dpecor

I've been bad again, but its been so close to the end that I haven't felt like posting. Call it a sense of dread or whatever you would like but I've been lazy. But I have been doing things, even with my dwindling supply of cash. :) One weekend I went hiking, which is one of things I've been wanting to do. I went to the Northeast corner of South Korea again near the DMZ line on the east coast line. I don' t have pictures of this, but the beaches were lined with fence and barbed wire to protect against invasion. Now, you can consider me naive, but will a fence really stop a North Korea invasion if they really wanted to invade by sea? They did dig a secret tunnel under a mountain to ... read more

So every once in a while I go to a temple in Seoul with a group of friends to visit some monks. Mostly Myeong dukk(monk), which is a monks name and "dukk" means monk. Sonali randomly found this place and befriended this one monk who keeps inviting her and her friends back. Today we went and talked with some foreign monks from the USA who are being officially ordained tomorrow morning (Thursday morning) as monks. It was great being able to talk with them about Zen buddhism. Their practice generally is different from the one in korea even though their teacher is korean-american. I've been interested in how the Buddhism here differs from other Buddhisms, but haven't been able to find a clear answer. I know some of the rituals and practices they do and they ... read more

I'm so bad at writing blogs. But at least I write good ones when I do, but I'm usually so busy. This past weekend I went to a Temple Stay. It was just overnight and I wish so much that it was longer. It was actually down in Gyeongju where I went before. But farther out on a mountain. It was beautiful and so peaceful. Stress that I didn't even know I had disappeared. We had free time but also regimented schedule. It was unique in that it had a martial art there as well: Sunmudo. It is kind of like Tae kwon do, but not really. I have a video on you tube of one of the kids demonstrating. Don't let him fool you, he's a black belt. Unfortunately I didn't get a video of ... read more

My englishi not so good. Yes, ENGLISHEE. That is how native koreans pronounce it just because of hangul. I do notice that the longer I stay here, the poorer my english gets. It's not that I don't get to use it, because many koreans speak english, but the slang I use doesn't make sense to them. I truly realize how much of my english language has a localized flavor that I find really hard to get around. That is why I don't feel like I have the qualifications to teach english like so many other foreigners are here to do. I was approached by a random mother at the museum the other day. I could tell she wanted something because she literally ran after me, but i didn't know what. She asked where I was from, ... read more

May 3rd-5th, Saturday-Monday. Monday being "Children's Day" so we had the day off. Yesterday, May 8th, was Parent's Day (instead of Father's or Mother's Day). In Japan they also have separate boys and girls days instead of just children's day. Well, because of the long weekend, I went to Gyeongju, the old Silla Kingdom capital of South Korea. It is a city marked as an important cultural heritage site, so no new buildings can be built over a certain height (5 stories I think). It is a small city with a lot of visible tombs dotting the landscape both in-between buildings and on the outside of town. It is a little bit of a tourist town, but mostly for other koreans as all the foreigners I saw seemed to be staying at the same hostel I ... read more

yay! new travel log, this is the third one! I'll add more when i feel better and talk about my last trip. I think I'll take it easier this weekend and not travel anywhere extensive so hopefully I will have more time.... read more