South Korea: Day 2

 War Memorial of Korea

 The first stop of the day was for the War Memorial. In all honesty, I understand why America deems it "The Forgotten War" even if that is a limited viewpoint. The tensions between South and North Korea are not touched upon in American media, thus I did not know much about it. Even in my history classes it is not typically talked about because America is not involved (which I think is self-absorbed to be honest but we all know that America is like that anyways)! Hence, it was really informative to visit and hear about. One thing I did know from being engaged in a lot of Korean media is that at a certain age, men here are required to engage in military service for around a year. However, I did not know that in the Korean war they drafted students of 17 years; only engaging them in 15 minutes training before throwing them into warfare. It's sickening and awfully sad. I even began tearing up at the artifacts donated from student volunteers such as the medals and uniform. Because of the emotional weight the memorial had and how invested I was with the tour, I did not get many pictures, but I feel that alone says enough.

War Memorial of Korea from the outside

 

Heroes of Songaksan Battle

Statue of the 10 South Korean soldiers that launched a suicide attack in order to regain South Korea's defense position in the war. 

 

 

Sejong University

 

Our second stop for Day 2 was the Sejong University area where we got to interact with local and transfer students about their campus. The campus was huge compared to ours along with impressive tall buildings. I wanted to use the little Korean I learned before getting here but I forgot most of it because of how excited I was to hear from them (plus many seemed shy, so I did not want to push them). They touched upon Sejong the Great as well, informing us about how he created Hangul or the Korean alphabet during the Joseon dynasty. They also had many activities prepared for us that we enjoyed such as designing our own traditional foldable fans or jeop buchae, making hwache, and various icebreakers. I really enjoyed the hwache and look forward to making it at home, since Sprite is an easy substitute for Milkis (even though I kind of want to try that soda on its own...it was really tasty). We also were given some Korean snacks to try, which was particularly enjoyable. Who doesn't love snacks after all! By the end of the tour they gave us, we exchanged a few Instagrams, which was sweet. Meeting new people is what college is all about, so I'm glad we made connections across borders from that alone.

 

Fan I did not get to finish

Drinking Experience (even though I did not participate)

 

The drinking culture in Korea, we learned, is rampant. After work or after school or for parties, Koreans are big on drinks and alcohol. Although I did not participate, it was cool to hear about how they manage that. Big drinks in Korea are rice wine and of course, soju. I did get to enjoy some food however as I had my spicy noodles with beef (though that was right before the drinking experience restaurant, so I was not too hungry then sadly).  

 

Sad water cup and remains of rice ball the professor made us