Gagwonsa and Korean Independence day

Yesterday we celebrated Korean Independence Day and so NO SCHOOL!! I must say I was a little disappointed that there wasn't much going on as far as Independence Day celebration (at least nothing that I found or heard anyway), like I had hoped maybe for some fireworks or some kind of a big celebration...maybe there was somewhere and I just didn't find it.

So with any day off here I had to take full advantage of it and so I wanted to ride my bike up to Gagwonsa ("sa" means temple). It was a beautiful ride, but I must say at the time of writing this blog my knees are quite sore. It was a quite a ride, I would say maybe between 15-20 miles round trip, and some pretty nice little hills too! It was a really pretty ride though...there are quite a few fields out that way and since it is a little more rural, just a totally different feel to it. The bike path led up the mountain by a small stream and there were a lot of birds and flowers as I rode past...the countryside here is amazing.

With it being a holiday it seemed like there were a LOT of people there worshipping, the parking lot was clear full and there were quit a few full sized tour busses as well. There were quite a few different worship buildings and then I think the huge building is like the main place of worship. That was where most of the people were and the Buddhist monks were singing and playing their little drum and handbell for what seemed like an eternity. I wondered if they get sick of doing that, because I swear it seemed like they played for well over an hour. I heard that the Buddha statue there was a the biggest bronze Buddha in the world, since then though there has been a bigger one built somewhere in China...I don't know for sure though. I DO know that the Buddha statue was huge and really cool...you could see the head poke up over the trees. I enjoyed walking around and just seeing all the beautiful sights and hearing the sounds. Little things like that have made some of the best memories for me. One thing I thought was really cool is that there is a cafeteria there and I believe the food is free...I had read somewhere that most Buddhist temples offer a free meal. Well...I had my bag of chips and water and was sitting there just relaxing and I had two different people say something to me in Korean and then gesture towards the cafeteria as if to say "go eat there!" HA! I thought it was really kind, but I just feel like that food should be for the people who have travelled there to worship and really might need it...but I did think that was very kind. As with quite a few of the trips I have made, it started to rain on my way home. It was a light rain, and as soon as I made it about 2 blocks from my house it started to rain...and REALLY hard. I was glad I had made it back just in time!