Soyan AKA the Hero of our Taekwondo film.

As I wrote yesterday, this first week after midterms has been kind of slow; so today I'll be writing about one of the midterm projects I worked on last week. All of my classes have been unexpectedly pretty simple, for a variety of reasons. One being that the instructors are Korean and therefore have varying ranges of competency in the English language. This could make grading papers by native speakers somehwat difficult. In addition our International Studies courses consist not only of native English speakers but Chinese, Korean, Japanese and other nationalities. They all have varying abilities in English as well, so having a more difficult body of coursework would be out of the question - grading papers expecting fluent college level English might be too much given that reality. Still, I've been surprised by how little homework and other assignments there actually are at Soonchunhyang.

That aside, today's topic of discussion is the midterm video project for my Contemporary Korean Cinema and Culture course. Each of the four discussion groups is assigned a topic - the possibilities included hanbok, kimchi and bibimbap, K-Pop and taekwondo. Our group chose taekwondo and set out to make a very low budget action film displaying the martial art. Every group seems to have had a different approach to filmmaking, and ours was pretty straightforward.

KyungAh plays the Beautiful Girl, and is a shoe-in for Best Actress in a Leading Role.

Akiko in her role as The Boss, chief bad guy.

There wasn't a script for our amazing film, it was all just thought up on the spot. Rather than a video camera we used an iPhone to film the shots that made up our 2 and a half minutes or so of action. Our main antagonist and director Akiko provided the phone and silly masks for the villains, as we wanted to create something that could make the class laugh. Everyone was assigned roles on the spot as well. Soyan was the hero due to his being the only member of our group who knew taekwondo. KyungAh was the heroine/damsel in distress the hero rescued with his martial prowess. Akiko was the Boss, the head villain, while I was her Canadian henchman.

When choosing a location to film, there are plenty of places to do so on campus. The K-Pop group filmed theirs in the lounge in the Global Village lobby. It appears that the kimchi/bibimbap group filmed theirs in a restaurant and then conducted interviews in and around Global Village. For our taekowndo film we travelled to the big lawn near the back gate of the school, through which one passes en route to most of the dining establishments in Sinchang. This wide open space was devoid of others on the day of filming, which made it ideal for our project.

Akiko as our illustrious director.

In sum I kind of felt like we were emulating the directorial style of Ed Wood - though we were intentionally being comedic. I say this because we only did one take of every shot, which means that the fight scene is hilariously akward. However, that was the whole idea. The rest of the filming was of each cast member explaining what their part was, for use as the film's credits.

It was pretty easy and entertaining to work on, and this was one of the hardest assignments for the semester thus far. What I can tell you from this experience is that finding people you work well with is very useful for the Korean Cinema class. Our group is very quick about coming up with ideas for our presentations and projects, which allows us to get on with the actual preparation work. Communication is important too, as one would expect, in order to ensure that your work is coordinated with the others, and that discussion topics end up tying in with one another.

During the Chuseok holiday way back in September, there was a special admission price for foreign residents to the Everland theme park and its neighboring Carribean Bay water park. I hadn't written about it because I've been keeping so busy doing lots of other things in Korea, many of them school related. Since it's been a little slow and because I recalled I'd yet to write on the subject, today I will show you some things about Everland.

Firstly it's important to note that you can't get directly to Everland from the subway, so some transferring will be necessary. The park itself is in Youngin, the closest station to which is Suwon. After you've exited Suwon station (seen above), you can board the 66-4 bus at the nearby terminal and ride it all the way to the park or at least near it. Once at the stop near the park another transfer to the Everland shuttle is required to actually reach the park proper.

Before we get to the park, a note on the city bus system in Korea. For the subway you need to buy a T-Money card and charge it, but this card is pretty useful for getting around off the rails. City busses use the card as a standard ticket, so you just scan yours and get on, then scan it again when you depart the bus. Some taxis (largely in Seoul) can accept the T-Money card as well. Busses here get pretty full quickly, as you can see by the above picture; get in line early if you can and your reward might well be a seat. You'll want one if you're going to everland, because it's about an hour and a half's ride from Suwon station.

Once you arrive at the park there's a special office that can handle special promotions like the one we took advantage of for Chuseok. The regular ticketing office can't help you with such things so it's best to head directly for this office. Doing so will save yourself and the park staff time and possible language difficulties. From the front arches (seen in the picture above) head right until you see a sign for the 'guest services and group ticket office' (more or less). The staff here will need your alien card or at least a copy of your passport for the special foreigner price during seasonal promotions. With these you'll only pay about $20 to get in instead of the regular $40. Not a bad deal, really.

Just after you've at last entered Everland the first things you'll see are buildings of various different national origins and styles before you. As you can see by the pictures they include western style and Arabic minaretts, all mixed together in the global area of the park. Having known only that it was a theme park and that it had been mentioned in a dialogue during my Korean 101 class, I hadn't known I'd see that. It was kind of oddly neat to see such a mixed assortment of structures in Korea, even if the stores in them had mostly items that were a bit too spendy for a college student.

A newly opened attraction at Everland is the Pororo Adventure, featuring characters from the popular children's show of the same title. It seemed to be very popular with families, since the line was pretty long just after we arrived mid-morning. Many of the other rides had very short wait times early in the day, though. So if you do go to Everland go early so that you can get in as many rides as you want before the biggest crowds arrive.

As far as ride selection goes, Everland has more rides than Lotte World from everything I've heard from friends who've been to the latter. There are a few roller coasters amongst the rides at the park so you have a bit of choice as to what sort of ride you'd like to go on. Not being particularly partial to roller coasters myself I found a few rides that were still at least a little entertaining. There's even a ski lift to cut short the time it takes to get from the America-themed area to near the Europe locale. The wait wasn't bad and the lift seats each had room for up to four people; additionally the lift provides an amazing view of the park and the surrounding green countryside.

Another ride we went on as a group was the sort of haunted mansion/ghost house ride which invovled shooting a laser gun at targets to trigger 'ghostly' activity. Having enjoyed such a ride at Universal Studios Orlando, I thought this ride was fun to try - it was very short though, so maybe not a second time. On the other hand multiple tries might enable one to get a better score, so it could be worth it. Be forewarned however that the lines for any attractions, especially those that are indoors, will be very long come early to mid afternoon as temperatures warm up. There are no single rider lines at Everland, so there's no quick way to get back on if you're by yourself.

As you can tell by what I've written so far, the park is separated into different themed lands, drawing immediate comparison to Disneyland in my mind. At Everland though you will find America, Europe, fantasy, wild kingdom and global areas, from what I recall over a month later. It's interesting to see how another culture portrays my own - in America it was mostly about rock and roll and cars. The entrance to the ski lift was mocked up like a gas station, for example, and the roller coaster there is rock and roll themed. Europe is more German than anything and has a German village as well as an Italian restaurant. There's also a row of false Dutch storefronts, the only establishments actually being food stands. Concessions are expectedly spendy at the park, though not quite as much as at an American one.

The Wild Kingdom area of Everland, here featuring a riding area for children.

Everland's German village becomes the Horror Village for the park's Halloween celebrations and events. Because after all, what's scarrier than Germany?

In addition to rides there are performances to catch all day long, just as you'd find at a park in America. Here though, you can see a traditional Korean puppet show! I didn't stay for it, but I did find it interesting that even in a very western-style attraction you can find snippets of the traditional still sneaking in. Elsewhere there are stage performances, including the Circus Elysion, which I did attend and can reccommend. The performers are mostly acrobats, making it sort of a Cirque de Soleil Lite; it was worth it to head in and watch though. Plus there's the added bonus that it's inside and thus out of the hot weather Korea has during summer and early autumn.

My family being part Dutch, I couldn't not take a picture of this.One of the park's squares, used for bigger performances and as part of the daily parade route.

Everland's lion mascots, reminding me even more of Disneyland.

Many of the items for sale in the gift shops are pretty cute or really cutesy (depending on your opinion of such things). A lot of them are animal themed, and obviously aimed at children looking for something to remember Everland by. Here are a few of the animal keychains, most around 4,000 won (approx. $4 US). However...

If violence is more your thing they also have, for some reason, heavy metal gun shaped keychains as well. Here you can see just some of the firearm keychains Everland has on offer: a handgun, a sniper rifle and an assault rifle. Why does Everland have these for sale? Maybe it's because of the ever-present reality of military service for all men, maybe not. Maybe it's just to give boys an alternative souvenier of the park. Whatever the case it was incredibly strange to find these keychains, and I ended up buying one for a friend in the U.S. for 4500 won ($4.50).

Another thing I've noticed about Korea is that many places have their female empolyees dress up in costumes while on the job. This of course is to be expected at an amusement park; the young lady above was working at a souvenier stand near the German/Horror Village and graciously allowed me to photograph her. People here will usually agree to let you take their picture but always aske first or prepare to get a weird look. But back on the subject of costumes as uniforms, you'll find the same kind of thing in two places for sure. For one I've noticed that in department stores, especially in the gift set department (usually shampoo and toiletries or fruit, as both are expensive here), some female employees wear hanbok, the traditional Korean garb. Cosmetic stores also regularly have a sales girl in a cute outfit standing outside an loudly trying to attract customers, sometimes literally pulling them into a store. Very peculiar and not something you'd see in the USA.

One of the many places to sit and relax, or take a nice stroll in Everland.

Honestly I have no idea what this sign means. Is it pottery crafted to contain beer? Is it pottery made from beer? Is it beer made from pottery? I don't know. But it's one of the false storefronts in the Amsterdam market street area.

It certainly looks nice, but I don't believe that burgers are European. Remember that just as at any other theme park the food at Everland is kind of spendy. Places like this are even more expensive than the food stands.

Finally it's worth nothing that there were many decorations up celebrating Everland's 35th anniversary this year. It seems that there has perhaps been a park on the site longer than Everland itself has existed. Case in point: the old ferris wheel, which is no longer in service but has been part of the park in one form or another since the beginning in the 60s or 70s. Some history of the ferris wheel was available, but most of it was in Korean. Since I am not fluent in the language yet I couldn't grasp the full story of this piece of Everland history.

So overall, what was Everland like? It's a nice park though smaller than I had expected to be honest. Walking around the park took perhaps 45 minutes or an hour, including stopping to window shop a bit. Many of the rides are more intensive than I was willing to try on a hot day but there are a few indoor and water-based attractions too. During the summer I would strongly suggest the log flume and rapids rides if you don't mind getting wet. I don't know that I would pay full price to go to Everland, but at a discounted rate it was a fun experience.

For this update, I bring you details of the free admission museum I most recently visited: the War Memorial of Korea. To get here you'll need to get on line 3 or 4 and disembark at Samgakji (a transfer hub for both lines), then follow the signs to get to the surface down the street from the museum. This was another place I'd not gone before, but had been aware of pretty early on. Yet every time I went Samgakji I was transferring to one line or the other and never bothered to have a look at the War Memorial. So last weekend I decided to just go and have a look at long last.

Above is the view of the street just outside the exit from Samgakji station; at first I wasn't sure which direction to head. The travel guide helped out yet again by showing which direction the famous statue of two brothers was from the exit. As it turned out the War Memorial is directly adjacent to the statue, so it's easy enough to find by heading that way. However the statue itself was fenced off when I visited, possibly in conjunction with the concert that was being held in the evening (and which tickets were required for).

The War Memorial itself was bigger than I'd imagined it would be, with two corridors leading up to the main building. There's also a large plaza in front of the museum portion, but this was blocked off because of said concert in honor of Korea's wartime UN allies. Each corridor has plaques bearing the names of all those who fell in defense of the Republic of Korea during the 1950-53 war. Those of American servicemen and women are organized by state. It was impressive to see how many flags were flying in recognition of the UN forces as well - I honestly hadn't been aware that so many nations had participated in the Korean War.

I had been under the impression that the museum was only inside the Memorial, but was in for another big surprise. Because I had to go around the long way in order to reach the main hall of the museum I came across a huge courtyard full of military vehicles and aircraft. Many were used or were examples of those used during the war, while others are later ROK military issue. I'm admittedly a big history buff, especially for military aviation, so this was a wonderful discovery. While I've been to many air museums in the USA, this was so much more interactive since I could go right up to the planes, touch them, and in some cases go inside.

Being that it's open air too, it was a nice and relaxed feel as I made my way around the courtyard to look at all the exhibits as it were. A lot of Korean families were present too, so it was an opportunity to see how they look at such an outdoor museum. Many children were happy to play on the gun turrets that were on display elsewhere, as well as climb up to look at tanks more closely. To have these machines designed for killing turned into something that children can enjoy was very peculiar. While climbing out of an armored personnel carrier's back, one little boy even smiled and greeted me with an 'anyung haseyo'. So going to the War Memorial can be a chance to interact with Korean people as well. One father even took stopped with his son and offered to take a picture of me alongside an airplane. I was very greatful for his assistance, which had been unsolicited but very appreciated.

Another thing that surprised me was that there weren't only South Korean and UN planes and vehicles to see. Captured North Korean aircraft and tanks were also present. Included in the assorted Communist exhibits was the above MiG fighter, which was flown by a North Korean pilot who accepted an offer to defect to the South in 1953. According to the plaque this is the actual airplane, not a replica, so you can actually touch history! Not to mention getting to see and touch something that was once in North Korea. A very unexpected but oddly cool experience; there were also Soviet and Chinese-manufactured tanks, including the T-34 seen below.

What impressed me most was just the sheer number of things to see and do outside the actual museum and its exhibits. Not only are there airplanes, tanks and APCs, but also rockets, a full scale mockup of a Korean warship to tour, a North Korean semi-submarine, and naval guns you can actually sit in. A full size turret is there, and you can climb inside to see how cramped it really is to be in one. The last picture above was taken out of the turret's top hatch.

It's easy to forget that the rest of the museum exists when you're having a look at everything outside the building. I probably spent an hour and a half going around to see all that had been set out and learning about the different vehicles and weapons. Indoors the museum is also pretty cool, but that will be reserved for another blog that will be forthcoming soon. All in all I can heartily reccommend adding the War Memorial to your To-Do list if you have an interest in modern Korean history.