Gyeongju, Goodbyes, Good-eatin'

Dear Gyeongju,
You are one good looking city. Thanks for all the historical facts and site seeing options.

Where to begin! This past week was so packed full. I can barely remember it. And it doesn't help that I didn't give myself any notes to remind me of our mini roadtrip to the other side of the peninsula.

So, last week, I left you in great anticipation for this week's blog right? Right. So, let's pick up from last Sunday afternoon. After filling up the gas tank and grabbing some sandwiches from the infamous Lee Sung dong bakery in Gunsan, seven teachers hit the Korean highway. Gyeongju or BUST!

We had decided the week before that we would spend Sunday and Monday (Korean holiday) in the Washington D.C. of Korea. The city is so old...like ancient..literally. We saw stuff in museums from the 4th Century. America is such a little child compared to Asia. In Gyeongju, it was, if I remember right, the capital of the Silla Dynasty. This dynasty is known for uniting the three dynasties that separated Korea. They unified them and also made Buddhism the official religion. So, the city is full of many artifacts from palaces that had been excavated, and also, although we didn't really get to see them, I hear there are many beautiful, ancient temples in the mountains nearby.

After a 5 hour drive, we arrived in Gyeongju at about 7 pm. First, we went to our sweet set up at this condo. One of the teachers is an older Korean man who had some connections and got us this condo for a very sweet deal. So, we got all checked in, made our way to our room, open the door, only to find the maid just finishing up her shower. Although it was unexpected, it really wasn't surprising...oh, Korea...Nothing will ever catch me off guard thanks to you.

After that slightly awkward encounter, we got acquainted with the place. Intially, we were slightly concerned since there were no signs of a single bed in the place, but we opened the closet to find 3 "beds"..Korean style. So, we set it up and gave it a trial run.

They were actually pretty comfy.

Then we went out and ate some sort of sum gyeop sal..pork and also met our "tour guide." The Korean teacher's friend that lives in Gyeongju. He was a nice man..probably in his late 60's...He asked all the guys on the trip if I was their wife...and the last guy said to him, "nope, why? you sound interested." Thankfully, he didn't speak English. Oh, Brian, you're hilarious ;)

After dinner and a quick trip to Home Plus...like our Walmart...we thought we were going back to the hotel when *screeeeeeeeech* we spotted this awesome lotus farm (field? pond?) The lotus is the flower that is closely associated with Buddhism. I'm pretty sure it's in many of the temples and paintings inside the temples. They grow in ponds, I've seen them before, but never this big or so many in one place! So, we poured out of the car and got to explore. The pictures are so pathetic in comparison. And it was even prettier in the daytime when all the lotus (loti?) were open. Here are some pics:

The lotus farm.
The lotus and ILotus' closeup!

Got back to the room and found the maid snoozing away on the couch! ...im totally kidding..but that would have been funny. We all went to bed early and slept like babies.

Monday came along and I observed that maybe Koreans sleep on the floor because it makes it so much easier to wake up. Without the comfort and squishiness that I require in every bed that I've ever made my own, getting out of bed is not so difficult.

I jogged around for a bit. We ate some breakfast. And we were on our way out the door for an extremely full day of sight seeing. Koreans don't mess around. There is absolutely no diddle daddling allowed when a Korean is in charge of your group. You think it's impossible to go to three museums, a palace, burial grounds, a Confuciasm school, eat lunch at a restaurant, go to a traditional village, eat some watermelon with some old friends, and see the original house of the Chae family all before 3:30 pm? Think again.

Our first stop was the Gyeongju National Museum, which was comprised of 4 buildings. Here, we saw many artifacts that were from the 4th and 5th century Silla Dynasty. We did see some originals but unfortunately when the Japanese had control of Korea they destroyed many of the originals artifacts. We first stumbled across this ancient bell called, "Divine Bell of King Seongdeok." It was pretty divine.

The first museum we walked in was Anapji Hall. Anapji was a pond built by King Munmu in the 600s. He built it on one of the palace grounds. This palace was the "party" palace according to one of the Koreans with us. It was pretty neat. I'll post more pictures of all the artifacts on facebook asap.

Our next stop was at the Archaeology Hall where we saw the Gold Crown, which apparently is a National Treasure and other various ancient things.

This is a helmet from the 500s:


Here is a pretty famous design in Korea. According the free guide I picked up at the museum it is "a roof end tile with a design featuring a human face of Yeongmyosa temple site." I just think it's cute. Outside the museum was this pagoda. Unfortunately, it's a replica, but it was still neat.


We finished off the whirlwind museum run with going into the art hall which featured a few different Buddhist art rooms.

Remember Anapji Hall? Well, this was the actual palace grounds the pond was built in. Over 1400 years of upkeep and this place is still looking good. The pond is to the right of the picture.

After we partied it up at the party palace, we visited the burial grounds (buzz kill) of many of the different Kings. I really didn't know what to expect, but the "cemetery" reminded me of the Indian burial mounds at Devil's Lake..except these were massive and only one king to each mound.


We actually were able to go inside one of them, which was really interesting, but out of respect they didn't want photos. Bummer.

So, the next stop was at the Confucianism school.I kinda wandered away from the group at this time so I missed most of the explanation, but basically children studied Confucianism here.

Here are the classroom rules. Translated: 1) Don't hit each other 2) Don't speak Korean and 3) Don't say the "F" word. Wait...those are my classroom rules.

Finally, it was time for lunch. We ate at a Korean buffet. It was decent.

After lunch, we drove for about 20 minutes to a traditonal village. Although it is a tourist spot, it is not a village solely for tourism. People actually live here in these traditional houses and live normal lives, it seemed like many of them were farmers. It was beautiful and the pictures, like all my pictures, really don't do it justice.

This was built by a servant of someone. I think. shoot..sorry, I can't remember what I read on the plaque..but it was very old and Asian looking.
I really need to make a flower colleague of all the flowers in Korea..Chincha adamdapta! (Very beautiful!)
Another part of the village
After the traditional village, I thought our time in Gyeongju was up, however, we ended up making a couple more stops. One was to visit old friends of the Korean teacher who was with us, and the other one was at the Chae family house. If you meet a Korean, most likely their family name will be Kim, Lee, or Chae. So, this was where the very first Chae's lived. At this home, there was a tour guide who spoke super good English, so he explained to us about the Chae family and their 6 precepts. Here are a few of the famous family quotes: "Not to be prejudice, hasty or covetous. There is no such thing of solidly perfect value. Live a righteous life with no lopsided though." and "the possession is like dung which one can't stand with its foul smell if one store them in one place but can be fine fertilizer if one sprinkles it fairly." This house was probably one of my favorite stops. It was very informative and I understood everything that the guide was telling us.

So, after a couple days being filled with loads of information about Korea's ancient times, we were homeward bound. We arrived in Gunsan at about 8 pm which gave us all enough to time rest up and take on a shorter work week.

Although it was a short week, time, once again, seemingly dragged on. Just the usual. On Friday, in my morning class, we had to say goodbye to 2 of the college aged students, Eun Sun and Mira. They were great students and will definitely be missed.

Also, on Friday, it was my last day at the company class, so I thought. So, Friday I had to say goodbye to my company students at Tata Daewoo. They were sweet and on his way out, one said, "Natalee Teacher, I miss you." Although there will be times when I miss seeing their shining faces, I am mostly excited to have my afternoon break back! Here they are: Tony, Ms. Jeong, June, Lee, Mr. Shin, and Rain. Tata, Tata Daewoo employees, may you never forget our endless conversations about your weekends and I shall never forget your semi-inappropriate comments like, "Teacher, you're dressed to kill me."

At Tata I taught 2 different classes. The above picture was my class for Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. I taught another class on Tuesdays and Thursdays. There were four faithful members in this class. Two women and two men. The two women I had over for an Italian feast a few weeks ago, so you've seen their picture. But here is Mr. Cha and Mr. Kim.

Friday night, this class of four took myself and my Korean team teacher out for some dinner. We ate at this new Vietnamese restaurant, PoHoa. I've had Vietnamese food once before in Korea, but this was so delicious and fun to eat! I think they call it, "Wal nam sum" which I'm about 80% sure that translates to "Vietnamese burrito." First, you must take the rice paper and put it in hot water for a few seconds.

After the paper is soft and sticky, you add whatever you'd like to your sticky rice paper.

And WALAH, "wal nam sum."

You can also dip your "burrito" into this amazing peanut sauce. This was probably the best food I've had in quite some time. PoHoa will be seeing me again in the next 6 weeks.

Saturday was exactly what I needed. A day to do nothing. However, I'm not someone who can just do nothing all day..so I decided that I would go through ALL my clothes and decide which ones I'll be bringing home as well as which one I'll send home in a box. I got a little carried away and packed every single piece of my clothing into a suitcase just to see if it would fit and how much it would weigh. Surprisingly, it all fit, but I soon regreted my impulse decision to pack away all my clothes when I realized I still have 6 weeks left and need more than my sweats and tank top to wear to work.

Saturday night, I met Seul Ki at Subway. That's right, Subway reopened..hallelujah, I feel like I can breathe again. Seul Ki had never eaten Subway, so of course she was just overwhelmed by it's greatness. After Subway, we went to the movie theater and watched "Larry Crowne." Decent movie.

On Sunday, we had the once a month potluck. Along with the great food, there was great company. During this potluck, I sat with a group of foreigners that were visiting the church. To my right sat a Korean, to my left sat an Aussie, and in front of me sat a man from South Africa and a woman from England. It was so interesting listening to all the nice British sounding accents..I never wanted to talk because the sound of my own American accent interrupted the eloquence of their voices.

Sunday night, I was so excited to go and play basketball with a Korean friend of mine. After I got over the uncomfortable feeling of being the only girl (and foreigner) in site, I had so much fun watching and playing basketball. It was fun, but I was absolutely terrible. I'm pretty sure nobody has ever had that many air balls in one afternoon of basketball. I could tell not going to Broken Arrow this summer really messed with my basketball ability.

While I was watching and playing, I started to feel these conflicting feelings. I love meeting new people and I love meeting Koreans, I met a few new people playing basketball and it made me say to myself, "Natalee, why are you meeting these awesome new Koreans who will make it that much harder to leave in 7 weeks?"

I've always been someone who absolutely loves connecting with other people. I really think my favorite thing in all the world is finding someone who I really connect with and spending time with them. I love staying in contact with my friends from home and from my university, and I always love that hour long conversation I have once in a blue moon with someone I met once either on a missions trip or at a summer camp. I care so much about those around me...and sometimes I've found myself caring way more than the other person..but my point is, I've made so many incredible connections here, and although I usually don't mind goodbyes because I do enjoy keeping in contact with the people I have the strongest connection with, I am a little worried that the amount of goodbyes that will happen in the next 6 weeks is going to be slightly overwhelming and a war of emotions between the excitement of coming home and sadness of leaving these people who I've really come to love is going to take a toll on me...it will definitely be a first. And thus the war begins...