Category: South Korea

Today, we visited Beomeosa temple. This is one of the oldest and largest Buddhist temples in Korea. All over the pagodas and buildings are various Buddhist symbols, such as animals, dragons, and the Buddhist swastika, and of course, the Buddha.

On the walkway to the temple, Buddhist lanterns hung above us.

A volunteer at the temple was kind enough to be a tour guide, and showed us around the grounds, explaining the beliefs and symbolism behind the different buildings, decorations, and paintings. We encountered the first gate which is formed by four pillars, representing the Four Noble Truths. It’s called the “One Pillar Gate” because, as seen from the side, it is held up by a single pillar symbolizing the one true path of enlightenment that supports the world.

Near the museum is the temple’s seven story pagoda. Contained within the pagoda is a Sari of the Buddha.

The museum was small, but very peaceful and quiet. It had a number of historical and religious artifacts, and the museum had some information in English.. Here’s a close-up of the museum’s outside architecture.

At the second gate, there were four statues of the guardians of the temple. The guardians were gigantic. In front of the guardians, there are demons cowering.

After the second gate there’s a building that houses instruments (and the gift shop). There are four instruments, a drum representing land animals/beings, a cloud shaped gong representing birds/sky animals, a wooden fish representing water animals, and a bell representing heavenly spirits. They are all sounded each morning and night, and supposedly their sound makes all beings want to pray.

We took the  path up past the temple, which ran next to a stream.

Up the path we found what appeared to be an additional temple, or an extension of the temple grounds.

A monk greeted us here, (The Venerable) Sung Ta. Rather spontaneously, he invited us to view some of his artwork. He then invited us to tea. Next thing we knew, we were in his residence drinking green tea, getting an explanation of Buddhist principles, and being trained to meditate. We tried to give him a peanut butter and jelly sandwich as a gift, but I don’t think he understood the gesture. Then, he made a small painting for each of us to keep in our pockets as good luck charms. The painting is of what he called “Dalma,” which is supposed to be the Buddha as he was meditating right before he died. He then showed us his skills with a wooden sword.

Sung Ta then showed us a water shrine(small cave) behind the building, and gave us some of the water from the shrine. He walked us into the building and instructed us in some of the rights, such as incense burning and how to bow and prostrate. He then introduced us to some young Korean practitioners who invited us to their meeting/service. The service started with bowing, chanting, and a lot of prostrating. There were some opening procedures administered by a layperson, which lasted about half an hour, and then Sung Ta spoke, giving what was essentially a sermon. He also introduced us to everyone. Then a layperson took over again and gave a small sermon. It was very interesting, and two of the young Koreans explained some points of the sermon to us while it was going on. Afterward, we ate watermelon with Sung Ta and then continued up the mountain.

We continued up the mountain for about 2+km, and wound up at the east gate to the fortress wall. This wall is often nicknamed “The Great Wall of Korea.”

…and that’s what we did today. It was pretty fun. Maybe I’ll go back and post pictures of other things we’ve done, like the beaches.

We’ve moved into our apartment. It’s a small efficiency, but it works for two people. It’s fairly new and contemporary. We’ve chosen to maintain the traditional Asian approach to shoes and take them off in the entry(plus, the apartment makes it hard not to).

The kitchen area is small, with a two-burner stove, no oven, and only the basics. We bought stuff from the previous teachers(which was probably a rip-off, since they would have left it anyway), so we have some extra things like a microwave, cleaning supplies, and extra dishes. The washer is on the small outdoor porch area of the apartment (note: no dryer). It’s not always pleasant going out there because the neighbors give off some odd odors. This isn’t to say that they’re disgusting, only that Korean cooking scents are unfamiliar – well, and sewers run under the sidewalk so you can sometimes catch a wif.

Trash and recycling here are intense. They separate recycling into plastic, thin plastic, paper, and metal, and you’re expected to recycle everything. They separate trash into general waste and food waste. Recycling is free, but a pain to sort. For trash, you have to buy specially government-commissioned trash bags for your district for general waste, and you have to put your food waste in this tiny blue bin and then buy a sticker and place it on the bin so that they will actually pick it up.

Every morning at about 6:30, a lady shouts into the building. We’ve been told that she does dry cleaning, and that she can get it back to you by 9am. While to some this may be convenient, to us it simply means that we get woken up for a little while every morning. Also, about once a week it seems, there’s a truck that goes through all of the neighborhoods with loudspeakers. Sometimes it sounds like a salesman, probably selling fruit (there are a lot of corner fruit sellers around town). Other times, though, it’s a very calm male voice giving long proclamations, leading me to believe that it is a propaganda truck.

On a more positive note, the Internet here is ridiculously fast: 50mbps download rate. We’re in Gaegeum, which is 4 subway stops from Seomyeon, the major business and commercial center of the city. We’ve found a great vegetarian restaurant in Seomyeon called “Loving Hut.” While the cult surrounding Loving Hut is a little creepy, the all-vegan food is great. We’ve already gone to Haeundae beach and Songjeon beach; the water is cold at both, but still relaxing. We can do most of our grocery shopping at a local open-air market, where we can get great fresh produce. For everything else, we go to HomePlus, which is a Tesco-associated multi-layer department/grocery/mall type store. We can find a lot of American/Western-type products, but Koreans have this idea that Western food needs to be sweet(and not particularly flavorful otherwise), so most of what we end up finding is kind of bland and generically sweet; it’s not that we don’t like Korean food, though there’s only 1 or 2 vegetarian dishes, it’s that Korean food is either strong and cold or hot and spicy, and items of either combination always tend to taste the same.

Oh, and did I mention how cheap everything is here? A subway ride to the beach and back costs us about $4 each. A meal at a local restaurant costs the equivalent of $3 per person. Everything, absolutely everything, is cheap.

About the school:

It’s about a third of a mile away from our apartment.  We have classes from 9:45-Noon, and then from 2:30 to 7. The kids are very eager and generally well-behaved. I teach kindergarten kids in the morning, and then elementary through preteen/early-teen kids in the afternoon. These kids are worked so hard that I always feel bad giving them any homework, but sometimes I have to. The school itself is somewhat disorganized, and there seems to be a large gap between what the school wants to teach and the capabilities of the students; some classes have material way over their heads, or simply too much for them to handle, and others have us making up a lot of extra assignments to fill class time. The environment is very positive, though that’s partly due to Korean ideals regarding passivity and authority, and I can usually get through a day without wanting to throw a kid out the window.

For pictures, videos, etc. – look at my or Brandi’s Facebook