Gold Unitard

Long update on last week and this past weekend! It has been a very busy several days for me here. I'll start with our Kindergarten field trip this past Thursday. Our destination for this trip would be the Natural Gas Museum (giggle giggle...gas...giggle). We pulled up to the museum shaped like a giant mushroom top to begin our tour.

The museum explains the discovery, creation, and uses of natural gas in our world today. As with every field trip, this one is conducted in Korean. Therefore the fellow foreign teachers and I just hang back and help with herding the students around. While the videos and informational posters around the museum were very kid friendly, meaning there were cute little cartoon characters explaining natural gas, I wondered if some of the information was over our kids' heads. The first sign I find when we walk into the museum made me a bit skeptical.

The usual kindergarten vocabulary words

The students seemed to enjoy learning about where natural gas comes from and the different kinds. They watched a few videos and then got to play some games for a few minutes before being led into a theater to watch a play.

Evil Gas

Woah! We finally found natural gas!

 

So excited, can't you tell?

Woah

Only slightly politically incorrect

 Once we realized that we would be standing in the back of the theater to watch a play completely in Korean for 45 minutes to an hour, the other foreign teachers and I decided to bow out and guard the backpacks and lunches. We sat back and relaxed in the quiet for about an hour until the students returned ready for their kimbap lunches. When I asked what the play was about, my students did not know. Again, this makes me think the material of these field trips might be too complex for them, but anything to get them out of the classroom and having some fun! We headed back to school, shipped the little ones home, then prepped for elementary.

 Here are some sneak peak pictures of one of my classes practicing their song for the contest at the end of the month!

That night Katrina, Seol, Kaitie, and I headed to Cheap Shots, a bar nearby, for some trivia. Kaitie had won with her team last week so she got the pleasure of hosting this week's trivia game! Lucky Duck. I had been to Trivia twice before and usually I am able to help out with at least 2 if not more categories pretty confidently. This week proved to be a bit too difficult for me. The categories this week included "obscure geographical history" not my thing, "Star Wars" which I think I may have watched part of when I was very little, "Lord of the Rings" which I have never read, "Youtube Videos" where you had to name the channel of random youtube video played for us- the majority of which I had never seen, and "Celebrity knowledge" which i definitely do not keep up with here. The only topic I felt comfortable with was the sixth one which was "Disney songs". Luckily I am a super Disney nerd, as seen in my previous post, so I did pretty well with that one. Overall, this was not my finest moment for trivia, though it was still fun to meet up with friends and complain about the insanely detailed facts we had to know!

Now onto this weekend! Springtime in Korea bring cherry blossoms around the country! While the weather hasn't been exactly "springy" I was hoping our trip down to Gyeongju would be sunny and warm. I definitely was not disappointed! Gyeongju is one of the old capital cities of Seoul, we would be seeing temples and other historical sites over the next few days. Kaitie, Katrina, and I headed to meet the chartered bus at Sadang station at around 5am (getting there incredibly early and hanging out in a convenience store to stay warm). We all tried to get a bit more sleep on the 4-ish-hour ride down there. On our drive down the landscapes changed from concrete jungle cities to mountainous, green countryside. It is so nice to get out of the crowded city once in a while! When we arrived we rented our bikes and began exploring the city. One of the guides from the tour company was donning a gold unitard for no apparent reason other than that his girl friend had bought it for him. Not that we don't already attract enough attention as a group of 100 foreigners, we need a blinding gold man to lead us around. Thanks!

Kaitie and Sara ready to ride!

Gold Unitard...

Katrina had gone on a similar trip last year so she acted as our tour guide. Turns out last week was probably the better time to see the cherry blossoms. For the most part the flowers had already come and gone by this weekend. A few blossoms held on for us though. The weather was amazing as well! The first time I've felt warm outside in quite a while.

 We joined up with another group of girls, also from Bucheon. It was a fun mix of people! We grabbed lunch before heading to a temple nearby. One of my favorite parts about the trip was all the colorful lanterns that decorated trees and temple areas. I want to cover my ceiling with them in my apartment! (It could happen right?)

galbi lunch

Triplets

Ringing the bell

After making it to our drop-off point, we ditched the bikes and headed back to the hostel to shower and get ready for our night excursion in the city. That night we were dropped off to find dinner on our own and then to Anapji, which is a pond created near a palace during the Silla Dynasty. The other girls were all craving some pizza for dinner so we walked a significant distance in search of the western comfort food. We found a small pizza shop and were greeted by a very chubby little puppy guarding the door. I was able to practice my Korean ordering pizza with and without certain toppings for the group. The food was actually really good! After dinner we walked to Anapji to find a looooooong line winding around outside the palace area. A few members of our group were willing to wait in the line to see the pond, while a few of us headed back to make the first bus back to the hostel. The early wake-up call this morning hitting us, we were ready to crawl into bed (or floor-mat rather). Passing out as soon as our heads hit the pillow, we slept to prepare for the next day of touristy adventures.

If you want pizza, you'll have to go through me!

Sunday morning at 7:30 we left for the Bulguksa Temple nearby. Since we arrived very early the temple area was quiet and still allowing us to take in the beauty of the buildings, statues, and nature. As with my other temple trips, the roofs of the buildings are intricately painted with bright colors and swirling designs. I wandered the grounds, reflecting on the similarities and differences of other temples I've seen so far during my travels here. This was definitely one of the bigger temples I've been to, but it had very similar features including smaller buildings for specific Buddhas as well as prayer rock towers. As we headed back towards the bus, the crowds of bright-colored-hiking-gear-wearers streamed into the temple area, taking away the quiet calm that we had experienced when we arrived.

 

 

Prayer stone towers

After Bulguksa, we drove up the mountain to Seokguram Grotto. This grotto is considered part of the Bulguksa temple area. When we arrive we walk to see the famous Buddha statue which sits inside a cave on the mountain. The Buddha represents the Seokgamoni Buddha at his moment of enlightenment. While most temples I've been to allow you to get relatively close to these historical artifacts, this Buddha sits behind a wall of glass keeping dust, dirt, and tourist's hands off. I understand the importance of maintaining such an incredible monument, however it was difficult to get the full effect of the statue behind the glare of the glass. Again, this area was decorated with several hundred colorful lanterns and the views from the grotto were breathtaking though incredibly difficult to capture in a photo!

 

 

We left the grotto and got in the bus once again to go to the beach! At this particular beach we saw King Munmu's Tomb. I have to say this trip has introduced me to some very different kinds of tombs. King Munmu was buried underwater off the coast of this beach. According to history, he wished to be buried here so he could turn into a dragon and guard the coastline. I wish I could be buried and turn into a dragon! We sat on the beach and soaked in a few rays. I loved feeling the sun on my face after bundling up every day to walk outside. I even found a heart rock!

 Once again, it was time to get on the bus to find some lunch then go to our last stop of the day to see the tomb mounds. The other strange tomb of the trip. Kings and other important figures from the Silla Dynasty were buried under tall perfectly groomed mounds of stone covered in grass. If you did not know they were tombs you might think you had just walked into a Dr. Seuss book. As time was running out we did not get a lot of time to walk through the mound area, but we ran in to see the cross section of the Cheonmachong Tomb. This mound allows you to enter and see how the King or famous figure is set up underneath these hilly tombs.

Bug bus

Where's the lorax?

Overall the trip was excellent! The weather couldn't have been better and I am so glad I got to see this historical area. The trip back took a bit longer than expected. We left Gyeongju around 4pm and arrived home in Bucheon near 11pm. This is going to be a long week without a relaxing weekend, but it was worth it! This week we have a cooking class on Friday with the kindergarteners and then quiet weekend before next week when Kaitie and I head to Jindo for the sea parting festival! 

xoxo

Korean Phrase of the post: 개가 피자를 먹고 (gae-ga peeja-reul meok-go): "The dog eats pizza"

P.s. Dad, you know the word for pizza in Korean already! ;)