Isaac ’27 and Saadia ’27 recount a visit to Hanok Village and an entertaining group activity.
This morning my roommate and I packed up our things as we were going to leave our rooms. I was feeling a little sad because Jesse and I’s dynamic was good, but was excited to learn who my new roommate was. In the morning, we went to Hanok Village and had this really sweet tour guide volunteer who explained everything to us very well, and I could tell he was very passionate about his job. One thing I learned about Hanok Village was that Chinese was used to show elite status, and it was cool to practice my own Chinese reading while in Korea. The food today was great. After a traditional soup lunch, we went to a place that specialized in green tea desserts and smoothies and I ordered the green tea waffle which tasted amazing. After that, we went shopping, and our tour guide Bella gave us Korean skincare, which felt great on my skin before going to bed. Following that, we went into our groups to explore the museum and brainstorm ideas for the competition. For the competition we were split into three groups and had to create an interpretive dance or act or song about our trip so far. Inside the museum Victoria, Mia, Mac, and I met the representatives of South Sudan, which really surprised us. Victoria had some connections with the representatives of Kenya so we introduced ourselves to the representative and talked about why he was in Korea (for the Korea-Africa Summit). For the competition, our group made a story about a North Korean who has a LiNK (Liberty in North Korea) member rescue him from the grasp of Kim Jung Un. It was really fun to do and even more fun to watch our peers in what they chose to do. Even though we lost, we had a great time. The competition gave me better organizational and planning skills as we created the interpretive act. It connected to the trip’s theme of leadership as we had to adapt to people’s needs and lead each other into creating an entertaining activity.
-Isaac ’27
Hanok Village: a place filled with prosperity and deep-engrained history that has influenced Korean culture. On June 6, we departed from our hotel in the morning to visit the beautiful Hanok village. When we stepped inside, we were greeted by our tour guide, June. June explained why so many elderly people led tours of the site. He briefly explained how they are all retired and chose to volunteer because a passion of Korean history arose. Through our walk I found the format of the house very interesting. The male and female slept in completely different rooms, and females had significantly more rooms than the male. This tour made me very informed of how life was like in the Hanok village. And thanks to our tour guide June for making it very special by checking in on us consistently to make sure all of our questions were answered. Something I learned from this visit was how significantly gender roles influenced the format of the village.
We then visited the National Korean History Museum. In our exploration of the NKHM the teachers insisted we walk in groups without them. They did this to see if we can showcase leadership without someone guiding us through the museum. My group did pretty well satisfying everyone’s needs and making sure we understood enough about Korean culture. We also had to access our creative minds for our next activity. Our next activity was to make a skit. It could either be a rap, poem, or a dance. This skit had to be at least three minutes that showcased what we did in the past five days. In my group, we did a rap remix over the song “Flashing Lights.” This activity was the highlight of my day because I was able to see the funniest and creative acts from my friends. We all put so much effort in the activity which made the activity way more entertaining. Something I took away from the National Korean History Museum is the portraits, specifically the portraits of the kings. It was very interesting to see how significant the placement of the king inside the portraits were.
-Saadia ’27
