Delicious sandwiches, Beomeosa Temple, walking by the creek, watermelon from strangers, margaritas and people watching, good conversation on an incredibly crowded beach-ee at night, umbrellas galore, swimming in the ocean, pictures with weirdos, Spaland, and a fabulous massage-ee. Bye-bye Busan!
This weekend took my friends and I to Haeinsa Temple. This is one of 16 temples that offer a cultural program to experience the life of Buddhist practitioners in a traditional temple. The program started at 4:00pm on Saturday and was finished by 10:00am on Sunday. Though less than 24 hours, the experience was amazing.  Day 1 Getting to the temple was a bit of a chore...train to Daegu, 90 minute bus ride up the mountain, then a bit of a walk up to the temple. Upon arrival, we were promptly given our temple attire and lead to our room so we could change. Once we donned our temple outfit, it was time to learn the ropes. We learned the proper greeting, the proper bow, the proper way to hold our hands and the proper way to meditate. We were told that we were supposed to remain as silent as possible throughout the entire event, especially while eating. Now that we were properly trained, it was time to head out into the temple. First stop was dinner. We had a traditional Buddhist meal which was eaten in silence. After dinner we watched the drum ceremony and then went into the main temple. While in the temple, the monks performed their evening ceremony with chanting, bell ringing and lots of bowing. We were instructed to bow as the monks did. After the ceremony, we had a Q & A session with one of the monks. We enjoyed some lotus tea as he answered our questions. Finally, it was time for bed. Our room slept about 10 people on the floor with traditional Korean sleeping mats. A short clip of the drum ceremony... Day 2 Our wake-up call was at 3:00am. At 3:20, we were lined up to watch the morning drum ceremony. It was basically the same as we had observed last night, but it felt different being in the dark with the stars above. We then moved to the main temple for the morning ceremony. This one was also similar to the previous nights, but the chanting seemed to go on longer and it felt like we did a lot more bowing. After the ceremony, we moved to another room to do our bowing and meditation. A monk came to lead us through the events. The bowing turned out to be quite a workout. For the bow, we start in the standing position, then drop to our knees, put our hands down in front of us, then put our forehead on the mat. Next, we turn our hands over so the palms face up, then turn the palms back over, sit up, and finally we return to a standing position. We did this 108 times...and boy did I feel it later! After bowing, we did two 20-minute sessions of meditation then went to breakfast. After breakfast, it was time to do our community work. My friends and I swept some of the common areas. Other people cleaned up the rooms. The morning ended with a tour of the temple. We saw several areas including the Tripitaka Koreana. These are wooden blocks that are carved with Buddhist scriptures that date back to the 13th century. There are 81,258 wood blocks with 52,382,960 characters. In 1995, these blocks (as well as the building that houses them) were added to the UNESCO World Heritage List. After the tour, our templestay officially ended, but we could still explore the grounds on our own. We took a few more pictures then headed to the bus for the journey back home. All in all, it was an amazing experience! This weekend we joined Adventure Korea for a trip to Gyeongju. On day one, we rented bicycles and rode all over the city. The plan was to ride among all the beautiful cherry blossoms, but unfortunately they weren’t quite ready to bloom. During the day, we saw Bomun Lake, enjoyed a delicious Korean lunch, saw several tombs, and visited the famous Gyeongju Observatory. At the observatory, there was some type of festival going on, so we were able to participate in a tea ceremony. After looking around, we were back on the bikes to get to our meeting spot. Just one flat tire to deal with on the way. :-P After 7 hours of biking and touring, we returned to the hostel before dinner. The outside was absolutely beautiful as it resembled a palace. The inside was traditional Korean style which means you were given a mat and you slept on the floor. Not my favorite. We walked to a local place for dinner. We enjoyed some Korean food and had some dongdongju-korean rice wine…okay, so it was 3 troughs of dongdongju. We laughed our way back to the hostel, stopping to play in a playground, and then headed to bed. On Sunday, the day started with an attempt to find a coffee shop. No luck. :-( I don’t understand why coffee places open so late in Korea. Seems to be a trend anywhere we go. Anyways, after breakfast, my friends headed to Seokgulam Grotto. I skipped the short hike as I had been there before and I’m still nursing a sprained ankle. After the grotto, we all went to Bulguksa Temple. I had come here in the fall but it had a different look in the spring. Although the cherry blossoms were not in full bloom, there were a few here & there and several other flowers. Very nice. After the temple, we had lunch at an all-you-can-eat Korean buffet then headed for home. As we went back to the bus station in the downtown area, we saw that many of the trees had bloomed since yesterday…doh…one day late. Oh well. Last Saturday, I went with my friend Carrie and her Korean co-teacher, Sunny, to check out some temples. All the temples I have seen are amazing and have such intricate detail on the buildings...everytime I see a different temple I am still amazed. The first temple, Unmunsa Temple, was about an hour away and was located in some mountains. It was absolutely beautiful here and the fall colors were stunning. (Living in southern CA my whole life, I've really missed out when it comes to autumn.) This temple is a training center for female Buddhist monks. After touring the temple in the rain, we went back to the car for a "picnic" that Sunny had packed for us. We had sushi, bread, pears and green tea. An interesting experience all around...sitting in a small car, eating lunch in the pouring rain, and sipping tea. We headed to the Seoknamsa Temple after lunch. The walk to this temple was very nice as it followed a river. The fall colors were also nice here, but not as brilliant as the ones at Unmunsa Temple. To get to the temple, you had to cross a beautiful stone bridge...an excellent kodak moment. Again, another amazing temple to look at. Here are some pictures from the day: It appears to be common practice in Korean schools to take staff trips...day trips, weekend trips (at least once a year), or an evening trip for Soju and noribong (Karaoke). My undersatnding is that you will attend unless you have a very good reason not to. Last week, we were informed that we would be taking a trip today. The trip was quite nice. The first stop was the Gyeongju Bulguksa temple. It was beautiful...the temple itself and the amazing fall colors surrounding it. Apparently all the schools wanted to take a field trip to this temple today as there will tons of kiddos around. The next stop was the Seokguram Grotto. I loved the Buddha statue that was housed here...it was carved from stone. After visiting both places, we headed back to Samsan-dong to enjoy a feast at the D'Maris buffet. A very nice day...it was too bad that I had to return to work and teach until 10:00pm that night. Here are some pictures of the day. | AuthorKatie DeGraffenreid  ArchivesAugust 2012 CategoriesAll |
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