Saturday, December 17, 2011

Busan fireworks festival and Halloween

I totally thought I had already posted about this, but I guess I didn't. Whoopsie. So on Halloween weekend, a bunch of Jinju people went to celebrate in Busan. I left Saturday morning with Liezle and we met up with Vera and Carlie later that afternoon. Cindy also met up with us at various times that afternoon/evening. We had all decided to go to Busan because that was the final weekend of their fireworks festival and we wanted to see it. Also, there were a bunch of Halloween parties advertised and Jinju was only having one, so we decided to make it a bigger deal. Halloween is Cindy's favorite holiday and she wanted us to get into it.

Liezle, Carlie, Vera and I shared a hotel room. It was a really nice place, but for some reason we couldn't get into our room until 6pm. We got to Busan at 12 because Liezle and I had appointments, and then we spent the next 5 hours in various coffee shops and at one point eating ramen on the side of the road waiting until we were allowed in.
Vera took our picture because she said we looked so sad sitting on the side of the road.

After dropping off our stuff, we went to Gwengalli (sp?) beach because that's where the festival was being held. The subway was crazy crowded and we had to shove our way on. It started raining right as we got off the subway and continued to rain throughout the festival.
Awful picture of me, but it shows how crowded the subway was...we literally shoved our way on and then more people crammed in after us.

This lady used her beach blanket and a bread bag as a hat to ward off the rain.

It was very crowded and we tried to meet up with different people who had secured some rooftop viewing places, but cell service was down and we couldn't get through to anyone. It was kind of chilly and we were all miserable, but decided to stick it out. Vera and Carlie left 5 minutes after the start of the fireworks because they couldn't see anything and were not having fun. Liezle stayed with me and the fireworks were pretty amazing. I would love to go again and see them not in the rain over/through/under dozens of umbrellas. The fireworks were vaguely set to music and lasers. I took a couple of videos of the exploding birds (you can also see them spell BUSAN if you look closely) and the random Spice Girls song. They also had techno, classical and traditional Korean music.
Big firework

Shot of some fireworks. This was about a third or fourth of the amount of them in the line.
Cindy took this picture from her rooftop vantage point. In some ways I'm glad we weren't with her because she was actually kind of far away. Although she could see the entire thing while we had a limited viewing range.
This is kind of a blurry shot, but it shows a decent view of the bridge which was also lit up
Faces

After the show, we were in another massive crowd to get back on the subway. We got separated for a minute when someone shoved me so they could get down the stairs. The actual trains and underground area weren't too bad because they had police officers organizing and moving people. It was still very crowded, but went quite smoothly. After we got back to the hotel, we all got changed into costumes and set out for the university area.

Our first stop was Thursday party. It was decorated with lots of Halloween stuff and there were tons of people in costumes. We were really happy about that because people just stared at us when we were walking down the street. Halloween isn't a big holiday in Korea and kids don't generally trick-or-treat. There were no candy displays or anything like that.
Thursday Party decorations. We got there pretty early, it got much more crowded as the evening went on.

Jinju girls in costumes: I'm a witch, Cindy is Little Red Riding Hood (complete with light-up skirt) and Liezle is a devil

A bunny, me and some cats. This guy had the best costume all night - you can't really tell here, but he looked like a guy from the musical CATS.

We stayed there for an hour or so, then went to the Blue Monkey for some dancing. It was fun too. Korean people kept wanting to take pictures with me for some reason. I still don't know why. After dancing we went out on the street and watched people for a long time. Drinking on the street isn't illegal (usually) here so people just went to Family Mart and bought beer and went back to the street. There were some really good costumes and I was impressed that people were able to make such good stuff from the materials available here.
Me, Cindy, Liezle, Vera (as a cat) and Carlie (as a school girl)

We stayed out until early morning (3 or 4) then went back to the hotel and crashed. The cab driver who took us home was a jerk and actually made us get out a block before our hotel because he didn't want to have to turn around so we had to walk in the rain again. Because of that we didn't feel so bad when Liezle's kebab fell on the floor of his cab. I got up early the next morning and left the other girls so that I could get back home in time for church. I wish I had written this post earlier because I am sure that I am forgetting some good details, but oh well, the pictures tell most of the story anyway.

Saturday, December 10, 2011

Daiso or Korean dollar store

They just opened a Daiso store on my side of town. Kyle, Cindy and I went tonight after dinner and random shopping around the downtown area. First of all it's a 2 story dollar store. Upstairs is home goods/cleaning stuff and downstairs is toys, accessories, school supplies. I love walking into brand new stores. They are so bright and clean. I also love dollar stores. My mother can confirm this as she gets a traditional dollar store angel every year as a stocking stuffer. Dollar stores are special to me because they hold that perfect blend of crap and awesome. There is the potential to find something really cool or well made or just so bizarre that it's great, alongside a pile of trash. It's that potential that makes every trip exciting.

I bought a bag of stuff (most of which I didn't need but I have a compulsion to buy things when they cost a dollar) and just got home and was double happy. It felt like Christmas as I was taking stuff out of the bag. I foresee trouble however because I will end up with lots of junk, cute though it may be. I might eventually post of pictures of what I bought, but I will tell you it included an ornament, a bowl, stickers and a headband with a Santa hat that will make me festive this year and will make Layla festive next year.

Saturday, December 3, 2011

Bored and yet not

I'm in one of those moods right now where I am bored, but yet I don't want to do anything. I've had multiple offers today to go different places or do different activities, but today was supposed to be a "do nothing" day except for grading papers and watching movies. I seriously need to clean my apartment, do dishes and laundry, and finish grading these tests plus write student evaluations. Yet I have done nothing. I laid around all morning, am starting in on my third movie, and plan on watching another if I have time before the UGA game. I also have a skype date with one cousin and a possible Catan game with another. The only mild "accomplishment" that I have done today was write a handful of Christmas cards (much fewer than usual) and wrap a few presents so that I can get them in the mail asap.

So to further avoid doing anything worthwhile, I decided to write this post. You're welcome.

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Kids essays - Part 7 - Self esteem

Today I met Liezle and we ran some errands and got mufflers (scarves that are one big circle) and I realized that my scarf buying has increased a million fold since moving here. I think I previously owned 2, now I own like 5 (2 were free but still). I also bought these to wear on Saturday for the SEC Championship game (Go Dawgs!)

After buying crap we went to Jun (a hair salon) and Liezle got her hair colored, which took around 90 minutes because they had to redo it because her roots were still lighter than the rest of her hair. After they put the cream on, I got my hair cut. I cut off about 7 inches so it's really short now. Liezle's eyes got really wide when the lady cut the first piece, but it looks good I think. After haircuts we went to lunch and then went to a little stationary/random crap store and I got this card/ornament which made me extremely happy.
Santa doing a typical Korean pose for pictures
 So when I walked into my first class today, the 3 kids gasped and one boy goes, "Teacher your head!". The other comments I got were, "Why did you do that, your other hair was pretty.", "It looks cute." and lots of "ohhs". Only half of the kids have seen it though, so we'll see what happens tomorrow. The kids on Wednesday are more honest in their assessment of me. For example, on Monday I wore one of the aforementioned scarves and one kid goes, "Teacher, your neck looks huge!" So I probably won't wear that one again.

On the subject of kids, here are some recent kids' essays.

It wasn't the words of this essay so much as the drawing of what appears to be boobs  at the bottom
"He could go to beaches and swim or bag rays"

"I use a ball, hand cap and meat." (equipment to play baseball)

"A teen has DNA that effects there body. They think they're never going to die and some DNA effects sexual DNA. But old ones sexual DNA all dies and they are afraid to die. That's the reason why old guys can't learn from young ones."

"Magic is fake because it can only wizard. We are human."

"I believe dragons are real. I don't think dragons live in rivers, but maybe in the sky or a cave. in the future I'll ride a dragon to school."

"Thunder looks like the breath of a giant."

"A model's hat say I'm sale of say I'm beautiful."

"Some people listen to music because we can share our pain with music."

"Kimchi is delicious but the smell is pungent."

"Kimchi would say "Please don't hate me. I help your body!" I am like kimchi because it is very delicious."

"Marie Curie was a great scientist. She lost her husband but she did it."

"Interviewing dead people is crazy but this says "any famous person" so I'm writing about a Korean hero that's dead."

"A friend is my heart."

"Spaghetti look like a bunch of worms with some sauce on them."

Becky in a hooded sweatshirt...with ears. She owns multiple versions of this.

Sunday, November 27, 2011

Happy Thanksgiving

So Thursday we went bowling, which I think I already told you about, so that's puts us at Friday. Originally, Cindy, Liezle, me and possibly another girl, were going to go for bbq (Korean style, not NC style) and then hang out. Then people were going to bar, but none of us really wanted to go that. Then all of us sort of got colds, so it ended up with me going to prayer service and then meeting Cindy to go watch a movie. Liezle stayed home and went to bed. We watched 50/50, which is a really good movie. I knew nothing about the plot when I went in and when I asked Cindy, she said, oh it's about a guy who has cancer. So then I was expecting some huge depressing story, but they writers mixed it with enough humor that it ended up being really good. And it didn't seem like fake humor - it felt like real people.

After the movie we went home and I got online and talked to people for about 5 minutes. That seemed to be the theme of the weekend. On Saturday, I got up early (well early for me) and met the girls at the bus station and we went to Busan for laser treatments. We are all getting our armpits done. It's mega cheap here, but I'm not sure how "permanent" it is. Still, less is more in this case and I think it does help. After the treatments (which literally take less than 5 minutes) we went to the "mall" called Lotte department store. We ate lunch at the food court downstairs, then Cindy left to catch a bus to Daegu while Liezle and I looked around. I had won the $50 gift card to the mall at church the previous week and wanted to use it. My intentions were to buy something for either my mother or sister, but all the stores were super expensive (Dior, Louis, Prada etc.) and I wasn't going to spend actual money on them (at least not what I would have needed to spend to buy them anything decent). I ended up buying some body scrub at the Body Shop and getting cash for the rest. Liezle then took a bus to Geoje to visit a friend and I went back to Jinju. The bus was really crowded and I got stuck on the back row in the corner and the lady next to me occasionally used me as an armrest.

Once I got home, I ended up watch The Debt - another good movie that I recommend. Then I took a nap because I was planning on playing Catan with some of my cousins at midnight. So I woke up and none of them were awake. Jeff went shopping instead. So I ended up watching the first half of "Warrior" (it was ok, but "The Fighter" and "Never Back Down" are better), then spending 30 minutes trying to find a feed for the UGA game, then I watched the second half of the game. After the game I went back to bed for awhile.

I woke up today and went to church, then left a few minutes early to go meet Cindy and watch "Breaking Dawn". I had told her I would go see it when it came out here, and that was really the only time we could go. Apparently it's in sort of a preview mode now and it only playing on weekends. It was good-ish, and I don't want to spoil it for other people, but only a few parts annoyed me. After the movie we went back to church because today was the big foreigner Thanksgiving. IEC has held Thanksgiving the last 2 years. This year about 230 people showed up. Most are foreigners, but there are also English speaking Koreans who are welcome to join. The get some of the food from a military base and then some from Costco. It was good, but I definitely missed mom's Thanksgiving.
My plate. Yes there is a lot of food on it. Sadly, mine was no where near the fullest plate. There were potato mountains on some people's. Luckily there was enough of everything to go around.
Before dinner, the elder men's choir performed 2 songs. They were really good. They were warming up in this picture. The people in the corner are Brandon, Jamie and Olivia (their baby).
One of many tables of foreigners. I actually sat at the table behind this one. I had planned on taking a picture at each table, but that plan failed due to apple pie consumption.
After eating, Liezle, Ilani and I stayed to help clean up, along with a couple other foreigners. We got to take home some leftovers too, although it was fruit cocktail and salad, so no turkey and cranberry sandwiches for me this year. Once I got home I watched the second half of "Warrior", graded my weekend essays and played around online for awhile. I was sad that I didn't really get to talk to family for long this year, but things happen so I'll get over it. Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving and if I'm not home for it next year, mail me some turnips.

Thursday, November 24, 2011

Routine

So these past 3 weeks have fallen into somewhat of a pattern. Monday I met Liezle for lunch and we ran some errands. I now have a pay as you go phone and for the first 3 months, I have to add a minimum of $5 each month. I get a text (in English - sort of) telling me to go to a store within 5 days of the email. It's really fast and easy, but just the fact that I have to do something is annoying.

After lunch I went to Tom and Toms' for coffee. I forgot that during the week they give you a free cookie with a coffee order in the afternoon. While I was grading essays, Jamie and Brandon came in. Monday is their day off and Olivia (their baby) was getting her 6 months shots as a doctor's office around the corner. We sat and talked and I gave Jamie my cookie and headed off to work.

On Tuesday I fasted. At church Brandon asked everyone to fast 1 day this week because of Thanksgiving and how it would be a reminder of how lucky we all are. I went the whole day without a problem (mainly because I slept until 1 then went straight to work) until I got home from work. Luckily I was able to make it until 12 before I ate a snack.

On Wednesday I met up with Liezle, Cindy and Anna (a new girl) at the kimbap place. Liezle wanted to try somewhere new, but we couldn't think of a place that is open that late during the week and still in a semi-convenient location. We just had dinner and then they rushed home so they could get the last bus. It has gotten fairly cold here now, especially when it's windy. I haven't broken out my winter coat yet, but it's close. After I got home I watched the rest of "Holiday Inn". I had to watch it in chunks all week because the download speed was ridiculously slow for some reason.

Tonight I again met up with Gareth and some other people for kimbap (I had soup) and bowling. This time 8 people, including a new guy (well new to me since he's been here for 8 years and is married to a Korean lady), joined. I did ok - we played 4 games and I broke 100 twice and got 96 one time. My third game was awful. I think I should probably use a lighter ball, but Koreans have tiny finger holes in their light bowling balls.

I will try to write more interesting things soon, but lately it's been this routine (which I like) so that's what you get to hear about. Laura took some pictures of us bowling tonight, so I will try to share them once she sends them to me (and/or posts them on facebook).

Also, Happy Thanksgiving to everyone at home. This has been the first Thanksgiving in my whole life where I haven't been with at least one member of my immediate family. Luckily I have some pretty decent friends here to ease the pain, but alas, they do not have turnips here, so I'm totally screwed on that. They will be on my list of things to eat once I get home, along with a good sandwich, real cake and a baked potato.

Sunday, November 20, 2011

Korean Thanksgiving

So to finish off the week, Thursday night bowling was about the same as last week, except Caroline didn't come and an Irish guy named James did instead. Garreth still fell and I broke 100 twice, so it was a slight improvement. On Friday, I went to prayer meeting and then Ilani made a South African dessert called, "milk tart", which we might have in the States, but is similar to flan. It was really good. Then we ended up talking for a few hours instead of doing game night.

On Saturday I did nothing, which was awesome. It was a semi-rainy day and I watched 3 movies and finished 2 books and started on a third. Jeff also called me because a bunch of family was together for the NC State/Clemson game. They called at midnight and were going to call back at another time, but forgot I guess. I listened to the first half of the UGA/Kentucky game then fell asleep during halftime.

Today I went to church and we had a short service because we joined the Korean church for their Thanksgiving. Basically it's sort of a pageant. Each group within the church performs a song or skit and IEC (that's the English section of the church) sang a song. They also give out raffle prizes and I won a gift certificate to a mall. I have said before that I need to being my camera everywhere because stuff always happens when I don't have it. This was a case in point. I didn't have my camera and they people were crazy. They dressed up in formal clothes or weird costumes and sang songs. One group was in choir robes and sang "I will follow him" from 'Sister Act' (they had the video playing behind them). After the service you could run to the run and get fruit or vegetables or toothpaste or sponges or a bunch of other random crap. I didn't go to get anything, but one of the elders went and brought back a box of stuff and I got some sandwich bags. They also handed out bags with tangerines and juice in them during the service because it lasted about 2 hours and people needed some snacks (I am in favor of this.)

After church we went out for soup for Jungwa's birthday and then had cake and coffee. We chatted and sang but she was sick so we went home early. So then I met up with Cindy and sat while she ate dinner and we talked about the weekend. It was a very low key weekend, but I had fun. The only bad part was that I found out that I am the oldest in the group from church. I thought Brandon and Jamie had me by a little bit, but nope. Oh well.

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Another busy week

Friday I went to a church prayer meeting and ended up talking to people afterwards until almost 11pm. After that I met up with some people for another friend's birthday at a bar. I didn't stay long because he got drunk (he's slightly alerergic to alcohol so after about 3 drinks, he's a goner) and we walked him home. That was finw with me because I wasn't really in a drinking mood.

Friday also happened to be pepero day in Korea. Pepero are these little cookie sticks dipped in chocolate and/or nuts. People give them to each other. Sort of like Valentine's day, but no love connection or anything. It's totally about marketing. 11/11 looks like sticks of pepero. In class, the students asked me if I knew what pepero was. I said, "Yes, and today is pepero day so where is all my pepero? Aren't you supposed to give me lots and lots of pepero?" One little girl reached into her backpack and pulled out a box and gave it to me. I felt so bad. I told her I was joking and that she should keep it, but she said that she wanted to give it to me. So I got one box. Some of the students also walked around and gave us pieces of their cookies. It's a wonder that I don't get sick more often from the random food these kids feed me.

Saturday I slept in then met with a bunch of people and we went to a house outside Jinju for games night. It was set up through the church and an American family who attend church invited us all out there. In total there were around 20-25 people (including the couple and their 2 kids) at the house. We played "mafia" to get to know each other better (I got killed in the third round). Then a group of 8 girls played a game called "30 seconds". It's a South African game similar to "Taboo". You get a card with 5 words/people etc. on it and you have to describe them in 30 seconds to your team. You don't have word restrictions except no rhyming etc. It was fun (our team won). That night I went out afterwards with a girl named Sarah and Ilani. We just went to have coffee. Liezle and some others went to a bar, but I'm sort of staying away from that scene for awhile.

On Sunday, Liezle, Cindy, Vera and a new girl named Anna and I went to Samsung buffet. I didn't really want to go, but Vera had never been and Liezle made a reservation, so I felt bad about skipping out on it. After the buffet, Cindy and I met up with Cody and watched "In Time". It was ok. We debated the movie for about an hour afterwards talking about all the weird things in the movie and how we would have made it better. Then we had Japanese for dinner, but shared it since we had eaten so much earlier.

On Monday I met up with Liezle and we ran errands and went to a pizza place for lunch because Liezle wanted to try the salad bar. I mentioned this before, but when you get the salad bar in Korea, you get it for 2 people, but you share 1 plate. This is still strange to me. We also split a pasta dish that was really good. I feel like I did something on Monday night too, but I totally can't remember what I did. I think I went for coffee, but I could be blending last week into this week since they are very similar. Ah yes, now I remember. I talked to my mom for awhile about next year - I will write another post about that soonish.

Tuesday was my day off and I caught up on some TV and finished reading a new e-book. I also almost finished a culture guide about Korea. You read that correctly; I've been here almost 9 months and just now got around to reading about it. Whoops.

Today I met up with Caroline, Liezle and Taren for lunch. We tried to go to this cat cafe downtown, but for some reason it was closed. We know that it is usually open for lunch because friends of ours have been during that time. But we couldn't go. So we went to a coffee shop and had sandwiches instead. Mine was pretty good - ham and egg with melted cheese on top. Tonight I met up with a large group of girls at the kimbap place and we had dinner and chatted. It was an interesting mix of girls because there were some who are about to leave, a brand new girl and pretty much everywhere in between.

Thursday (tomorrow) I'm meeting my co-teacher for coffee and the repeating bowling night from last week. Friday I am having another game night, although a smaller scale one. Saturday is open right now but possibilities include going to another b-day party and/or movie. Sunday is church (with Korean Thanksgiving?) then dinner with the girls again. So, it's been nice lately because I've been very busy. Although I think I've probably spent $50 in coffee in the last 2 weeks. That crap is expensive!

Thursday, November 10, 2011

Busy week

Aside from sleeping through Sunday night into Monday afternoon, I have been out every night this week. That is unusual for me. I also wouldn't exactly say that I'm busy, as I don't do anything in the morning and generally sleep until somewhere between noon and 1, go to work, then go out for awhile. Here's what I've been up to:

Monday night after work I met Liezle, Cindy and Keung He at a coffee shop between work and my house. They are all done before me, so they'd been there for about 30 minutes already. We sat and talked and compared weekends for the next hour or so, then all went home where I watched TV and started a biography (of sorts) of Bette Davis that was written by her daughter.

On Tuesday I met Kyle for tea downtown. She really likes going to tea houses and I had never been to one in Jinju, so she took me to this really cute place. I had a chai tea which was really good but spicy (like actually hot spicy, not just chai spices). She had done a temple stay last month and we compared notes. By this point, my thighs had actually stop hurting although my heels still hurt a bit. We drank our tea and chatted for a little over an hour, then caught the last bus home.

On Wednesday I had dinner with Caroline, Gareth and Mikey. We went to kimbap heaven and drove the lady a bit crazy because the guys kept ordering additional rolls of kimbap. I think out table got 6-7 rolls in total. After dinner we were walking to a bar to have a drink, when Gareth suggested we go bowling instead. It had been awhile since the last time I bowled and agreed with him that it sounded fun. We ended up with two lanes and played boys versus girls. Caroline and I won the first round by 1 point. Then Mikey found his groove (turns out he likes to spin the ball, although his gyro is not yet perfected). The boys won that round by a few points. We played a final round which the boys won handily, although Gareth fell on his butt once which was hilarious. Gareth also bowls from his knee which I have never seen anyone do before. As we were leaving, I noted that this was the first time in a long time, probably since I turned 21, that I didn't drink while bowling. I am normally my best 1 beer in, so I challenged them to a rematch sometime soon. Korean bowling alleys (as well as Korean pool halls) don't serve alcohol. You can buy it and bring it in your self (at least at the bowling alleys), but you can't get it there.

Thursday (tonight) I met Liezle, Cindy, Keung He and Bridgett for Bridgett's going away dinner. She was here for only a few months doing her student teaching and leaves next Wednesday to go home and finish her degree. She decided to go to the oven baked chicken place where we split chicken salads. We had a pitcher of beer (about 1 glass each) and some hoduc on the way home. She was a nice girl and I know Cindy will miss having a foreign co-worker. I have a feeling she will be back here at some point.

I am currently typing this waiting until 3 am so that I can do an online CLE. It's going on at 1pm EST, so for me to get credit, I have to log-on at 3am my time. I am usually up until around then (or later) most nights, but for some reason I am really antsy. I think it's because I HAVE to stay up and not because I just am staying up. So far, I've updated my blog (you're reading it now), done a load of laundry (going to hang it up as soon as I'm done here), caught up on a friend's blog (and a few others) and organized my desk (sort of). I also hope to possibly grade some papers and watch some TV shows, but we'll see.

I also have this weekend semi-booked as tomorrow I am going to a prayer meeting for a friend, then out to another friend's birthday dinner, Saturday is game night at a friend's house and Sunday is church as well as a possible trip to Samsung buffet or another place on either Saturday or Sunday. I'll tell you more details next week. I am going to try to update more often because I was looking over my old posts and noticed that they dropped from around 20 a month to 4 a month. I think somewhere between those 2 is probably best. I know a lot of what I used to post about is now routine for me, but I will try to update with new adventures when they happen.

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Temple Stay

My friend Ilani invited me to go do a temple stay with her this weekend. Her co-worker volunteers at the temple and told us about it. Some other friends of mine have been to a different one and loved it. Also, this was the last weekend that a special artifact would be on display for the next 100 years. So, we decided to do it.

We left Jinju around 1 on Saturday afternoon and took a bus up a very windy road. The total bus ride was about 2 hours and was through some odd places, including under a 1 way bridge tunnel. The bus dropped us off at the base of the temple and we had to walk up a decent way to get to the main temple. Because of the festival for the tripitaka (ancient artifacts which I will tell you about later), there were a bunch of tents set up selling random crap. We got to try a piece of dried pumpkin (really acorn squash) and it tastes much better than I thought it would.
On the bridge into the temple grounds
Pretty red leaves on the walk to the temple
On the way to the temple we passed a memorial area with a bunch of statues and a big stone in the middle of a grassy area. Apparently the big stone in the middle has the "stones" or jewels that a monk leaves behind after they're cremated inside it (well a famous monk's jewels). Neither Ilani nor I had ever heard of this but we later saw pictures of the jewels in another small temple.
Memorial site for high priest Sungcheol
Not sure who this memorial is for, but some important monk
Close up of the dragons on top of the memorial
We thought the registration was at 5pm, so we had an hour to kill and Ilani's co-worker Ellen took us to another temple on the same campus (for lack of better word). This was up a very steep hill, but was very pretty. The mountain there is called a Chinese phoenix because it is supposedly shaped that way (I didn't see it). The temples up here are for zen monks and are very secluded.
Growing cabbages for kimchi
View of the mountains. In about the center of this photo is the main temple where we stayed.
The tiny temple in the middle of this picture is for zen monks and is supposed to be very tranquil.
All around the campus are art projects from different countries. This is part of the festival for the tripitaka. Some of the projects were pretty cool looking, while others were lame. The one from the US/Czech republic was a wooden bird house that turned upside down and the windows opened and shut (lame). The one from Japan was interesting because it consisted of a huge rectangle on the ground filled with stones. Each stone was hand numbered from 1 to 80,000 to represent the tripitaka blocks.
The whole rectangle. You can't really see because it's covered in leaves, but there were lots of  rocks there.
Close up of some of the rocks
Korea's project. The dual nature of Buddha (or something like that)
Then we went back down to the main temple area. Apparently we were late and registration was actually around 4-4:30. So we were thrown into a closet and had temple outfits thrown at us. Koreans are tiny people and my butt is not Korean, so I had to trade pants and ended up with some pretty comfy "gear" pants. Luckily we weren't the only late ones and once we all got dressed the hustled us off to the next room where a monk was giving some instructions on the proper way to enter a room (right foot first, then bow), hold your hands for prayer, and to do a Buddha bow (more on that later).
Schedule for the temple stay
After the instruction ceremony we went to dinner at the cafeteria. That's when we saw Ellen again because she was handing out soup and silverware. Once you enter the cafeteria, you're not supposed to talk at all and you eat really fast. Dinner was: rice, kimchi bean sprouts (which I like), kimchi cucumber that looked like spaghetti (it was crazy spicy), potato salad with hard-ish peas in it, and soup with potato pieces (also crazy spicy). While looking around, we noticed that you were supposed to eat everything on the plate - so it was a difficult meal - eat spicy, try to cool it off with plain rice. Also, nothing to drink. After dinner, we eat got a cup of hot water to drink.

We were then shepherded to a main square where they had 2 drummers play on a huge drum. We watched for about 10 minutes or so, then got escorted to the main temple. While we were walking, they rang the huge bell (although not with the giant swing thing, just with a drum stick). Once inside the main temple, we got mats and sat down in front of 3 large Buddhas (we weren't allowed to take pictures of them). It was a really lovely room. Then we had to follow the monks for the evening ceremonial service. We did a few bows and the Koreans did chanting. It was actually kind of nice to listen to.

Then we went to put our stuff in our rooms. There was a handful of other foreigners, and we all got lumped together in a room downstairs. The room was actually pretty nice, with its own bathroom and decent bedding. It was just really, really hot. Then it was back upstairs to have tea with the monks. Because we were such a large group, they didn't have enough tea pots, so they put the foreigners and some of the younger Koreans in another room with a different monk. We got tangerines, crackers and aloe juice (it's actually pretty good but I don't like the pulp). The temple translator apparently quit like a week ago or something, so 2 of the Koreans in the group offered to translate for us.

The monk was really cool and told us we could ask 5 questions. The first question was "why did you become a monk?" He said that he was lost in the real world and that he hated competition and got fired from his old job. He told us that he tried to commit suicide 3 different times and was really unhappy. Then his mother got sick and next to the hospital was a temple. Why she was at the hospital, he found contentment at the temple. Then he decided to go to a real temple and be a monk. The next question was "how does your family feel about your being a monk?" He said at first they were unhappy because it's not really a good thing for the family. I guess being a monk isn't really looked on as something to be proud of in Korean culture. But he said they can see how happy he is and that he is much healthier so they are ok with it now.
Me and the monk who talked with us. He was so funny because he wanted to take his glasses off for the picture! One girl's name was Fiona and he goes, "like in Shrek?"
The third question was "do monks eat meat?" He said that it's not in any writings or the Buddist cannon that monks shouldn't or can't eat meat, but it's become a symbol of their status and now it's sort of frowned upon. He said he eats beef and that other monks eat meat too, but it's usually done almost in secret. The fourth question (which I asked) was "if it had been a church and not a temple next to the hospital, do you think you'd be following a different religion?" He said, "There's more to the story" and then told us there was a church inside the hospital and that they went there and his mother cried. He said each person has a religion that fits that individual person and Buddhism fit him. He said that he believes there is one god but that he sends down different people to communicate with us. He held us a tea pot and said "from this side, you don't see the handle, but from this side you do". The fifth question was "what's your favorite part of the day?" And he said when he prays is the best part of the day for him.

After snack and question time, it was bed time. We went downstairs and got ready and an older lady joined our room because they ran out of room in the adjoining room. She turned off the light and it took most people around 30 minutes or so to fall asleep. I say most people because I didn't sleep at all. The room was really, really hot and I like it cold. It also had a huge exit sign above a door so it was too bright for me also. Lastly, every time I was close to falling asleep, someone would get up to pee, or cough or someone above would walk around or someone would fart (and let me tell you, these ladies, especially the grandma, could let fly). Plus, my current sleep schedule usually has me falling asleep around 4 anyway.
Me and Ilani in our monk gear in our room
So we get up at 3am and Ilani and I are the first ones ready and we decide to go upstairs and be on time. We are early and nobody is there, so we got to watch the guy play drums again and go to one of the temples. Nobody from our group was there, so we went back to the original meeting place, nobody was there either, but a lady saw us and pointed to the top, so we went back up to the main temple and saw some people from our group. We were late, so we didn't get a mat and did the morning ceremony which including 3-6 bows with no mat. Our knees were killing us. When the ceremony was almost over, one of the monks got our group and told us to go outside.

Ilani and I were the first out and went to stand in line. It was raining and I didn't have an umbrella so the monk made Ilani trade her small one for his big one. He was really nice and kept gesturing to us later in the day and watching to make sure we knew what was going on 9even though he couldn't speak English). Next we went back to the temple where we went at first and the foreigners and some of the Koreans from our group were there (they had skipped the ceremony). We set up mats and did 108 Buddha bows in a row to a chant. It took 30 minutes. A Buddha bow goes like this: you start standing up with your hands in prayer, you drop to your knees, place you forehead on the mat with you hands next to your head flat on the ground, then flip your hands palm side up and raise to your ears, hand back down, then get up to your feet while putting your hands back in prayer. You aren't supposed to use your hands to help you get up, or go to your knees. Well, I can do about 2-3 of those before I have to use either hands or knees and it turns out I can do about 10 before I have to use both. So while I didn't do them perfectly, I still did the 108 bows. After bows, we did some stretches then we did meditation. This hurt almost as much as the bows. I am not a bendy person and to do meditation you're supposed to sit in lotus position (crossed legged with your feet on your knees). I just sat Indian style. We did this for 5 minutes which was fine, but was apparently a preview because we then did it for 20 minutes and my hips were killing me! After that we did some more stretches and listened to some music.
Sneak picture of the temple where we did the Buddha bows
Then we ate breakfast. It was the same style as dinner - fast and silent. We had rice, kimchi cucumber (different than dinner), kimchi radish, tofu (super gross) and seaweed soup (actually better than I had anticipated). After breakfast we had a small break time. We went back to our rooms and cleaned up the bedding then Ilani and I talked while some other people cleaned up or took naps. Then we had a tour of the temple grounds.

First we went to the front of the temple. We started at the first gate (seems logical). Apparently it is famous for being "a model of excellence" because of its simple beauty. Then we walked up some stairs to the second gate. On the way, we stopped at a huge pile of rocks. He told us that the rocks were from the mountain opposite us and that there used to be lots of fires on that mountain. But when they moved the rock to the temple grounds, the fires stopped.
Monk guide at Iljumoon (first gate)
Monk showing us the pile of fire rocks
After the rock pile, we went to the second gate, or phoenix gate. Four gods (North, East, South, West) are inside this gate and protect people everywhere. So we bowed to them. Last we went through the third and final gate, the nirvana gate. "All the world is one" when you walk though this gate.
Second gate
Then we went to the bell tower and he talked to us about it. He said that when the bell is rung, it gives people in hell a rest, so people in hell like to hear the bell because they get peace. The drum is played to save people on earth, the bell is for people in hell, the carp (the long thing next to the bell) is for things in the sea and the metal gong (supposedly shaped like a cloud) is for things living in the air. I only remember the bell and the drum being played.
Carp is on the left, bell is in the center, drum to the right. Don't know where the gong is.
Next we went through the middle ground and up to the main temple (Daejeokgwangjeon). He told us some things about it but I had zoned out at that point because it was all in Korean and we weren't near someone who could/would translate for us. So I just stared at the wall for awhile. A building was originally built there is 802 and was rebuilt in 1818. He also told us about the building next to us (Daebiro Hall) which is one of the oldest wooden temples left and has a wooden Buddha inside it with a system that pulls the Buddha into the basement in case of fire.
Outside wall of the main temple. This was 1 panel of 4 I think
Daebiro Hall - it's symmetrical or something
Next we went up to the storage hall for the tripitaka koreana. These 4 buildings were built around 1488 and house the tripitaka. The tripitaka koreana are wooden blocks with the entire Buddhist scripture and other writings. In total there are 81,350 blocks with over 52 million characters carved into them. There are no mistakes in the blocks because if a monk made a mistake, they had to re-carve the entire block. It took 16 years to complete. Multiple monks worked on the project, but all used the same script style so you can't tell who did which block. The buildings were also scientifically built with opposite side windows (on the front top the windows are small and the front bottom windows are large and on the back side the window sizes are opposite) to create air circulation. The floor was also made using special stuff to control humidity and bug control. This building has preserved the blocks for hundreds of years. The blocks themselves were finished in 1011 and this weekend was the millennium anniversary. They are also sealing the blocks away for 100 years to help continue to preserve them, so this was the last weekend to see them.

They wouldn't let anyone take pictures of the blocks or the buildings close up, but I got one from above after we left the main area. It was pretty incredible. It looked like a library with rows and rows of books. After the tour we were basically done, got changed and cleaned the room and then went upstairs for a final goodbye where they gave us presents of post cards and beads for the 108 bows (you make a necklace sort of like a rosary for doing more bows in the future).
Front of the first storage buildings. There are 4 buildings in total that make up a rectangle with a quad in the middle. Also, those steps you can see, they're steep as crap.
There was also a maze type thing where you walk around praying. The shape of the pathway is the Buddhist symbol for "man" which turned into a symbol for "temple" which looks like a reversed swastika. I think there is a similar thing in Catholicism but I can't remember the name - sort of like walking the rosary.

People walking the haeindo
It was raining during the entire tour and hadn't stopped when we left, so we decided to skip hiking down to the museum, although the area was really pretty. Ilani and I want to go back at some point and take pictures on a nice day. On our way down the temple, we stopped off and got an ear of boiled corn each. It was pretty good, although they don't use salt or butter. We rode a shuttle bus to the tripitaka museum and walked through some history buildings and then saw a model of how the blocks were made.
Outside of the festival grounds
Buddha replicas in the museum
Main exhibit hall
In short (sort of) a monk wrote on a paper scroll what would go on the block. Then they knocked down some trees and formed rough planks. The wood was then soaked in salt water for 3 years before it was carved into a nice block of wood. The characters were then transferred from paper onto the wood and lastly really carved into the wood. Then they could use a type of ink to put on the wood block and make copies of the books.
Monk writing on the paper scroll
Replica of a block from the tripitaka. They wouldn't let you take pictures of the real blocks.
After the museum we were really tired, but had to walk 15 minutes down a hill to the bus station. Although it was really a crap general store on the side of the road with an old couch. Without Ellen there would have been no way we would have found it. We rode the bus home and I promptly fell asleep for 15 hours. It was a really good experience because I have never done anything like that before. I am not sure if I would do it again, but I am very glad I did it at least once.

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Third time's a charm - I finally did the Seoul Bus Tour

Two weekends ago, I decided to join Caroline, Illani and a new girl named Taryn in Seoul. We got up super early and took the 6am bus from the inter city bus station (which I found out was just as good a bus to Seoul, cost 3000 won less and took 30 minutes less). We arrived in Seoul, hopped on the subway and went promptly took pictures of random statues, then got dressed up in robes.
Statute outside of a subway entrance. Later this whole area was filled with was either a protest, a memorial or a party.
Me and Illani dressed up in robes. The guy who signed us up and ran the "shop" thought we were hilarious.

We then found the reason we traveled to Seoul - the City Bus Tour. I had previously tried twice (once with Cindy, once with Jeff) to do the tour and for various reasons it didn't work out. But, I had already done some of the stops. The bus is a single deck bus with about 30 seats in it. Each seat has a headset and you can chose a variety of languages. It gives you a little blurb of information for each stop. You can get off at any of the stops and catch a bus every 30 minutes (or so they said). We started our tour right around 10 (it might have been 10:30). Illani had never been to Seoul and wanted to see a market. So we got off at the second stop Namdaemun Market.
In case you get lost, this provides absolutely no help at all.
We walked around for about 20 minutes, bought some stuff and hopped back on the bus. We went 4 more stops and got off at the National Museum of Korea. This was not one of my planned stops, but Illani wanted to check it out, plus it was free. We got off the bus and had a snack (gimbap) then went inside. The museum was quite nice, but oddly had a lot of stuff from other parts of Asia. There was a children's section that I wanted to see, but we ran out of time since we didn't want to stay for another 30 minutes.
In front of the museum is a really nice pond and some other nature things. There is also a sculpture garden that we didn't see because we ran out of time. Here was a nice little fall scene near the entrance.

Going up the steps to the museum are huge flower pots. There were some butterflies on the flowers. I got so close to this one that you can actually see its tongue inside the flower.

This pagoda represents something, but I forget what. I know the tiles on the roof are special.
This was a giant buddah

Here are some more buddahs. There was a sign that showed what the various hand positions symbolized, but it was in Korean, so I didn't take a picture.

Some stone chimes...with ducks.
God masks from Nepal

A lion figure

A large metal gong in the metal crafts room

Model of a restroom. I thought this was hilarious for some reason. Like, why was this preserved?

We took a brief detour to India...

Back outside. On the exit stairs they had huge pots with water lilies and other flowers.
There was also this giant bell and the pavilion. This bell is old.
After the museum, we went 3 more stops to Itaewon for lunch. It was around 3:30 at this point. We ate in a random little restaurant that had bizarre names for the dishes. They also gave us little "palate cleansers" of celery-apple juice.

The little bottles had our juice, the pitcher has coke.

Sample menu: I want to be a human being now (fried mugwort on garlic and olive oil pasta); Soothe tired me today (crab meat saffron risotto); Hello vegetarians (primevera); Let me show you who I really am (bbq chicken); You look much more lovely today of all day (smoked duck breast)

Front of the menu. The decor was very odd too - alot of metal. The door handle was a huge wrench and there were chains hanging on the walls and stuff.
After lunch we went to a few stores to look around and then to a book store called "What the book". It's a decent bookstore and has mainly English books, including a large used section. I got 4 books and everyone else got some too. Taryn's friend met her there and she stayed with him while we got back on the bus. Unfortunately, traffic sucked and we waited over 30 minutes at the bus stop for the next one. This meant we pretty much couldn't go anywhere else. Luckily, all that was really left on my list was 2 castles and the war memorial, which I can do some other time.

Downtown clothing market at night
We backtracked our morning trip (city bus stop, subway, to bus terminal) and tried to get tickets home. It was 8pm at that point and I got the last seat on the 9pm bus. Instead of going home alone, I traded that ticket back for a seat on the 10pm bus with the girls. Then we went to dinner at a coffee shop and talked for awhile. Then we went back to sit at the bus terminal and our driver talked to us for awhile. He tried to teach us some words in Korean and was really nice. We got home around 1:30 and crashed. Illani and I got up and went to church the next day and then we went to O'Taco for lunch/dinner. After dinner I stayed up until around 3 in the morning writing mid-term tests for all my classes as I hadn't done any of them yet (whoops). Luckily I finished them all.

It was a fun weekend, but tiring. I'm not sure how I feel about going up to Seoul just for the day, but it did save on hotel costs, plus all the tourist things other than bars close around 7 anyway, so it saved me money on alcohol and food too. We'll see what I decide to do next time I want to go finish my tour!