The lanterns that are in the picture of the background of this blog are the lotus lanterns that are put up every May at this temple in celebration of Buddha's birthday. In contrast to my adventurous desire to climb Mt. Seorak and watch the sunrise, this item should be checked off the bucket list pretty quickly. It's located in the heart of Seoul, is the largest temple of the biggest Buddhist sect, and is a major tourist attraction, so it seems like it will be pretty easy to get to. I'm not Buddhist, but just look at those gold statues! There are trees outside of the building they're sitting in that are over 500 years old. As a citizen of a country that has not been around for even half of that time, that's amazing to me. Also, I've never been to a Buddhist temple before, so I'm very interested in trying that out.
(I feel like such a tourist right now.)
(Well, so what. For the moment, at least, I suppose I am a tourist.)
These touristy feelings I'm feeling remind me of how I felt when I was in my very, very first week of college last August. Basically, I realized that I was going to make some really silly, really embarrassing mistakes that I would kick myself for profusely but would never have make ever again, and I decided to just get those out of my system as quickly and thoroughly as possible. I suppose this is a good thing, but I did manage to do that! Hopefully I will face the same results during my stay in Korea. After all, how much of a difference can there be between a college campus in the state you were born in and a foreign country that is 6,774 miles and thirteen timezones away from your hometown?
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