Korea Again and Again (Part 2): 25th International Forum Part 1 - Seoul to Muju

- August 20-24, 2014, Wednesday to Sunday.

- Here's the real deal. I was fortunate to be one of the three delegates of the Philippines to the 25th International Youth Forum, organized and sponsored by the National Council of Youth Organizations in Korea (NCYOK,) held from August 20-27, 2014, in Seoul and Muju. This year's theme was "Youth and World Peace." While I understand that world peace is something quite challenging to attain, I believe that the youth - with the aid of globalization and other factors - will be able to make the people of the world understand each other more. For those who know me, I am pushing for cultural diplomacy as an important agent of mutual understanding among nations. This is something that I've felt strongly about since I was ten years old. I felt that I did not want to let this opportunity pass, even though I had to cut down on out-of-country trips since I need to work on my thesis (I want to graduate so much,) because I knew that I would be part of a group of people who were passionate about this as I was (or even more than I was.) We were told that there were 77 of us from around 40 countries, making this the most diverse forum that I have attended so far.

- I arrived at far far away Banghwa after my bibim naengmyeon lunch in Insadong, and got to meet some of the other delegates in the function hall at the ground floor of the International Youth Center, our home in Seoul. I also got to walk around the vicinity with Chansakvitou (aka Grim,) my new Cambodian friend and co-delegate.

My favorite bibim naengmyeon for lunch.

Hello Banghwa!!

Philippines represent!!

- We had our welcome dinner after speeches made by Dr. Hahm Jong Han, president of NCYOK, H.E. Raul Hernandez, the ambassador of the Philippines to South Korea (woohoo Philippines represent!!) and a welcome speech by British delegate Georgia Drinkwater (yes, that's her surname, and she comes from the Isle of Man.)

NCYOK President Dr. Hahm Jong Han.

H.E. Raul Hernandez.

Hi Georgia!!

Classical crossover group. Dang I forgot their group's name.

With H.E. Raul Hernandez, Raisa, and Ms. Elaine Diza (cultural officer and attache of the Philippine embassy in Korea.)

Our co-delegate Roy was still on his way to Banghwa from the airport.

Yay!!

- We had an orientation and an ice breaking ceremony after dinner, where had to wear our orange forum shirt (as we are required to most of the time during the whole week.) While some had some "concerns" about the forum shirt being orange, I was quite happy with the color since I love the color orange. That's just me of course. We were grouped together based on our departments (for discussion purposes); I was part of the media department.

Orientation.

Introducing myself. I really look like an orange here.

Media department!!

- The following morning we attended the keynote lecture by Dr. Kwang Ho Chun, professor of Chonbuk University. He made us understand the two kinds of peace (positive and negative peace,) as well as the definitions of peace and peace studies.

- After lunch, we all had a four-hour ride to Muju, with one stopover. Muju is a (very) quiet county in central South Korea, famous for its Firefly Festival. While there were no fireflies when we got there, we were greeted by the impressive size and facilities of the newly-built Taekwondowon. The Taekwondowon was finished in 2013, and serves as a center for everything taekwondo (as the name "subtly" suggests.) It has taekwondo arenas, studios, and an auditorium for exhibitions, meeting/discussion rooms, and of course, the cozy hotel-like rooms where we all stayed for three nights.

With Jonghu and Chansakvitou.

My bus buddy Andre.

Four hours and a pee break later.

With Jonghu.

- After our first dinner in Muju, we attended the country case presentations prepared by the chosen delegates. It was interesting to know how peace was being understood and acted upon by the youth in different countries in the world. We also got to choose our president (Andre from The Netherlands,) and two vice presidents (Fajri from Indonesia, and Meriam from Algeria) who were tasked to facilitate and organize all the discussions of all departments. I told Andre that the stars probably aligned in favor of him, and the orange forum shirts that we all needed to wear were meant to honor him. (If you don't get this, the Dutch royal family's color is orange, so it's a very special color for the Dutch people.)

Country case presentations.

Our president, and two vice-presidents.

- Our second day in Muju (and third day of the forum) started with the Taekwondowon tour. We began with our minibuses passing by some of the nice Korean gardens, and a long hike up the observation deck. Most of us nearly died during that long hike up, especially for really sweaty people like me (and thus, my kind of people get dehydrated easily.)

"Climb ev'ry mountain."

View from the top.

Rainbow!!

On the way to the museum.

With Nepalese delegate Arati.

Do not underestimate my selfie skills. Been doing it with a digicam even before "selfie" became a buzzword.

- We later visited the Taekwondo museum, the only one in the world, and proceeded to the arena to watch a high-school taekwondo tournament. They were all too impressive. I wonder what would've happened if I continued doing taekwondo; I took taekwondo lessons for one summer when I was around 8 years old I think.

Museum!!

With Ummul and Hayeong.

Uniforms.

With Faj.

Everyone can do taekwondo!!

With Chansakvitou, aka "Grim."

Cue music: "Eye of the Tiger."

With ASEAN friends. Andre is an honorary ASEAN, he's ethnically Indonesian after all, despite being Dutch.

- Finally, we settled at the auditorium to watch a taekwondo exhibition. We had the chance to do some taekwondo afterwards too, only to fine out that the taekwondo routine that we were asked to do seemed to be a combination of taekwondo, cheerleading, and aerobics. It was fun to dance and kick around around, although as the routine got longer, I became confused with all the steps.

Makes me wonder about the trees that have died just so people can kick their processed carcasses.

It was an awesome exhibition though!!

Our turn!!

I'm the one with the long white pants.

Yes this was part of the routine.

Stole this photo from one of the other delegates.

- After lunch we had a discussion with our own departments, and had to present how our departments could help the youth in attaining world peace, or how the youth can participate in our departments to attain world peace. This was the first among six discussion sessions throughout the forum. We had to present our initial ideas in front of everyone in the second discussion session. These initial discussions were stepping stones do writing the charters to be voted on during the general assembly towards the end of the forum.

Carina from Panama facilitating the discussion. She looks like a teacher here.

Media group.

Presentation time.

- After dinner we had another group discussion, but this time, we had to choose a debate topic and side (proposition/opposition) from a box. I was not too familiar with the topic that I picked, although I still tried my best to contribute. The debate was to be held the following day. At the end of the day, everyone was really tired, and I just wanted to bury myself under the fluffy comforter of my bed.

- We woke up Saturday morning looking at a pile of white clothes in the breakfast hall. They were our uniforms for our actual taekwondo experience (apparently the one we had the day before was just a preview.) This time, we were separated into three groups, with each group occupying one studio.

View of the main building of Taekwondowon from my room's balcony.

"But first, let me take a selfie."

For those concerned, no I didn't use these showers. I just went in to take a selfie.

Waiting for classes to start.

- Our instructors made us do warm-ups and basic postures. Later on, we got to spar with each other. I think we spent around 3 whole hours for our taekwondo "training."

During break time. Had to steal this photo from someone again.

With my buddy for the first half of the session, David from Ukraine.

Giant Korean flag.

With our instructor.

Again I had to steal this photo from someone. It is such a nice photo but the only problem is that I'm not in it together with some others; we were in the changing rooms.

- Though we were still quite tired even after we had lunch, we had to prepare ourselves for the debate session (fourth discussion session) in the early afternoon. There were three topics for the debate, and one hour was reserved for each topic. The first topic was whether or not arms supply should be banned, the second was whether or not a more powerful international organization than the UN is needed, and the third one was whether or not media correctly portrays and represents the current situation of the world. The fruits of the debate were crucial in polishing the charters to be made by all the departments.

Preparing for debate.

- We had a brief rest after the debate, and went back to our departments to polish our charters. We had dinner afterwards, and attended a special lecture by Mr. Dan Gudgeon, who showed how sports can help in attaining peace between groups of people who have conflicts with each other. I felt that his presentation was somehow related or closer to my cultural diplomacy method.

Turned my water cup into a piggy nose.

With Ummul and Seul Gi.

With Mr. Dan Gudgeon.

- Our last morning in Muju was spent with doing Korean cultural activities. First, we got to paint our flags on traditional pottery, although we were not quite sure what NCYOK will do with our pots. Aside from that, we got to attend a janggu class. Now, we were not told about the janggu class when we were given the information sheet before the forum started, so I reserved my janggu class in Jeongdong Theater to be scheduled after the forum. Since we had a janggu class during the forum, well, the Jeongdong janggu class would just be additional training for me.

Painting pots in the morning.

Tada!! My work!!

With Ummul.

With Somwang, Ummul, and Kaimook.

Pottery painting briefly interrupted by janggu class.

I'm proud to say that I have my very own samulnori costume.

Drums.

With Zuzu from Czech Republic.

Polish Kamila and Vietnamese Anh with other Korean traditional instruments.

Panamanian Carina and Indian Sanskruti.

Our teacher.

Thanks for the photo Mouna!! :D:D:D:D

With Moroccan Mouna and Sanskruti.

Marcos from Argentina and panamanian Carina doing some latin dance. Dancing is in their people's blood yo.

In response, Somwang and I tried to do Lao dance (or at least I was attempting to.)

Yes, Bora from Turkey trolling around.

Sanskruti and her tiranga (tri-colored Indian flag.)

The Indian and the false Indian.

Go Philippines!!!!

With Sanskruti, Mouna, and Turkish Cansu.

Again, never underestimate my selfie skills.

Oktay from Azerbaijan proudly wearing his "pabo" hat, only to find out later on what it meant.

Our finished pots!!

Emote.

With Serbian Mateja.

With Jonghu and Andre.

Zuzu loves her jump shots.

Jae Woo and Zuzu and their model-like poses.

More Zuzu jump shots.

Keep going.

With Indian Kalpesh and Malaysian Jayson.

More latin dancing before saying bye-bye to Muju.

Bye Muju!!

- We had a nice long lunch after our fun morning, and had our final discussion session afterwards. We edited our charters and polished them further to be ready for voting in the assembly to be held the following day.

- The rest of the afternoon was spent inside the bus on the way back to Seoul. Andre, Mr. President from The Netherlands, was my bus buddy again. We reached Seoul around 10pm, and we had to work on some more editing before calling it a night. Everyone was tired working late at night, and it made me wonder how Andre, Faj, Meriam, and the other group leaders were able to work/ have meetings almost every night; sometimes they had to work until 12 or 1am. This particular evening, I represented my department, and fortunately I had less to edit, so I got to go ahead earlier (I finished around 11:40pm.) The main event of the forum was to come soon, and so I had to have my good night's rest yet again.