Down Memory Lane

If you had a choice to visit a country for a month or more on a Rotary International Group Study Abroad program, would you? Before you answer, what if you knew you would be visiting Korea? Some of you may answer no to that. Not I and three other brave souls. We took this opportunity of a lifetime and ventured out into this unknown world. So that you know, this was South Korea. Our destination was Jeollanam-do, Southern Coast of Southern Korea.

We left with our luggage for our month study abroad program. Our travel time took over 21 hours, not to mention; S. Korea is 13 hours a head of us in time. So as you may imagine when we got there, our sense of time and place was well shall I say, out of whack. Our first destination was Yeosu, one of the three candidates to host the 2012 World Expo. At the airport, we were greeted by a group of Rotarians holding a “Welcome to Jeorgia” banner. (And I did not misspell, it. That’s how the banner was spelled). Our warm greetings continued up until lunch, when we were introduced to the Korean traditional food kimchi, seafood soup and side dishes of a variety of different vegetables and fruits, including mouth-watering watermelons and sweet ripe tomatoes. The food kept coming and coming and though we were stuffed, we were told to “eat, eat”. This was our introduction of what is yet to come. The majority of our meals in S. Korea were done, Korean style, which is eaten on a very low table and we all sit on the floor. So during our visits to the different places, we were “introduced” to that style.

During out time in S. Korea, we visited many cities and counties and met with dignitaries, mayors, council men, city government officials, Rotarians, etc. We drank green tea for what seem like 5 times a day. The green tea, I believe, gave us the energy we needed to continue on with our massive daily activities. And activities we had; from morning until night. We went everywhere and did everything. All in all, we were truly celebrities and treated like royalties. We were guided and protected and surrounded everywhere we went. We were guests to concerts held by huge Korean Celebrities and given the grand tour to every Museum, Tea Plantation, Buddhist Temple, Market, Traditional Home, Agricultural Center, Beautiful Mountain, Park, Recreational Forest, Farm House, School, and Library; Historic site, Steel Manufacturing Plant, Rotary Club meeting and everything in between.

Due to the fact that we didn’t speak Korean and the Koreans we were around did not speak English, a translator was assigned to us wherever we would go. We had a few translators that neither English nor Korean was their mother tongue, so you see how communication was very difficult. We did have some good interpreters. Sometimes the communication between the two worlds was wonderful and sometimes the language became a barrier because neither one could understand the other. And so we communicated with our bodies to get our points across. It’s called, Charades. And sometimes, we resulted in drawing, as we did once when we wanted to eat chicken for lunch. Thanks NJ for that. Your art skills came in handy. There really should be an International illustrated non-verbal dictionary out there. For someone looking for a great book idea, this I think will sell millions.

We met many wonderful people that welcomed us into their homes and truly made us feel like part of their family. So as they say, when in Korea, do as the Koreans, and so we lived as the Koreans for a month by visiting Bath Houses. Public Bath Houses are a way for Koreans to release their daily stresses in life while relaxing. It’s said to be therapeutic. We slept on heated floors and ate live octopus (one of us, who shall remain nameless) and drank Soju, the Korean native alcoholic beverage. We talked about our beautiful city, Savannah. After the month-long traditional Korean food and lifestyle, we were ready to come back to good old, U. S. of A. As many Koreans stated that if given a chance to visit America, they would but would not permanently live in the U.S., I feel that it is so with Americans. We would love to visit another country, but when it comes down to it, we still love our own lifestyles and way of living and wouldn’t trade it for another. You don’t believe me? Visit another country and find out for yourself.

I want to take this opportunity to thank Justin Godchaux, (Santa, as the Korean children called him), our Rotary Group Leader and team members Neeraj Jain (NJ) and Chito Lapena. We were the perfect team. And a special thanks Dr. and Mrs. Choi, Dr. Yon Pae Park and Dr. SeongYong Hong. A special thanks to Rotary International for this opportunity and for Rotary Savannah East 6920 for making it all happen. As they say in S. Korea, 'An-nyung Ha-se-yo' meaning 'Good morning (afternoon, evening) and 'Gam-sa-hap-ni-da' means 'Thanks.' We want to also thank our families for their love and support and for allowing us the freedom to travel and experience this new world.

Seoul, June 2

Seoul is where we landed at Incheon International Airport and that’s where we stayed overnight before leaving in the morning to take our flight back to the United States. We met up with Dr. Hong, Professor at Savannah State University, who is from Seoul. He was kind enough to take us around the city to show us some of the places of interest in Seoul, the capital city.

Talk about New York City magnified. People were everywhere in Seoul. If you think New York City is crowded; visit Seoul. It was beautiful though. We had dinner at a place Dr. Hong suggested, where Duck was the main dish. I couldn’t stomach that dish, so I ate some of the side dishes instead. During our walk around the city, we ended up at this local burger place. There we had burgers with fries and I felt so much better.

We toured around the crowded department stores, and then ended the day at Cheonggyecheon. Cheonggye Stream is a 5.8 km creek flowing through downtown Seoul. This is where it is said lovers come to on the weekends to hang out and enjoy the serenity of the flowing water, while admiring the view. We were driven back to our hotel, where we spent our last and final evening.

Yeosu, May 29 – June 2

Our last week of this amazing journey ended on a positive note at Yeosu, beautiful city of sea, flowers and light. We were back at the Amiga Hotel, where we started. We were again greeted warmly like celebrities by the club presidents, service project members and committee chairmen. After checking in at the hotel, we were treated to western style lunch. Yes! After a month-long traditional Korean food, we were ready for some western food. The restaurant that we went to had a magnificent view. The ladies of the Rotary club that hosted us were very kind and hand created the centerpieces that graced our tables from real flowers, including roses. Now that’s what I call hospitality.

Our fist morning in Yeosu began with a tea ceremony nearby the hotel. There we met Liz or Lizza as the Koreans call her. Liz is an American that is now living in Yeosu and teaching English to a group of young children. She loves Yeosu and feels very comfortable among the Koreans and their tradition. Our tours took us to JongHwaDong Marine Park, also called Hamel light house. We visited the Turtle ship, located on DollSan Park. The turtle ship is said to be famous for its helping the Koreans to win sea battles against Japanese ships during the Japanese invasion in the late 1500’s. We saw the exact replica of the ship as it was back then. It was very compact and every nook and cranny was used for something.

The next few days we toured Odongdo Island, where we met with public relations officer and staff for the Expo 2012. We saw a public relations piece advertising the locations and plans for the event. We visited the city hall and met with the Associate Mayor. We visited an Elementary School, and Hyang II Am Buddhist Temple. This temple was no different; as it was located on the top of this magnificent mountain hill, where the view is breathtaking. We were told thousands of people come there the first of the year to see this amazing sunrise. We went on our first University tour. Justin was happy about that. Chonam University as it’s called, has two campuses; one being in Yeosu. We toured a little bit of it and got a chance to see some of the classrooms. It was a very nice campus. I think Justin said it was comparable to Savannah State University in size.

We visited the Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation (MBC), one of four major national South Korean television and radio networks. We toured the facilities and this time all four of us ended up in the “hot seat”, broadcasting our day’s events. We visited Yeosu’s Fire station. It was very impressive. We saw all the fire equipments and the facility was equipped and prepared to take action in case of fire. My most heartfelt visit came at the end when we visited the Social Welfare organization. We first visited the children, who were patients at the disability quarters. We were welcomed by the patients through a beautiful, heart-felt song. We appreciated their efforts in preparing for us the wonderful welcome song. We saw a video of the services that are offered at the organization and got a chance to tour the different facilities.

We were given a reception our last evening in Yeosu by the Rotary Group of Dong Myung Yoo. Mr. Yoo was the group leader of the group that came to Georgia. We met him this week in Yeosu and his rotary group was the last to host us. At the reception, the governor said some kind words and talked very positive about the GSE experience. We expressed our appreciation and told them how wonderful everyone has been and how we would take our experiences and share them with others in our state. We were given the opportunity for the last time to visit a Public Bath House, but we passed and decided to go visit a shopping center instead before we left for the airport. This gave us a chance to see for the last time what great customer service S. Korea has to offer its people. At the airport, we said our goodbyes and adorned our heads with our weave hats, luggage and our Rotary uniformed jerseys and khakis.

Suncheon City, May 25 - 28

We began our Friday, May 25 in Suncheon city. We met with our new Rotarian hosts at the Korean Broadcasting System’s (KBS) office. There we met the Head man in charge and toured the station. We saw the control room and the news broadcasting room, where the local news takes place. Justin got a feel of what it’s like under all those lighting by sitting in the “hot” seat, and pretended to be broadcasting. We saw a live Radio talk show being broadcast at the station.

From the studio, we left to Jukdobong Park. At the park, we went up and down many stairs to find this beautiful view of a place where the sport archery was being played. Archery is a sport using a bow to shoot arrows. We met the group playing the sport and saw them performed their magic. From the look of it, it seems as if the shooting range is as far as a football field. Since I don’t know much about football or Archery, my guess could be off but I’m guessing anyway. NJ took a jab at the sport to see what it’s really like.

Our next stop was to Sucheon Rotary meeting. During the meeting, I noticed an older gentleman sitting across from us doodling something on his pad. Well, come to find out he was drawing pictures of us during the meeting. He presented our individual portraits to us at some point during the meeting and we thanked him for his generosity. The literature program that the club has put together for the meeting has pictures of us and next to each of our pictures; our names in English were written. I was used to seeing “Beetrice” on many of the past club’s programs, but this time I was amused to find out that my name was “Chito Lapena” and Chito was “Sarah Ward”.

The afternoon after lunch was spent at the Nagan Eupseong Folk Village. It was deja vu because as soon as we got there, we realized that we’ve already been there with our former hosts from Goheung County. This was okay because we were introduced to different things than our former hosts. We had tea at the VIP lounge where we were told is designated for VIP guests. We visited a variety of different places, but the most memorable was the old man in the “Straw art” room. This old man looked to be in his 80’s and was weaving while swinging a lighted cigarette in his mouth and talking to a crowd around him. From the laughter of the crowd, one can determine that this old man has many stories to tell. And indeed he told them when we got there. He called us over when he saw us and began his tales. Of course, we didn’t understand a word of it but it was comical in the same way. He gave us each a lucky charm on a straw necklace for good luck.

The rest of the day was spent walking around downtown Suncheon while window shopping. Might I say that we found the clothes, shoes, accessories and everything in between to be very expensive. After we window shopped until we dropped, we were asked what we wanted to eat for dinner and being that we ate a delicious Korean lunch called; “bolgogi”, we decided we wanted something different. We were given our options and we decided on an Italian Restaurant. Lee’s Restaurant as it’s called, was a nice establishment that has a variety of different Italian/Korean mixture of food. It doesn’t matter the ethnic make of a restaurant because you will always find kimchi on the menu, along with many Korean side-dishes. Except one nameless person’s “Chicken Run” meal, the majority of us chose different spaghetti meals. The food was very good and we noticed that we’re not the only people that love other types of food. The restaurant was packed with Koreans, mostly High-school aged through twenties.

After dinner, we met back at Mr. Yooon’s clothing store (where our luggage were stored) to wait on our stay home hosts. My host is a Rotarian of one of the local Rotary clubs in Suncheon. Mr. Chung owns a copying business and his wife is a middle school teacher. They have two girls (thirteen and twelve year olds). I met the family when I was got to their house. The family lives on the 10th floor of a high-rise apartment. Many of the families we’ve stayed with live in high-rises, regardless of their status. We were told that land is scarce in S. Korea, so many families live in apartments. 30% are rented and 70% are owned. The family spoke very little English. I was asked about my hubbies and when I told them I like to walk, the Dad said; “tomorrow morning, together, we ran, 6 o’clock”. Well that was that. The following morning, as he promised together (Dad, daughters and Bea) at 6 o’clock ran for a good 45 minutes.

The morning of May 26 was spent at the Rotary Club Conference. The agenda reads a full day, from 10 a.m. until 4:30 p.m., but luckily we were scooted out around 10:45 after we were introduced to the massive crowd. The agenda was tight so we didn’t get a chance to present our program. We were driven to a huge department store, where again the prices were to be admired from afar. We spent the rest of the afternoon after lunch window shopping looking for the perfect blazer for NJ. We had an entire entourage of seven Korean women searching everywhere for this blazer. He did find it and after that we were picked up by our hosts and shuttled off to our perspective homes. That evening, I was invited by my home-stay/host Dad to his Rotary Club dinner. I met a friend of his that spoke English so I wasn’t totally sitting in silence. I actually had a great conversation with him. I found out that he also participated in GSE in the late 90’s to Michigan. We ended the evening at the golf shooting range, where my host mom and two daughters were playing golf. I putted a few balls around, as they laughed. I was their entertainment for a few minutes.

On Sunday, May 27, 2007, we had the whole day to rest with our host families. No Rotary activities were planned. Though we didn’t plan to go walking (as no arrangements were made), we went anyway at 6 o’clock a.m. The four of us walked for one hour and then the girls went to play golf (they practice playing golf everyday, they said) while Dad and I ran for another hour. When we got home, mom had prepared breakfast. Dad, mom and I spent the afternoon (from what I can gather) at his High School Sport barbecue gathering. The rest of the afternoon was spent writing most of this blog and resting; well mostly resting. That evening, all of us (GSE team members) went to a Musical Recital that our interpreter from Suncheon was in. We went to show our support of her as she played the cello.

On Monday morning, May 28 we met up with an all women Rotary Group at the home/photographic studio of Mr. and Mrs. Hong. Mr. Hong is a Master Photographer. Their beautiful studio overlooks the hills and their residence is on the top fourth floor of the studio. The studio is equipped with state-of-the-art photographic equipments and accessories. Like Cyndi Lauper said, “Girls Just Want to Have Fun”; and these Rotary women made sure we had fun. We spent the early morning and afternoon at Suncheon Bay, where we walked along the pier and went on a speedy boat ride. We had a picnic lunch, prepared by our Rotary hosts under a pavilion. After our bellies were full with delicious variety of dishes, we went to the public library.

The name of the library is called, Miracle Library. This is a city government funded library that is designed for children and their adult parents/caregivers only. The library was built in 2003 and the entire 2 floor library building was built for children. All collection housed in this library is for children. Here are some of the highlights.
Infant/Toddler room designated for kids birth to 3 years old, with a separate baby room.
One Book Suncheon (similar to “Savannah Read” one book).
Sunken reading area that looks like a pool.
Kid friendly bathroom for easy access.
Auditorium for big performances and shows.
A room designated for Dad and child to encourage fathers to read to their children.
Wall with framed autographs of children’s authors/illustrators.
Computer Room with NO INTERNET access. Computers are for stories and educational type of activities only.
Spaceship built inside the library that kids can go into to read and let their imaginations take the best of them.

Outdoor "secret garden" area for play.
A break/eating room.

Film Village: The film village is a replica town of Suncheon in the 1960’s and Seoul in the 1980’s. The replica is used in movies to create the look during those eras. The set is created like a town with many stores; coffee shop, electric store, clothes and shoe making stores, hospital, health food/herbal shop, bakery, restaurant, police station, etc. We also saw the neighborhood homes as it was back then. Homes sat up on hills.

Dinner was outdoor barbecue at the photographic mansion. We met many more people and had a great time. We ended the evening kareokeing. Boy, did we have fun. Americans aren’t the only ones that love to karaoke. We sang some American songs and the Koreans sang Korean songs and we shared in a few American songs we all knew together. Pictures of our experience in Suncheon will posted soon, so stay tuned.

Dhammakaya

above the cat and the mouse
is the hearth of man and the sun of steel
Wang, the king, fidgets over his language skills
while feeding the peacock
This morning, as a matter of fact,
Mrs. Wang took one of his shoes
for amusement
and chipped a few golf balls on the lawn
until he emerged in rage
throwing the other shoe
in a gentle arc that landed before her
mismatched feet

the rice paddies
stroked lovingly with hands buried
in the same hills they worked
are growing silent with age
and death
On the vector to Incheon airport
I was looking for the familiar lights
and concrete jungle,
like that which lives
in the hearth of man,
glowing like a thousand pretentious suns
while goading wild fires
instead there was the moon
peeking back through the rice paddies
at the edge of Seoul

(...)

-dcl
in Gurye

Our ongoing stay in Gurye County: In pictures...

Here is our day in pictures from our ongoing stay in Gurye county (May 23rd):

http://picasaweb.google.com/Neerajj999/GSE

more pictures to come soon...

Gurye County, May 23th- 24th

Today we moved to Gurye, a county with a population of about 32000 people, which is surrounded by magnificent valleys and rocky mountains. Famous for its wild flowers, this county is the only cultivator and supplier of some 300 kinds of specialty wild flowers within Korea and abroad. These wild flowers are known for their beauty, with some having medicinal applications. Here at Gurye, our home for 23rd and 24th of May, thus far we have experienced many places such as the national park, a famous Buddha temple etc.

Our day initially started in Gwangyang County with a nice breakfast at the local rotary office, from where we proceeded for Gurye County. After about an hour of travel we arrived at the Agricultural center to meet with Gurye county Vice-Governor. Here we gave a presentation on our rotary district 6920 and exchanged facts and information about both of our city’s growth, agriculture, economy and cultures. Because of its growing market in wild flowers business, the local government here takes special interest in promoting agriculture and encourages more and more locals to participate. There we were given a tour of a greenhouse showcasing a wide variety of wild flowers as well as harvesting tools and techniques from past and present. Since most wild plants have rapid rate of growth and are therefore presently grown in the open, the county also had a research center which focused on the possible ways to reduce the growth - for controlled growth of these plants, with a possible extension to a low volume indoor cultivation. Adjacent to it was a museum called “Jami”, dedicated to dragonflies. The musium's name is derived from the Korean word for dragonfly. Here we learned interesting facts about local dragonfly farms and other general information about the insect. Thereafter, we all proceeded to see another outdoor research and development farm that studies the growth factors of indigenous vegetables and wild flowers with medicinal applications. It was definitely an informative and enriching tour. Because of the uniqueness of this place, it is also a fast growing tourist attraction.

During the tour, we also visited one of the most beautiful lakes I have ever seen. It was covered with a bed of countless lotuses with colorful fishes swimming underneath. As we walked across the pond on the bridge we took a few pictures.

Then we visited an art gallery showcasing art that uses the “press flower” technique. This special technique involves hand-picking the flowers, leaves and fruits first and then dehydrating them by subjecting them to a series of controlled processes. These two steps alone can take anywhere from a fornight up to a year, depending on the variety of flowers wanted to be used in the art piece. The final step involves arranging them together to create art. This was the first time I had seen such intricate and magnificent work of art. Each and every piece was three dimensional and so vivid that one could easily get lost in the details. There we were given a special tour of the room where artists turn flowers into a timeless art pieces. It was truly amazing!

Our host rotary club then took us to show the local market and then to a shopping plaza with shops of traditional goods such as green tea, handloom, and cloths dyed in yellow-sand. There we took a quick break and tried dandelion tea, which is supposed to improve the blood circulation. It wasn’t much different in taste and we all really enjoyed it.

Then it was time to hit the road to climb up the mountains to visit Korean National Park. Located at the altitude of 1500 meters above the sea level, this park is a major tourist attraction of this region. Once we were at the top, the view was truly breathtaking. We tried to capture the view with our camera so check out the pictures to get an idea of what I mean.

By this time we were ready for the famous “hot spring” bath – a variation of a typical Korean communal shower. It was very relaxing after days of hectic schedule. Rejuvenated, we then had a nice dinner. Lastly, as today is the eve of Buddha birthday, we visited a huge Buddha temple while it was getting ready for tomorrows celebrations. Don’t forget to click on the picture link(s) above to see what we saw there. More on the second day in Gurye County is coming up. So stay tuned...