Students Encountering War

In Seoul, we visited many places. Our visit to Seodaemon Prison stands out as a powerful experience. We learnt about the history of war in Korea; we heard a lot of narratives of innocent being imprisoned. We saw prison cells and their reconstructions. The atmosphere was sad but full of admiration for those who suffered.
Commentary by Caroline Quin, Year 2, Study of Religions
Saturday, 25 July 2009
We visited War Museum and looked the war memorial and were really taken aback. We could not believe how many soldiers (USA/UK) died helping Korea. It was really shocking to see the names up there. Commonwealth countries and neighbors had helped fight against the North. We were stunned by the names of Koreans who died; the names just did not end; it was frightening.

There were huge statues of brothers hugging; apparently one was from the North and the other was from the South. It was sad to look up at their embrace and imagine how war can tear families against one another.
Commentary by Angharad John, Year 2, Philosophy and Ethics
Photos by Dr. M. Deegalle

Bulguksa, Seokguram and Gyeongju: A Student's View

20 July 2009

We spent two nights in Busan. Then we travelled to Gyeongju, a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage site, known as "the museum without walls," which is my favourite part of the trip away so far.

The landscape was beautiful, for starters there are no skyscrapers and all the buildings reflect a traditional Korean style. Roofs of the buildings are similar to the ones in temples and palaces. The rest of the landscape is paddy fields and other agriculture set against a backdrop of mountains. I will definitely come back again; it was the kind of landscape I had been hoping to see. The area holds a lot of sites of historical or religious importance.

We visited Bulguksa temple here which was great before heading up the mountain (in a car) to see the famous Seokguram Grotto which holds one of the national treasures, the Sakyamuni Buddha statue (mid-8th century CE) within a cave. This was indeed beautiful.

From the car park, we took a short walk through the forest before heading up to the Grotto. First we reached a small temple on the way. As you look up from there, you can see the temple style entrance to the cave nestled in the mountain. On our way up it was pretty misty so it looks really mysterious and extremely atmospheric. The statue I expected to be bigger in some ways and it was protected behind glass, but I can easily imagine being there with no tourists and nothing covering the entrance of the cave and just sitting next to the Buddha watching out over the mountainside!

Commentary by Helena Stokes, Year 3, Creative Writing and Media Communications
Photos by Dr. M. Deegalle

Temple Stay in Angharad's Eyes

Wednesday, 15 July 2009

Ding, ding, ding, BANG BANG BANG, BOOOOOSSSSHHHHH

That is what woke me up at 2.30 a.m. A monk was going round temple buildings with a bell, chanting Buddhist sutras and playing a wooden ritual instrument. My three-hour sleep was bizarre mainly due to the fact that we were sleeping in a temple, on the floor in Korean temple style. Everyone was getting up. I put my stuff away into the locker and went to the main temple with other girls and started our prostrations and prayers. We had done mantras and full prayer prostrations for about 20+ times. Then we were ushered out into the courtyard. We were arranged into pairs and one by one went up to the temple bell tower. We were given the opportunity to slam a huge piece of wood into a massive bell. It was really quite loud and meant to call the monks and nuns to prayer. I tried to bang it as loud as I could but the piece of wood took me with it and my attempt was quite feeble. I walked with the others up to main temple and we began to recite mantras and prayers again. I felt really faint as this was about 5 a.m.; we had not eaten or drunk; we had to keep getting up and down. This was for an hour or so; we were lucky as we had a nun in front of us; we just imitated her the entire time.

After morning prayers we got back to the main hall; we were greeted by the most awesome monk ever who had this tinkle in his eye. He taught us this really fun meditation; he spoke in such a way that we did not need a translator. We were shown some Buddhist self-defence using the international guy as 'a bad man'. We also did some crazy exercises that made everyone laugh, like swinging our arms, doing some sort of Judo-Ballet combination; it was just too funny. I wish we had filmed it. Afterwards he let us meditate' by lying on the floor and closing our eyes. We did this novel meditation practice for an hour; we had free time afterwards.

The big dong rang again for breakfast; we all hurried to find...Babimbap. I had some rice; I was told it was bad to waste any. It was really annoying as it had these horrible beans in it. I also had some water and tea. Caroline had the same; afterwards we washed our plates out the back and said thank you for the meal.

Commentary by Angharad John, Year 2, Philosophy and Ethics
Photo by Dr. M. Deegalle

Helena's Experience in Bus Travel and the Host Family

Today is my fourth day in Seoul (2nd July 2009). I am starting to feel a lot more settled. Last few days we had lectures and meetings of our Bath Spa team. We have now planned our schedule of activities. I live with a host family. My host is a 25 year old Dongguk University student called Yoony. Yoony is lovely. It is quite nice that it is only two of us in the house. Next week her father will visit us for a few days. It is good to meet some of her family. On my first day I had to find my way to the university by myself as Yoony had a class at a different University. I was a little worried at first, as Seoul is very big and quite hectic. It turned out fine though we had walked to the bus stop only the night before. I found my way to the right bus, and Yoony had written my stop in Korean to show the driver. I tried to get off at the wrong stop, however, as I heard the announcement for Donkkuk University (I was going to Dongguk for morning lectures). As soon as I stepped off I saw the wrong name on the bus stop but luckily the bus driver beeped the horn and made me get back on. I was very lucky and glad that I had the stop written in Korean! The photo here is with my host, Yoony.
Commentary by Helena Stokes, Year 3, Creative Writing and Media Communications

Caroline's Experiences in Korea

My visit to Korea was the first to Asia. Like others in the team, I experienced initial culture shocks. After recovering from jet lag and receiving warm and comforting welcome from my host family in Seoul, I soon felt relaxed and began to experience the life-style of Koreans first hand. The members of our team were extremely supportive and we began to film and record events of our experience in Korea as a team. Every day, I waited for an adventure! This photo was taken towards the end of our educational tour in Gyonju after visiting an impressive Buddha statue with Helena and Angharad.
Caroline Quin, Year 2, Study of Religions