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Hi everyone,

Long time, no talk, huh? Well, hopefully now we can take the time while we’re on our ship and catch up on our travelblog entries. We still have a few to make up from our last couple of months in Korea, then we’ll move into Melanie’s rehearsals and our time together in L.A., and then finally, we’ll start doing some cruise ship entries. Eventually, our goal is to do a blog for each cruise we do, and include pictures from each port of call! Wish us luck!!

So, this blog is from a little weekend trip we took back in August while we were still living and working in Korea. We went to a temple called the Lotus Lantern and stayed there for a weekend. While there, we got to experience living like a monk - how they spend their time, how to chant / pray in the temple, how they eat, and we even got to experience how they meditate and practice it on our own. I don’t think I quite got it - since you’re really not allowed to let yourself fall asleep - but I did get better by the 3rd try!

We also spent the night there - although Larry and I had to sleep in separate rooms as they did not let girls and boys spend the evenings together. There was a common room where we could all read and drink tea, but sleeping rooms were strictly coed. Probably the hardest part though about our entire stay at the temple, would be the EARLY MORNING chanting / praying we had to do. At 3:30 am, when we heard the gong sound, we had to wake up and head straight to the temple. Once there, there was no talking or waiting around - you immediately had to grab a mat and start the bowing process. Then, when we were all there and ready to go, we had to begin our group chanting and bowing - which in the end, ended up being over 100 bows that we all did! Needless to say, our legs were pretty sore afterwards!

In the end though, we really did appreciate our experience and we had a new found respect for Buddhism as a religion. It was a nice feeling to wear the same thing as everyone else, and to not be materialistic for a weekend. It also felt good to not waste anything we used, and to clean up after ourselves after every meal. Not being used to the early morning chanting, we were obviously very tired….but we also felt really refreshed from the whole experience. We would love to do it again in the future, perhaps in another country, and we would also recommend the experience to anyone who’s interested!

Well, that’s all for now…
Love,
Larry & Melanie

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