It feels like each weekend there is always somewhere I have to go! I honestly do not mind one bit, because where I live I have to drive many miles to attend a museum. Last weekend my Hanyang buddy Sean invited us to stay over at his house, and show us around his hometown. He lives about an hour away from Seoul, and thankfully the subway can take us with ease!
Once we arrived in Samsong, we headed to Starfield Mall. This mall has almost every store inside! The mixture between American clothing and Korean brands was astonishing. On the fourth floor was a indoor sports game center. In here, you can zip line, rock climb, perform obstacles, slide down a huge slide, and more! This place had everything from sports such as soccer, basketball, baseball, cycling, and volleyball! We spent a good three hours just trying to play all these games, and the best part was that we did not even know that the time had flown by so fast! Once we had finished we decided to eat something to eat and look around the mall at some of the stores! One of my wishes was to see a Levi’s store since I told my coworkers I would take pictures when I found one! Behold,I found one and went inside and looked around, it felt like I was back at home getting that feeling of helping customers. This time I was the customer, and I looked around!
After another hour looking at the stores, we headed off to the park! Here, we decided to rent some bicycles to explore the park and admire the afternoon. One of my biggest fears was actually riding a bicycle, since I fell down while riding one as a child. I told myself that I had to give it one try and overcome this fear. I wanted to ride with my other friends. With some words of encouragement from my friends, I was able to ride for miles and miles! We took breaks in between since I was the only one who had little experience on a bike. The view was something to witness! Everyone was starting to feel a little hungry so we walked into downtown and looked around for a small snack. There were people selling street food, singing, and doing magic! We stopped to see everything around. However, what made my day the most was finding an authentic Mexican food.
I felt like I was going to cry, because I missed the food back at home. I enjoyed every second of the sandwich! I told him that I would come back more often regardless of how far he is. This brought back so many memories of my mothers cooking and this warm feeling washed over me. Now that the day concluded we decided to head to the sauna to cleanse our bodies from today. Overall, I enjoyed this day so much because I was able to do so many things and try so much food!
On Sunday, we headed to Imjingak. This location was build after the South & North Joint statement in 1972. Imjingak is home to the National Memorial of Abductees during the Korean War. Here, people can see and witness the pain that the Korean War brought. In the museum, you could see what were the causes, process, and attempts to return people. On the first level they reenacted a scene of a young teenager around sixteen getting abducted by North Korean soldiers. The mother trying to restrain them from taking her son, and the son sadly agreeing to go with them. This made me feel sad, because seeing someone get taken before my eyes just make me upset. In other areas of the museum there were names of people who are still missing to this day.
Even though this happened during the Korean War, the citizens here still wish for unification some day. There are more symbols such as
Bell of Peace: This represents the peace of mankind and hopes unification of the Korean nation.
Steam Locomotive: A symbol of the tragedy between North & South Korean, because it was left at the DMZ due to bomb explosions during the war.
Bridge of Freedom: The bridge was constructed to free around 13,000 people.
Believe it or not, we were close to the North & South Korean border. From what I could see in the distance was nothing. There was just a vast and empty fields, no building, houses, or trees. I honestly had one of the best weekends ever! Sean has showed me many places, but this one touches my heart the most. I will never forget the feelings I had when I witness the short reenactment. Stay tuned for more of my adventures!