korean buses are silent.

Don't you fret, this post won't be as deep and reflective as my last one and will contain pictures.  I realize that not all of you want to know my innermost thoughts on life, love and the pursuit of happiness and just want to hear about Korea and my adventures here!


I was finally able to have a historically cultural experience on Saturday, which was amazing.  Some of my friends were out of town that weekend, but I really wanted to explore and had heard of a group going to see a temple.  Deciding "why not?", I joined them and met the group at the early Saturday morning hour of 8:30. After long waits for everyone to get to the station and buy tickets, we headed off for Haeinsa Temple which is about an hour and a half  of a bus ride away.  Apparently buses are supposed to be very quiet as we ramble along the countryside.  However, when you have 14 foreigners (mostly American) in one bus, it's hard to keep quiet, and we were very sternly "sshhh"ed by some old Koreans.  We tried to be quiet, I promise.

Anyways, after a mostly uneventful busride (minus the need to be quiet and the very windy road at the end and we all know how much I love windy bus rides), we got to the temple!

Here's a little blurb about Haeinsa Temple:
Located deep in the mountains of Hapcheon County in southeast Korea — emphasis on the word deep — Haeinsa Temple is one of Korea’s three largest Buddhist monasteries, one of the “Three Jewels,” as Korean Buddhists prefer to call them. A UNSECO World Heritage Site, the compound is home to the Tripitaka Koreana — the Palman Daejanggyeong in Korean — a 13th century collection of woodblock carvings of the Buddhist scriptures and the oldest and most complete edition of the Buddhist canon in Chinese characters. For centuries, the monastery has been the scholastic center of Korean Buddhism, preserving the traditional of scriptural studies through the generations.

We had a great day of wandering around the temple, marveling at the architecture and painted designs, and learning about Buddhism.

on the walk to the temple

meditation maze or something...to prepare someone before going into a temple

 

 

thirsty?

 so you just take a communal cup thing and hold it under the water coming from the fish's mouth if you're thirsty - I couldn't bring myself to drink from it, but just poured the water back in!

the boys checking out a meditation room

gorgeous landscape!

part of the group

bibimbap!

When we had first arrived at the bus stop, older Korean ladies had been trying to talk to us and convince us to come to their restaurant.  After exploring the temple, it was late afternoon and we were hungry! We went back to the bus stop and went to one of the lady's restaurant.  With many many side dishes, we had bibimbap, which is delicious.  I don't know exactly what's in it, as usual, but it has lots of vegetables and you add rice and red pepper paste however you like it! This one had a fried egg on top which is such a bonus!

Haeinsa Temple was a great place to visit and I'm so glad I was able to go! It was a great way to spend a Saturday and get out of the city.

Other exciting news is that I received an amazing package from my parents yesterday!! take a look! I'm such a grateful/lucky daughter! :]

 Also, the cherry blossoms are coming into full bloom and they're everywhere here - reminds me of the almond blossoms at home! Tomorrow, Saturday, we're hopefully going to make it to the Jinhae Cherry Blossom Festival...I'll let you know how that goes!