A very old Temple and some Halloween Fun

Last week, Oct. 22nd and 23rd, Andrew and I had an EPIK in service training in Gyeongju; a historical city about an hour northwest of Ulsan. The training lasted all day Thursday and until 2pm on Friday. It being our first time there, we decided to stay until Saturday and do some site seeing. We had also gotten wind of an ATV mountain tour that peeked our interest. (We actually never found the ATV tour and aren't even sure it existed. I found it on a kind of shady website...in Korean...so maybe I 'read' it wrong :)

After the conclusion of the training, Johnson drove us to a cheaper hotel we found online and he said he would talk to the people to try to get us a discount because Hakseong often stayed at their hotel for soccer tournaments. Well, when we go there, he talked to the lady at the front desk and then translated to us that it's originally 80,000 won a night, but he 'talked' her down to 60,000 (about $50.) Whether that was true or not, I'll take a discount when I can get one.



When Johnson left to return to Ulsan, Andrew and I decided to take a walk around the Bulguksa Temple. This temple was completed in 774 AD and it served as a center of Silla Buddhism and of prayer for the protection of the country from foreign invasion. Sadly, like many other ancient Korean landmarks, the entire temple was burnt d0wn by Japanese invaders in 1593 (they should have prayed a little harder...) and it wasn't rebuilt until 1969 after thorough research, investigations and excavation of the ancient temple site. Something I thought was pretty cool, was that in 1995, the temple was designated as the world cultural heritage by the UNESCO.


As Andrew and I walked up the stairs to the temple grounds, the scene was literally breathtaking. I couldn't imagine seeing this temple for the first time at any other moment during the year. The trees were at their most beautiful fall peaks and the colors were simply gorgeous. (We see no trees living in the city of Ulsan, so it was an amazing site to see). The temple grounds were filled with beautiful trees but the most beautiful site of all were the trees that surrounded a pond and a waterfall. Andrew and I took like a hundred pictures and just couldn't stop staring at such natural beauty. I wish you all could have been there in person. These pictures just don't do it justice.

After we walked the temple grounds, we got on a bus to take us up the mountain to see the Seokguram Grotto, another UNESCO world cultural heritage landmark. The ride was less than exciting. I hear the views are beautiful but I was too busy closing my eyes and concentrating on not getting sick all over the bus. It was a miserable windy ride. The grotto was constructed in 751 AD and it represents not only the supremacy of Silla art, but it is also regarded as the best oriental Buddhist work. Sadly we were not allowed to take pictures because of how old it is I'm guessing. But it was a cool looking giant Buddha. I'm sad to admit, but for me, the view from the top of the mountain at sunset was even cooler!

The bus ride down from the grotto had to be the most miserable 15 minutes of my whole life. It would be wise for them to put air sick bags in each seat. They probably would have come in handy for the poor girl that got sick immediately after stepping off the bus. I know we all felt that way, and the last thing I wanted to do was get on another bus to take us to our next tourist destination. After waiting 20 minutes for the bus and trying to settle our stomachs, Andrew and I rode for 45 min on a bus where we weren't even sure would take us to the right place. Well, as usual, we missed our stop and just ended up getting off the bus. We ended up in 'Love Motel Ally' and weren't even sure how to get back. We flagged a taxi and pointed to the map of where we were trying to go. The map was in English, the taxi driver only spoke Korean...it took us a while to communicate where we wanted to go but eventually we got there.

We were at the Gyeongju Imhaejeon Site on the Anapji lake, a site you can really only appreciate at night time because they have the coolest up lighting on all of the buildings and around the lake. It is a separate palace that the King of the Unified Silla period had built so that he could plant rare flowers and trees and raise uncommon birds and animals. The King also used this place to hold banquets and lavish parties. Once again, it was destroyed by the Japanese and rebuilt in 1975. They have a model of what it might have looked like as well as some actual artifacts that were found when the lake was drained and cleaned.

It was beautiful and the had music playing as we walked the path around the lake. The lighting was gorgeous and even had color changing lights around some of the streams.

After a full day of site seeing we returned to our hotel where we had a very nutritious meal consisting of fried chicken, fries and Pepsi. What a great day!


Wednesday, October 28th, I threw my after school kids a Halloween party! It was so much fun. We played all kinds of Halloween games like 'Pin the tail on the Black cat,' we made construction Jack-o-Lanterns, masks, Ghost suckers, and BINGO (a Korean favorite). Their favorite activity had to be the toilet paper Mummy rap race...boys against girls. It's always good to promote healthy competition. Not to be biased in any way, but the girls kicked butt, look at the picture and you can be the judge! It was a fun time and a nice break from the English studying that we usually do. I think that all kids around the world should celebrate Halloween...everyone loves free candy! But if I have to hear, "Teacher changey...changey...." one more time...I might go crazy. If I gave them a piece of candy, they always wanted to 'change' the flavor. So I stopped that madness real quick. (That's me, in the Witch hat and striped leggings).

By the way, I have posted a few videos on youtube. Just type in 09Ulsan in the search tab. They are short because my camera can't take long videos but they are kind of fun!