Monday our 5th and 6th grade classes hopped on buses and headed down south to Gyeongju for a 3 day trip. Gyeongju is considered a “living museum” and was the capital of Korea during the Silla period 2000 years ago. It’s one of the best places for seeing royal tombs and Buddhism in Korea.
First we went to check out King Munmu’s tomb which is located just off shore in a rock outcropping in the East Sea. The king wanted to be buried at sea so he could always protect Korea from foreign invaders. Apparently there’s some question as to whether his body is actually located out there or if it was just his ashes that were spread but no one’s been out to check. When we went it was miserably cold and on the verge of raining and all our poor students were huddled up in little groups against the cold because, against their teacher’s advice, they wore teeny little shorts and t-shirts out on the trip. I think they learned their lesson, everyone was wearing hoodies and jeans for the rest of the trip.
I actually didn’t end up taking any pictures of the place that we stayed at. It was reasonably nice – we had two bedrooms for four teachers – traditional sleep on the floor style. We even had a little kitchen but heating up water for coffee was the extent of the cooking that happened. The cafeteria food was horrible and I spent most of the trip just eating rice or munching on snacks that the teacher’s brought. Thankfully, my Vice Principal insisted on tea time after each meal, so I just filled up on fruit and coffee. Also, Korean melons (or yellow melons or canary melons or whatever they’re called) are absolutely delicious. I probably at a couple dozen just by myself.
After popping into the pension for dinner, we went out to check out a park that had been popular with rich folk back in the day for strolling. They have a really nice set up at night were the buildings are brightly lit up and the pond is all sorts of different colors. There also happened to be like 700 other students there on class trips. Without fail, the whole 3 days, I had kids from other schools saying hi to me and asking where I’m from. I can only hope that when my students spotted a foreign teacher, they did the same thing!
The whole trip, we went through places so, so quickly. We never spent more than an hour anywhere. So for the night park, we strangling teachers didn’t even manage to make it around the whole pond. The students were all led bootcamp style by tour guides who demanded tourist efficiency which was kind of bizarre to watch but I guess if you’re going to try to bring 200 students out a 3 day trip, you need to have everything buckled down.
The next day we went out to Millennium Park – which is like an entertainment park dedicated to history. They had a performance when we first got there and a really impressive set up outside for it. The story was all in Korean, so I only got the bits and pieces that my co-teacher translated, but it had something to do with some hero guy who had to fight off the Chinese invaders using various magical tools that were given to him by the queen (?). It was a pretty fun show and the ship battle that they did at the end was really good and the students enjoyed it.
The location had also been used as the set for a popular period drama based on the rule of one of two Queens of the Silla dynasty and the set for that was super impressive. They also had a performance with horses, showing off some of the skills that were taught to the cavalry soldiers during the Silla period. I’m not sure how laying sideways on a horse is a useful combat maneuver, but sure, why not…
We visited more traditional tombs the second day and I finally got to find out what these things look like inside. There are a couple different styles but the one in particular we saw had the body placed in the center, and then a hill of stones built up around that, and then layer of wood over that, and then dirt over that. Understandably, it’s a lot of work getting into one of them so from what my co-teacher told me, for many of the tombs, they don’t know who’s inside.
After stopping by the tombs and doing a bunch of class pictures, we went on to see Cheomseongdae – the oldest surviving astronomical observatory in East Asia. I remembered reading about this place forever ago online and really, really wanting to go (astronomy nerd) – when I checked our itinerary before we left, I didn’t see it listed and was kind of bummed but it was along the way to another place so we had to stop! Again, we had more class pictures taken and I kept getting shuffled into the them or into pictures with my vice principal or the other teachers. I swear, I have not had my picture taken so many times in my entire life…
The third day we visited the Seokguram grotto which, according to Wikipedia, “exemplifies some of the best Buddhist sculptures in the world.” Unfortunately, you can only see about a third of the sculptures because you’re not actually allowed inside, you can only look in from one direction. It was still quite pretty though – the sculptures and the grounds. We straggling teachers were far enough behind the group that we managed to get a look with just the 4 of us and not the usual 50 or 60 students + tour guides + photographers that occupy the space. Our photographer was actually so surprised by this, he made us all pose for a picture – he said it was the first time in 18 years of work that he’s ever gotten a shot there without a crowd!
Afterwards we went to the Bulguksa temple, did more class photos, wandered around for a bit and then my co-teacher and I were promptly cornered by the photographer and asked to look thoughtfully into the distance while he took a couple shots. I never ever want to see these pictures. Anyway, as you can see from the rest of the photos, the wood work was probably my favorite part and I repeatedly harassed it into looking deep and pensive so I could take as many photos of it as possible. I hope it didn’t mind.
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