Journal Entry 6/1/2009
Guess what? Another boat ride! This time to Geoje Island to see the Korean War POW camp museum. They refer to it as the 6.25 ware because it started on June 25, 1950. it ended as a stalemate where the north and south peace negotiations lead to a ceasefire at the 38th parallel on July 27, 1953. This is where the DMZ is located.
It held over 70,000 POWs. It was later reconstructed into a museum to remember the camps. The museum itself was rather corny but it had a lot of facts about the war that I never knew. The United States never officially called it a war as to stay out of matters.
Next we went to the Okpo Shipyard. In 2000 it became DSME: Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering. This was in efforts to break away from Daewoo Heavy Industries (along with Hyundai and Samsung Industries). It is one of the largest shipbuilders in the world.
We went on a tour through the grounds and it is more like a small community than just a shipyard. There are schools, hospitals, hotels, and restaurants. DSME builds merchant ships such as FPSO, LNG and Rigs for drilling and also creates naval ships such as destroyers and submarines.
We had free time after we got back into Busan so all the boys went out together and all the girls went out together. Jen, Jan, and I all got fake eyelashes put on for only 40,000 won. We had to lay down with our eyes closed for an hour while they glued them on. It was totally worth it. They’ll last for about 3-4 weeks.
In 2009 I traveled to South Korea to study abroad. I kept a diary of each day of my visit. When I returned to the United States, I created these digitized posts of my entries and the images that I took on each corresponding day. You can find all the South Korea journal entries here.
