beautiful public park. There were many families strolling through the park and young couples picnicking on blankets in the grass. It was a perfect end to the day as Taeyeon, her mother, and myself walked and talked about travel, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, marriage, the strength of Korean women, and many other things. They dropped me back at the hotel and many of us (teachers) gathered in the lobby to relax and share our experiences. We all had fantastic times! It really was an incredible experience – the Kims welcomed me so warmly. I was truly touched.

My beginning days as a Korea Society Summer Fellow

The past three days have been amazing and I can only imagine what is in store for the next thirteen! They went easy on us for the two days they considered jet-lag days, but we are now in the midst of an unrelenting schedule that has us booked from sun-up past sun-down. We have quite an adventure ahead of us! The Korea Foundation and Korea University have also rolled out the red carpet for us – we truly are receiving the royal treatment!


Day 1: Wednesday 7 July 2010

Day 1: The Korean War Memorial

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Tuesday morning, I woke up early, and checked out of the hotel. The Park family insisted on helping me navigate the city and make it to meet up with the teacher’s program. Before I knew it we were in the lobby and I was amongst a number of teachers who were all weary from a long trans-Pacific flight. We were mixed in with teachers from both group 1 and group 2 and headed over to the Korean War Memorial. They only had a limited number of seats on the bus, so group one and a few volunteers (myself included) took the subway. **I should note that spending a day with the Parks really gave me an edge…I had a subway pass already, I have seen many shopping areas, I have a lot of inside information about cultural practices from the conversations I’ve had with Jenny…it’s been helpful! : )

We arrived at the Korean War Memorial and were given about thirty minutes to walk around and check things out. I had enough time to walk the grounds and view many of the monuments and historical vehicles, but did not have enough time to explore the museum. As someone who is intrigued by modern history, I have put it on my to-do list and hope to return to the museum in my free time. The monuments were stunning. I am always interested in what symbolism has been incorporated into a monument. One of the statues was a large bronze statue of two brothers embracing each other. The brothers had fought on opposing sides and their faces are wrought with emotion. They are standing on top of a dome that is separated with very jagged edges to symbolize the current separation of the peninsula, but also the hope that they can become reunited at a later date.

There were many rows of military vehicles and weapons to check out including B-52 bombers, Korean fighter planes, US cargo planes, many different tanks and weapons, ships, and my favorite – the missiles. After running around in the sun trying to make every second count I was relieved to collapse in a chair in the auditorium for our first guest speaker. We were extremely fortunate to be graced with the presence of General Paik Sun Yup who was one of the generals leading the Republic of Korea’s military during the Korean War. Even as an elderly gentleman of ninety, he passionately described his version of the war. It is always extremely interesting to listen to different people’s interpretations of events, and this was no different. His lecture style was interesting and was different from the US story-based lecture style. It was such an incredible honor to hear his story!

The remainder of our day was spent getting lunch at a local department store food court. We were mesmerized by the extravagance and multitude of choices in the food court. Afterward, we were deemed free and were able to rest, explore, etc. We each crashed in our own way and prepared for our next adventure.

 
Day 2: Thursday, 8 July 2010

Day 2: The National Folk Museum

For day two, we headed to the National Folk Museum and were given time to explore the grounds and museum on our own. After having read a detailed book on Korean life and culture, I really enjoyed the life and culture section of the museum that confirmed the different facts I had read and gave me the opportunity to see pictures or artifacts from the rituals and ceremonies I had read about. I was really drawn to the beauty of the Korean craftwork.

After this, we headed to Insadong, a local shopping area, for lunch and shopping. We really enjoyed our wanderings – this shopping area has a little more artsy feel and many of the goods were more customized and tailored. We grabbed a cab with enough time to clean up and prepare for our orientation dinner. At the dinner, we were briefed on the mission of the Korea Foundation, the sponsor of our program and served a beautiful dinner. Again, we were flattered and felt very warmly welcomed!
And then we received our schedule for day three…and braced ourselves.

Exploring Seoul with the Park Family!

My day in Seoul with the Park family!

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First of all, I don’t think I will ever be able to express my gratitude to the Parks for their kindness, generosity, openness, warmth, and hospitality! They made me feel incredibly welcome in the city of Seoul and were wonderful hosts to me! After I said farewell to my husband in the Guam airport, I had to clear Guam customs, and re-check in for my alternative itinerary. I then boarded a plane for Nagoya, Japan and braved a Japanese airport for a while (which was actually very clean, well labeled, and very pretty). From there I flew onto Seoul and was soon greeted by one of my MCC students (and one of my Model UNers), Jenny Park, Mrs. Park, and Jenny’s brother and sister.

In seconds I was transformed from being an English-speaking foreigner to being embraced as an honored guest by the Parks. They swept me up and made me feel incredibly welcome. Before I knew it, I had dropped my bags at my hotel and was at a beautiful dinner. The style of meal was called “kalbi” and consisted of a variety of delicious side dishes that you eat with grilled meat. Only…the meat is grilled at your table on a little mini grill in the center of your table. …So, think fondue, but with a grill instead. The waitress continually lays more beef or pork out and then cuts it into strips. You then eat the piece of beef with other side dishes, like sautéed peppers, raw onion strips, or greens in a sesame pepper sauce. You can also take the meat and wrap it in a piece of romaine. It’s delicious! (And!...Mrs. Hals managed to eat it all with chopsticks! My chopsticking ability was even praised by the Park family, although I have suspicions that they were just being kind). Mr. Park joined us for dinner as well and I was able to debate the strengths and weaknesses of the US law system with him – very intriguing!

After dinner we enjoyed some very delicious, light, refreshing desserts at a coffee shop. Jenny and I split a big bowl of shaved ice topped with raspberry syrup and fresh fruit. It was yummy and is a new favorite dessert of mine.

The next morning, Jenny, her brother, and her mom, met me at the hotel and took me sightseeing. They ran me ragged, but we had a fantastic day! I can’t possibly describe every second of it, but I’d like to share a few highlights with you:

One of our first stops of the day was Bongeunsa, a Buddhist temple in the heart of the city. It was my first Buddhist temple and was absolutely beautiful. Jenny’s mom told me lots of little details and patiently answered the multitude of questions I had as Jenny translated for the two of us. The interior of the temple was beautiful (I don’t have a picture, because it would have been rude), but the ceiling was lined with prayers, hanging from flowers, that people had paid money to have placed there. The right wall was lined with little golden Buddha statues that Jenny’s mother explained people had purchased and on the left wall were two big fancy ships that had boards with smaller papers added to them. I was told these were spots purchased by families to ensure their deceased family member had a seat on the boat that provided safe passage to the Buddhist version of heaven. There were many opportunities throughout the grounds to purchase prayers that would hang in various ways throughout the complex (check out the pictures). We walked the grounds and witnessed a monk’s funeral prayer going on in one of the temples, saw a very large Buddha statue, stopped by the pagoda that housed the large bell and drum that are sounded on festival days, and enjoyed the view of Seoul.

Shopping was quite an experience. As we traversed through the city, they showed me several different amazing shopping areas. First, Jenny shared Coex with me, which is her favorite place to meet her friends. Coex was a very cute mall with lots of fun stores (now I know where she gets her adorable pencil cases!) We visited several other shopping centers, some of which were malls, others were markets. The market was amazing. I’ve been to many foreign markets, but never to one like this. The quantity of goods available was absolutely astounding to me. And everything is clumped together by topic. So we walked through probably 100 or 200 stations selling jewelry. (I’m going back!) We walked by row after row of souvenirs, row after row of shoes, food, etc. It was really neat! We also went down to a grocery store (which was the basement level of a mall) and her mom showed me many different fish, fruits, vegetables, that were unique to Korea (or at least not normally found in the US). It was really interesting and gave me a great feel for the shopping opportunities in Seoul.

Jenny also showed me the Korean spin on a photo booth (you know, like the one in Melbourne Mall that you sit in, make funny face, get a little strip of pictures…), only this booth was very high-tech in my opinion. We had an interactive touch screen and a green screen behind us. We picked out our backgrounds. We then went to a different booth and used a touch screen to decorate our photos, add cute little digital stickers, crop, label, you name it. Very fun! (You can see our final product in the album above…let’s just say I laughed, a lot).

The last thing I did with Jenny and her mom was go to the top of the Seoul Tower. To get to the base of the tower you have to find a way to get up a very long, very steep hill. Because of the intensity of the traffic, Korean residents are expected to walk or take a public bus. If you are a foreigner, you can take a taxi or a cable car. So, the Parks were very excited to use me as an excuse and to be able to take a taxi to the top (I was more than happy to oblige). :) At the top of the hill, we waited for the sun to go down with the idea that it would be prettiest to see the entire city at night. So we enjoyed the view from the lookout, watched teenage couples attach locks to the railings and throw away the key (thus locking in their love), snacked on frozen yogurts and coffees, and had great conversations. The view from the top of the tower was beautiful and was a perfect end to a great day!

The Parks gave me a wonderful inside look into the city of Seoul! It really is an awesome city and I am very excited to have two more weeks here! I still cannot thank them enough for their amazing hospitality!

PS – I have resigned myself to accepting that I will probably continually be about 2 days behind on this blog. Internet has not been reliable (the past two hotel rooms I have had do not have working internet in the room…what are the odds?) I’m trying! And will keep posting! But just realize it probably happened two days ago. I met up with the teachers program on July 7th and have had two easy days as everyone else is jetlagging, but tomorrow is the big day! We are leaving for Korea University at 7:15 am and have a FULL day planned, several seminars with KU professors, lunch, a meeting at a local foreign language high school, my guest teaching session with the students, a meeting with the principal, and an afternoon and dinner with a student’s family! A full, full, full day! Wish me luck! : )

Palau -- Part III: Stingless Jellyfish?!?!

Jellyfish Lake

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Stingless Jellyfish? Yeah right! They exist, they are awesome, and you can swim with them!

Visiting Jellyfish Lake was one of the coolest things my husband and I have ever done. When Daniel was in Palau ten years ago El Nino had damaged the jellyfish population enough that he didn’t get to visit the lake.

Palau has many marine lakes. Five of them contain jellyfish whose stings are so mild they do not harm you. So yes, they are considered stingless jellyfish! Not only did we get to visit the lake that the 13 million-ish jellyfish live in…we swam in it!

Now, to protect the jellyfish populations and preserve Palau’s natural habitats, the government only allows people to swim in one of the five lakes. So it is definitely a tourist-frequented destination (and you have to buy a permit to snorkel there). But, since we were used to diving at 7 am, getting to Jellyfish Lake at 7:30 was no big deal – and we beat all the other tourists and had the entire lake to ourselves.

We had to hike up and down a hill of craggy, sharp, slippery limestone rocks while carrying our snorkel gear and waterproof cameras. We all geared up and slipped into the lake. The jellyfish are drawn to the sun, they follow it out of survival. In the shade/shadows is the edge of the lake, so my following the sun, they stay in the center. Why does that matter? Because along the edge of the lake there are white anemones that eat the jellyfish. Really cool, right?

So we started swimming, because we were in the shade there weren’t any jellies and I was wondering if we were going to be disappointed, but sure enough, as we swam into the center of the lake more and more jellyfish appeared.

Swimming with them was awesome…for divers jellyfish are usually our worst enemy – they inflict so much pain! Many divers wear skins specifically to protect themselves from the potential stings. And most divers have been stung many times (Daniel and I certainly have). Instead of fearing them, we got to marvel at their propulsion system as they puttered around the lake. These jellyfish are a beautiful golden color too, so they are really beautiful to look at. Now, at first you catch yourself delicately avoiding the jellyfish, afraid to let them touch you, but the further into the center of the lake, the more inevitable it becomes for you to come in contact with them. You could pet them and hold them in the palm of your hand (well, kind of, because they continue pulsating away).

It was really awesome. Just before we headed back Daniel and I discovered you could dive down in the shadows and rise up through the clouds of jellyfish – it was incredibly fun to do. We each took turns diving down with our fins and floating up through the pretty golden orbs that felt like jello.

The rest of the day was also a lot of fun. We careened in the skiff through the famously beautiful Rock Islands and then dove the Chandelier Caves. We dawned our scuba gear one last time and swam into a cave. But! This cave has air pockets! So we were able to swim into the cave and then resurface in caverns full of stalactites and beautiful rock formations. It was a fantastic last dive.

The next morning we disembarked from the boat and spent a portion of our day doing a river boat cruise and speaking with a local guide about the indigenous plants and animals on the island. Unlike Yap, Palau has saltwater crocodiles and some of the islands have monkeys. They have a few different non-poisonous snakes. It was really neat to learn about the different island creatures that exist between Yap and Palau. The islands are only a few hundred miles apart, but still have some stark differences in terms of animals and plants. Many of the plants in Palau were introduced by the Japanese during the early 1900’s occupation.

Palau - Part II: Visiting the WW II sites on the island of Peleliu

Peleliu

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While most days I spent 4-5 hours under the water, the day our ship reached the South Dock inlet along the island of Peleliu, I took advantage of the opportunity to enjoy a land excursion to the historic WW II sites around the island.

Peleliu was a battle that incurred extremely high casualties during the war. To make matters worse, it’s relevance to the overall war effort in the Pacific has been highly debated, and thus, it is a fairly controversial battle. It is also a battle that has recently increased in popularity and awareness because of “The Pacific” series HBO debuted this spring. There is actually an entire episode on the marine’s contributions at Peleliu, so if you watched the series, you may find this especially interesting.

I’m going to summarize what I learned, but you may also enjoy looking through the pictures and reading through the captions. We had a wonderful guide named Tangie Hesus, who is truly the local historian. He has created and maintains an interesting museum with many artifacts and accounts from the battle. He was extremely knowledgeable and did his best to answer our questions and show us around.

The marines landed on Orange Beach, attempted to take the Japanese airfield and the Japanese administration building, and then worked their way up “Bloody Nose Ridge.” We visited Orange Beach, the monument where many soldiers were buried until 1957 (they were moved to Arlington), and the remaining walls of a chapel that had been built on site. Tangie told us of the struggles to gain position on Orange Beach and told us many stories of marines returning to Orange Beach and the nearby jungle and sharing stories of how their best friends perished. The beach was 118* the day of the battle (Palau is only 7 degrees from the equator). It was sobering to stand on a beach, now calm and peaceful, that had seen so much carnage and death. The monument to the fallen marines had plants arranged to actually spell “USA.” The island of Peleliu itself lost nearly all of its vegetation during the battle – it’s hard to imagine when you’re standing there because the island really feels like a jungle. After the battle, the US tried to plant a tree that grew extremely fast to create some cover for the locals. But they planted a pine that was toxic to the indigenous plants, so now they are centering efforts on removing the pesky pine. Much of the island’s vegetation has grown back, but when you look at pictures that were taken where you were standing and see no vegetation at all, it is astounding.

From there we drove through the airfield and onto the Japanese administration building. This building had definitely seen war. The concrete was riddled with mortar divets and bullet holes, there were gaping holes in the walls and ceiling, and rebar was jaggedly jutting out throughout the remains of the building. We got to explore a nearby Japanese bomb shelter – which I found especially eerie, because the men inside were probably forced out with a flame thrower. On some of the pillars there were tributes to the Japanese soldiers who had lost their lives with wreaths bearing a thousand paper cranes.

After stopping to see several different vehicles that had been damaged and abandoned (including a Japanese tank and a US Amtrak), we headed up the steps to Bloody Nose Ridge. Over 11,000 Japanese were entrenched in the ridge, hiding in 600 caves, as 800 snipers were perched, hidden, and ready. Our guide took us back to see a 200 mm rifle that had never been fired (it was about 90% assembled when the US arrived). We also got to go back to some of the caves where the Japanese had hidden, poised to attack.

Tangie Hesus has also created a museum full of artifacts, correspondence, and photographs documenting the perspective and experiences of both the Japanese and the American troops. We spent a little while walking through the museum and then headed up the hill on Bloody Nose Ridge and paid our respects to the Marine Monument and the Japanese Shrine.

Later on that afternoon we did a dive at Orange Beach and we saw rifle barrels, cargo boxes, fuel cells, remnants of ships…and all sorts of different war related carnage. It was all hidden with coral, but was really cool to see. I found my mind imagining how everything got there and also felt like a scuba-historian as I tried to discern whether I was seeing just coral, or historical artifacts.

It was really awesome to actually visit a WW II battle site and I was personally surprised when I realized I have never visited one before. Much of Europe was involved in the war, but nearly all of those sites have been repaired and rebuilt. There is only a small village in Peleliu, so much of the wreckage from the war remains intact. My grandfather was also on an aircraft carrier ship called the USS Cowpens, which fought in Palau, so it was really amazing to envision his ship at the ready in the waters our boat was traversing.

Palau – Part I: Diving in the Beautiful Blue Waters

The view from Ulong beach, where part of the Palau Survivor series occurred


Beautiful fish and coral at the world famous dive site, Blue Corner


Coral as far as the eye can see, again at Blue Corner


Thousands and thousands of colorful fish, swimming in our own aquarium


A beautiful sunset on the water

I apologize if I confuse anyone. I am safely in Korea now and have met up with The Korea Society teacher’s program and now hope to have a steady internet connection. I have two goals. First, to share a few highlights from my experiences in Palau, and second, to keep you posted on the many things I have the honor of learning about the history, culture, and people of Korea as a summer fellow.

Ten years ago for his sixteenth birthday, my husband’s dad took him on a dive trip to Palau. My husband loved it so much he hasn’t stopped talking about it ever since. And so, this year as we planned our summer vacation, and decided we really wanted to spend a few weeks scuba diving, Palau made it to the top of our list. Historically Palau has changed hands many times – the UK, Germany, Japan, and the United States all occupied Palau at different points in time before it became a truly independent country in 1994. Even still, there are many foreign influences – as my husband and I walked around Koror we passed a school that the US had helped construct and two other public buildings/elements of infrastructure that were sponsored by Taiwan and Japan.

From June 27 to July 5 we lived on what’s called a “live aboard” dive boat. …You literally live aboard the boat. It’s basically a large yacht that has several levels that include cabins to sleep in, a dive deck where we keep our gear and get ready for dives, a galley and dining area, and a sun deck. The daily schedule usually involves waking up around 6 am and grabbing a light breakfast; diving at 7 am; eating second breakfast (yes, we’re hobbits) that is a hot breakfast; diving again; eating lunch; diving again; afternoon tea (and something yummy and sweet to snack on); diving again; eating dinner and dessert; diving again…this time it’s a night dive; and then crashing from sheer exhaustion. You’ve earned it. There’s a reason the Aggressor advertises an “Eat-Sleep-Dive” life.

The diving in Palau has been phenomenal! The coral walls are absolutely amazing as they vertically span 90-150+ feet and stretch as far as the eye can see! There aren’t just a few reef fish, but hundreds of brightly colored fish bustling around the coral and thousands of fish swooping in schools around the reef’s edge and out in the deep blue. There’s entire underwater rolling hills and meadows of beautiful, bright, colorful corals! So…to sum it up, in Palau the coral and fishies are infinitely healthier, more diverse, more colorful, and there’s …just MORE of everything! We've gotten to do tunnel dives, cave dives, wreck dives, coral gardens, and drift dives along the coral wall - lots of fun!

Safely in Korea and loving Seoul!

Visiting the beautiful Buddhist Temple, Bongeunsa, in the center of Seoul

Much much more will be posted very soon. But for now, I wanted to share that I am safely in Korea and am having a wonderful time with my dear student, Jenny Park, and her amazing family!

Lots more soon! Promise!