Dara, Megan, Zahra, Myself and Kierstie in front of one of the Korean flags found at the 5-18 massacre.
The day started off at 10am when we boarded the bus and headed to a culinary school here in Gwangju. The items on the list to make were Bibimbap and a type of soup that I forgot the name of. We first watched the head cook make the dishes, and then made them with our partners. I won't lie, the first thing that I spotted on the table was the largest bottle of soy sauce I've ever seen. This was a blessing because despite the fact that they have rice for EVERY meal, I have not seen soy sauce once. And because I knew that I didn't like the sauce that typically goes on Bibimbap (a spicy red pepper paste) I knew exactly what I was going to be putting on my Bibimbap. Anyway, the dish itself means "rice with mixed vegetables" which is exactly what it is. Except naturally, we aren't talking carrots and broccoli, we're talking ferns, radishs, and jelly stuff. They did have cucumbers and zucchini to make too, so that was enjoyable. I also got to have beef for the first time (in a Korean dish) since I've been here. Luckily, the girl across from me was a vegetarian so she gave us her beef. I told her that being from the Midwest, beef was in my diet almost every day and that I would happily accept her beef. :) Anyway, it's a simple dish to make and it's essentially all about the order in which you cook things. The soup was simple too, the broth was created out of soy bean paste and you boiled fish (woof) and seaweed in water for about 10 minutes, drained it and then added some veggies. It wasn't my favorite but it was okay. My dish itself turned out tasty because I got to put whatever I wanted in it, and topped it off with soy sauce. I regretted not bringing my big bag into the class with me, I was trying to figure out any way to take that bottle of soy sauce back to the dorms with me. I was unsuccessful.
My partner Allyssa and I! Cute pink aprons, huh? :)
From the culinary school we headed to the May 18th Memorial Cemetery located right outside of the city of Gwangju. We started the tour by watching another video outlining more about what happened. They also had a museum that was pretty interesting too. The best part about the memorial is what's outside. The area is huge, and there are a few different statues and things throughout. It was beautiful! We went to the main memorial where we burned incense for the victims. From there, we were explained more about the gravesites. There are 641 graves at the memorial, 100 of those are dedicated to people who were never found after the 5-18 massacre, and still to this day are not found. There are names on their graves, but no pictures. The other 541 graves are people who not only died when the attacks happened from May 18th to the 27th, but also the people who died after those dates due to injuries or illness that occurred during that time. Because there are bodies in those 541 graves, there are large mounds over each one, including a picture of the person at each grave and flowers. This cemetery opened in 1998, because it wasn't until then that the Korean government was okay with people opening knowing about what happened in Gwangju. I was really interested in all of it, and wanted to stay longer!
Part of the grounds. The large stone thing is the main memorial. It is two hands gripping an egg, symbolizing new life and fertility. You can also see some of the grave sites here.
After the cemetery we moved on to a Confucianism school where we learned Korean Courtesy, traditional Korean dress, and a traditional Korean wedding ceremony. This is where things got a bit more interesting. I should probably add in here that on the bus on the way to the school, I, along with a girl Dara from Indonesia were picked to be brides to display a traditional Korean wedding. Well when we got to the school they let everyone dress up in the traditional "Hanbok" clothing, however since Dara and I were the brides we got all decked out by the women working there. Of course, there were two grooms, Jerry and Jadd. I'll get to them later. Most of the girls had on a long dress type of garment with an overcoat shaw type of covering. They were very colorful. Well I had on that dress, overcoat, a colorful striped robe, two belts, a long stick in my hair, a huge ribbon tied around that stick, a hat with tassles hanging on my face, another ribbon hanging from the back of my hat, and two big red circle stickers on my face. From here, we began the traditional wedding ceremony. At the beginning the men bowed to the women, and then vice versa. For some reason there were two wooden ducks in between us... I didn't really get that. From there, I kid you not... the man carries the woman on his back just around the room. I don't think the word comical describes this experience enough. From there the men lay on the floor and two other women (not the brides) hit their feet with sticks to massage them, while the bride sings. I'll recap really quick- I was in layers upon layers of garments, I had glue on my face, a stick in my hair, I got a piggy back ride from a guy I've known for two weeks, and then I sang Happy Birthday and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star in front of 30 people. The reason those two songs were sung is because I sang them with Dara, and since she's from Indonesia, their weren't many songs that we both knew. Anyway, that pretty much concluded that. Afterward, we all took a ton of pictures in our costumes and continued home. This was QUITE an experience. I decided I play a little joke on my mom too and send her an e-mail when I got home just saying... "P.S.- I got married today." Sorry mom. :) Gotcha!
Dara, Jerry, Myself and Jadd.
Let the piggy back rides begin!
Anyway, it was a long day. We just set our weekend plans up though. Myself, Zahra, Lillian, Kierstie, and two Korean girls are going to travel to the other side of the country (only 3.5 hours away) to Busan, the second largest city in Korea, after Seoul. We are staying in a hostel that is on the beach! We're hoping to come up with an itinerary before we go so we don't waste any time. It should be a great time, I'm just hoping the weather is nice!
Our group at the Confucianism School in our Hanboks!
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