Temple Stay

This past weekend I decided to take some time off of being such a social butterfly and take in some well needed rest and Korean culture. I told one of my friends about it and she jumped at the chance. We booked ourselves in for a 2 day/1 night temple stay at one of the biggest temples in Korea - Beomeosa.  The temple is situated on top of Mount Geumjeongsan. It was just a short subway ride away and an even shorter bus ride from my house. It probably only took about an hour to get to it when it was all said and done. The bus ride up the lower portion of the mountain was a god send. I couldn’t imagine walking up that and having enough energy to explore the rest of it. The streets on the way up were lined with cherry blossom trees that were almost in bloom so the view was gorgeous. There were quite a bit of people out and about - all of them dressed in their neon pink and green hiking suits which made me giggle. 
It took us a bit before we figured out where to sign in, but like most things here, we eventually figured it out. There were 4 other foreigners and about 10 Koreans that were participating in the temple stay with us. Basically a temple stay is just when you stay in a temple over night and you get a glimps of what it is to be a Buddhist. The activities planned for us got underway shortly after we arrived. We started off with the dreaded "sit in a circle and introduce yourself" thing. I thought after standing in front of a room full of strange kids that my heart wouldn't dramatically increase in speed as it got closer to my time to speak - but it did. Granted, it wasn't as bad as it usually is. I think there's still hope for me:)
After we all said our piece one of the Monks came in and introduced himself (all in Korean, of course). There was a translator on hand but unfortunately she wasn't as great as the website said. It ended up being her first time doing it and she kept apologizing how lost she was in everything. The only thing she was really clear on is that most of the time there we were not allowed to talk. There was an itinerary in English that we ended up following pretty closely so at least we had that to go by. We learned some temple etiquette and after we learned how to formally great a Monk he left and came back in and we did a little chant. Then we all sat down for some tea and the Monk took questions from everyone. At this point I really wished that I understood Korean. The foreigners could only read the faces of the Korean participants but knew the Monk was saying interesting and probably insightful things. Not long after that we took a walk through the grounds to their dinner hall. It caught me off guard because there was an actual bank machine just outside of the doors. I guess even temples need funding!
By this time I was starving and still unsure what a "traditional temple meal" consisted of. We all sat down in two parallel lines with the Monk at the head of the table. In front of us was a page of instructions on how to eat... which consisted of 27 steps. This should be fun. I had to remind my now growling stomach that this is all a part of the experience. The translator was nowhere in sight. I guess this made sense because this was also one of the times we weren't allowed to speak. Step 1 - don't have wondering eyes. Great – In hopes not to offend anyone I made use of my peripheral vision and creepy side glances to watch what my neighbours were doing to make sure I was doing it right. Or, that we were at least not messing it up more than they were.

We had four bowls in front of us. One was each a bit larger than the next. The smallest was for side dishes, the next smallest for "rinsing" water, the next one for soup, and the largest was for rice. They all had to be arranged on the floor a certain way. The monk was served first, which was good because then we could just follow what he did. I was never really good at written instructions. Before accepting anything you bowed down to the floor facing the server and held out your bowl. Before placing it in front of you, you had to put the bowl to your head as thanks and then place in on the specific spot on the floor. I couldn’t help but think of my serving days and how this would never happen back home. When eating, we were instructed to always have the bowl in front of our mouths so no one could see how much or how little you were eating at a time. There was also no mixing of rice and side dishes. After we were finished, we had to put some “rinsing” water in our first "rice bowl" and tossed in a piece of pickled radish. With our chopsticks we had to manoeuvred it around the bowls in attempt to "clean" up all the sticky residue left behind. After we were satisfied with the cleanliness of it, we dumped the gunk (for lack of a better word) into the next bowl and did the same time. This was done for each of the bowls. The last bowl that collected all the gunk of the other bowls was considered our dessert. That's right, we had to drink it. It's definitely not a shot that I'd ever recommend to the general public that's for sure! We then took water from our "rinsing bowl" and give each of our bowls/chopsticks one final rinse, but this time we could use our hands for a more thorough clean. I know what you’re thinking, but no - we didn't have to drink this water, that would just be dirty! My hands are always so dirty here – everyone’s are! I’m always so thankful that everything pre-packaged to eat is accessible to consume without any direct contact of my hands. Anyways, back to the story... We emptied our remaining water into a communal bucket. There were chunks of things all through it from everyone's bowls. It literally looked like a big bucket of backwash and made me want to gag. The monk said something and one of the other participants loosely translated it to "look at all the food we wasted, now we drink because". I was glad everyone laughed because there was no way I would/could do that. I was happy at that moment I was only a tourist in all of this because we found out after that is what the Monks have to do.

After a short visit at one of the temple rooms to do some chants we were escorted back to our main hall where we were given a package of beads and a string. On the website it said that we were making 108 beads. No matter where you go here in Korea you can usually find temple prayer beads so I thought we were going to take a few hours and make a bunch of them while relaxing and resting on our own. The name of the stay was after all "Rest and Relaxing". I thought it was a little odd that we were only given one package of beads, but figured it was just the way they had it set up and we would get more after. They gave us a tooth pick and told us to thread it through every bead. Everyone was pretty chill - most of us hadn't changed out of our outside clothes because everyone was still talking and warming up from being outside. A lady came in with a giant bamboo stick and started clapping it – I remember thinking to myself “this is kind of random”. I had no idea what was going on, but we were instructed to bow. I finally caught on - we were going to bow for every bead that was going on to this necklace. We didn't even have time to take our jackets off before they started! I was sweating up a storm. We barely had 30 seconds to go into a full on bow to the ground, put a bead on the string, then stand back up - just to do the whole thing over again. Did I mention we had to do this 108 times? I really wasn't expecting it. But I will say, I’ve never been so proud of every bead on that necklace I made before. I'll also appreciate all the work that goes into the ones I see around from now on, too.
Not long after our bead frenzy the men were separated from the women and we were put to sleep. It was 9:00 so I feel I can say “put to sleep”. I can't even think of the last time I went to bed that early, especially since moving here. My school hours are from 2-9 so I usually go to bed around 2 in the morning and wake up around 10 or so. It's been the norm for me here. So, going to bed at 9 was a bit of a stretch. I had to keep on reminding myself of the schedule though... we were expected to get up at 3am for another drum ceremony and more prayers the next day. The bedding was brand new and made of silk and in bright pastel colors. It consisted of a mat, a comforter, and a pillow made of barley. It ended up being one of the best sleeps I’ve had here. Even though I woke up once thinking I was in a POW camp. The hall we all slept in was pitch black which is something I've longed to sleep in since I moved here. It was kinda funny cause the lights were turned off so unexpectedly that one of the Korean women was still changing into her pj's when the lights went out. She opened the door from the change room to the hall and said "Oh.. My, God!" as she stumbled around. Everyone had a good chuckle before trying to fall asleep.
At 3am sharp the lights turned back on. Everyone got up in what felt like 5 seconds. I guess I needed a little more time to adjust than my hall buddies. We were given strict instructions that we weren't to talk or wash our face before we went to the drum ceremony and finished the morning ritual. It was raining at the time so they had little disposable rain jackets for us to wear as we watched the Monks drum. The sound was almost transient. I have to say, it was pretty cool to watch. After we were done we went into another temple were there were 108 mini Buda statues and we did some more prayers. The sun was coming up by now. We had a bit of a break before heading up a rocky trail to some temples on a higher part of the mountain. The monk apologized for not having a better translator and then went into a big explanation on what all the symbols on the building were. It's a shame I didn't understand more. I did catch from one of the Korean participants that knew a little English say that the statues near one of the temples is made up of Monks ashes. The statue almost glistened in the light with tiny crystal like stones that are apparently found in the remains of cremated Monks. The stones are believed to embody the spiritual knowledge, teachings, realizations or living essence of the spiritual masters they belonged to. I'm glad I caught that much (after google-ing it when I came home), but it really made me wonder what other interesting things I missed.  
After our trek we had breakfast which was the same ritual as dinner from the night before. But this time we washed our bowls in a sink after our "dessert" and they also gave us some pre-mixed coffee which was a nice surprise. When we did the bucket thing again there were hardly any loose pieces, but it still didn’t look like anything you could pay me to drink.
I'm really glad I decided to go on this adventure even though there was a bit of a language barrier.  There wasn't any one part of it that I didn't enjoy. My eyes went in wide open. I didn't take any pictures while I was there, but my friend that came with me ended up taking a lovely picture of the wardrobe we had to wear while staying there. I was thinking of getting the same thing in purple cause it was just that flattering. lol
... until next time! 

Lunar New Year

 

The Chinese Lunar New Year fell on February 2^nd, 3^rd, and 4^th this year so we were fortunate enough to have a 5 day weekend.  One of my girlfriends and I decided it would be a great chance to head up to Seoul and explore around. The city itself is enormous... it has around 11 million people in it. We did so many things and were still only able to scratch the surface on all the things there are to do there.

Day one



We took the KTX there so it only took about 2.5 hours. I’m told the train goes about 300mph so it was nothing at all to get up there. Once we arrived I remember taking a deep breath as we squeezed our way to the nearest entrance of a subway. It was absolutely nuts. A few co-workers told me that it wouldn’t be very busy because most people go out of town to visit family so I guess we had it easy. I couldn’t imagine coming off the plane from Canada and being welcomed by literally millions of people. Busan was definitely the best choice for me. Anywho, we managed to figure out the subway tickets and were off to our first hostel.



Father and Son getting delicious Mandu



We decided to stay in a 6 bed room so we were bunking with strangers. That was a first for both me and my friend. The rest of the nights we were booked to stay at another hostel but had our own private room. We figured this would be a good experience for us. Everyone that was staying there was so nice, and after seeing our second hostel,  I almost wish we had of stayed bunked with strangers there.

We put our stuff  away and headed to one of the markets to check out the trinkets. After about an hour or so we decided to grab something to eat so we ventured to a Sushi bar. I’ve been craving sushi since I got here!  She’s never had it before but was open. Everything was on a rotating belt that surrounded 4 people creating the delicious mouthfuls of joy. I was in love – yet again – with my food.  Every bite was better than the bite before. The sushi was so melt in your mouth fresh and delectable that not even the pickiest of eaters would turn it away.

Hanok Village

When we got back to the hostel we ended up hanging out with the rest of the people that were staying there and played cards.  An older man from Japan was staying there and he must have thought my cards were dirty cause after we were done playing he took a roll of toilet paper out of the bathroom (they use toilet paper for everything here) and started wiping each individual card one by one. I kept quiet though and just gave my friend a look. Too funny.

Day two

Hanok Village Entrance

We started the day early enough. We wanted to get our bags at our new hostel and go exploring. We started off by visiting Bukchon Hanok Village which showcased traditional Korean houses. Just down the street from that was Changdeokgung Palace. I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves. We were also lucky enough to creep on a Korean photo shoot. I was literally a few feet away from the photographer at once point. My girlfriend couldn’t stop laughing at me – especially when the photographer turned around and gave me a “what the hell are you doing” smirk lol

Changdeokgung Palace



Changdeokgung Palace

 Day three

We started off slow and eased our way into the day with some more shopping. This time we decided to shop in a more savvy part of town. There were still plenty of vendors in between the shops, but there were also mainstream stores like Forever 21, H&M, and an Apple store. We managed to find an ice cream vendor in the mist of our frenzy that wasn’t going to disappoint. I spotted a sign that said “long Ice cream” and it was definitely not false advertisement as you can see from the pic. The funniest part was that I turned into a walking advertisement after I bought it. Everyone seemed to be staring and trying to ask me where I got it. Too much fun!

 

After wondering around, and spending way too much money, we purchased tickets for NANTA. It was under the top things to do in Seoul so we figured why not see what all the fuss was about. NANTA is a world famous non-verbal performance that’s been going on since 1997 and in 2004 it was even performed on Broadway. It all took place in a kitchen (which was kind of close to home for me) and they used knifes and other kitchen tools to create a beat and built a story line behind it. Even without the use of words there were still laugh in your gut moments that couldn’t be helped. They even involved the audience and pulled random people from the crowed, which was fun. I enjoyed every beat. I’m not so sure my friend did though. She seemed really into it, until I looked over at one point to share in a funny moment and she was dead asleep. I couldn’t help but laugh at her until she woke up. I guess it was something about hearing knifes on a chop board that was transient and put her to right to sleep.





Day four



We started off today the same as every other morning and enjoyed a breakfast sub at subway. We were both ecstatic when we found out on the first day that our hostel was a 5 minute walk from one. It didn’t taste exactly like it does in Canada but it is well worth the 5,000won! We did a little more poking around our hostel-hood before taking the subway to Namsan tower. It’s basically a giant tower that you take a cable car up to and take in all the sights of the city. The one unusual thing about it is that there’s a giant teddy bear museum in the base of it. I mean, what else should you put at the base of a giant tower, right? I couldn’t help but take a few priceless pictures with the famous bears. After we had our fill of the tower we spent our last night on the town and went to a few martini/mojito bars and enjoyed our last night in the big city of Seoul. Even though the KTX station was packed with people when we first arrived I think we got off easy. Usually the streets and subways are overwhelmingly full of traffic and Seoul-sters but we came to see that it was almost like a ghost town. There was one point that we were on the other side of 9 lanes and were able to cross without a vehicle in sight... eerie or what!



Day five

We packed up our bags and checked out of our hostel before noon. We had one last meal at subway before heading on our way home. We still had about 5 hours before it was time to catch our train back so we decided to try and find a locker at the Station to hold our stuff then go to the horse track to see if we could win our weight in money. Luck wasn’t on our side as all the lockers at the Station were full and we were stuck with our extremely heavy backpacks. Neither of us were happy about it. But lo and behold a Korean onlooker came to our rescue, once again, to help us out. Him and his wife asked us if we were looking for a place to put our bags for a few hours and as soon as we said yes they gestured for us to follow them... and so we did! There was a giant department store about 2 minutes from the Station. A woman behind the counter took our bags and gave us a number. It didn’t cost a thing! We figured it must be a service they have for people shopping in their store – I guess we abused that system, but at that point we didn’t care. We were just happy to have Korean insider info on how to be bagless in the big city for free. The nicest thing about them helping us is that they didn’t even need to put their bags aside. They helped us just because we looked lost and helpless in a town that obviously wasn’t our own. Makes you think, doesn’t it?

We then took our bag free bodies to the subway and travelled down the line to the horse track. It ended up being closed but a stop further was Seoul land. I had this in mind for plan B but never really looked too much into it so I wasn’t really sure what to expect. It ended up being a zoo and amusement park. We opted out of the amusement park and went for the zoo. It was still pretty cold outside so most of the animals were housed inside. The zoo itself was gigantic and we weren’t able to do all of it before we had to head back to the train station. We were able to see a lot of animals up close and personal though.... and I was also able to get a few photo opt pictures in too. You may laugh at this picture of me, but if you could only see the bewildered look on the kids/parents faces around me you’d laugh even harder.  Some note worthy parts of the zoo was the reptile arena because it reminded me of the Jurassic Park movie. There were giant plants all around and sections sectioned off for each animal. It was almost like an indoors safari. The air was even ridiculously humid and hot for the animals that lived in this domain. Another favourite of mine was the primate section. We were able to go into caves (to block disruptive light) to see apes up close through a giant window. It was quite the sight. We were also just in time to see two baby monkeys’ have their play time with one of the zoologist.  One was an orangutan and the other was a chimpanzee. I swear I could have watched them for hours. They orangutan was in his own element hanging upside down from a rope and the chimpanzee was laughing hysterically from the zookeeper tickling him. It was adorable to watch but we had a train to catch.

The trip back seemed to last forever. I have to say it was nice to get back to my home away from home.