My employer is officially the best one I’ve ever had. They set up a field trip to the historical city of Gyeongju for EPIK (English Program in Korea) teachers. It’s broken into 4 weekends with each having a group of 90 attendees. Gyeongju is where the captial city of the Silla Dynasty, and now home to over a hundred king tombs. There are numerous temples, museums and various other things of cultural and historical importance. Koreans have nicknamed this city ‘The Museum without Walls.’ We got out of school on Friday and met early downtown to board the buses. Upon arriving in Gyeongju there was an orientation and a traditional Korean lunch. After, we took a walk with our tour guide, then off to make some arts and crafts including soap, a pencil box, and some ink blotting paper. It’s been years since I have made arts and crafts and very much enjoyed it.
We then walked around the tomb park, and went into a tomb that has been excavated. It was actually really interesting. We were given the tour guide who never shut up and I was able to catch about a fourth of what he was saying, but he was a really nice guy. He’s from Israel, but loves Korea so much he moved to Gyeongju and became a tour guide. To each their own I guess. We flew kites, but it was more like running around a field attempting to fly kites without wind. This was pretty entertaining and everyone was worn out after. We watched a traditional Korean music performance, dressed up in Korean clothes, sat through a traditional tea ceremony, played games, and watched some old ladies make rice cake. The teachers took turns smashing rice with wooden bats, then the ladies made the rice cakes for us. Dinner was a buffet, and it was freaking amazing. There was tons of delicious food including fresh fruit, many traditional meat dishes, soup, mandu (dumplings) a few different kinds of rice, and many other things. We all ate way too much, but it was well worth it. After dinner we were given lanterns to write wishes on and then went and walked around a gorgeous park. This park is home to an extremely nice temple spread out next to a lake, with a nice trail that wraps around. Everything was lit up wonderfully. The trees had different color lights that accentuated the colors of the changing leaves, the temples were illuminated and reflected off the water. All the lights and people with lanterns it made this a pretty magical night. Perfect for a date night. Overall the day was impressive, but this topped it! It reminded me of the zoo lights or botanical lights during the holidays, but with warmer weather and an Asian flare.
We were put up in was very nice hotel called the Commador and everyone was excited to sleep in comfortable beds. The whole floor was rented out for us with four people to a room. It was like we were all back in college dorms again, out in the hall running from room to room. People couldn’t get to the store fast enough to buy alcohol. It was like being in college all over again, good times. There was a large card game of kings cup, then everyone moved out to the corner store to drink more. Eventually the party moved to the noraebang (karaoke) and this place was giant. More like a noraemansion. I left pretty early with a few people, ate pizza and crashed out. Didn't want to ruin the second full day of our cultural expedition.
The hotel had a delicious buffet breakfast, I was surprised by how good it actually was. Veggies, eggs, toast, cereal, juice, fruit, and other various items. We ate entirely too much and headed out for another full day. The day consisted of a gorgeous temple located in another amazing park. It felt like I was walking around on a movie set. The colors of the trees were unreal, such a picture perfect place. Autumn is the best time in Korea hands down! After spending quite a bit of time here we went to a hanul beef restaurant. Hanul beef is similar to Kobe beef, Koreans take very good care of the cows, massaging them, feeding them clean foods etc. Lunch was so amazing it made me very pleased to not be a vegetarian. After lunch we visited some pagodas, then headed to the ocean to fly our kites one last time. This time the conditions were perfect for flying kites. Michelle and I ran around like little kids with our kites and I sure felt like a kid while flying my kite next to the ocean. Poor Kristin, Whitney, and Niall, they lost their kites to the ocean. Overall it was a wonderful trip! We learned a lot about Korean culture and history and got to enjoy some nice food and accommodation from our employers. I also made some new friends and became closer to the ones I already love so much!
Photo album here:
https://picasaweb.google.com/103972019290631417090/Gyeongju?authkey=Gv1sRgCN_SivOlwIz2qwE
