June was an incredibly busy month, so I have spent most of my July weekends just relaxing, hence no blog entry yet this summer. Seeing as I have an upcoming vacation to China, I figured I have to stop making excuses so that I don't fall too far behind. I'll focus this post on what I've done so far this summer and proceed in chronological order.

Gyeongju

Early in June we had a three day weekend due to Korea's Memorial Day. Antonio, Alexa, and I decided to use this time to take a trip to Gyeongju, Korea's first capital and a city full of historically significant sites. Gyeongju was the capital of the Silla Dynasty that ruled Korea from roughly 600-900 A.D. It was a city of palaces, temples, tombs, and stone carved Buddhas dating from that time period.Unfortunately, like so many of Korea's national treasures, history has not been kind to the city. The Japanese and Mongols ravaged many of the structures, and Confucians destroyed many of the Buddhist relics. What could have been the Korean equivalent of Kyoto is instead a city full of ruins, tombs, and historical artifacts.

Tumuli Park

Our first stop was Tumuli Park, where a cluster of Royal tombs are located. Each king or queen was buried under a mound of dirt with many of his most prized possessions, similar to how Egyptians buried their rulers in the pyramids. Only one of the tombs in the park has been excavated, so the big draw is just walking around the park and appreciating the perfectly sculpted mounds. There are other tombs in the city, but Tumuli Park contains the densest cluster of them.

Gyeongju National Museum

After a stroll through the park we walked through the historic area of Gyeongju, which is mostly an open field. It is dotted with a few other tombs and Cheomseongdae Observatory, the oldest observatory in Asia. We passed what was left of a fort, but the only remaining structure was the ice house. We finally arrived at the Gyeongju National Museum, a series of museum complexes that house artifacts found in the city's excavations throughout the years. The preserved figurine and the crown (below) were two of the highlights. The artifact with the most interesting story was the 14 sided dice called a juryeonggu, used to play a drinking game. Each side of the dice featured a command, such as "drink three consecutive cups of liquor." My favorite command was "disregard an assault and remain calm and passive."

Mt. Namsan

One of the great things about Korea is that no matter where you are, you are never more that a few miles from a great hike, even in the urban centers. If I had to compare the topography of Korea to anywhere in the U.S., I would liken it to West Virginia. It is covered in low-rolling, wooded mountains, much like the Appalachians (just typing that word still hurts me). That is about where the comparison between Korea and West Virginia ends. The cities snake through these mountains, allowing them to grow to deceptively large sizes.

Mount Namsan (same name as the one in Seoul; Namsan just means "south mountain") is home to several Buddhist carvings dating from the 7th-10th centuries. The whole time I was in Europe (granted, I have yet to go to Italy) I don't think I saw anything that was over 1,000 years old. We spent and afternoon hiking and picnicking on the mountain pausing to appreciate the carvings and the views.

Anapji Pond

After freshening up at our hotel, we headed out of Anapji Pond for the second time (we had been there in the afternoon on our first day). We were told by one of our friends in Seoul that visiting the site at night is a must. You can compare the pond at night versus at day below.

The pond features what is left of or rebuilt from a palace of the Silla Era. The Pond provided many of the artifacts for the museum, but all that remains of the palace today is three pavilions.

Seokguram Grotto and Bulguksa Temple

Seokguram Grotto and Bulguksa Temple are both located just outside Gyeongju. Bulguksa Temple is a Buddhist temple and is one of the most beautiful temples in Korea. The complex dates back to the 8th Century, but is has since been rebuilt. Seokguram Grotto is a sculpture of Buddha housed in a dome carved out from under a hill. I had to steal the photo from the internet because photography is not allowed. The grotto was very impressive, but we had little time to enjoy it. We had arrived on a holiday, and the line to enter was quite long. Almost as soon as we got in, we were ushered out. One interesting bit of trivia that we learned during our museum tour is that statue depictions of Buddha were not initially part of Buddhist worship. Buddha actually discouraged such depictions of himself. It wasn't until Alexander the Great's forays into India that statues became popularized. That's why many statues of Buddha, whether in India, Japan, or Korea, have a Hellenistic look.

Stacey's Wedding

The weekend after Gyeongju was the weekend of my former co-teacher's wedding. Alexa and I hopped on the subway to Suwon, a suburb of Seoul. The cultural differences between the wedding and the ones I have been to back home were very pronounced, though not in the ways some of you might expect. The wedding took place a a wedding hall (or as we have taken to calling it, a wedding factory) that housed 5-6 chapels themed with overly extravagant faux-European decor. It contained two reception halls with buffets for afterward. It seems that anyone who tangentially knew the bride or the groom was invited, as the chapel area was entirely full. Many guests waited in the lobby/hall just outside and talked amongst themselves the entire time. While most people in the chapel area were quiet, those outside got rather loud. I didn't really know what to make of this, so I just stood in the back, just inside the chapel, and watched. After the wedding, everyone went upstairs to the reception cafeteria to get their food. There are several different wedding parties occurring at the same time. You just go up to the buffet, fill up your plate, and sit wherever you want. They have TVs broadcasting the various weddings taking place at that time. In theory you could just head straight to the reception area, eat on the bride and groom's dime, and watch their wedding on TV.

After we ate we were invited up to a more traditional ceremony by one of Stacey's friends. From what I gathered, this is a more intimate ordeal with only family and close friends. I'm guessing we were invited because we were foreigners, as many of our other former coworkers did not attend that portion of the wedding. We arrived at the tail end, but there was a photo session afterward. For this ceremony, the bride and groom wear traditional Korean hanboks.

Perhaps the highlight of the event for me was getting to see two former students at the wedding, Rena and Eena. It was the first time I had seen any of my kids from Excellence Class again.

Bungee Jumping and Rafting

The following weekend Antonio and a few of my coworkers headed to the rural province of Kawando for some rafting. It was a little bit too cold for Alexa to join, as she's a southern California girl, and it was almost too cold for me. The rafting trip was scenic, but the rapids were pretty mild. It rained on and off and the river was freezing. As they returned us to the launch point for lunch, the rain cleared up. This gave us the option of bungee jumping afterward, which is not allowed during the rain. For a few extra bucks, I climbed the tower and a harness was strapped around my feet. I was the first to go. The dive was 52 meters, which looked very different from above than below. Once I was attached to the cord I was told to jump. After some hesitation, I did.

Antonio snapped these photos, but couldn't get video because I was first and it was hard to see where I was going to jump from below. The free fall was exhilarating, but once I bounced up I lost all sense of direction. My friends told me I had flailed around, up and down and side to side. When I lost all of the momentum and stopped bouncing, I was lowered into a boat in the river.

Art Project Day

During art class throughout the month of June, our school had our kids complete a series of self portraits. Some were cut and pasted, others drawn, some molded out of clay. The month long project culminated in a paint-moshpit over a tarp. The pictures tell the story better than I can.

Nate and Sooah

Caribbean Bay

On the first weekend in July, Antonio and I went to Caribbean Bay, one of the two major water parks in Korea. We'd heard that the crowds were bad, so we hoped that by going on a overcast Saturday when most kids were in elementary school (in Korea they go to school every other Saturday) we would beat the crowds. We were wrong. When I go to an amusement park I expect to wait a hour or more for the top rides. The problem with Caribbean Bay was that even the less thrilling slides had waits of an hour or more. By the time 6 PM rolled around we had only been on five rides. We stayed until closing at 7 PM, and managed to get on four more rides as people began to leave the park. I think we rode three slides in the final 20 minutes that the park was open.

The best slide by far was one called Aqua Loop, featuring a trap door that releases you straight down, then loops you back up. It's in the middle below.

I will be headed to China for one week next Saturday. I will be going to Xian (home of the Terracotta Warriors), Suzhou (a canal town know for its gardens), and Shanghai.