Korea University- Thursday July 28th

The academic portion of the trip begins today with a heavy all day schedule of learning about Korean Language, Traditional Arts and Culture. Our academic sessions are held at Korea University. This private university was established in 1905 and has enrollment around 35,000 students. The campus has a Hogwarts feel to it. The architecture reflects east coast building style with large granite buildings. It's beautiful with many tree lined paths.

Seoul, Korea- The first day!

After a long 12 hour flight from LAX, I arrived at the Incheon airport where I met the rest of the fellowship teachers. We travelled by bus together to the capital, Seoul, where we checked into our hotel and went straight to sleep.

Fun facts on Seoul:
Located on the Han river, it is the largest city in South Korea with over 10 million inhabitants. 1/4 of the population lives in the metropolitan area. It's considered one of the top economic cities because of it's leading global companies: Samsung, LG, Hyundai- Kia. It hosted the 1988 Summer Olympics, 2002 Fifa World Cup, 2010 G20 Summit. It is a thriving modern city.

Now, after a good night's sleep it's time for the trip to begin.

Of course this modern city has a clean and efficient subway, so that was our first stop to pick up a subway card and start the journey. We went to what is considered "old town/downtown." This is where most government buildings, palaces, businesses, markets and shopping is located. The main street had a garden in the center and at the end of the street is the Royal Palace. As we approached the palace we saw a large statue of King Sejong the fourth king of the Choson kingdom. He was a visionary that structured his leadership on Neo-Confucianism values. His leadership improved society in many ways. One way was through his dedication to knowledge and communication with all people of society. He improved education, technology, bureaucracy and is seen as a cultural icon for Korean people. The Gwanghwamun Palace is the first major royal Korean palace. During Japanese occupation it was nearly destroyed, but has been renovated to its original structure and location. The colors used are royal colors and the architecture design reflects Neo-Confucian ideology with simple natural styles and a structured purpose.

After we went to the National Folk Museum. The outdoor exhibit included wood and stone tall pillar like objects that are placed at the entrance of a village. They are considered guardians of the village. Inhabitants bring food and offerings in exchange for protection and blessings for crops. We also saw a cemetery that is almost similar and is an example of ancestor veneration.

In the past, scholars, aristocrats lived in this area surrounding the palace, but now this location is a more of a boutique trendy restaurant and shopping location. We ate lunch in a cafe and continued to stroll through this very cute neighborhood called Bukchon.

Time to rest a bit before the opening formal dinner tonight. I decided to go for a quick jog. As I jogged across the Han river and up the river front, I saw beautiful views of the city. The city has a large buildings along the river, but the views of the hills behind those buildings is amazing. It's an excellent combination of a nature and cosmopolitan. I loved seeing all the families and people walking around this huge grassy area, keeping cool by soaking their feet in these small fountain structures. As I ran back across the bridge,I was excited to learn more about what the lies within the structures. More to come tomorrow. For some reason I can't load the pictures. I will include it tomorrow!

End of the Year

Dear Students, I can't believe another year has come to an end. It seems like just yesterday that we were starting the year and eager about all the new things we would learn together. Now we have finished our goal for 2011-2012 and I am sad to see you go. I've had so much fun on this journey with you and am proud of each of you. You've all come a long way and I will never forget the memories we made this year. Sophomores, the end of the year Genocide project were outstanding! Your attention to detail, symbolism and capturing the mood of a monument was fantastic. Freshmen, your ancient civilization project have prepared you for the next journey AP. I will miss you all and look forward to seeing you on campus next year. Enjoy your summer! You deserve it!

Mrs. Jordan
p.s. Enjoy all the pictures.

There’s Light at the End of the Tunnel- Cambodian Genocide

Today's blog by Elizabeth Sreng is a historical and personal account about the Cambodian Genocide. She has written a personal account from memories of her family. This gives us a real understanding of what happened to the people during this very difficult time. Thank you Elizabeth and to her family for sharing their story.  I hope you will be inspired by their determination and perseverance. Mrs. Jordan

Historical Context:

On April 17, 1975, a devastating thing occurred in the country called Cambodia in South Eastern Asia.  It’s a date that is remembered by many who suffered during this genocide. Genocide is the deliberate and systematic extermination of a national, racial, political, or cultural group. What makes this genocide stand out above the rest is that it occurred between the people of the same country. A group of Cambodians, known as the Khmer Rouge went against the base and the new people. They forced them to leave their homes in the city to move to the countryside. They lied and told them that those areas were unoccupied, when in fact, they were. They were also told to leave all their possessions because they would be back in three days, but this was also another lie. In addition,they told them that the Americans were going to bomb them, but this is was also a lie. The reason for this lie is to ensure that there would be very little resistance. Furthermore, in the countryside, they were forced to work in tough conditions and were given barely any food. Most of the people were dying of starvation and were filled with diseases. Babies were not being nurtured and many couldn’t survive during this harsh time. When asked what occupation they were, people would have to lie in order to live. If you were an intellectual, then you were killed on the spot. This was to ensure that no one would be smart enough to rebel against the leader, Pol Pot. Their slogan was: “To spare you is no profit, to destroy you is no loss.” Some people were forced to dig deep graves and then were hit in the head with a bamboo stick and kicked into the hole to fall to their death. Two million people died in the span of three years and in 1979,finally the genocide came to an end.

Summary:

         Among the two million people that were killed during this genocide, there were many survivors and four of them live with me: both my parents and grandparents. They have told me many stories about it and we have watched the Killing Fields together. I’m amazed that they were able to survive; I don’t think that I would’ve been able to. My mother was taken away from her family. She told me once that she was allowed to come visit her parents, my grandparents, once every two months. She had to walk four miles to get back home and part of the time she was in a cemetery. She told me that it was really scary. In addition, after getting home, she had to walk another mile to fetch water in big pales for her grandmother. She would also steal some food from the neighbor and was beat until her back bled. She was given barely any food in the area where she was working. She was only eleven at the time, so this was extremely tough. Since she didn’t get the vitamins that she needed from food, she stopped growing and is now only 4’ 10’’.  In addition to that, she had to carry heavy objects on both her head and shoulder, objects that were heavier than her. She wasn’t allowed to say that she was sick because they would kill you if you were sick. If you couldn’t work for any reason, they had no reason to keep you alive. She witnessed her peers being severely beaten because they didn’t finish their assigned task in the time given.

         My grandparents were very well liked because my grandma was a hard worker and so was my grandpa in addition to kissing up to them every chance he got. If they weren’t liked, then, they wouldn’t be alive today. If they weren’t alive today, then there wouldn’t be Elizabeth Sreng. My grandma had to lie about her occupation when she told them that she was a grocery seller when in fact she was a computer programmer, which at the time was one of the highest paying jobs, which is a threat to the Khmer Rouge. Her two older brothers, on the other hand, couldn’t lie because they always lived in the country and were known for being teachers. My grandma had to watch them being taken away to be murdered when they were told that they were just being moved to work in a different city. It was heartbreaking and spent countless nights crying over the loss of her only brothers, nieces and nephews. My grandpa had to pick up human waste from house to house in buckets every morning and delivered them to people who would deliver them to a farm to be used as manure for the plants. My grandparents, mom and uncle had to escape to Thailand in December of 1979. Here, they had to stay at camps until my great-grandma on my grandpa’s side sponsored them to come live in America. At the time, she worked with the American Embassy and was brought to America in April of 1975, right before the genocide occurred. They arrived here in July 1980 and they’ve been here ever since.

         Furthermore, my father, who was only thirteen when the genocide took place, had quite a different experience from my mother because the area where he worked wasn’t as harsh on them and he got to live with his parents. My father worked on the farm with his father for most of the day and then would help chop up vegetables for the whole village to eat. The worst thing that he experienced was watching some of his siblings getting severely ill and not being able to get cured due to the lack of medicine. His siblings were forced to go work away from the family and didn’t have much food to eat, while he, living at home, had enough to eat. He also witnessed his uncle being taken away to be slaughtered due to his occupation as a teacher. His experience during this time wasn’t as bad as my mom’s and grandparents. He learned how to plant vegetables from his dad and got to spend quality time working alongside his father every day. Although, he enjoyed learning how to do this, he didn’t like the fact that he had to carry huge buckets of water to water fields of vegetables during hot days. He was very fortunate that his dad requested to let him stay and help him work with the planting and watering of vegetables. It wasn’t that he was the favorite out of the eight; it was only because he was the best at the job. His parents were separated from most of their children because their children were forced to leave and work. They would cry every night missing their children. My father was the only one that got to stay and live at home.

         As you can see, most Cambodians at the time, including my family, have suffered tremendous amounts of trauma, but in a way it forced them to become stronger and hard working. Although they spent three years and eight months hiding away from the truth, being tortured, and watching their family members being prosecuted, they still believe that knowledge is the key to having a successful life which is what they try to pass on to me. Both my parents came here at the ages of sixteen (mother) and twenty (father) not speaking a word of English. Despite this fact, they were still able to graduate from Cal State Long Beach with bachelor’s degrees and became great teachers. Listening to their stories has inspired me to work hard, so that one day, I can become whoever I want to be.

         I hope you have enjoyed their stories as much as I have.  

Questions to ponder:

Why did the Cambodians choose to go against their own people?

Why were the people living in some of the parts of the country treated differently when communists claim that everything had to be equal?

About our Blogger:

My name is Elizabeth Sreng and I am a sophomore. My hobbies include reading books hanging out with friends, and watching Glee. I chose to write about the Cambodian genocide because I am fascinated by my family’s stories and how they survived. I don’t think that I could have survived the torture, being separated from my parents, and the lack of food. I hope this will help you understand how tough it was to be living in Cambodia during this time period. 

Communism

Our next blog is from Julio Rodriguez. He writes about the introduction of communism to Russia. This write up describes how communism changes over time with each key leader. Enjoy and thank Julio for sharing with us.

Summary:

 Communism is a form of government in which the citizens control nothing. There is no class, because everyone receives the equal amount of goods and rights. Though, in communism, the government makes all of the choices, giving citizens no right to vote, elect, or make an opinion. This government also disallows religious influences among a population, including churches, chapels, priests, Baptists, and followers. In communism, the government owns all businesses, trades, and organizations; the citizens have control over nothing. In some cases, communist leaders will torture, imprison, or execute any dissidents that are against the government, no matter who they are. Most citizens who live under a communist government have the dread fro democracy.

            Converting from socialism, in the eighteenth and nineteenth century, Russia became the first country to adopt communism, in order to restore their modernization. At the time of the First World War, Russia was leading in the top industrialized countries, following the United States, two or three decades behind. Education and employment was limited, though with great benefits; students were convinced to achieve total literacy within two decades. The absolutism of the crown was one of the many features in the system of government, including the he absence of formal parliamentary institutions and the disordered powers of the undercover police. Fortunately, these problems required no battles or blood-shedding revolutions. Instead, the foundations of a proper parliamentary were presented in 1917.

During the time of socialism in the mid-1800s, Karl Marx, a Prussian Jew from Germany, felt as though communism would bring wealth and property to a society and a government.  The genesis of Russian Communism in the future was engraved with the halt of farm and factory workers, including laborers and managers in 1861, resulting in emigration from the agricultural areas of Russia, which was part of the Industrial Revolution. The rates of poverty and unemployment at that time cleared a passage to the idea of communism. After being defeated by Japan in the Russo-Japanese War in 1905, the devastated state of the Russian Empire created a need for complex changes.

            The “Communist Manifesto”, after Karl Marx’s death, had a great impact on

Vladimir Lenin, a Russian politician. Basing the Bolshevik Party on Marx’s principles of communist ideas, for Lenin was dedicated to carry these principles on in the Communist Revolution in 1917. Communist revolts that occurred throughout Europe following the Second World War were successfully eased by political powers.

            After Lenin’s death in 1925, Joseph Stalin, a military and congress commander, sought to begin a new era in Russia. He focused his intentions on bringing what would become the Soviet Union, to great heights. He adopted Communist ideals as he supported any revolution that arose. From that point forward, Stalin used the excuse of communism to become a totalitarian dictator, causing to become one of the most powerful rulers of the world.

            Along World War II, the Soviet Union advanced massively. Their growing technology and education had reached the highest rate of all nations. Though in communism, doctors had the chance for employment, to aide those whom are hurt or wounded. Hitler opposed the USSR’s ideals for communism, because he felt as those they were in competition with their government, or that they were even making replicas of their ideals. Therefore, Germany declared and attacked on the Soviet Union numerous times; the Soviets were almost always defeated, because they were unprepared, for they were also occupied with the battles on the Eastern Front. Even though around 23 million soldiers were killed during the battles, the Soviet Union remained one of the super leading countries of the world, for they had barely won victory in World War II, against the Soviet Union and its allies.

During the Cold War, after World War II, the Soviet Union was the accelerated in technology, also being the country were the government is the ultimate owner., ordering in judgment on its own. Apparently, Stalin’s Five-Year Plan and Soviet’s divide in production had a great impact on the nation. Unfortunately all private and self-own businesses were forbidden, allowing the government to take full charge in the industry. But the equality of society resulted in advanced aircraft, elite and powerful weaponry, well engineered electrical industrialization, and heavy industry machinery, including being the first to send a man into space. But their ally in World War II, the United States, became their enemy during the Cold War, because of America’s President Truman’s act of containment, which consisted of halting the spread of communism throughout the world. any other nation, whom was Communists, was supported by the Soviet Union, which included North Korea and North Vietnam. South Korea and South Vietnam were for democracy, so they were supported by the U.S. as they both fought their civil war. The Soviet Union was in competition as they tried their best to create the best nuclear weapons and their creation of advanced technology, involving space. Overall, the Soviet Union lost, when Stalin lost his life.

Stalin had died from a cerebral hemorrhage on March 6, 1953, leaving many in tears, for he had his country standing tall. Nikita Khrushchev took power after appointing Stalin’s flaws. In 1958, he had displayed himself as the highest as secretary of the party and the chairman of the council of ministers. But the party congress failed, causing Khrushchev to be replaced by a collective leader, Leonid Brezhnev, becoming the general secretary of the Party by the 1970s. Brezhnev made it possible to gain a Soviet constitution in 1977, eliminating all other parties, but this period was still a stagnant of Khrushchev’s reforms failure. The Soviet Union grew tired of Brezhnev’s efforts which did not move the country back to the top. So instead of falling to the lowest standards, the Communist Party decided to appoint Mikhail Gorbachev as president in 1985.

Still in the Cold War, Gorbachev wanted to shift its government to a brighter direction, by refreshing the economy and advancing its developments. Because they were not going anywhere in international standards, Gorbachev decided that the Soviet Union should call truce with America, by working with U.S. President Ronald Reagan to resolve their conflicts. One way to make peace would be for the Soviet Union to end its communism. In other parts of Europe, such as Germany, communism was dying. Agreements eventually came to terms, when Gorbachev created reforms, including glasnost, a policy permitting sincere discussion of political and social issues and liberated spread of news and information, eliminating propaganda.

When Gorbachev’s term in office came to an end, Boris Yeltsin was elected into presidency in 1990, signifying how democracy was coming true in the Soviet Union. Because the Soviet Union represented communism, it fell in 1991, resurrecting the country: Russia, though now democratic. Russia is now a country with liberty, peace, freedom, and happiness.

 About our Blogger:

My name is Julio Rodriguez. I am a tenth grader in Mrs. Jordan's World History Honors class. My current grade is a "B". To raise my grade, I have decided to write about Russian Communism in this blog, because it was a topic I had to write a research paper about for my English class. This topic is most interesting, because it is relevant to most other events in the twentirnth century. For fun, I enjoy exercising at the gym, reading books, and I love hanging out with fiends, anywhere that is enjoyable, such as the movies. I hope this article is most effective to your understanding of Russian Communism.

The Alamo

My trip to Texas is now coming to a close. I left Austin at 8:30 am and am now in Dallas waiting for my connection to Orange County. Even though the trip was a short 3 days it felt even shorter because of the fun I had with my sister, her husband and two adorable nephews. Across from Target in the plaza, I saw a great example of culinary Cultural Diffusion: Greek, Indian (not just Indian but Cholla Indian- I thought it was interesting since we talk about this small regional kingdom during the rise of the Indian Ocean Basin, Mexican and Mongolian. The topic of focus today is the Alamo in San Antonio, Texas. I hope you are all enjoying your break and see you all soon. Mrs. Jordan

Historical Context:

During the era Global Interactions, European nations began their voyages seeking quicker routes to the East. What ended up happening was a massive period of colonization also known as Old Imperialism (post Columbus 1492). While we know Spain was a major colonizer of Latin America, they also ventured to mainland North America to add to their possessions. Including gathering land and resources from colonial land Spain also wanted to spread Christianity to the indigenous people of the new world. One way they did this was to build missions.

Both Spain and France entered North America along the Southern Coast and had control over this land during different points in time. Spain first arrived in Texas in 1690, and then decided to colonize later in 1689. Native tribes resisted the Spanish presence which caused the missionaries to return to Mexico, abandoning Texas for some time.

The Spanish returned to East Texas in 1716, establishing several missions. Two years later, the first civilian settlement in San Antonio, Texas, was established. Indigenous attacks were a constant occurrence, which greatly discouraged settlers from moving to Texas, and it remained one of the least populated provinces of New Spain. Slowly, the number of missions in the province allowed for a peaceful relationship between natives and Spanish. The transition of power of Texas from France, Spain and Mexico is a bit complicated so remember this take place during Napoleon’s attempt to control Europe and his European diplomacy greatly influenced this piece of America.

During the Mexican Revolution 1810–1821, Texas experienced much turmoil. Spain was forced to relinquish its control of New Spain in 1821, and Texas became part of of the newly formed nation called Mexico. Since many people still were fearful of living in this unsettled land, the Mexican government allowed American citizens to immigrate to Texas and by 1835 many American citizens lived in Texas. The American residents greatly outnumbered the Mexican residents. After Santa Ana dissolved the new Mexican constitution, turmoil spread through the land. The Texans revolted and attempted to leave Mexico to form a new state called the Republic of Texas. In 1845, Texas joined the United States becoming the 28^th State. However keep in mind that from 1846-1848 The Mexican-American war was also occurring over territory in Southern California, New Mexico, Arizona and they also helped the US government helped the Texans win their independence. This war ended with the borders being settled at everything North of the Rio Grande belonging to the US and south of the river belongs to Mexico and that Mexico would give up Texas. In addition the US would pay Mexico $18 million dollars. These outcomes were written in The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.

Texas history is not finished there because during the civil war era it also played a role. More drama would occur during the civil war period over state vs federal control and Texas would then join the Confederate cause to support greater state control.

Summary:

Back to the Alamo, what was it and how does it fit into this time period? This was the first mission built in San Antonio built by Spain. It was the site where the Texan people revolted against President Santa Ana and sought independence from Mexico to form the Republic of Texas. A 13 day assault happened here with intense gun fire and battles. Many citizens stayed safe in the Alamo during the battle and it was the strong fortress of the city. This was one of the many battles that led to end of the revolution and led to victory for the Texans. It is now one of the most visited tourist sites in Texas because of it revolutionary history. The Alamo’s story has been told and retold through novels, movies and songs.