Today was an early day to wake up! yay. Our wake-up time was 5 am, which might’ve been the earliest time that I’ve ever woken up. We first had morning chanting with the monks, which involved standing up and kneeling down while the monks were saying something in Korean. I found it very interesting that they do this every morning and are very dedicated to their faith. Each morning, they also spend time walking very slowly. I think that the main focus of this is to be very deliberate in movement and think carefully about your actions. I found it really peaceful to walk around early in the morning. Finally, after 2 hours of waking up, we got to eat breakfast. Once again, our breakfast was meat-free. Then, we walked up a very tall hill to see the Buddha statue that was carved into the stone. The walk was horrible in every single way, but the view ended up being really pretty. There were lanterns scattered across the mountainside, and we were so high up that you could see so far away. It was a really nice change to be in an area with so much nature, and to see the natural landscape of Korea, as we had been in the city most of the time up until now. When we got back after our hike, we went to another Sunmodo class, which was mostly stretching and yoga. It was pretty different from our first class, and to be honest, I didn’t even know that there were so many different ways to stretch. By the end of it, I was really sore, but it was a fun exercise. For our final thing before leaving the temple, we had tea time with the monks of the temple. I think that there were 3 or 4 monks in the temple, along with the students of Sunmodo and apprentices. We all sat in a U shape around the head monk and listened as he taught us some of the history of the temple. I found out that he is a 9th-degree black belt in both sunmodo and taekwondo, which I thought was really cool. I have my first-degree black belt in taekwondo, and I know how long it takes to get to 9th degree, so having that in two different martial arts is really impressive. The head monk was really knowledgeable and explained the process that they all go through to become monks. First, you have to get a degree in Buddhism, and then spend multiple years serving in temples. It showed the level of dedication he and the others have. This temple stay taught me a lot about Buddhism, and I have gained a new kind of respect for those who follow and practice it.
Post-temple stay, we packed up all our stuff again and loaded up the bus for our next adventure. We pulled up to Gyeongju, which is the location of some tombs from the Silla era of Korea. The tombs there are interesting because their defining feature is a grass-covered mound covering all of the tomb. Where we were, there were a bunch of tombs, but only 1 is uncovered, and the rest still remain covered. We got to go inside the tomb and see some replicas of the artifacts found inside. I was really excited to visit these tombs, because I remember learning about them in AP world history in 10th grade, so it was really cool to see them in person. I love seeing things that I learned about in the past because it makes history feel so much more real and not like it didn’t exist. The tomb we went inside was called Cheonmachong, which means heavenly horse tomb. There were lots of horse items in there, which is why I guess they named it after that. Around the park with the tombs, there were some cute stores selling lots of different souvenirs, so we spent an hour or so looking around and buying stuff. Again. It was getting pretty late after this, so once we arrived at our hotel in Pohong, we all went to our rooms and went to bed.
