Gwangju Field Trip

While we were in Gwangju for our provincial orientation we got to go on a cool field trip.
First we went to a memorial. In the 1980 there was a military coup that took over the South Korean government and in Gwangju there was huge resistance so they sent in the military and shut down the city and all the roads in and out. There were uprisings and the military started beating and shooting people, some of the people were even innocent and weren't involved in the uprisings. Its called the May 18th Democratic Uprising. Anyway, this event was the beginning of the democratization of the country. It led to several other uprisings in the 80s that eventually led to democracy.
Now they have a huge memorial for the victims of the massacre. It is crazy to see that this stuff was going on just 30 years or so ago. Before coming here I didn't know much about Korean history after the Korean war. One of our lectures was on Korean history of the last hundred years or so. It was very interesting to learn about the progression of the government and also the economy.

It is also a national cemetery and everyone who was killed in the massacre is buried there. Those who participated in the resistance and uprising who have died since are buried there as well. There was also a really cool museum but I didn't get any pictures of it.
After the memorial we went to a performance. They did various traditional Korean songs and dances. It was really cool except we had to sit on the floor and it was almost a 2 hour performance so by the time it was over I couldn't feel my legs, but other than that it was awesome.

Our whole group with the cast.

After the performance we jumped back on the buses and headed to a Bamboo forest. It was kinda cool. Just a big hill of huge bamboo shoots with trails running through it. They also had a souvenir shop in the midst of the bamboo where we bought some bamboo ice cream. It was really good. 

(Went to take this picture and Paul decided to turn around)

My co-teacher, me, and my roommate and his co-teacher enjoying bamboo ice cream.

After the Bamboo Forest they took us to dinner at a pretty fancy restaurant. We had a whole 7 course meal. It was really good. 

They gave us our rice in bamboo cups, that was kinda cool.

 On the last day of provincial orientation we had a ceremony where people from our individual schools came to pick us up and take us to our apartments, schools, etc. My mentor teacher (teacher that is in charge of helping me out with anything I need) and my vice principal came to pick me up.
Anyway we had to perform for them to try and impress them. Half of us sang and the other half played Korean instruments. I didn't get to play a cool instrument but that ok because they had to practice really hard for several days in a row and our practices were pretty short and simple and I already knew the song so it was no pressure. Well no pressure until they decided I should do a solo. Yes Layne! I sang...again. ;).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQDjjd2-XgM 

Here is the cooler performance which I wasn't a part of:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rj-WsZYqVg
It's really long so I can't believe they learned that whole thing in 4 days.