Dead Sea Scrolls - the birth of Christianity

On Saturday, I went to the War Memorial of Korea to see the Dead Sea Scrolls display. They are said to be the most important archaeological find of the 20th century and consist of over 800 documents - some of which are complete and incomplete. The scrolls are mostly made of dried animal skins on which Hebrew & Greek texts were written The scrolls were discovered in caves along the shores of the Dead Sea between 1947 and 1956.

The scrolls are considered to be vitally important as they are apparently the oldest copies of the Bible. There are many other artifacts on display, including gold jewelry, coins and items used in temples that are believed to have been used during Jesus' period.

It was awesome seeing everything, except that all the captions & explanations were in Hangul.

East Sea Part 1 – Breakfast @ the rest stop

Yesterday, I went on a road trip with dear Mr Lee (a 4^th grade homeroom teacher), his friend, Mrs Kim and one of my co-teacher’s / friend, Jin. We started our journey at 8:30am and traveled across the country to the East Sea.

...With Mr Lee & Mrs Kim

The journey wasn’t boring as we stopped at various resting places – first for breakfast and then snacks. And every few minutes, Mr Lee would say, “Helloooo…Miss Makhan, here is …” He was the perfect tour guide!

The ‘resting’ places here are pretty neat – many food stalls to choose from. It’s all so clean and everything smells really good. We had potatoes and noodles with tofu. And coffee to warm up.

East Sea Part 2 – Snow pics at Lee Seung-bok Memorial

I was told that eastern South Korea is mountainous, and I got very excited when I saw snow-capped mountains. We arrived in Gangwon Province and stopped at the Lee Seung-bok Memorial grounds. Here are a few snow pics:

East Sea Part 3 - Who is Lee Seung-bok?

10-year-old Lee Seung-bok and four family members were murdered by North Korean commandos on December 9, 1968 after the boy said, "I hate the Communist Party." A memorial has been established to commemorate him.

Jin & me in front of a portrait of Lee Seung-bok

A painting depicting a scene at Lee Seung-bok's funeral

This is his elementary school:



This is a model of the home in which Lee Seung-bok once lived:

East Sea Part 4 - The Museum of Natural Learning

Basically this was a room showing various animals that can be found in Korea. I took photo’s of most of the animals, except the snakes. I didn’t even walk past the display cabinet – that’s how bad I am!

My feet were numb from walking in the snow. Jin and I bought coffee to warm ourselves up, but it didn’t help much.

East Sea Part 5 – Gangneung

We left what seemed like a fairy tale setting and made our way to Gangneung. This is a popular tourist destination and also the birth place of Yul-gok. Who is Yul-gok? He is the man whose face appears on the 5,000 Won note.

from google images

There is also a statue of Sin Saim-dang … Yul-gok’s mother who was a renowned artist in her days.

We had lunch at a quaint tofu restaurant.

East Sea Part 6 – Gyeongpo Beach

At this stage I thought we were going to be on our way back home, but… we went to Gyeongpo Beach. This was the most awesome day ever – in one day, we were freezing but having fun in the snow AND we went to the beach!

I didn’t realize how happy I’d be seeing the beach since August when I left South Africa. There were many snack stalls around and we bought candy, nuts and candy floss – can’t remember when last I had that!