Blogs from Gyeongju, Gyeongsangbuk-do, South Korea, Asia - page 6

Recently, I got a chance to go on my summer vacation. Some of my coworkers took the opportunity to go to Bali or Thailand, but I figured that I’d stay a little closer to home and see what’s in Korea. A program here called Temple Stay allows people to stay at Buddhist temples to see what life is like to there. A few temples in Korea make accommodations for English speaking visitors. Figuring that they are mostly the same, I just picked a temple and went. I decided on Gogulsa Temple near Gyeonju about a four-hour train ride from Seoul. A bus ride and short walk brought me to the temple gate. From the gate, there was a 10-minute walk up to the temple office about ¾ of the way up a steep hill. (I got ... read more

Just updating while I have a minute: Our plans have made a slight change, instead of being in China right now (like I originally thought) we are now in South Korea checking-out a 2000 year old history of the Korean people. Amazing, it's just too bad that the Japanesse burned the place down a couple hundred years ago in an invasion attempt. But the Bulguksa Temple has been recreated with great attention for details. I hope to be in Seol tomorrow; but I now have little, if any confindence in our planning. There is a ferry from the North of South Korea that we should be able to get to China that way, but I will update this soon (hopefully) with more details and pictures. While we are here, I would also like to go ... read more

My friends and I decided to go for a temple stay over the new year 2006/2007. We left early form Gumi with the bus to Gyoengju. There we had a look at the tombs in Tumuli Park. Because it was the middle of the winter everything was dry and dull. On the other side of the park we saw a horse carriage ride going up and down through a park. We bought tickets and went on a very bumpy ride imagining how life was before cars were invented. We took a taxi back to the Express bus terminal and caught local city bus no:100 to the Golgulsa Temple. We drove on a winding road through the mountains for about 30min. The bus driver stopped in the middle of nowhere and told us this is where we ... read more

(I'm sorry it's taken me so long to write. There's just been so much adventuring, I've fallen behind. With the next few posts, I hope to catch up!) When we last left our heroine, she was preparing to go to Gyeongju (ancient seat of the Silla Dynasty-- which began around 600 A.D. and was one of the most artistically advanced dynasties) for a Fulbright conference. That means, the 64 plus Fulbright ETAs scattered across the country would gather together once more to sup and celebrate, to discuss our trials and triumphs, and ultimately, to speak English to fluent English speakers for a straight 3-4 days. Gosh, it was heaven. I had not realized how much I missed speaking with native speakers at native speaker pace without linguistic misunderstandings. I was kind of wary of the reunion ... read more

I've just finished wandering around today's New York Times, peaking in here and there, mostly looking for people-pieces...an article about the editor-in-chief of Men's Health -- described as "handsome middle son," or something of that sort. And then I found Modern Love on the Style page. The woman talked about her divorce from a white man, as a black woman, due to her impassioned views on race and his dismissal, or inability to firmly grasp the still prevalent racism in America. Although the actual piece was about her attempt to date a new white guy - "No one in American can clam to be free of racist indoctrination and doing so only perpetuates the crime.." she paraphrased someone else. Tim Wise. And I try to look at my situation here, tossing it around in my head. ... read more