Farewell Sookmyung Students!

It was with a heavy heart that I said goodbye to my students at Sookmyung Women's University on Friday. These young women from Korea and China were one of the most engaged and thoughtful groups of students I have ever had the pleasure of teaching. I learned so much from them in our "Women in a Global Society" class. What a wonderful teaching/learning experience this has been! Thanks to all of these future female leaders for a wonderful summer session at Sookmyung.

Hwagyesa Templestay

Wow! What a weekend I just had at the Hwagyesa International Zen Center just north of Seoul! I was curious about a program called “Templestay” which is designed to help people understand Korean Zen Buddhism. Although I could not get any faculty or students to join me (no one seemed interested in the 3:00 a.m. wake-up call for meditation), I had a very interesting weekend and met people from around the world. I arrived at Hwagyesa on Saturday morning at 10:00 and received my uniform. I was shown to my room which I shared with young women from Kazistan and China. Participants from these countries and Germany, New Zealand, and the US got to take part in all activities with the monks who gave us instruction on Buddhism and its ceremonies. Activities we got to participate in included Jwaseon (sitting meditation – and yes we were up at 3:00 a.m. this morning to do that!), Yebul (chanting), Dahdoh (tea ceremony), traditional Buddhism bowing and eating meals with the monks. I am totally worn out from all of the activities but I’m glad I got to experience this while in Korea!

Korean Traditional Folk Art

Each week Sookmyung Women’s University organizes a Korean cultural activity for all international faculty and students. Last week, we all had a great time making traditional Korean jewelry boxes. Representatives from the National Folk Museum of Korea came to show us how to make these boxes made from rice paper and rice paste. We weren’t sure how they were going to turn out at first but we were all pleasantly surprised with our results!

Gyeongbokgung

Yesterday we visited one of many palaces in Seoul. Gyeongbokgung (which means “palace greatly blessed by heaven”) was originally built in 1395. Although it has suffered much damage over the years due to wars, it has been refurbished to its traditional style over the past 20 years. We were very lucky to arrive at Gyeongbokgung just in time for the ceremony of the changing of the guard. This involved several dozen guards all wearing traditional 15th century, Joseon dynasty uniforms (see photo). The detailed painting of the walls, ceilings and eaves of the buildings was amazing! The National Folk Museum of Korea is also on the grounds of Gyeongbokgung. This museum includes wonderful exhibits about the history of the Korean people and the Korean way of life. The beautiful gardens of the museum contain sculptures of the Korean zodiac animals (I am a dragon!) and totems that scare away evil spirits or converse with those who have died.

DMZ

Although it was a very rainy day (this is the beginning of the monsoon season in Korea!), we had a fascinating visit to the DMZ today! The DMZ (or Demilitarized Zone) is a strip of land that separates North and South Korea. It has served as a buffer zone between the two regions since the signing of the 1953 cease-fire agreement that ended the fighting of the Korean War (although the war has never officially ended). We knew this was going to be a serious tour when the tour agency asked us to bring our passports and to dress conservatively. The tour included going into the Third infiltration tunnel. This is a tunnel that South Korean officials discovered in 1978. It was one of many attempts by North Korea to invade South Korea (they discovered another tunnel as recently as 1990). We also got to see the Mt. Dora Observatory. Here we were able to look out over North Korea but we could only take photos from behind a specific photo line. The Mt. Dora train station is a very modern train station which was restored in hopes of reconnecting the rail service between Seoul and Pyeongyang. North Korea will still not allow this rail service to run but the South Koreans are hopeful that it will run in the future.

Korean Traditional Tea Ceremony

This evening the international students and faculty got to learn about and participate in a Korean Traditional Tea Ceremony. We all got to wear the traditional hangboks and then learned the proper way to bow, serve and drink tea in the Korean tradition. Afterwards, students and faculty had dinner at a great, local Korean restaurant.

North Seoul Tower at Namsan Park

The North Seoul Tower was a Seoul landmark that we all noticed when we first arrived here since we can see it from our residence building. This tower is in Namsang park and offers great views of the city. An interesting thing we noticed while at the tower was the huge number of locks hanging from the tower’s gates. Apparently couples proclaim their love for one another and place their locks together on the gates. Historically, this site was used as a prime post for defending Seoul.