I'm so excited! I just can't hide it! You know, You know, Gyeongju!

Bongeunsa's Buddha

So that is what I decided this post would be named after returning from Gyeongju. However, like most of the trips I plan to do in Korea, it failed miserably.  Every thing actually worked out, except for the fact that all available transportation to get to Gyeongju was sold out for the entire weekend. Then trying to inform the hostel that I was not coming was a pain. Koreans must have the latest cell phones and so their cell phones change rapidly, and as I found out when my co-teacher changed her phone, the cell numbers change rapidly too and people cannot be bothered to change the information on emails and websites.

But in the end the three day weekend was great. Matt came to Seoul. We journeyed to Coex, a large underground mall which is the closest thing to Western shopping I've had since leaving the States. We walked around enjoying the various stores (which are still distinctly Korean) and killed nearly three hours in the very expensive aquarium. After emerging to grab a coffee we discovered Bongeunsa, apparently the richest temple in Seoul. It was quite beautiful decked out to welcome Buddha into the world.

Lanterns at Bongeunsa.

We journeyed to Myeongdong where Matt found a pair of jeans. We watched Men in Black 3 in 3D (might as well watch it in 2D). We wandered through Cheonggyecheon Museum (a museum on the demolishing of  Cheonggyecheon stream in the late 1970s by draining and turning it into a super highway, and then in late 1990s, making it back into a stream). By the way, this stream runs about a block and a half behind my apartment and is the stream running by Dongdaemun all the way to Jongno. It is the stream that has the winter lantern festival and the same stream that Matt fell into.

I had known Korea was poor, but I had no idea how poor the country was until seeing the pictures at the museum. It explains why there is still a third-world mind set to the older generations.