Hello! I’ve returned from the blog-writers grave to write another post

This one is about a field trip we did, to Richmond, more specifically the Highway to Heaven. Now, the Highway to Heaven is a road in Richmond that pretty much has a lot of religious practice areas [eg. Mosques, Churches, Monasteries]. So we went a s a class to see a few of those places, as our unit is on Relegions.

Okay, a bit off topic, but why is it a highway to hell but a stairway to heaven? Who knows?

First stop on our trip: The Vedic Cultural Center, dedicated to Hunduism. That was really interesting, as when you first walk in, you get a picture of one of the Hindu gods. I’m not too sure which one.

So we had to take off our shoes to enter the upstairs area. That was thankfully the one day I decided to wear matching socks. So we went upstairs and into the prayer area. That was really cool, because the wall has a cloud-like design, and the Hinduism symbol in the Center of the main wall

So then we entered the main room. It was really cool, because they had these statues of some of the gods.

Hindus have over 300 gods. I feel bad for the guy who has to remember all the names.

So back to the main room.

Apparentaly the statues’ outfits are changed every seven days, where as the statue of the All Mother [is that her name? Or am I confusing her with Odin?] is changed every day. The day we came, most of the statues were in Orange:

But the All Mother [possibly not her name still] was wearing gold

The lady showing us around was very nice, and she taught us a bit of yoga, or the Lotus Position

I couldn’t do it! Maybe because I was wearing jeans, or maybe because I have the flexibility of a steel rod. Either one was an excuse enough for me to sit normally. So we learnt a bit about the Hindus. Did you know that even though they have so many gods, they believe that they are all a reflection of one god? I found that cool. They think that God came to earth in different forms at different times, and that your soul is a reflection of God.

We left, and I got a cool photo of the leaf arches outside:

Then we moved onto

Stop #2: the first Buddist Temple

Now this one was really cool, and probably my favourite temple to go into. It was right beside the Vedic Center, and even the outside was amazing. Then we got to walk in. We had to take out shoes off, again. We weren’t aloud to take pictures until the end, so I didn’t get any photos of the Monk that showed us around. He taught us the Story of Buddha.

He then told us about being a Monk, which involves letting go of everything you hold close to your heart. Sorta like the real world Jedi.

There were many small Buddhas on the wall, which he told us represented the medicine Buddha:

The cieling was really high, and there was a lot of gold in the room. Then we left. On the way out, I saw this quite interesting sign:

I don’t know what you’re tripping on if you think that’s how anyone trips. Anyways, we then went onto

Stop #3: The second Buddist Temple.

Disclaimer: I didn’t know we were aloud to take pictures until halfway through, so my pictures are minimal here.

This one was really large. We were welcomed in, and we given hot chocolate. I liked it already. Then we were told about a guy who prayed for 90 days or something crazy like that, with minimal food or water. He died at age 80. We then went to the main area, where Kate and Adam burned incense.

It was a sign of respect to the Gods. We then walked around the place like monks, with out hands at heart Center, and we chanted something in a language which I totally forgot.

We didn’t look that cool, unfortunately 🙁

But we then reached the prayer area, and I had to put down my camera so we could do what the monks do to pray. They go into position three times before starting, and then pray for up to 45 minutes whilst chanting. It’s really cool. Then we learnt a bit more about the guy who prayed for 90 years. We did some more prayers, and then went back to the entrance. We got some candy, and I got some strange sort of caramel thing with a really salty rock in the middle. Then we went to….

Stop #4: Nanaksar Gurdwara Gursikh Temple.

That’s a mouthful. Ironically, that’s what we got. We ate lunch at the Sikh temple, which I quite liked. We then went into the prayer room, where there was a lady reading poetry from the Sikh religious book. Fun fact: there’s someone who reads that book at all times, and my Dad’s coworker’s dad reads that book at their local temple. We weren’t aloud to take pictures there, but I got some pictures of the prayer room upstairs which they weren’t using:

We learnt about Sikhism, and then we were sent home, at 3:20. Luckily, Willa and I have choir until 6:00, so I still stayed at the school and didn’t miss my bus.

So that was our highway to heaven field trip! It was really interesting, and hey, we got to miss school. So, yeah!

Read ya later

Ruby