it's hard to believe it's already april, which means i've been teaching again for over a month...time flies here..my opinions of different classes and different students have changed numerous times during that month..
last friday we had the monthly birthday party..every kid in the school who has a birthday in april (all 5 of them) got a bit of attention..you could tell some kids really DON"T like being the center of attention, while others absolutely love it..it's funny..i don't have much to do on birthday party days, so i use the time to catch up on paperwork, and do other class prep work..lunches on birthday party days aren't all that great..kimbap (lots of varieties,) and strawberries, cap cay, and a few other items...and cake of course..the cake always looks good, but the taste is never as good as the aesthetic appeal..argh..
the weekend was great..to start with, the weather was awesome..well, it was sunny anywho, and we haven't had much of that lately..still pretty chilly (most everyone thinks it should be a whole lot warmer by now) but definitely sunny, and that makes all the difference in the world..saturday morning i went to touch rugby practice, and contact rugby practice..i'm getting better at touch in a number of ways..better at defending, better at seeing the places i can run, and getting a little faster..(though when i quick guy is chasing me, it doesn't really matter..and i still have no real skill at changing direction)..there were more girls out for touch, which was nice to see..for touch we don't really do drills, it's just a couple hours of game play..love it..that's the best way to learn, even if i'm not always sure of what i should do..contact practice was good too..22 girls came out, which is a good crowd..hopefully they all continue to come out, as many are completely new to the sport..the bigger our numbers, the more fun everyone has..we did some drills, some specific game situations, and more..one poor girl got whacked in the face with a ball, and everyone saw/heard it..you could hear all of us breath in, it was that sort of silent shock..she recovered well though, and hopefully didn't end up with a bruise..all of us are keen to tackle and go full on contact, which should happen soon..coach said we'll be splitting into backs and forwards next week, which means more running for me..i think that's good?
after practice i headed north in the city heading to a buddhist temple, called jogyesa..(sa means temple, so it's jogye temple)..before entering the temple area, i saw a statue of min yeong-hwan..he was also known by his pen name of gyejeong..he was a patriot during the early years of the japanese colonial period, in the early 20th century..he was a member of several underground organizations all geared toward throwing off the powerful japanese, and after his death was decorated with several high honors..(none of which can i remember the names)..
according to the literature, jogyesa is the head temple of the jogye order of buddhism, which is apparently pretty popular in korea..there are thousands of temples that are part of this order throughout the country..unlike other temples, this wasn't such a large complex..just a main temple with three large gold buddhas inside..a 7 leveled stupa in the courtyard..i don't remember what it's for..a drum tower of sorts, and a couple other buildings i didn't know..an information center for foreigners, which was really good for once..LOTS of pamphlets, and people who speak good english, and plenty of smiling..YAY!! i want to do a temple stay while i'm here, and one of the pamphlets i picked up listed a number of temples where it's possible to do that..hopefully it works out at some point..i'd like to see how things are different compared to the mediation retreat i did in thailand..i wandered into the main temple (taking off my shoes outside and going in through the side door, as the front door is only for the monks) and meditated for half an hour..there were lots of people in there, and a monk chanting the whole time..unlike in thailand where the monks are always chanting in pali (the language of the buddha) the monks here chant in korean..and they use a pa system, which i didn't really like..it wasn't nearly as peaceful..but still, half an hour of meditation left me feeling relaxed..
from jogyesa i walked to jongmyo, which is a royal shrine..before entering the area, i saw a statue, which of course made me wonder..the sign told me it was there to honor lee, sang-jae, who was also known by his pen name of wolnam..he is called a patriot, and lived during the time of japanese colonization, during the first half of the 20th century..he died as a martyr, for his work in promoting korean independence..jongmyo is where most of the kings (and queens? i don't know) from the joseon dynasty are enshrined..according to the main plaque at the beginning, jongmyo is the supreme shrine of the state where the tablets of the royal ancestors are enshrined and memorial services are performed for deceased kings and queens..it was built (the whole thing was founded with just 7 spirit chambers in 1395) four years after the dynasty was founded, even before the first main palace (gyeongbukgong) of seoul was built..(though the location of the palace had been designated)..according to confucian philosophy, the shrine was built on the east side of the royal palace...building started just after seoul (hanyang back then) was designated as the capital of the new dynasty..(is it me, or is it crazy to designate the location of the new capital, then the location of the palace, then the location of the shrine, but start with the building of the shrine before anything else?)...
in one of the first buildings you see when you walk into the area, there is also a tiny shrine to a king from the guryeo dynasty there, and the plaque says it's unknown why it's there..king gongmin and his wife (who was a princess from mongolia, are known for leading the independence of the guryeo dynasty from the yuan in china..in these buildings and it's courtyard are a couple exhibits of things used during those times for visits to the shrine..the rooms which now hold the exhibits were originally storage rooms for all the stuff needed for an official visit to the shrine..incense, paper and other offerings..there is a little pavilion near these rooms, which was originally used by the kings for rests while they were visiting the shrine..apparently the visits were pretty long, if rests were needed!! i wonder what an official visit entailed??
after the resting area, a tourist comes to a set of three buildings, called jaegung..these buildings are where the king and crown prince made their preparations for an official visit..(why did they need a separate building for resting when they already had a building in which to prepare themselves for the visit?)..one building for the king, one building for the prince, and one building as a bath house..before an official visit, the king and crown prince stayed in jaegung in order to purify their minds and bodies..i should mention that the path in between all these sets of buildings is trifurcated..i took that word from the plaque..it means the path is three fold..the middle was only for the king, and the sides for the prince/queen..
after the kings and queens died, a three year period of mouring started at the palaces..after the mourning period was over, the memorial tablets were moved to the shrine..there are two shrine halls..the first is jeongjeon, the main hall..there are 19 spirit chambers, which house a total of 49 tablets..jeongjeon is for the kings who did something outstanding or particularly virtuous..
the secondary shrine hall is yeongnyoengjeon, where there are 16 spirit chambers and 34 tablets..in yeongnyoengjeon are the tablets of king taejo's ancestors, going back 4 generations...apparently some of them were designated king after they died..i have no idea why..there were two kings deposed from the throne during the dynasty, and their tablets are not kept in jongmyo..the plaque didn't say where those tablets are kept, or whether they're kept at all for that matter...
jongmyo shrine was added to the UNESCO world heritage list in 1995..
after leaving the shrine, i walked through a small park area filled with men playing traditional games..no women to be seen, they were all probably at home..i watched for a little while; one of the games i understood, one of them not so much..none of the men i watched even noticed i was there, they were all focused on their games and looked down the entire time..by the time i got home saturday evening, i was exhausted, and my feet were TIRED..
the next morning i got up and went to church..i actually like going to an early service most of the time..since it was easter, there were actually quite a few people at the service..after the service was a potluck, yay!! a nice chance to talk to people, which i don't normally get to do..
after church i went to the seoul museum of art..it was the last day of an exhibition of work by andy warhol..he was a pop artist who died not too long ago..he's best known for his portraits of people well known in pop culture, though he did other work as well..people also know of his work with ordinary objects, like campbell's soup cans..
most of his portraits used colours that wouldn't seem normal, and he often did the same portrait on more than one colour..there were a lot of very bright colours throughout the exhibition..what i didn't know until i went to the exhibit was his work with stuff related to death..i didn't particularly enjoy that part of the exhibit..i don't enjoy thinking about death, and even less enjoy seeing art that is in any way related to death..there were a lot of people at the exhibit, and the area in which they were selling souvenirs was packed..i thought the line was long when i first got there, but when i walked out of the museum, it was a whole lot longer..i wonder how many of the pop culture portraits koreans recognized before reading the names..and after reading the names, did they know who they were?
i don't think i'd ever spent any time in the area around the art museum, so i wandered around for a while after leaving the exhibit..i even found the zero spot marker..i don't know if that's the proper name, (it's probably not) but it's the spot from which all distances to/from seoul are measured..at one point it was probably the middle of the city, but i doubt it is now..
after arriving home, i grabbed a book and made my way to a nearby coffee bean..it's my favourite coffee chain in the country..unfortunately, it's also one of the most expensive..they have the best chai latte ever..and they have an amazing snack called chocolate mousse cake..sooooooo good...so good it's worth 18 weight watchers points!! i love it, even though i shouldn't..hee hee..it was nice to relax there for a little while..it was my first visit to a coffee bean since returning to seoul, i'm amazed that i held out that long!! after coffee bean i went grocery shopping, cleaned up my flat, and eventually went to bed..
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