My Summer Vacation: Golgulsa Templestay

More of my summer vacation. Haven't had much time lately to sit and play on the computer, but today is the day before Chuseok (the Korean Thanksgiving) so I am just sitting at school (not wanting to do any work.) All of the teachers left early, but I didn't want to use up on of my vacation days so I am just going to sit here until 4:30. Anyway her are some pictures of my temple stay in Gyeongju. Golgulsa offers Sunmundo training  (a martial art) to people who would like to experience it. I didn't get as many pictures as i would have liked, but I will try to share my experience with you as best as I can. This is me in my temple stay outfit. I really love these pants, and ended up buying some at the temple (partly because they are so comfy, and partly because the one that they borrowed to me smelled so bad after two days of sweating non stop =P) 

After my day trip to Busan I got on the train and headed for Gyeongju. I did some sight seeing and then headed to the temple for check-in. When I got there they went over the rules and the schedule. I stayed four days an three nights. The rooms were really nice. Just a mat on the floor, a pillow, and a comfy blanket. I had a roommate from South Africa who was really cool. She was just finishing up her year in Korea, and decided to do the temple stay before she went home. There were also two other girls from South Africa, two from the States, two guys from Germany ans France, and some Koreans as well. There was also a summer camp going on so there were lots of whiny boys. We asked them why they wanted to do the temple stay and they replied "because my parents made me..." 

We had to get up at 4:00 am and walk up the mountain to the main temple by 4:30. A monk would come around and wake us up by hitting a gourd. When we got there, the monks were already sitting quietly waiting to start the morning chants. After chanting we went out to the deck to do morning meditation. It was about 5 o'clock and still dark. 

We meditated until the sun came up.

After seated mediation, we would do a walking meditation. We would all form a single file line and quietly walk down the mountain. I thought that it would be hard to get up and I would be really tired, but it was so nice to have a schedule and wake up slowly. It really made the day last longer. 

Here is the view of the main temple and the deck that we would all sit one for morning mediation. 

After walking mediation we had breakfast. All the food was vegan, (but sooo... good). You had to eat all the food that was on your plate, so I only started with small amounts and went back if I was still hungry. After breakfast we had about an hour to do whatever until our first set of Sunmundo training. I usually ended up taking a nap haha, but that made me tired when I woke up. But not for long because the training was so hard that I woke up right away!  

This is the inside of the Sunmundo school. In the morning we did more of a yoga type exercise. 

Most of the time out trainer was this guy from Norway that you can see at the front of the class. He spoke Korean really well, and used it more than he did English so all us foreigners were kinda lost. 

I hardly got any pictures of the workout because I was too busy! It was really exhausting, but it was fun to push yourself and find what your limits were. 

It was really hot while I was there, so I was sweating a lot. I wish I would have brought more shirts because I was going through three a day from all the exercise. I also ran out of deodorant =P. 

HAHA....This guy. We were eating lunch and all of a sudden these guys came in with cameras and started filming the cafeteria. Then this guy sat down next to my friends and I and stared to interview us. The other two girls left after they finished eating,  but the girl from Florida and I stayed to talk to him some more. We started asking him who he was and why he was here. He told us that he is kinda famous in Korea for driving his tractor around to big cities and sending and trying to encourage farmers and promote agriculture and stuff. I am not really sure what he was talking about lol. But anyway we talked to him for a bout a half hour and then we went outside and he did a formal interview with us. A couple weeks later my co-teacher Jenny came in and said her mom saw me on the morning news doing Sunmundo and was my friend's interview. 

Golgulsa means "Stone Buddha" Temple. This  Maya Tathagata Buddha was carved in the 6th century during the Shilla Dynasty. It was a fun climb up to see this Buddha. There weren't many steps, mostly worn in rocks and rope to help you climb better. 

This is one of the cave temples on the mountain. I can't remember the name of it though. =P 

Her is one of the female monks cleaning some Brass ware (maybe brass???) 

I just liked this little bamboo crane. I walked past it like seven times a day and never notices it was there. Then one day I saw it and thought it was cute. 

Here we are learning archary.  Around three we either did archery ot more mediation. I was really bad at it haha. Our teacher told us to aim lower because if one of the arrows goes to high it will go in the mountain and then we have to spend all day looking for it. 

Those are some of the monks and the 'real' Sunmundo students sitting outside of the school. 

Here is everyone gathering for evening chants. After the third day I was getting pretty go at knowing how to bow.  I thought that it would be hard to do all that bowing, but it is actually really relaxing. But after chants it was time for the hard core workout! This guy did a nice travel video and you can see some of the exercises we did, as well as a nice overview of the temple.
Travel Channel UK

This is a picture of the song we had to sing. You can look up the name on youtube if you want to hear the song. 

Homage to the Three Jewels   click here to hear!
Heart Sutra  We sang this one too.

I like this frieze of the different Sunmundo moves.

On my last night I had had two Korean High school girls as roommates. They were so cute . One spoke English really well so she was asking me all kinds of questions. They were complaining because they took there phones away haha. I wish I could have stayed one more night because I was finally not so sore and getting used to all the exercise. I plan to go back sometime this fall and try it again.