Gyeongju Mountains, moveable type, Haeinsa Temple and the Tripitaka!

We are now in the province of Gyeongju, which is in the eastern/southern part of Korea. It is a very mountainous region, and almost reminds me of the Green Mountains in VT or the foothills of the White Mountains in NH. We have visited several Buddhist temples, grottos, and a few museums. We have been eating pretty much exclusively Korean food, but today we did go to Pizza Hut. Blech!

On the way to the Haiensa Temple, and once we got there:















The Haiensa Temple is where the Tripitaka Koreana resides. The Tripitaka is the Buddhist canon of scriptures. They are written on 81,258 wooden printing blocks, that had been soaked in the river and dried by the wind. They have survived there since 1398.



(This picture was not taken with flash!)

I have learned that the Koreans used moveable type made from metal in 1377 to publish the Jikji, a Buddhist document of teachings. This was before Gutenberg publishes the Bible using moveable type in 1452. Very interesting! We never learn about this in the West... Both the East and the West figured out how to create moveable type and mass-produce texts! The Koreans deserve credit, too, just like Gutenberg got!

traditional Korean experiences

Below is a picture of this traditional Korean tea ceremony that we went to. It was beautiful, and made me want to have a "tea" when I get back.





A picture of me trying on a traditional Korean outfit.



A picture of me trying on another traditional Korean outfit. It was kind of strange how they had these "experiences" as a part of our schedule, but also a reminder of how fun and memorable it is for students to experience aspects of the culture they are learning about.



A picture of me learning to write my name in Korean. It was harder than it looked!

Joint Security Area: Panmunjeom

Today we visited the Joint Security Area (JSA) between South Korea and North Korea. It is the DMZ, or the de-militarized zone. There were South Korean officers everywhere, and we got to look over to North Korea. It was a reminder to me of how arbitrary geographical boundaries are, and how the landscape was exactly the same on one "side" as on the other. Very much like the separation between India and Pakistan - both sides of the border look exactly the same, and ethnically, the people come from the same background. Here are several pictures of the area. Below are the United Nations flags - countries who help rule the JSA. Under that is the entry building, where we had to sign a statement that included these rules:

"3. When you arrive at the conference room, DO NOT TOUCH any equipment such as microphones or flags belonging to the communist side

4. DO NOT SPEAK with, make any gesture toward or in any way (including pointing or waving), approach, or respond to personnel from the other side.

5. You can wear casual clothes, but it is prohibited to wear blue jeans, sandals, shorts, short pants, short skirts, sleeveless skirts, shirts without collars, excessively exposing clothes, etc. Shaggy or unkempt hair is not allowed either."

SO WEIRD! I can't believe this is our world...







Below is a picture of the spot where the ax-murder occured in 1976, when a group of United Nations officers attempted to trim a tree with an ax, and North Korean officers attacked and ended up killing two American officers with the ax. I had never heard about this, and found the whole story really shocking. Below that is the train going from South Korea into North Korea, and a picture of postings on the fence of the train tracks with cards and posters welcoming this idea of linking the two parts of Korea.





Below is a picture of a north Korean building, and all of the security (both north and south Korean) outside. Pretty weird experience to be there, all together.



I learned a lot more about North Korea today. All in all, a surreal experience. I kept on thinking of my grandfathers and great uncles, who were the age of the South Korean officers during WWII, traveling to far away places and serving in the military. I also thought of all of the American soldiers in the Middle East right now. I don't think I had ever seen so many military personnel in person before today.

Korean Film

Yesterday we watched a movie called "My Heart" (1999), directed by Bae Chang-ho. I recommend it whole-heartedly. Apparently the title is not a literal translation of the title in Korean, which is "Jeong". It was interesting to hear about the meaning of the word "jeong" because it requires a whole paragraph of explanation. There are many words in Korean that are so embedded with meaning there is not a single English word that matches their meanings. Anyways - "jeong" means this collective sense of togetherness, of belonging to a group, and having both a right and an obligation to step into other people's affairs. It includes love and responsibility and a sense of selfless community. If I understand correctly. I thought this was fascinating! The movie was about the life story of a woman in Korea about 100 years ago, and was beautifully done - she is depicted as resilient and thoughtful, and still a product of her historical context.

We then heard a lecture on Korean film, and the speaker gave several movie recommendations, if you're interested. I'm not sure how easy they are to get on netflicks, but I'm going to try to get them when I get home. They are:

"My Road" by the same director as "My Heart"

"Sopyonje" (1993) by director Im Kwon-taek - this is about traditional Korean singing

"King and the Clown" (2006) by director Lee Joon-Ik

"Three Iron" by director Kim Ki-duk

A Schoolgirl's Diary (this is a north Korean film and may be impossible to get in the U.S.)

All of this reminded me that I really want to see "Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter, and Spring".

Bukhansan National Park

Right now my calves are so tired and my quads are in pain! I will sleep well tonight. I hiked most of the way up the tallest peak in Bukhansan National Park - the peak itself is called Bukhansan (the above is not actually the peak, it is just the only picture I got before my camera ran out of battery). I didn't really know what I was getting into, but I'm glad I went. It was interesting to see a Korean national park. Seoul is surrounded by pretty mountains that look like eruptions of green with stone peaks, and this park encompasses some of these mountains. Unfortunately, my camera ran out of battery after my first couple of pictures, but here's the website for the park:

http://npa.or.kr/bukhan/eng/npa/intro.htm

Two women from my trip were going to do this hike, and I decided to join them. They were thinking it was going to be 3 or 4 hours of trails, and we'd be back by lunch. While the hike was only 4.1 km, it was incredibly steep, and ended up being 6 hours of strenuous hiking. We sweat a lot. It was even more strenuous than hiking Yosemite Falls, which, up until today, was my hardest hike to date. Plus, it had rained last night, so the dirt and granite rocks were kind of slick. I was really careful with every step, remembering how I sprained my ankle a couple of summers ago climbing Mt. Cardigan in NH. I'm glad to have mad eit down without any injuries! It was an exercise in taking it one careful step at a time.

We did have fun, though. You can reach this park by subway from downtown Seoul in 20 minutes! Amazing! As we got closer, more and more people got on the subway with serious hiking gear: hiking boots and wool socks, backpacks, walking sticks! I had a backpack, but my two hiking companions only had purses! We were all in running shoes, not hiking boots. We began to feel under-prepared. Once we were out of the subway, we took a short bus ride to the opening of the park. The bus driver asked a passenger to show us how to get to the start of the trails - very friendly, and kept on telling us how beautiful the mountain was and how much we would like it. We were the only foreigners to be seen the whole day, interestingly enough! Turns out that this park is a big destination for all the hikers of Seoul on the weekends (and there are many of them). Not that many (or any- besides us) westerners seemed to know about it. This man to whom the bus driver had assigned us insisted on walking with us, and he was very nice - showed us pictures of his daughter and wife on his cell phone. He also wanted to keep a fast pace, so eventually, he lost us. As we got closer to the peak, I was not feeling like my shoes had good enough traction, and it was STEEP, so I sat on a rock and waited while my two friends went up a little farther, and came back down when they would have had to scale rocks. While I sat for an hour near the side of the trail, a steady stream of Korean hikers (men, women, and children) hiked on by. All in hiking shoes and proper hiking gear! I ended up hiking with some middle aged women in big fluorescent visors further on the trail until I met my friends again. It was an exhausting hike, but beautiful.

Oh, I forgot to tell you about the food I got at the bottom of the mountain to eat for lunch! I wish I had taken a picture of it. It was called kimpa (sp?) and it is rice and vegetables rolled in seaweed, and then sliced up like sushi rolls. They put it in aluminum foil, and it was very transportable, like having a sandwich. Healthy, and delicious!

a lecture, a strike, and a walk around Seoul

Yesterday morning we heard a 3 hour lecture on the Korean War. It was very interesting and depressing. I knew next to nothing about this war before the lecture, and now I feel like I have a lot more background. I wish I had been a history major in college!

Yesterday also began a strike against the FTA in Seoul. We couldn't get into the palace where we wanted to go (Changdeok-gung), so we walked around and did a little shopping instead. Here are some articles about the strike:

http://www.iht.com/articles/2002/02/28/a_102.php

http://www.forbes.com/business/feeds/afx/2007/06/24/afx3851629.html

Here are some things we saw on our walk. Below is Korea University (not a fantastic picture, but you can see what a well-kept-up and beautiful campus this is.) We attend the lectures at this university.


Here are a couple of pictures of the city streets in Seoul:



We went to this beautiful vegetarian restaurant for lunch. Here's the gorgeous-looking and delicious-tasting food. It was called "Korean Temple Cooking" and we sat on the floor. I really liked the lotus flower lamps.



There was this great fountain in a plaza in downtown Seoul where tons of children gleefully awaited the sprinklers to come on every few minutes.




Here's a mural that shows the Seoul Tower on the top of Namsun Peak as well as the Hangang River. The mural is made up of tiny photographs, as shown below.



Coming up next... My hike at Bukhansan National Park!!!

school visit / home visit

Our visit to the high school was the highlight of the trip so far. I teamed up with the other teacher from NYC, ( who happens to share my name and be my age!) and we planned our "lesson" together about NYC landmarks and NYC maps. Together, we had a bunch of NYC postcards (over 100) and gave out several to each student. Then, we gave out NYC maps and had them find the landmarks on the maps. The students were incredibly enthusiastic, I have to say. We walked in and they started cheering - how often does that happen in life? ;) I had learned to introduce myself in Korean, and so I did - more cheers! They had a lot of questions about going to school in the US - how many hours do students study, what kind of music do they like, etc... We did our lesson, and then they wanted to take pictures with us. Finally, we gave out jolly ranchers, and more cheers. It was really fun talking with the students. These students knew English very well, and in our particular class, they were also studying Japanese. Since it was an international (and private) school, every student knew 3 or 4 languages. Pretty amazing. The other amazing thing, I thought, was that their school day goes from 7:30 AM to 10:30 PM! Everyone stays at school studying that late (mandatory), and then many travel from over an hour to get to school - so they take the public city bus home at that hour!






One student, who introduced himself as Brian (his "American" name, he said), was my tour guide at the school. He had lived in Orlando, Florida when he was 9 and 10, and so his English was excellent. What was interesting was that his father had sent him, his brother, and his mother to the U.S. while he himself (the father) stayed and worked in Seoul because he wanted his boys to learn English and learn to be Americans. Brian said his mother missed his father too much, and so they went back to Seoul. Brian took me and another American teacher to his house for a traditional Korean dinner. His father picked Brian and us up from school, and it took us an hour and a half to get to their apartment in the Friday afternoon traffic - the streets were like parking lots. Once we got there, the grandmother had cooked because the mother was away on a business trip (she worked in insurance, apparently, while the father was a banker). The grandmother didn't eat with us, though - only Brian, his father, me, and the other teacher sat at the table. It was an incredible meal - the best I've had so far in Korea! The father wanted to talk about American politics more than he wanted to tell us about Korea, but he was very nice. Here's the picture below. I am absolutely exhausted and kind of hot (no AC, long day of lectures and school visit). At the end of the evening, around 9 PM, Brian had to go to a math tutoring class (9 PM on Friday night, mind you!) and so the father took us back on the subway to our hotel (to avoid the traffic) and then insisted on getting us tea at the hotel lobby restaurant. I gave him a small book on NYC architecture I had bought at the Met.

more pictures

I haven't quite figured out the whole picture thing in such a short period of time, so forgive the whole layout problem, but enjoy the pictures!

The painting on this Korean palace was so colorful! See below:




Here I am in front of the Korean Folk Art Museum (and the mountains!):




Some personable sculptures to keep away the evil spirits at the folk art museum:


The below sign sums up my place in the world right now. Then, there are a couple of pictures from my hotel room in the rainy early evening.







































Above are some figures from a cute garden in downtown Seoul!

pictures of the stream

Here is the stream in the middle of Seoul, called Cheonggyecheon. This stream used to be covered over by a highway, apparently, and only recently was uncovered so that people could enjoy its calmness. The Han river, Seoul's big river, which is huge and wide as the Hudson under the George Washington Bridge, is different from this. I don't have a picture of the Han, yet, but I drove over it tonight at night.

better blog than mine:

I can't figure out how to edit my previous entry because my screen is all in Korean, but here is the correct URL for my friend's awesome blog:

www.awalkintothewoods.blogspot.com

Action-packed Seoul

I have been to three art museums, heard two lectures, walked up and down many hills, had the heavens open up with rain, and toured Korea University, all in the past 48 hours!!!

Yesterday morning we visited the Korean folk art museum:

http://www.lifeinkorea.com/Travel2/80

There were lots of costumes and cloth and jewelry exhibits. Then, we went out for lunch to a restaurant where we sat on the floor - that was really fun. We watched them make our dumplings, boil them, and then we ate them. Delicious. In the afternoon, we went to the Leeum Samsung museum, which was incredibly fancy.

http://www.leeum.org/eng/main.asp

Apparently in order to go there, you used to need an appointment. It is funded by the Samsung family, and incredibly high-tech. We got these fancy audio tour headsets, fancier than any I've seen in the U.S., where you just had to stand by a piece of art and the headset would tell you all about it. You could also press all these buttons on the headsets and get other information about the artist, the work of art, other pieces of art you might be interested in if you liked that one, etc. We saw a lot of Celedon pottery - which is this beautiful light green pottery famous in Korea. There was also quite a lot of modern art there.

Today we went to Korea University, which was absolutely gorgeous. It was founded in 1905, and is an incredibly grand, expansive campus, with granite architecture.

http://www.korea.ac.kr/~eng/main.htm

We heard a four hour lecture on the history of Korea from ancient times to 1948... And we heard a lecture on Korean art, which was fabulous. The lecturer was a Korean woman my age who had gone to highschool in the U.S. but came back to University in Korea. I loved seeing the differences in portrayals of the Buddha through different dynasties.

Tomorrow I will post pictures. I will have the opportunity to bring my laptop to Korea University and use the internet there.

They are keeping us so busy, and I am still jet-lagged. I've been waking up at 5 AM ready to go! This morning, I went for a jog with some of the other people on the trip, and I hope to do the same tomorrow morning, if it doesn't rain. It feels very safe in this city.

Tomorrow's my lesson at the Korean highschool - wish me luck! I'm team-teaching with the other New Yorker on my trip, who is really nice. She teaches at a public highschool in the lower east side, and just so happens to have gone to highschool herself at the school where I'm currently teaching!

If yo uwant a more detailed perspective, check out my new friend's blog about this trip:

walkinthewoods at blogger

I'm here!

I landed safely at 5 AM this morning, after the 14 hour flight... It was long, and the benadryl I took only lasted the first few hours, but they had so many movies to watch and albums to listen to, the trip was relatively enjoyable. I watched "Bridge to Terebithia" which I didn't want to pay for to see in the theater (it was decent, but not as good as the book), and also my favorite "The Painted Veil" which I had already seen. I started "Little Children" but fell asleep.

This morning, we went on a walk around the area in which we are staying. The part of Seoul where we are is quite hilly (reminds me of SF), has many bakeries and 99 cent (type) stores. We visited some palaces called Gyeongbokgung, Changdeokgung, and Changgyeonggung - these were quite stunning with brightly colored paint of blues, oranges, pinks, yellows, and ornate wood carvings. I'll post pictures when I get back! Then, we had a few hours off and I took a shower and a 45 minute much-needed nap, and then went to a lecture on the art of ancient Korea and the Silla Empire. Learning about the Silk Route is amazing, considering all the trade that occurred between Asia and the Middle East. Then, we took the subway downtown, and walked along the river there. It was a beautiful stream-like river with lots of reeds, large rocks, and people dipping their feet in to cool down on this hot day. The contrast between this river amidst the modern city was gorgeous. Then, we ate some Bulgogi for dinner.

Now, I'm really tired from jetlag, but I wanted to tell you some highlights. The subway was pretty cool, with TV's showing cooking shows and a news station!! There was an evangelist who sang about Jesus very operatically on the platform. I also especially liked the river, as it reminded me kind of the Saint Martin's Canal in Paris (though with its own special charm).

Tomorrow we are going to two museums and another lecture. And I am off to go for a swim at the hotel, and then to sleep. It is still really hot here!

gamsa hamnida for reading.

Off to Korea

Annyong ha shimnikka!

I am participating in the Korea Society Fellowship for Educators from 6/18-7/5... I'm leaving tonight! In fact, I'm on my way to the airport momentarily. I leave from JFK at 0:50 AM. I am packed pretty lightly - one suitcase, one backpack, and one purse. I also have a money belt (in case you were wondering, Mom :) ) I have my gifts - a book about Louis Comfort Tiffany, another book about NYC architecture, a NYC t-shirt (thanks to my trip to Times Square with Tara) and a fancy journal. These will be donated to the "gift stash" of my co-travelers, and we will give a gift to each of our hosts, lecturers, guides, etc.

Well, I'm a little nervous, but not too bad. My ipod decided to stop working last minute, after I downloaded some new mixes, Annie Dillard's new book, and some Thich Nhat Hanh to listen to. Hopefully I'll get it working, but at least I'm bringing my laptop, so I will have access to my music and audiobooks in my hotelroom. Hopefully it will work, though!

Anyways, I'll write again once I'm in Seoul. On 6/22 we are visiting a highschool and doing a "fun" lesson about American schools. I'm doing a "bingo" game using NYC landmarks, and I also have a little power point presentation about schools in NYC.

Wish me luck! A bientot!