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...