A few weeks ago the TaLK Scholars in my province were sent on a mandatory culture trip. This was nice because it allowed us a couple days off and it was free. We went to three destinations to experience "Korean culture". These destinations included a naval base, an air-force base, and a small island situated in a river that was made famous by a Korean drama called Winter Sonata.
The first day included a long bus ride to a naval base near Seoul. We were shown a few monuments to fallen sailors, a small museum, and the Cheonan ship. The Cheonan ship is a South Koran naval vessel that was blown in half and sunk, presumably by the North Koreans a few years ago. They salvaged the ship and put it in display for the world to see. The damage was pretty impressive. The tour guide went on and on about the details of the explosion and how it all correlates to the North Koreans sinking it, also refuting other possibilities which may have caused the explosion. Honestly, by the way they went on about it, it almost sounded like force fed propaganda. I believe what they claim, but the way they were presenting the information seemed as though they were trying to prove themselves to disbelievers. This may be because there are conspiracy theories claiming that the South Koreans staged disaster for propaganda reasons, but that would be ridiculous and unthinkable since 40+ sailors died in the explosion...though there are theories like this for any disaster (see 9/11 conspiracies).
 |
| This is not a small ship (not large either). |
 |
| The hull was ripped apart. |
 | |
| View of both sides of the explosion. |
After the naval base we took another bus ride to an air-force base which was about two hours away. Here we had to sit through a 30 minute presentation about how awesome the South Korean helicopter fleet was and were shown a "top-secret" power point presentation on what kind of helicopters they have and their armament (which was basically U.S. leftovers and nothing impressive or secret at all). Also, as we walked in and out of the building where the presentation took place they played the South Korean anthem...This place was hilarious in their attempts to use propaganda on us, it may work on Korean elementary school children, but college age foreigners? were they serious? I don't know, but after the presentation we got to play around and take pictures in a few of their real helicopters on the run-way. This was probably the coolest part of the culture trip, its a shame we didn't get to actually ride in them.
 |
| They let us go inside and look around these real helicopters. |
 |
| I got to wear on of their helmets and look like a tool. |
 |
| They really wanted to show us how awesome they are. |
 | |
| They started preparing to move the helicopters back to their hangers after our play time was over. |
After yet another long bus ride we got to our hotel for the night. They booked an off-season ski resort for us to stay in. It was really nice, with a convenience store and a buffet. Most of us drank outside and made a lot of noise until late at night before we went to sleep. Some of us would have preferred to have just been here the whole time, but that would have defeated the purpose of a "culture trip". The next day we took another long bus trip to Nami Island, where a famous Korean drama called "Winter Sonata" was filmed. We spent about an hour on the island before we ate lunch and took another long bus ride back to our province. The island was fairly small and there wasn't much to see. Some people rented bicycles and rode them around, I wish I did that, but I was content with eating my icecream cone and relaxing. I didn't take any pictures here because as I mentioned there wasn't really anything interesting to take a picture of.
The culture trip was fun for what it was, but didn't really show us any South Korean "culture". It mostly consisted of a lot of time (+/- 16 hours) on a bus, with a couple stops in between. Honestly at times I could have sworn it was just an opportunity for TaLK photo opportunities to promote the program ("hey look at all those foreigners smiling and enjoying our military bases, go Korea!!") but I digress.
Anyway, two more weeks of teaching, then a week of vacation where I will get my finances in order and make sure I get paid everything that's owed to me before I come back the the States on July 30th.
Until next time.
