Today (5/28) we started the day slightly later than normal but it was good to sleep in for a while. We headed to breakfast and I tried a little bit of everything but I was not a big fan of the food in this hotel. We then packed up and headed to an opera house. I thought it was cool and funny that we were not originally allowed to enter because someone important was there and all the employees we out front and turning on the fountains. We headed down to the outside theater where some people put on performances. 30ish minutes later we were finally allowed to enter the theater and it was interesting to see all the architecture. It was disappointing that we were not actually able to see the main opera room because in the pictures it looked really cool.
We grabbed a quick lunch and then headed to this old street which was really cool. As we walked through the street I noticed a lot of the stores seemed more touristy and similar than most of the other stores I had seen before. We then reached the square which houses the temple of the sea goddess. I thought this was one of the prettiest temples we had seen yet. It was also interesting to compare to the other ones we have gone to. Unlike other ones, I noticed that it was more grey in color on the outside and had less gold. It also housed a lot of different branches where there were different gods and goddess. Along the different wings there were rooms with numerous of the same gods but no alter to pray for them. The center court yard was gorgeous and contained lanterns in the sky which was different than other temples we have been to before. I felt like there were less people here but I did noticed that there were some children which is something I have not previously noticed. After talking to Professor Chen, it was enlightening to note that children are taught at a young age what to do but not the depth of it. It makes me curious if once they grow up, they simply worship because it is something drilled into them and not because they believe in the deeper meaning.
We finished up the day by heading to a night market where we were able to get a bunch of food before playing boomit with everyone.
