June 9, 2011 Back to 서울

We packed up and cleaned the 한옥 hanok.  So many good memories here.  All of us have decided that staying in the 한옥 hanok has been one of the best experiences here on the study abroad.

Bad English or nonesense shirts.  Ben's was the best because there were so many spelling errors and random words put together.

On our way to 서울 Seoul, we stopped by 안동 Andong.  안동 Andong is special becuase they preserved many villages here.  For a while, they contemplated allowing it to be a tourist site.  The villages and greenery were really cool but they had a really dumb exhibit.  They had the Queen of England came and visit.  They built a whole exhibit talking and showcasing what the Queen touched and used when she came here.  All of us were like, "You have got to be kidding me."  Literally, "This is the chair where the Queen of England sat.  This what the Queen of England touched.  This is the tree that the Queen of England planted.  This is the rice cake that the Queen of England put to her lips."  The other students would say I'm not exaggerating.  Other than that it was beautiful to take a stroll down.  I took some pictures but I'll leave some unseen to save you the lameness.  Haha is that even a word?

Rest stop.  How pretty!

안동 Andong

It's Asia; everyone must have at least one crane picture!

Queen of England's exhibit...Lame.....

This tree had requests on paper tied around it in the village.

I wasn't aware that we were running for our lives?

After 안동 Andong, we went to a few 서원 seowons.  The first 서원 seowon was 병산서원 Byeongsan seowon.  It was to commemorate the scholarly achievement and virtue of the notable Confucian scholar and politician 유성룡  Yoo Sung Ryong. 



The next 서원 seowon we saw was 도산서원 Dosan seowon.  This 서원 seowon was to commemorate 이황 Yi Hwang.  He's also known as 퇴계/퇴도 Toegye (Twegye)/ Toedo (Twedo) and 문순공 Munsungong.  He's on the 1,000 원 won bill.  So if you see Korean currency and see 1,000 원 won bill (it's blue), that's him.  He's one of the most prominent Confucian scholars and Neo-Confuciansim. 



Dr. Peterson took us to a Confucian museum that was really neat because it stores all of the signs that are used for 서원 seowons and other important buildings.  Usually they don't let people see them but they made an exception for us today because we had a bigger group.

Juni got a bruise that looks like Fidel Castro.  Tee hee!

After seeing many sites relating to Confucianism, it was time to go back to 서월 Seoul.  It was around 8 and we were so hungry.  We stopped at a rest stop to grab some dinner but tonight turned out to be the worst dinner ever.  What store or restaurant closes at 8???  We weren't able to get anything except snacks at the gas station.  Have you ever been so hungry for good food only to be let down with crackers or cookies?  That was us tonight.  On the bus we watched the rest of the drama that we watched from going down to 김해 Gimhae.  It was night by the time we got to 서월 Seoul.  Hauling our luggage up the hill to the temple is not fun.  When we got to the temple, we crashed.