Bulguksa Temple - First Stop in Gyeongju

We recently had a 4 day weekend - long semester so they gave us a "semester break" at Avalon which was wonderful. For 3 of the days, Katrina, myself, and 3 other friends went down to Gyeongju. I've never been but heard great things - especially from the historical side of the province. It was home to one of the previous Korean dynasties and has quite a bit of history. I learned quite a bit on the trip and got some good shots. Our first stop after checking into our amazing pension was Bulguksa Temple. (For more information, visit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulguksa)

(Welcome to Bulguksa Temple, according to some, the 'oldest temple in Korea')

(It was a very serene and peaceful corner of the world)

(The actual temple itself - quite large)

(Katrina and I on the same bridge in the beautiful landscape photo above)

(This is strictly a new camera shot - wanted to try a different lens. I like it. It's cute.)


(Some Buddhist guardians along with their protector)


(Rockin' the dragon in one hand)

(Not sure why but I just loved the way this little shop looked)

(Sunset)

(This one particular plot/temple was reserved as the 'stone stacking' area. It's difficult to see but there were stones stacked upon each other everywhere.)

(Stones stacked on the roof, on the door, on a tree...)

(Along the wall, on tiles, on the ground... everywhere...)

(The lighting was interesting so I snapped a few photos)


(Just an idea of how far in the mountains you are)

(A farewell to Bulguksa Temple)

End of the Winter Semester

Another semester down and two to go. Yes, that's right, two more semesters left in Korea then who knows what's going to happen next. That is of course, if my FBI Background Check arrives in time. I sent it a month ago so I shouldn't have any problems. Then again, you just never know. It was a good semester, a little quiet, which is good and bad, but overall, things went well. Here are a few photos of the students and of our end of semester staff dinner, this time at Outback.

(Smarty pants - Heidi and Eunsuh - highest level in Elementary School)

(Eunsuh lived in Canada for over a year so her English is pretty solid - and she's smart!)

(GA kids - second highest level. We have Shawn, Nick, myself, Christina, Ann, Alice, and Rina)

(Nick during debate)

(Alice preparing to speak about the cons of nuclear weapons.)

(JI - Big Boy, Marky Mark, Tony Moly, Lisa, Alexander, Kel, Jennifer, Jason, Liz, Jammy, LG, Eileen, Alice, and Lisa2)

(Eileen hard at work)

(Big Boy blocking the shot by holding up his newspaper)

(Busy with their workbooks)

(Tuesday and Thursday JI - Ferris, Loy, Tommy2, Tommy1, Daisy, Julie, Tina, Nick, Hanny, Sally, Alice, Sally2, Izabel, and Adella)

(One of my all time favorite students - smart, loved to participate, and put a lot of effort into her homework.)

(Tina was another favorite student, mainly because she was just so darn cute)

(Tina trying to stick her tongue out at me)

(Hanny and Sally)

(Tommy1 has a question)

(Last class Tuesday and Thursday with LG, Jinie, James, Richard, John, Jake, Mario, David, and Clarence)

(LG and Jinie not wanting their pictures taken)

(Clarence doing some Writing Book work, working on his essay)

(We finished the semester at Outback to celebrate the long and grinding winter semester. I did enjoy my steak. Here we have Spenser and across the table, Chelice, Drew, and Katrina.)

(Group shot)

(From the other end of the table)

(Lindsay, Justin, and Harry. Sadly, this was Justin's last semester at Avalon.)

After a month...

To be honest, winter in Korea is cold, brutally so. In fact, it makes it a bit difficult to do much of anything. Which, is why, I haven't updated in a month or so. For those of you that follow, here are some photos of a hike Katrina and I went on. Hopefully this will get me back in the flow of things and with warm weather right around the corner, hopefully there will be a few more events. Enjoy...

(Katrina hiking along)

(Nice view)

(No swimming? Warning: Deep Water. Ok, that makes sense...)

(Yep, you are on a mountain, it might drop off...)

(Interesting little bridge we found...)

(Same bridge, farther away)

(Frozen reservoir, just to give you an idea of how cold it was...)

(Interesting little wooden sculpture)

(Katrina with a nice background shot)

(A king or general of sorts that did something special)

(Plaza area before the hike)

(Yep, it's cold)

Bongeunsa Temple

We've been on the lookout for shoes for quite some time. Not for myself, but for Katrina. She wanted to get a pair of warmer shoes instead of slip-ons since it is indeed winter time. So, we headed to Co-Ex Mall. Epic FAIL! At least in terms of looking for shoes. However, before we left, I did some poking around on the internet and found Bongeunsa Temple very close to get to. It was about a two minute walk once you get out of the mall. It was nice to go to a temple seeing as how we haven't been to one in quite some time. The highlight - a giant stone buddha and a monk chit chatting on what appeared to be his smart phone; I guess living a simple life has taken on a new meaning in the 21st century. Anyway, apologies for the delay.

('What did the monk say when he ordered a pizza? 'Can you make me one with everything?')

(Front of the temple, I guess you could call it that)

(Giant statue)

(Thirsty? Why wait?)

(Ceremony of sorts which I still do not understand)

(Another view of the temple with Spenser's fish eye lens)

(Regular lens)

(Fish eye lens again. It captures so much more in a photo. It is close to a 180 degree shot of the plaza where the statue stood.)

(This just gives you an idea of how close the temple is located to some downtown buildings)

(I liked the ribbons and this painting)

(The ribbons began at the entrance of the temple and ran to the picture above which was a shrine in the heart of the temple. This is Katrina and I as we are leaving.)

(Again you can see the shrine with ribbons)

(2012 - the Year of the Dragon. I wonder if the Chinese New Year predicts an apocalypse in 2012???)