Korea: the Beginning

About 26 hours and 8400 miles from door to door, I wearily flew to Korea via San Francisco (my first time to California!) For the past week and a half I have been in orientation, which has been good as jet lag really got to me (it took me from Tuesday until Sunday to acclimate). In the mean time, my program orientation has kept me busy (we've only had one official day off) with excursions, site seeing, new foods, and culture lectures. We have another week of orientation (for a total of 2.5 weeks) before we start classes, too. Why such a long orientation? According to the program director, students feel it is beneficial to have more time to acclimate at the beginning especially since there is no mid-semester break here. It's also been a good chance to get to know the other students on the program (we have about 25 this semester). So here's what I've been up to since arrival about a week and a half ago:

Yonsei

There seems to be a lot of propaganda here in Korea (take note friends from South Africa!). We have seen a number of informational videos, and regardless of what they are showing, there is dramatic music in the background, a dramatic voice over, and everything has some kind of catch phrase. Here at Yonsei University, the university I will be studying at for the semester, that phrase is: "The first and the best". Yonsei was the first Korean university, and is regarded as the top in Korea. I started hearing the propaganda before arriving from Asian friends telling me Yonsei is "the Harvard of Korea"...well, what child didn't, at some point, want to go to Harvard? (According to the most recent QS World University Rankings, Yonsei is above the likes of Vanderbilt, Tufts, Stellenbosch University, HK Baptist University, Brandeis, Boston College, UConn, and Northeastern, which also ranked in the top 500).

It's a large university (over 25,000 under grad. and 11,000 graduate students, about 300 of whom are international semester students). I have yet to start classes, but regardless, this is the largest, highest ranking university I have studied at. That certainly counts for something. It is also the first school I have studied at that has a religious affliation (Presbyterian, with the motto: "the truth will set you free" from John 8:32)

Exploring Seoul

Yonsei is conveniently situated right in the heart of Seoul, in the Sinchon-dong neighborhood, with all of its bustling nightlife perfect for any young college student to have within walking distance. During the day the streets (and side walks) are filled with cars, motorcycles, and, where they fit in between, people. Actually, it's not as bad as it could be. The city has such wide roads that much of what could be a real MAJOR traffic problem is lessened. That being said, there is still a lot of traffic, especially during rush hour, and drivers aren't as considerate as in other cities like Boston or New York (jokes...but not really. The roads are pretty dangerous here, motorcycles really do drive on the sidewalks). But traffic aside, here's what I've found of Korea:

It's an impressive country. The technological advancements here are in many regards ahead of the U.S. Here, you can send a text message to unlock your house, most cell phones have tv streamed to them, among other advancements. This advanced technology is not new, either. Korea, contrary to popular belief, actually had a printing system 200 years before Gutenberg invented the printing press. No big deal, Korea, no big deal.

The writing system here, hangul, is also unique. It was invented methodologically. The consonants were created based on the shape of the mouth during pronunciation, while vowels are based on yin and yang (to see the full alphabet, as well as the Japanese, English, Greek, and a few other alphabets, go to: http://www.alphabetglobal.com/korean-alphabet.php).

War torn, Seoul has overcome a lot. During the Korean war Seoul was captured and recaptured, and then captured and recaptured again. It's amazing to look around this city and understand that this city is as advanced as it is considering all that it has gone through. There are about 25 million people here, which is the same as the entire population of North Korea, about 3 times that of NYC, 4x Boston and 8x Cape Town. Most of the advancements in Korea have come in the past 50 years.

Korea (like everyone else for in popular culture, though not so much politically) loves America. Granted, the U.S. played a major role in supporting South Korea during the Korean War, and continues to act as a major ally. On virtually every street corner here there is a Dunkin' Donuts or Starbucks, or both. Baskin Robin, Outback Steak House, On the Border, Subway, Caribou Coffee, among others, are also popular. Naturally Apple and McDonalds are here. I even saw Gap a few days ago. It's quite common to see Koreans sporting Red Sox hats as they walk down the streets. And I definitely saw a dog sweatshirt today that said "I <3 NY" but hey, even your dog has to keep up with the trends, right? Then there's the music. While K-Pop is big, there is also more than enough American music to go around, and Hollywood has a hold on the silver screen.

Food

Like I mentioned, American food is quite popular. I'm pretty sure I'll actually manage to find pretty much everything I couldn't in South Africa. There's definitely pizza, pasta, burgers, ice cream, donuts, and pancakes (wow, this makes Americans sound really unhealthy...wait, yeahhh. Maybe we should consider not having so much junk food as 'American' food?)

But Korea also has quite a bit of its own food. For now I can't come close to pronouncing or spelling it all, but the big thing is kimchi, which is a spicy, pickled cabbage. There's an abundance of rice based dishes, and lots of meat. Particularly popular is Korean barbecue. Pictured is samgyeopsal, which is essentially Korean bacon eaten for dinner. At a restaurant it is cooked at the table, cut with scissors and then eaten, often in a lettuce wrap.

DMZ & North Korea

I realized I promised pretty much everyone I talked to before I left that I wouldn't stumble accidentally into the DMZ or North Korea. Well, I kept that promise; it wasn't exactly accidental. One of our required orientation excursions was a trip to the DMZ. Such trips have actually become quite popular with tourists. If you think about it, though, it's called the DMZ for a reason. A ceasefire was called, so at this point it is perfectly reasonable to call the excursion safe. We got to see an underground tunnel made by the North Koreans, controversially for access to South Korea (although they claim it was a coal mine, and hey, who am I to say they aren't telling the truth with that one...).

Anyways, after that we went to a military base (seriously, I thought it was the DE-Militarized Zone...jk) from which we were shown the building/room that negotiations between the two sides are held. Our military escort told us some stories of the room, like why the flags shown are in a frame, and not free standing on a shelf (the flags used to be free standing, but the N. Koreans crossed over to the South side, took the flags off of the shelf, and used them to shine there shoes, so then they were replaced by the framed version). Then our guide tells us where we are in comparison to the border of North and South Korea. The table in the middle of the room (pictured) has a South Korean guard straddling the border. Those of us to the left of the guard (as I am in the picture) were standing in North Korea. Unfortunately, there was no customs control in the room so I didn't manage to get my passport stamped as proof, but I legitimately was in North Korea for a few minutes of my life. NBD. Not to worry, though; I have since returned (notice how I am posting this AFTER returning).

From there we continued our tour of the area, with our guide pointing out some major landmarks, such as the North Korean flag, the location of the Korea Axe Murder, and later Operation Paul Bunyan, as well as the Bridge of No Return. So here are the stories:

• Koreans are very proud people, so when South Korea put up a flag that was was higher than the North Korean flag, this was deemed unacceptable.  So North Korea proceeded in building an even higher flag post. This, among other things, caused controversy. There is now system that keeps things even on either side so as not to cause any further controversy. 
• There was a tree standing between two South Korean posts blocking the view from one to the other, so the South Koreans went to to cut it down. While doing so, a group of North Koreans approached them and proceeded to murder the South Koreans.
• After the Axe Murder incident, full military protection was given to the next try at trimming the tree. This included 23 vehicles, a 64 man S. Korean special forces team, trained in Tae Kwon Do, 27 US helicopters, as well as other air force security, and more to ensure the success of the operation. Total cost: roughly $3.5 million.
• After the Korean war, prisoners were taken to the bridge now called "Bridge of No Return" and given the option of which side they would like to be on. Anyone who crossed the bridge was not permitted to go back to the other side (hence the name)

Alright, so that's a lot of information for now, which means it's time for a break from blogging for tonight. More to come soon as continue my adventures here in Seoul.