together again

In the summer of 2008 (summer for the northern hemisphere, that is) I spent 5 weeks studying spanish in the guatemalan town of quetzaltenango...no one calls it by that name though, it's almost always shortened to xela (shay-la)...xela is a great place to study spanish...it's the 2nd largest city in the country, but there are almost no tourist sights there, so there is nothing to distract you from studying...foreigners go there because there is very little english spoken locally...there are a number of spanish schools, all offering basically the same thing: 25 hours a week of 1 on 1 spanish tutoring, along with a homestay...it's a fantastic way to learn the language...and in guatemala, it's CHEAP...anywho the point of all this is that i met quite a few people during my 5 weeks there...and one of them just moved to korea!!! yippee!!! she moved to incheon, which is the 3rd largest city in korea, it's where the majour international airport of korea is located...to get from my subway stop to hers takes 78 minutes...her name is lindsey, she grew up in iowa, but has lived in denver for the past 6 years...

needless to say, i was more than excited when she told me she was moving to korea...the world of travelers is pretty small, but it never ceases to amaze me how often i get to see someone i met in one area of the world on the other side of the world...yahoo!! i suppose someone who is willing to go one place outside of their comfort zone is willing to go somewhere else as well:)
lindsey arrived in korea about two weeks ago, but spent her first week in an orientation/training session in the city of jeonju...she said there were about 400 people in her orientation...she doesn't yet have a hand phone (mobile phone, cell phone, handy, whateva you want to call it) so figuring out how/when to get together took place completely over facebook....and when she was a few minutes late i kept wondering if i had written the correct meeting details in my message...lol...it's amazing how much we depend on phones...we ended up having lunch right next to the subway station, and i introduced lindsey to one of my favourite korean foods...donkasu...fried pork cutlet...in germany they call it schnitzel...koreans say it's a traditional food here, and while that's probably true, it's a traditional food in a whole lot of countries:)...i had my absolute favourite korean food: sundubujiggae, which is spicy egg and tofu soup...

since lindsey has only been in korea a short time, and doesn't know much about korean culture or history, and i'm a big geek, i suggested we go to changdeokgung, one of the 5 palaces in seoul from the joseon dynasty...changdeokgung is the only one labeled a UNESCO world heritage sight, (the designation came in december 1997) i think it's the one that was least destroyed, or perhaps it's best to say best preserved...changdeokgung was originally constructed in 1405, as a secondary palace to gyeongbukgung...a year later, the back garden was created, it's now known as the secret garden, and you can see that too, with a separate ticket...lindsey and i opted to skip that part, since it isn't spring yet...heck, winter is about the only time the secret garden isn't really worth it...to see changdeokgung, you have to join a tour...there are a couple english tours throughout the day, japanese and chinese too i think...cory taught me a long time ago that it's easy to "lose" the tour group...and the tour guide doesn't tell you anything that isn't in the brochure or on the signs next to each building throughout the palace complex....

a korean palace from the joseon dynasty is nothing like a european palace...these palaces are composed of a bunch of different buildings, each with a specific purpose...you can tell which buildings are more important based on two things: their size, and their location...the closer to where the king "worked" and lived, the more important...the bigger, the better...you don't get to go in any of the buildings anymore, but even back in the day when the palace was lived in and used, there wasn't much in most of the rooms/buildings...as you can see from the photos i've posted, the buildings all look somewhat alike...the same colours used to paint, the same general style, etc...obviously, the wooden boardwalks are from modern times, when the palace was made more accessible for people with disabilities...i think red was a royal colour...surprisingly, the original paints came from china! if i understood our tour guide correctly, back in the day the painting was redone every one hundred years or so, but now it's redone every 20 or 30 years...i couldn't tell if that was because the quality of the paint back then was better, or whether it just doesn't take so long now...

the buildings are all fairly close to each other, and i have no idea how people remembered how to get from one place to another...there are gates and walls all over the place...the gates are pretty small, and most tourists have to remember to duck their heads, or you end up with a lovely bump on your noggin...surprisingly, i actually remembered to duck through every gate this time:)...
the palace (like pretty much everything else in the country) was burned down in 1592 when the japanese invaded...well, much of it was burned down...according to one site, it was burned down by angry korean citizens after palace inhabitants were evacuated (to what is now a northeastern suburb of seoul, uiju) just before the japanese got to seoul...apparently they didn't like the idea of their leaders running away...nearly the entire palace is made of wood, it probably burned pretty quickly...repairs and rebuilding were completed in 1610 or 1611...if i remember correctly, changdeokgung was the official #1 palace for a little while at this point, as gyeongbukgung was still being rebuilt...i just checked, and changdeokgung was the primary palace until gyeongbukgung was rebuilt in the 19th century...overall it served as the main palace longer than gyeongbukgung...

this main throne hall looks big and relatively empty to me, but this is where a lot of official palace business was conducted...the king sat on the throne for hours on end, and it doesn't look at all comfortable to me...it's like a bench chair, with a very straight back...(not that he would've been able to lean back even if he had been so inclined)...according to our guide, the gold screen behind the throne is unique to korea, and can't be found in japan or china...(koreans are constantly pointing out differences between themselves and china/japan)...
the palace was constructed in keeping with the principles of geomancy, if that's the right word...a bridge was built over the stream/creek that runs in front of the main gate...to the back of the palace is a mountain...
not only was changdeokgun the primary palace longer than gyeongbukgung, it was also where the joseon dynasty ended...the last meeting of emperor sunjong (why he was an emperor and not a king, i don't know) and his ministers was held in changdeokgung, just before japanese annexation in 1910...afterward, even though he was no longer in charge, he and his wife (the empress,) the crown prince and the crown princess lived there until they died...

when you enter the main gate of the palace, they give you a brochure...there are bits and pieces of random information, as well as a map of the palace...some of the information is about changdeokgung, but there is also plenty of information about the other palaces, and the royal shrine...i don't currently have the brochures from those sights, but i'm guessing they're all similar...seoul has gotten pretty good about having literature available at all it's tourist sights, for geeks like me who like that stuff...temples are about the only place that don't seem to have those brochures...(which i think is good, since temples shouldn't have to produce literature...they're not there to teach you anything)...by the time i leave korea this time, i'll be leaving behind a ridiculous collection of brochures, as i collect them from every place that hands them out...

the palace can be reached by walking straight out of a particular exit of a nearby subway station...out of another exit of that same subway station, you can get to the area of seoul called insadong...it's quite touristy, and full of kitchy souvenirs, but there are TONS of great little galleries to check out, as well as a few good restaurants...since lindsey is new to korea, i thought she might enjoy walking through the area...it's a pedestrian zone, which is lovely...of course, there are hoards of people, so you're always stepping out of someone's way, or making them go around you...most of the hoards are foreigners, i'm sure there are other places in seoul that koreans go to get all this stuff...come to think of it, they probably don't go get all these souvenirs, they already have them, and aren't likely to give them as gifts...i'm talking pencil boxes, decorative bags, ceramic everything, etc...in addition to all the kitchy souvenirs, there are lots of unique individual stands...it's like a year round local fest...

in addition to all the stands of unique and not so unique stuff, there are tons of nifty little buildings...some are shops full of more kitchy stuff, and some are galleries with awesome stuff...i've spent many an hour wandering through tiny little galleries...there are more than 100 galleries in the area...sometimes it seems as though the buildings themselves (like this three story mall on the left...i love the umbrellas, they go all around the 3rd floor) are art exhibits themselves, and sometimes not so much...there are tons of little alleyways, it would be really easy to get lost in this area...well, almost...everything tends to circle back to any of the main streets in the area...

at one end of the most main street of insadong these traditional games are set up...you pick the "arrows" out of the containers, take a few steps back, and try to throw them back in...believe me, it's a lot harder than it looks...a LOT...at school, during traditional holiday times, i've spent some time trying to figure out the secret to this game...i have yet to figure it out...it's funny watching the kids try to figure it out, just because some of them have advanced motor skills, and some of them, well...don't...(is that mean to say?)...
after you've worn yourself out playing games, you can step into one of several tea houses...(i sound WAY too much like a guidebook)...i'm all for tea, it's really grown on me in the last year, but it's hard when all the containers have chinese characters on them!! its nice to smell the different teas, though this isn't the cheapest area of town in which to buy...it is howeva, the area with the widest variety...it's also a great area to get gift sets of tea...of course, you can also get the accessories for tea...the decorative/ceramic cups with the tea strainer in them, tea bells, etc...as we walked by one tea shop, there was a line out the door...apparently people really wanted to taste one type of tea in particular...we didn't feel like waiting in line, so who knows what we missed? hee hee...

i can't help it, i love these fans...hand painted, or so i'm led to believe...i wouldn't be entirely surprised if that's not really the case...there are quite a few fans at this display, and many that look just the same down the street...who knows...either way, they're pretty...insadong is supposed to be a place in seoul where you can get traditional hand made paper products, so maybe so...
in addition to the stalls of unique jewelry/items, there are stalls of traditional food...i'd write all the names, but i don't remember many off the top of my head, and believe me, you're not going to remember any of them unless you've spent time in korea...it would be easy to do a tour de food just in this area alone, and totally overeat...(not that i'd mind doing such a thing:)...of course, you can find all the food in other areas of seoul as well, at cheaper prices...western/foreign tourists = higher prices...if i remember correctly, the rule in insadong is that the names on the buildings have to be written in hangeul, the korean alphabet...it's the only place i've ever seen where starbucks isn't written in english...when you read it out loud in hangeul, its something like "su-ta-buk-su"...

after insadong, we were hungry...walking past all the food wasn't easy...lindsey decided she wanted street food, a craving of which i was fully supportive...on the way to a nearby subway station (we walked to another station entirely, having come out of another side of insadong) we stopped quickly in tapgol park...like so many other korean parks, there is very little green...but it is a nice area, a little more calm...a couple pavilions, a few statues, a very tall pagoda, etc...
according to a web site, this park was built on the former sight of weongaksa (weongak temple)...apparently the temple was known as heungboksa during the goryeo dynasty, but was renamed when it was enlarged during the joseon dynasty...why this is important, i have no idea...after all, the temple isn't there anymore!! the park was built after the temple was destroyed, a couple of the joseon kings didn't think much of buddhism...the park was built at the suggestion of an englishman, but they don't know when or why he made the suggestion...

there are a couple monuments/memorials in the park...the proclamation of independence was read here, though i don't know whether that's the proclamation of korean independence from japan, or korean independence as a full nation...(korea celebrates two independence days each year)...the web site also says this park was the site of the start of the 1 March 1919 independence protest...(clearly, the protest wasn't a success, since japan remained in charge of korea until the end of the second world war)...
it always kills me to see the pagoda in the glass case...but it also makes total sense, given that it would be completely destroyed, (and rather quickly at that) if left exposed to the elements...(the air quality in seoul is sorely lacking)...you can see it quite well when you get close to the glass, (and there are plenty of handprints) the detail of each carving is impressive...i think the official count is 10 levels...

a quick subway ride, and we arrived at yongsan station...across the street from the station (once you figure out the right exit, as there are tons of exits from the building) are a bunch of street food stalls...the menu at each is pretty much the same, so of course i love them all...fried food always smells good, and almost always tastes good...even though it's not healthy...i chose deokbokki, with hard boiled eggs that had been mixed in...a spicy mix of yumminess...lindsey went for something that i would call pakoras, and mandu (dumplings, like the polish call peirogis)...heaven!!
the reason i wanted to get the street food near yongsan station is because there is also a fabulous sauna nearby...called the dragon hill sauna...the biggest sauna in seoul, and well worth the 12,000won entry fee...it's 7 floors, though no one gets to go on all the floors...(two are for women only, 2 are for men only)...you walk in and pay your entry fee, they give you a key with a number on it, a t-shirt, two hand towels, and a pair of shorts...the number matches up to a particular locker, in which you put your shoes...from there you walk to the men's or women's elevator, and go to your appropriate floor...in the locker room you find the locker with the same number, and leave your stuff inside...lindsey and i wanted the naked floor, so we left the shorts and t-shirts in the lockers too...go down the stairs, and the entire 2nd floor is full of whirlpools, showers, a dry heat room, a steam room, etc...each whirlpool is a slightly different temperature, and the temperatures are posted on the wall...it's amazing how easy it is to feel the difference between 41°C and 46°C...41 is warm, but comfortable, 46 is hot, and not at all comfortable...even the difference between 41 and 43 is noticeable...43 is lovely...there is a cold pool too, at 17°C...it's a shock, to say the least...but after a minute or two in there, nothing else seems too hot, at least not straightaway...we spent two hours soaking, steaming, etc...i managed to lose my towel, so i ended up using my t-shirt to dry off...hee hee...
after the dragon hill, a quick run through emart (the korean version of walmart, and this particular one is like a super walmart) then home...a great day catching up with a good friend...

see you later, see you soon

february 28th was the end of the school year...this class photo is of my oldest students, (korean 8 year olds, they're only 6 the way the rest of the world counts)...they start elementary school, first grade on 2 march...

i was absolutely freezing, as you can probably tell...the building behind us is the seoul civil preparation something or another...the kids learned what to do in case of an earthquake, what typhoon force winds feel like, etc...you've probably noticed the open doors behind us? yup, those were open the whole time we were in the building...no wonder i was frozen!! this was the middle of january, it was NOT spring weather...anywho...

 these are my youngest students...i'll be teaching them for a little while longer, maybe a month? these photos are from the january theme day, called polar adventure...the kids learned about animals that live in polar climates (for whateva reason, the school chose polar bears and penguins, which of course live nowhere near each other, but that's beside the point)...

 they also learned about the proper clothing to wear during cold and warm weather...well, they actually already know this stuff, but it was fun for them (and me!) to have activities to reinforce the knowledge...the kids in these photos are only 3 years old:)...

part of theme day for the kids was to wear gloves/hats/scarves/etc in school...i don't know how they did it, i was roasting just from wearing my normal clothes...on the other hand, i was moving around a whole lot more than they were...now that these kids have moved up to 5 year old (korean age that is,) classes, it'll be interesting to see how they do...they won't have an assistant teacher in the classroom at all times anymore...

another tomb and temple day

 another day of attempting to see the tombs and temples of seoul, and not having everything work out the way i want it to...fortunately, there are so many different places to go that this isn't an issue...for this day, i'd figured out stuff to see in the northwest area of seoul...actually, i think all of these are technically out of seoul boundaries, but i don't know for sure...
i first wanted to see a set of tombs called seosamneung...three tombs all with different names...(so how did the three tombs end up with the other name to describe them? does the name seosamneung mean something in korean?)...huireung, hyoreung, and yereung are the names of the tombs in this complex...i rode the subway out to samsong (which sounds really similar to samseong, another subway stop on the other side of seoul) then waited for a little while for a yellow bus (i'd never ridden a yellow bus before)...the bus came to the subway stop, i got on, the bus driver turned the bus off, and got off for a break...i took out my book and started reading, knowing that he'd eventually get back on...and he did...i don't know how long i read, but that didn't really matter...i thought the bus ride would be 15 minutes, but it was more like 5...again, thank goodness for being able to read and understand the basic bus announcements...i hopped off the bus, and started walking in the direction the sign pointed...it was supposed to be 600m down the road...

less than 200m later, i saw a guard shack of sorts, and a gate across the road...someone came out of the shack and said something...i don't know exactly what, but i'm guessing it was along the lines of "where are you going?"...i said the name seosamneung, and he said it was closed...gutted!! i was gutted!! making my way all the way out there to find it was closed...ugh...the web page had said one area of seosamneung was closed, but that some of the tombs were open...apparently i read that wrong, or misunderstood what had been written...argh argh argh...
fortunately, i simply waited for the bus to come back, got back to the subway station, went two stops, and got on another bus...this time i was on my way to paju samneung...the web page had listed quite a few buses that would take me where i wanted to go, but i didn't see nearly that many listed at the bus stop...i did see a couple numbers, so i read the routes, and they did seem to indicate that i'd get to where i wanted to go...i can read korean, but not quickly, so i tend to stand in front of the bus routes and read for a lot longer than any korean would...they probably get annoyed or laugh at me for taking so long to figure things out...anywho...relatively quickly a bus came along that had the right number, so i hopped on...it was a bit crowded, but i was able to stand near the front, right in front of the more detailed route...every single stop was listed...since it was on the bus, there was no "you are here" sort of arrow, which meant i had to figure out which stop was the one at which i had boarded the bus...
that took a lot longer than i'd like to admit...usually subway station stops are marked a little more brightly, or with a different colour, but that wasn't the case this time...oh well...i figured out (finally) where i'd boarded, then figured out which direction i needed to look by reading the names of a coupe stops, then went back to the route map and started reading some more...this route map had english translations, but i figured out that they weren't very helpful...sometimes the translation didn't bear much resemblance to the korean name, which was awful...i quickly realized the name i was looking for wasn't correct in english...
so i went back to my slow korean reading...and found the stop i was looking for...the bus announcements would say the upcoming stop, and the stop that would come after that...which was handy, when in combo with my reading skills...basically that gave me two warnings when my stop was coming...the web page said i should get off the bus at "gongneung"...(not to be confused with gangneung, which is where i had attempted to go the day before)...the english on the bus route said "gongdong"...the hangeul (korean) said "gongreung"...the announcement said "paju samneung"...you'd think they'd get it all together...i was glad i had read that the name of the tomb complex area was paju samneung...(again with the naming of a complex area, in addition to each tomb inside the tomb area)...i was listening really carefully, knowing that my stop was about to come up, so i was ready to get off the bus at the right time...there was a sign on the highway pointing, so i followed...it was about a 10 minute walk...absolutely nothing of note along the way...nothing...then i came to a small sign pointing to a parking lot and it mentioned that i was entering an area of the royal tombs of the joseon dynasty...another sign, in the parking lot, was similar to the UNESCO world heritage sign i'd seen previously at other tomb sights...i think they all say the same thing...
i suppose i could take a picture of one of them, but they're not very interesting...there was an information board, with a translation in english...love it!...and a picture, not that it's ever very hard to figure out where to go...the entry fee was 1000won, which is less than a dollar...there can't be many UNESCO world heritage sights that are so cheap...the lady who sold me the ticket also handed out an english information brochure...there were korean brochures sitting out, but i'm guessing they don't get a whole lot of english speakers at this particular tomb complex...anywho...i walked down the pathway, which wasn't at all sealed, it was more like a sand covered trail...i'm guessing it wouldn't be pleasant to walk along there just after majour snow or rain...
i chose first to see gongneung, the tomb of queen jangsun...one web site says she was the lawful wife of the 8th king yejong, the other says she was a consort to the king...so i don't really know...her father was han myeonghoe, who was the prime minister under king sejo...after the first son of king sejo died, and yejong ascended the throne, han myeonghoe made her crown princess...(i don't know how he got to do it, but that's what i read)...basically, he had the political power, and he wanted her in the monarchy...
she ended up dying not too long after, from complications of birthing prince inseong...she was only 17...she was only crown princess when she died, her queen title was posthumous...king sejo is said to have thought she was beautiful, and very nice and was thrilled when she was installed as crown princess...her husband died not too long after she did, he only served as king for a few years...
there was no fence blocking me from walking up the hill, so this time i opted to walk straight up the hill from behind the big building...it was a steep hill, and i didn't get that close to the tomb, but i did get to take a photo...(it's the second photo of this entry)...the whole time i stood there i was worried i'd set off another motion detector siren...and this time there was another family there at the same time...hee hee...howeva, as i came back down the hill, i noticed the father climbing up one side of the hill, so i know i'm not alone in wanting to get closer...i think if there were hoards of tourists, the korean government would make a sturdier barrier preventing people from getting too close, but for now, the CCTV cameras and such serve as a good enough deterrent to keep people from getting too close and destroying the monuments...
my next tomb was called sulleung...the tomb of queen gonghye...she was the wife of king seongjong...it's rather confusing, but i'll try to explain...she was the younger sister of queen jangsun...(needless to say, i'm sure pa was thrilled to have two daughters end up as queens!)...the tomb actually faces her sister, though i didn't figure that out until i read it...this tomb is fancier (notice the photo with the drawings of the different animals and such in front of the tomb) because she was actually queen when she died, as opposed to her sister...she was younger by about ten years...pa had a total of at least four daughters, i wonder what happened to the two oldest...
yejong died, not long after his wife...at the time, they'd already had kids, but the 15 year old was "sickly" and the 3 year old was, well, 3 years old...so the heir ended up being the son of king deokjong, king seongjong...(i had to write down a family tree in order for this to make sense to me because the description was more than a little confusing)...this was the only time in korean history when two sisters became queen...
the third tomb was the only double tomb in the complex...it's the tomb of king jinjong and his queen hyosun...jinjong was the oldest son of king yeongjo, and though he became crown prince at age 7, he died before his 15th birthday...his wife lived until she was 37, childless...(on a side note, king yeongjo killed his second son, crown prince sado, by locking him in a rice chest)...
moving on...as i was waiting for the bus to this set of tombs at the subway station, i noticed that another bus went to a temple i had wanted to see previously...so when i came back to the station, i switched buses...i asked the bus driver just in case, and listened to the announcements...when the bus got to the stop, he remembered i wanted to go there, and let me know this was the right stop...(sometimes i really love seoul bus drivers!)...
the road leading to the entrance of the temple, wasn't exactly clear...(or maybe that was just me, since i tend to overanalyze such things)...in fact, the beginning of it was blocked off, but since i could see plenty of others on the road, i figured out it was blocked off to vehicular traffic only...but walking down the street only got me to a T-intersection, and no sign telling me where to go...so i guessed...fortunately, i guessed the correct way...and that road led me to another T-intersection...howeva, at that intersection it was obvious where i needed to go...
since i tend to freak out about such things, i asked a vendor just in case...he laughed at me, and said i needed to walk about 300m farther down the road...(i asked in my ridiculously basic korean, but he understood me just fine)...as i walked, i passed plenty of people coming out of the national park (bukhansan national park) after a day of hiking...all decked out in the latest greatest hiking gear, which always makes me laugh...
the entrance gate to the temple was in the middle of the road, just like the one i'd seen the day before at hwagyesa...it's as if the gates have been built, then they stay as they are and life just continues around them...i'm guessing there is some sort of templestay program here as well, because i could see buildings that clearly weren't part of the temple itself, but were still part of the temple complex, if that makes any sense at all...there were also information/direction signs that were stowed away but could easily be put out when needed...
according to the web site, jingwansa (jin-gwan-sa) is one of four majour temples around seoul...i have neither seen nor heard of the others, and i hadn't heard of this one until i looked up temples to see in seoul...but that doesn't mean anything, since i'm a foreigner...
jingwansa has been around for a long time...at least, the idea of it has...it was originally dedicated to jingwan in 1010, during the goryeo dynasty...(that dynasty was before the joseon dynasty, for you folks not up to date on your korean history)...during the reign of sejong (the big mighty korean king who also invented the korean alphabet...sejong is definitely regarded as one of the greatest ever korean kings...i always wonder what he actually did himself, and what was created by his underlings and he was then given credit for) a library was created for confucian scholars...he wanted the scholars to visit from all over the country/world...since the internet was obviously not in operation back then, i wonder how information was transferred over great distances...how did priests and scholars know of libraries such as this one? how did they figure out how to get to different places? how long did they stay? what was the typical daily schedule of a visiting priest/scholar at the library? were there opening hours? where did they stay?
the temple complex is officially made up of a whole bunch of buildings...i could type all their names, but that would take a while...these names don't easily roll off my tongue, which means i'd be flipping back and forth between web pages, and that's just a paid...plus, if you're reading this, you probably don't care about the specific names of each of the buildings in the temple area...most of the buildings have shrines to buddha, and there is one that is designated as the main temple hall...it wasn't that much bigger than the others, and it was closed...at least, that's the way it seemed...and i didn't hear any chanting from inside this time...
over in one corner, i found three smaller buildings, each appeared to be only big enough for one person to "worship" at a time...they still had the shrines and all, but were quite small...as i walked by one of them, a guy inside answered his cell phone!! if you're in a temple, worshipping, aren't you supposed to turn that thing off? strange...anywho...the smallest building was ridiculously tiny...almost the size of a backyard storage shed...i think it was built to honour someone referred to as the "hermit sage"...i guess it makes sense that it was small, and gave the feeling of isolation...i guess a hermit is pretty isolated...there are signs in this back corner that describe each of the buildings, down to the little details that are supposed to make them different and unique, but this small building was the only one that really sounded like anything unusual to me...the descriptions talked about different elements of the buddha paintings and statues, but since i'm not buddhist, nor have i ever really studied such things, the details don't much matter to me...

walking around the temple area was nice...all the buildings were around a central open space, which is probably used for big ceremonies...(every temple in seoul has a day when official ceremonies take place, i've never seen one of the ceremonies, but i've seen plenty of photos...since the ceremonies are not in english, i don't know if i'd get anything out of them, even if i did know when they take place...
as i was getting ready to leave, i notice a nun getting ready to ring the big bell...i'd never seen that before...each temple i've visited has had a huge bell, with the big thing that rings it, but i didn't think the bells were actually used...i guess they are after all!! it's a deep, loud, simple sound that goes on for a while...i heard her hit/ring the bell three times...if i remember correctly, it was about 6pm (1800) so maybe she was indicating dinner, or meditation time...i wasn't the only one who stood still while she rang the bell, everyone else i could see stopped moving as well...how many times a day does that bell get rung? and is it always the same person who rings it?

as i walked back out of the temple area of jingwansa, and back down the road past the temple gate, i noticed a couple signs saying bongeunsa...both in hangeul and english...i could see the symbol for temple as well...(the symbol for temple is often confused as the nazi swastika...the temple symbol has been around for a LOT longer)...the signs said it was only 300m down an unsealed road, so i followed...i went up and down a set of small hills, and found the temple...which was in a state of total disarray...(sp?)...i could see an outdoor shrine to buddha (with his favourite tiger keeping him company, and a bunch of candles) and another of those turtle-y things i've mentioned in an earlier post...plus, what looked to be a temple, or at least an old building that had once been a temple...it was in bad shape, and there were things piled up on a back porch of sorts...it looked like a building that had once been something, but wasn't used for it's original purpose anymore...i found the sliding doors on the side, and when i pushed, they opened...a shrine was still in there, and it looked like the inside of any other temple i've seen in korea...it smelled like paint thinner though...or cleaning agents...in one corner was a bell with a big hammer...in another corner was a small case of small buddhas...totally quiet of course...i loved it, and sat for a little while...there was a house near this, but that seemed totally empty as well, so i don't know if it was lived in, or not...or even if it was a house...the whole area felt abandoned, even though some of the candles in the outdoor buddha shrine were lit...hmmm, a temple mystery!!

as i walked back down the road to get back to the bus stop, i looked slightly up, and saw some tombs (the lumps are easy to spot) as well as a turtle-y thing...to most people that wouldn't mean anything...but i also noticed that there was no fence stopping me from getting close...woo hoo!! it didn't really seem to be an actual sight, but that sort of thing never stops me...i climbed up, and whaddya know, there was a handy dandy sign there to tell me exactly what i was seeing...yay!! it was a sight after all, just not mentioned in any guidebook, or on the web at all...the sign said it was the graveyard of prince yeongsan...he's buried there with both of his wives, lady sim and lady jeong...(were they married at the same time?)...it doesn't say whether the wives knew each other, or how long they were each married, or who was first, second, etc...previous signs i've seen have said how old people were when they died, and how many heirs they had (or didn't have,) but this one didn't mention such things...
the original tombstone of the prince is missing, but i think the other tombstones in the graveyard are original...the prince was the 13th son (did his father really have 13 sons? or is it meant to say 13th child? cause even with several wives, that's a lot of kids!!) of his father...
this prince and one of his brothers were in involved in political intrigue, not surprisingly...they supported a palace coup to overthrow one of their brothers (i think that's who it was) and install king jungjong on the throne...but later, a palace servant confessed to the king (jungjong i think?) that another coup was being planned, (to put yeongsan himself on the throne) at which time yeongsan was sent into exile...all the way to hwanghae-do, which is now in north korea...i guess they figured that was far enough away that he couldn't do anything more...so how did he end up buried here? he was granted a pardon by the very king he planned to overthrow...
i loved this tomb area just because i was able to get up close and personal to the different tombs, and the different markers...awesome...i wonder why there isn't a listing for the tomb anywhere, though there is a proper informational sign there, which means someone knows about it!
from the tombs, i went home, bought strawberries, baby spinach and feta cheese, and had a lovely salad for dinner...exciting end to a day of wandering and exploring:)

taking a day off

 one part of the contract i have with my school says that i have three sick days to take during the year...it also says that if i want to, i can take those sick days as personal days on fridays if i clear it ahead of time...since the end of my contract is right around the corner, i wanted to use my last friday as a personal day...fridays at my school are special days, meaning we don't have normal class...it's always a birthday party (1x a month,) a field trip (2x a month,) or theme day (usually the last friday of the month)...this friday was a field trip, so i wasn't missing anything at all...(since i don't have a specific class of kids - i teach all the kids in the school - there isn't a group that has to be covered if i'm gone)...
i woke up to a beautiful sunny day...blue skies (above the smog that is)...chilly, but pretty much my idea of perfect...after spending way too much time online, i ventured out...first to pay bills (i love the way i can pay bills through a machine in my bank) and then to get cash...then on to the subway...i'd figured out one temple and two tombs i wanted to see...
45 minutes later, i was off the subway, and found what i thought was the right bus stop...according to the map in the subway, i needed this specific exit to catch the bus that would take me closest to the temple...the papers i had printed from the web said i needed a different bus stop, but those papers had been wrong at other times, so i wasn't very trusting...anywho, i hopped on the right bus, only to get the feeling that it wasn't going in the right direction...because i tend to get freaked out about those things, i got off, and backtracked a ways...luckily, the paper for this particular temple had a small map showing me where i needed to go...straight down a street that is called hwagyesa-ro...which means hwagye temple street...how convenient!! i did see the bus as i walked, but i wasn't able to tell where it was coming from...i also saw it on the other side of the street...i never did figure out if i should've stayed on the bus or not...either way, it wouldn't have taken me all the way to the temple, though i would've been able to get off at the right stop, as i knew the name in english and korean...since the weather was fantastic, i didn't mind the walk...and i like walking, so that made it even better...i walked past lots of little restaurants where i could get food if i got hungry, and made note of those...(i like to eat; me figuring out places to get food should come as no secret)...

 eventually i came to a gate...once you've seen one of these temple gates in korea, you've seen them all...koreans would probably say differently, but to me, they all look the same...and i've seen plenty...i like going to see temples, even if they do look the same...hee hee...right around the temple gate a lot of construction is going on...a new set of apartments, fixing up other stuff, etc...it wasn't a quiet area...pretty soon i came to the turtle looking thing at the top of this entry...i think they mark a particular person? again, i've seen tons of them, and they all look the same, though presumably if i could read the chinese characters, i wouldn't think so...

 just after the turtle marker, there was a trail, with a small map indicating what i could see along the trail...it showed another temple...woo hoo...i decided to go see the temple i'd come for, and consider the other temple on the way back...in korea, maps are always faced in the direction in which you are looking...for me, this is fantastic, but for most people who assume north is at the top of the map, it's confusing...anywho, i continued along the road, and got to the rest of the temple area...a huge building, in which the templestay program looked like it takes place, and a bunch of other smaller buildings...none of them looked particularly open, and everything was in korean...not an english word to be found...which i kinda liked...(again with the "this is korea, there should be lots of korean here" thinking)...i could hear chanting coming from one building, but i didn't see any open doors, and didn't want to interrupt anything...i figured monks/nuns were in there meditating and/or chanting...it was nice to listen to, especially because i was the only person i could see outside...after seeing a couple signs, i could tell that the chanting was coming from the main temple hall...

hwagyesa temple belongs to the jogye order of korean buddhism...(i don't know what, if there are any, other orders of korean buddhism are called)...the description on the web site i use to find things/places to see in seoul says the temple is in the city of seoul, but that it doesn't feel like it's in a city because the surrounding area is so quiet and peaceful...the temple is at the base of a mountain, and all around there is a lot of nature...it actually feels like a functioning temple, unlike some of the really touristy temples...the temple was built in 1522, in the 17th year of the reign of king jungjong in the joseon dynasty...then it was destroyed by fire in 1618...almost 300 years later, funds were raised and the temple rebuilt in 1866...according to the site there is a small spring somewhere in the temple grounds, but i never did find it...

in front of the building on the far left you can see two of the korean version of a "wishing well"...you can find them in pretty much every korean temple complex, but i liked these because the papers are tied in a bow, which is different from anything i've seen previously...usually i see cards with stuff written on them...i was tempted to unroll one of these bows, but that's obviously wrong...lol...i also wanted to write a wish of my own, but didn't see any paper or pencils anywhere in order to do so...i wonder how long the papers remain on the wishing well, and if there is a monk/nun who is specifically tasked to take care of the wishing wells...i suppose pretty much every area of the temple is taken care of by someone who lives there...

one aspect of this temple that i really liked was the feeling that it's a real temple, that monks/nuns live here, and that it's not just to be seen by tourists...i could see a building in which i presume they live...i wonder what their individual living quarters are like...off to the side of the living quarters was this area for kimchi pots...were they actually full of kimchi? i don't know...traditionally kimchi is put together, put in these pots, and buried underground for a length of time...howeva, most of the time these days people make the kimchi so that it's ready to eat as soon as it's done...

obviously these pots aren't underground, but it's nice to think that the monks and nuns are still living the more traditional way of life...i could see a couple areas where things were planted as well...i loved the simplicity of it all...i wonder who takes care of all the food for the monks/nuns...do they eat together? what time do they eat each day? how do they know when it's time to do various things in temple life? is a bell rung? do they wear watches? what time do they get up each morning? what time do they go to bed? i remember my schedule from my meditation retreat, but that was in thailand, geared specifically for foreigners...is a typical temple day at all similar here?

notice the small bell...is it ever rung? these three items were next to what i assume are the living quarters of those residing at the temple...is it only monks and nuns who live at a temple? or are there secular folks as well? does anyone ever pay attention to this little buddha? he's only a foot tall, give or take...(that's 30cm for anyone who is not american)...i didn't walk around this entire building, so i don't know if there were similar things on the other side of it...this building definitely looked like a home...

the size of the templestay building was at least twice the size of any of the other buildings in the complex...i could see what i thought was an office, or welcome room for anyone who does a templestay, but i don't know what else was in there...just outside the temple complex was this set of gravestones...i don't think real people are buried underneath this spot (it's cement) but i could be totally wrong...i didn't see any signs that could tell me who is here, or why they get special markers...and why are some of the markers smaller than others? i know i ask a lot of questions, but these sorts of things are never explained, not even at the more touristy temples...just outside the main temple complex area was a huge international zen center...it looked like a building in which a big group of people could stay for a while...like a college dormitory, something along those lines...these smaller markers were along the street, just behind the zen center...

as i kept walking back toward the original temple gate, i saw these big markers...again, there were no signs to tell me what i was looking at, and it wasn't easy to get close to them...obviously, they're bigger, and with the way asian (and let's face it, western) society often works, that means someone, or some idea that's more important...these look more like memorials to me, rather than grave markers, but i don't know if that's true...somehow, i don't think anyone is ever going to write up a sign in korean or english (or any other language, for that matter) that says what all these markers are for, specifically...my guess is that koreans already know...maybe they learn in school, or maybe there is temple literature somewhere that says who is buried where, and why they get big markers, or any markers at all...i don't even know who i would ask to find out, even if i did speak korean...after looking around and just enjoying the peacefullness of the whole area, i walked back to the subway station...walking back was a whole lot faster, or at least it seemed that way!! i suppose i could've tried a bus, but i was really enjoying the weather, though most people think i'm crazy for liking to walk as much as i do...

from that subway station i went to another subway, and caught another bus...back in november i interviewed with a private elementary school in this part of seoul, so the bus i caught, and the stop at which i was supposed to get off were familiar...yay!! because i knew where i wanted to get off, i was only listening to the announcements, not trying to read the names on each stop we passed...as it turned out, the bus driver was playing each announcement slightly late...i stood up immediately after he played the announcement for the stop i wanted, but that was after we'd passed the stop on the road already...anywho...

the bus driver asked me which stop i wanted, and i told him...he realized i'd stood up at the proper time, but we'd already passed the stop, so he pulled the bus over straightaway and let me out in between stops...i walked back to the proper stop, and found the entrance to the tombs i wanted to see...again with the joseon dynasty tombs:)...and just like temples, they all look the same, but i love them anywho...this one was called taereung...again with the questions: how did they come up with the names of the tombs? and when the tomb names change later, why? the signs always say what the tomb is called, but it doesn't say (in english anywho) if the name translates to anything in english...korean names often mean something, which wouldn't be obvious to a non-korean speaker...like other tombs i've seen in seoul, there was a big stone information board that designated this tomb as a UNESCO world heritage sight...

taereung is the tomb of queen munjeong...a very politically ambitious queen...she was the second lawful wife of king jungjong...as far as korean royalty goes, she lived for quite a while, being over 60 when she died...(1501-1565)...
just her luck, the king had had an heir with his first wife...howeva, the queen didn't let that sort of thing get in her way...with the king, she had 5 kids, 1 son and 4 daughters...she killed the first heir (had him killed, i guess) so that her son would be the next king...so king myeongjong ascended the throne at age 12...since he was obviously too young to rule, she acted as regent and did it for him...as the web site says, she ruled from behind the veil...it isn't the first time in history that such a thing has happened, but i think in western cultures there was an official title for the person who ruled behind the child monarch...she made her younger brother part of the administration, basically in name only...while she was in charge, she got rid of a lot of political adversaries, many of whom were scholars...a different web site says something about her wanting to rehabilitate buddhism, i don't know what that means...while she was in charge she wanted to move the tomb of her king, and she wanted to be buried next to him when she died...but this didn't happen...according to the 2nd web page, her son posthumously granted her the name munjeong, so i have no idea what she was called while she was alive...why would he change her name after she died? it's not as if he was granting her a new title, if that makes any sense...

i liked this tomb because i could actually see the tomb itself from the bottom of the hill...(remember an earlier post when i said all these tombs are on top of man made hills?)...i still wanted to get closer, for a better photo, so i walked up the side of the hill, and tried to walk across the hill, just in front of the tomb...but i set off the motion detector siren!! whoops...apparently the CCTV cameras that you see on tall poles at the back of every tomb complex aren't all just for show:)...hee hee...obviously, i didn't get the photo i wanted...i knew i was the only one at the tomb right then, but i didn't know if an alarm bell was going off in an office somewhere...there was a blinking red light as well...after i got back over to the side of the hill, the siren stopped wailing...i dont know if it was really that loud, but it sure seemed that way to me!! i was ridiculously nervous as i walked out of the front gate of the tomb complex, i was terrified i'd get in official trouble...but i didn't...

on the map at the entrance, i could see that there were two tombs...the other one was called gangneung,   and is the tomb of king myeongjong and queen insun...it's a double tomb...to get to gangneung from taereung, i had to go back out on the street, and walk quite a ways...when i got to the entrance gate of gangneung, it was closed...argh argh argh...oh well...i walked to the nearest bus stop, (near the entrance gate of sahmyook university) and started making my way back home...

seoul sisters

i can't believe i haven't posted this yet:

myogaksa (묘각사)

on the last day of my lunar new year holiday, i decided i should get out and see something else in seoul...with my time here winding down really fast, i know there are a lot of things i haven't seen that i should've seen during my time here...myogaksa is one of the temples in seoul that has a templestay programme, and though i wasn't interested in that at the time, it's definitely a possibility in the future...

myogaksa is on the side of a hill in north central seoul, so when you get there you can look out over a fair amount of the city...go figure, the day i went, the weather was hazy/overcast...due to the holiday and small size of the temple complex there weren't many people there, so i really enjoyed the solitude...there are staircases all over the complex that lead to it's different parts, including this large buddha, a bell, and more...

soon after i came in the entrance door of the temple a nun approached and asked why i was there...i think she wanted do know if i was there for a temple stay, and if so, she would've directed me to the right place...but since i was just curious and wanted to look around...as she saw me a few minutes later having climbed up a couple sets of stairs, she told me the temple is 500 years old...at least, i think that's what she meant...or maybe she meant the huge buddha that was carved into the stone side of the mountain...anywho, i really appreciated the friendliness, yet aloofness...

in between this set of candles and another set of candles was a deep tray full of burned incense...it smelled lovely, and the aesthetic appeal was lovely...aesthetic appeal is one reason i continue to try to find temples to go visit, even though most people would say that most temples in korea are all the same...to some degree i find this to be true, but i love the peacefullness of each temple, particularly the least touristy temples...

i ended up spending a good 30 minutes meditating with the monks on the second floor of this temple, as they chanted and banged on the noisemaker...in korea a different sect of buddhism is most predominant (as opposed to the rest of the world which mostly sticks to two majour divisions (mahayana and theravada) so i don't know if the chanting was in pali, the language of the buddha or not...but i think so...

in front of each of these small buddha statues was a card on which was written a name...i'm assuming these were contributors, or wishmakers, or something along those lines...