Gyeongju and Buddha etc

I’ve gotten a few emails recently asking me about my blog…I guess that means I should write an update. I haven’t done much noteworthy lately…well, no big trips anyway. Actually come to think of it, I’m not sure I ever wrote about my trip to Gyeongju?

 In April I went to Gyeongju with my friends and Adventure Korea. Gyeongju is the ancient capitol of the Silla dynasty, and therefore a huge tourist attraction with a lot of historic and archaeological sites. Also many really large burial mounds. We rented bikes and rode all around the city taking pictures and enjoying the sites.

We had a friend group of about 10. For lunch, we shared some really good but expensive bulgogi with excellent banchon (side dishes). The seating was traditional style so we all sat on a raised platform on the floor around the table. Then for dessert we went next door where there was a soft serve ice cream machine(!) so we all had an ice cream cone for 1,000 won.

My favorite site was the burial mounds. As an anthropologist at heart, burial practices are infinitely interesting to me. The practice of burial mounds is an ancient one and seen in cultures all over the world. It's still practiced here in fact. However I've never gotten a solid answer as to what was inside the burial mounds. Of course the modern ones differ from these gigantic ancient mounds. But here, there was one mound that had been opened(or actually it was a fake one among the real ones). So you can go inside and see what the mounds are made of. At the base is a wooden coffin with the body decorated with gold and armor. Then there is a wood box around that. Then it's covered with a big mound of stones, then that's covered with dirt. It was really interesting to me, but I think the others found it boring.

That night we went to our hotel. Usually on these trips we stay in traditional style rooms, which means lots of blankets and pillows and sleeping on the floor. I wouldn’t have thought I’d like that but I’ve come to be accustomed to sleeping on a hard surface and with all the blankets and floor heating, it’s really quite comfortable. Anyway, that night several of the people in our group have a band, so they broke out their instruments and played while the rest of us played cards and/or sang along. There was a guitar, banjo, and mandolin. It was a really low key evening and a lot of fun.

The whole point of the trip was to view the cherry blossoms, but this year they were a bit late blooming so there weren’t really any out. Regardless, it was a fun trip and I was really pleased to have made it to Gyeongju finally. Since then I’ve been staying close to home on weekends. I do usually still go to Seoul on weekends, or at least every other weekend, to do some shopping or just wander around.

Yesterday I decided to head to the area around Seoul City Hall, just because it’s been a long time since I’ve been there. I had no agenda, just wanted to walk around and be in the heart of one of the biggest cities in the world. There was a new photo display up in front of city hall. It was about the Gwangju people’s uprising of 1980. If you don’t know about it, you should try to find the movie “Gwangju Democratization Movement”. Or google it. Basically, Korea was under a dictatorship at the time and a group of activists held an uprising in protest and were brutally quashed by the government/military. The photo display showed a lot of brutality and was very interesting. Just down the road is a somewhat permanent photo display of Korea during the war.

Viewing all these photos made me think that actually, this very moment is the most prosperous and peaceful this country has been in at least a century. It makes it an exciting time to be here. Even in almost 2 years I’ve been here, I’ve seen changes in this country. Neighborhoods being revitalized and new commercial districts going up. Farmland being seized and new developments being built. For anyone who was here 40, 20, 10, even 5 years ago, it’s a different place now.

As I continued wandering, I had the vague idea to head towards a Chipotle-style restaurant I know of. On the way, I meandered along the Cheonggyecheon stream that cuts through central Seoul. I’m pretty sure I’ve mentioned it before. It was a hot, sunny day so lots of people were there. On my way, I came across a festival. I checked it out to discover it was a festival for Buddha’s birthday, which is celebrated this coming Monday. There were lots of booths set up to teach visitors about Buddhism from all over Asia, traditional Korean and Buddhist art, and lots of crafts and games. It was pretty neat to see the Buddhist monks and practitioners in their beautiful regalia. There were foreigners from all over the world there.

Among the throngs of people, I ran in to some people I know from Gimpo, they couple that replaced me at Tomato. We said hello and parted ways. I love how pretty much every time I go to Seoul I run in to a familiar face. It’s interesting how that can happen in such a large city. But it makes it feel much smaller.
There is a Buddhist temple downtown and the festival was on a blocked off street in front of it. The temple was covered in multi-colored paper lanterns. A ceiling had been constructed of them. You were able to go in to the main temple and pray by the altar. However not knowing the proper method, I stayed outside and looked in the giant doors that were open to reveal the golden statues of Buddha inside. I’ve been considering a temple stay since my Busan one fell through when I was sick last fall. Maybe I’ll go to this temple in Seoul. It’s easy to do in a weekend.

Anyway my wanderings soon found me in Insadong, the artisan area of Seoul that’s really great for window shopping. I did give in and buy a handmade bell hat when the ajummas window shopping beside me remarked how beautiful it was and when I asked, told me I should buy it. Don’t worry, I asked for and got a discount on it. I decided against the Mexican restaurant and headed home to make a simple meal myself.

I was quite tired, as Saturday (this festival was on Sunday) we had had a sort of ‘field days’ with our company that lasted from 10-5 in the sun, playing games and drinking beer. It had been a fun day but the weekend full of sun had left me exhausted. Now I’m on to a new week at school. We are coming to the end of the term so this week we’re doing term testing so it’s pretty easy.

Next Monday is Buddha’s birthday so we’ll have the day off. That Sunday I’m going to my friend Damien’s son’s first birthday party. Then in mid-June I’m signed up for a trip to the World’s Fair in Yeosu with my friends and Adventure Korea. I’m really looking forward to that once in a lifetime event! I’ll try to add more entries before then, but at the very least you can be sure of an entry about the World Expo!