Lily spent last week sight seeing around Daegu. We brought her to quiz night at Traveler's and taekwondo, and she did a city tour. She also went to Andong all by herself to see the Soju Museum and the Folk Museum. She's had a pretty busy vacation so far.
For her second weekend in Korea, we went to Seoul for a quick visit. We arrived at our hostel in Hongdae on Friday night. It was a nice enough hostel, even though our room was a little small. The woman who checked us in was very nice, but after showing us around, she asked, "Are you Christian?" Even though Lily isn't, we said yes. She proceeded to thanks god for us going there and bless us and stuff. It was hilarious, and a little much for my tastes. Whatever. After dropping our stuff, we walked around the area. Hongdae is the area around Hongik University, and it is a big club and bar area. After walking up and down the main street for a while, we settled on a Korean-style bar. We got a private little booth with doors on it for just the three of us. Inside, there was a TV where you could play games, watch TV, and look at the menu. We ended up snacking on fries and Korean pancake (pajeon) and getting a few drinks. I had a really delicious makeoli (a whiteish rice-based alcohol) smoothie. Afterwards, we went back to the hostel. It was a bit loud outside since our windows opened onto the main street, but we had to get to bed because we had a long weekend in store. Lily didn't have a whole lot of things she needed to see on her list, but we took her to a few places we felt she should see before leaving Korea.
The next morning, we got breakfast at a coffee and waffle place. The waffles were made fresh, and we all got ones with almonds and nutella on it. It has been 8 months at least since I had nutella. It was amazing! We made our way to the War Museum of Korea, and we ended up spending about 5 hours there! It was an incredible museum that taught us a lot about the Korean War. Outside, was a huge display of tanks, planes, ships, and weapons from all different time periods. There were also some fantastic statues dedicated to the Korean War outside of the museum. They were really large and life-like. We spent a while looking at all of it, and then went to a 4D film on board a recreation of a boat that was involved in a small attack on South Korea by the North Koreans in 2002. The film was an animated recreation of an actual naval battle. It looked like an animation and was basically propaganda, but it was all about the 6 men who died aboard this ship in their efforts to keep the North Korean ships within their own country. The ship was a recreation of the actual ship that sank, and it was covered in massive bullet holes. Even though it wasn't exactly real, it was incredible to think of what those men must have gone through. After spending a good deal of time outside, we moved inside where they have War Rooms dedicated solely to the Korean war. Most of the museum is on the Korean War, but there were also a few rooms about ancient battles. There was even a recreated turtle ship, which was really cool. It was basically an ocean tank, covered in spikes with holes for mini-cannons. Turtle ships were instrumental in defeating the Japanese in several invasions a long time ago (1500's maybe). Definitely, the Korean War information was the most interesting. I learned about the Korean War in school, but because the Korean and Vietnam wars aren't the US's proudest moments in history, we didn't go into very much detail. It was great to be able to learn more. I'm about to drop some more history, so if you're not into that kind of stuff, you can skip the following paragraphs.
Japan annexed Korea in 1910. If you've been following my blog, you'll know that this was not the first time Japan did so. Understandably, the Koreans don't look favorably on the Japanese because of the troubled history the two nations have together. Although this is waining somewhat in more recent years, there are so people who are vocal about their dislike still. Korea was liberated from Japanese control on August 15, 1945 as Japan was part of the losing side of World War II. To the victors go the spoils: the USA and the Soviet Union divided Korea on the 38th Parallel, each bringing half of the country under its own sphere of influence. North Korea became a communist nation, and South Korea became a democratic one. That being said, communist uprisings in the South were not entirely uncommon in the interwar period. In particular, there was a large scale uprising on Jeju Island that begun on April 3, 1948. The UN proposed the establishment of a Korean government by democratic election in 1948, but the Soviet Union rejected this idea by barring entry of a UN commission to North Korea. So, the South Koreans held their elections on May 10, 1948, and the Republic of Korea was launched on August 15, 1948. As a counter, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea was established in the North on September 9, 1948 with Soviet support.
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| Mao, Kim Il-sung, and Stalin |
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| South Korea troops dropping bombs by hand |
Kim Il-sung, the Communist leader of North Korea, wanted to communize the entire peninsula, but he needed the backing of the Soviet Union in order to do so. At first, Stalin refused to help, but his confidence in victory grew when the USSR began developing atomic weapons and with the communization of China. Mao, Stalin, and Kim then allied and North Korea made plans for invasion. On June 25, 1950, North Korea crossed the 38th parallel and invaded South Korea. Soon after the UN and the USA decided to send troops and aid. North Korea was able to seize control of Seoul in just three days and continued to move south from there, pushing all the way to Busan. At the start of the war, South Korea was horribly equipped. About the only thing they had was a somewhat-decent navy, but their troops were poorly trained, and they did not have many military vehicles or weapons. They were so ill-prepared while they waited for UN troops that they had to hand drop bombs from small planes.
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| South Korea reclaiming Seoul |
It took 3 months for the UN forces to recapture Seoul. On September 28, 1950, the South Korean flag was, once again, raised over the capital building. The UN and South Korean forces continued to push further north and into North Korea. They were getting too close for comfort, so the Chinese finally joined, helping the North Koreans push the UN forces back. China wanted to maintain their border with a Communist Korea. China had inferior weaponry, so they used "human wave tactics" to push the UN forces back. For example, they used musical instruments to make noise and confuse their enemy, and they were very successful in doing so. The war seemed very much a back and forth between the feuding forces. China was able to take control of Seoul for the North Koreans, and for the second time since the start of the war, Seoul had to be evacuated. This occurred on January 4, 1951. At times, the South Koreans were pushed back as far south as Busan, but at other times, they almost captured the entire Korean peninsula.
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| Map that shows some of the back and forth of the Korean War |
At the end of 1951, UN forces decided it had been long enough and started to have armistice discussions. The Soviet Union agreed, especially after Stalin's death on March 5, 1952 meant that they had their own problems at home to deal with. Both parties agreed on a Demilitarized Zone on November 27, 1951, and the armistice was signed on July 27, 1952. Obviously, the armistice did not mean the end of the war as there is still fighting between the two nations today. Actually, President Syngmun Rhee, of South Korea, did not sign the armistice treaty. It was signed on South Korea's behalf by a UN representative given that the armistice discussions were being conducted by the UN itself and not by South Korea. The armistice was disappointing to many who hoped for a reunified Korea, and not the divided one that still exists today. I find it really interesting that South Korea's President didn't actually sign that armistice. I think it says something about the position South Koreans took, and still take, on the matter.
There was a whole section of the museum dedicated to "student-soldiers." About 300,000 of the South Korean forces were student soldiers; students as young as middle school who signed on to help fight for their country. They even had interviews with some ex-student-soldiers. It was incredible, and really sad, to hear about what they went through at such a young age. It made me think about my students, and how much things have changed for Korea since the War.
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| Nurse's uniform |
A few notes on women in the Korean military:
Also, there were some women who joined the military. The first women who joined were 31 nurses on August 26, 1948 even before the war began. The first 32 female officers were commissioned on July 40, 1949. The number of women in the service increased during the War, but women served primarily in administrative positions or as nurses. The first women's unit was the Women's Voluntary Army Training Corps, and it was founded on September 1, 1950. 1,074 women in this unit participated in the Korean War. These women did special missions, interrogated POWs, and engaged in pacification activities. In addition, 1,257 female nurses participated in the Korean War. After the War, the Army Nursing School was founded to better train the military nurses. In 1970, the Women's Army Corps was founded as an independent unit.
Later on, we learned about Korea's participation in the Vietnam War. It was strange to hear that the Vietnam War, which was such a terrible period in US history, was actually beneficial to Korea and even enhanced its international reputation. It allowed private industries to expand in order to provide needed materials for the war, bolstering the economy, and helped Korean business expand interests in the Middle East. In addition, the Vietnam War gave the South Korean forces more confidence in terms of its independent military development and strengthened the US commitment to the defense of South Korea. I didn't know this, but Korea actually built these forts in Vietnam during the war in order to separate normal civilians from the Vietcong. Also, the Vietcong built an elaborate array of tunnels hidden by traps or at the bottom of wells. They lived in these tunnels. Some tunnels were administrative, others were hospitals, and others were just like homes, but it was all underground. All Korean troops were withdrawn from Vietnam by March 1973.
After the War Museum, we walked a few stations down towards Itaewon. Itaewon is very foreign friendly with tons of restaurants with food from all over the world. It's where Gianni and I stayed the last time we were in Seoul. We wanted to eat there, and I really wanted to buy some new books. What the Book is a huge, English bookstore, and they ship all over Korea. I love ordering books from them, but since I was already in Seoul, I figured why not just stop by. My cousin recommended a few books to me, which I've read, and I also read the first Game of Thrones book. I bought two more Game of Thrones books at the store. After the bookstore, we wandered around looking for decently priced food. It's pretty expensive in Itaewon. We settled on a Thai place with a lovely view of the street below. It was pretty good food, but not nearly as cheap as when we were in Thailand, obviously. We browsed the shops in Itaewon for a bit looking at souvenirs, and I bought a shirt that was way more than I should have spent, but it is so pretty! It's navy blue with a pink pattern on the bottom and the end of the sleeves. It's a semi-silky material, so it should be good in the summer. I bought a twisted belt to go with it, and it is long, so I'll wear it with leggings. We headed back to the hostel for another night or rest. Our feet were killing us from all the walking around we did.
The next day didn't have the greatest start, but it turned out much better. We stopped at Seoul Station to buy our KTX tickets home. Gianni and I had some banking issues because Gianni's card decided not to work, so that caused a delay to starting our day. We also wanted to leave our backpacks at the station, but all of the lockers were full! Most of the subway stations have lockers, so we just left them in the station where we got off to sight see. We checked out Insadong, the traditional tea/souvenirs area of Seoul, and we went to two of the royal palaces (the two that Gianni and I liked the best). I wanted to get an English tour of the palaces, but there wasn't enough time, so we just looked at them on our own. We went to Changdeokgung, which is a more peaceful palace built with a lot of trees around it. It is also the palace with the secret garden attached. We then went to Insadong for a snack and some shopping. We went into a few souvenir shops, and then noticed that people were walking around with ice cream horns that looked like they had chocolate ice cream in them! We had never seen them with chocolate before, so we made it a mission to find the place selling them. It was a cute little store with comic books and animated characters all over the wall, and the ice cream turned out to be DARK chocolate! It was delicious! Before heading to the next palace, I wanted to stop in a souvenir shop that was pretty big. It was actually more than one vendor sharing a larger space. Most of them were really hard sellers, which turned us all off a bit, but I talked to one lady selling pottery. I asked her what some things were, and her prices were fairly reasonable. I bought a cute, little kimchi pot for one $5 and a new mug that came with a mug plate, the bug, a lid for the mug, and a loose-leaf tea strainer--all made of pottery--for $24. If you know me, you know I love mugs, and this one is really lovely. There was one mug I wanted to get because it had a beautiful floral design and in the traditional green color that you see on tea cups, but it was $60 because it was hand painted. Still, I'm very happy with my purchases. It started to rain a little bit before we got to the palace, but it wasn't that bad. Thankfully, it held out until we left Seoul, and we didn't have to buy any more umbrellas (we already have 4!). Gyeongbokgung, which is the most impressive and largest of the royal palaces. It has a completely different vibe than Changdeokgung, so I thought it would be good for Lily to get a feel for both. The President's House is actually located at the other end of Gyeongbokgung, so we walked all the way through and let Lily see that before heading to Seoul Station to catch our train home. We all got bento boxes (boxed lunch) for dinner. Gianni and I opted for Japanese (where bento boxes come from), and Lily went with Thai again. I'm really glad we got to go to Seoul again, finally! And that we got to see some new places.
Lily is leaving on Thursday, so we're trying to pack in a lot of things this week too. She missed her city tour on Monday, but I gave her directions to see the Daegu National Museum and the Herb Medicine Museum. On Monday night, we hiked Apsan with Sian, Thomas, Maria, Matthew, and Max (Serena is still visiting the US, so she wasn't there). This was our second trip to the observatory at night, and it was just as difficult as I remembered. Lily had a bit of trouble with the hike, but we all made it up just fine. The views of Daegu are really nice, and I'm glad Lily got to see Daegu at night from both the tower and Apsan--the two best views in my opinion.
Last night, we had a kitschy night doing Korean things. First, we went out for dinner at a sushi place she found wandering around on Monday. Then, we stopped at the photo booth studio that we took Lish to before. We took two rounds of hilariously cute pictures of the three of us. I think I'm going to write my next blog post for the Touch Daegu blog about photo booth studios, so I collected some pictures for that. My second article for the blog, about the stamp trail, has been released also! After the photo studio, we went to the Cat/Dog cafe. This was our first time, and, unfortunately, we came during the last half hour before it closed. It costs $8 to get in, which includes one drink, and it was so worth it, even if it was just for a half hour! The staff presented the rules to us in English, someone had written them out for them. The first floor was all cats who really wanted the tuna some of the staff in the room was giving out. There was a name placard with all the cats names on them. It is unclear to me whether the animals belong to people, and the cafe takes care of them during the day, or if the dogs and cats belong to the cafe and the staff takes care of them. We played with the cats for a while, but the best part was the DOGS! On the upper floor were the most incredible dogs. Some of them were really cute and wanted to lie on our laps. There was even a Great Pyrenees! He was so cute, but he was a little scared of my camera. We stayed with the dogs until the last second we could. It was such a great night!
UPDATE:
It's been a really great time hanging out with Lily for the last two weeks. Tonight is her last night, and we'll be sad to see her go. We spent her last night going to a board game cafe. We played a new game for us called Carcassonne, and it was really fun. I want to buy it. It was a pretty low-key night though because we didn't want to be out too late. Lily had to pack. Hopefully, we'll get some more house guests. And we're officially coming home in August for 2 weeks! I can't wait!
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