A Day in the Life of a Buddhist Monk

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So, the past two days have been a blur and are all one because we didn't sleep in our own beds.
Yeterday (Monday), we got up to rain and it was pouring all morning and into the afternoon. Well, we went to taekwondo, and they gave us the whole white outfit and everything. I figured it was just going to be an introduction to taekwondo, you know, the history, what it means, and some introductory moves. Umm...NO. We came in and joined the school's taekwondo club's practice for the day. They taught us moves, and we did high kicking and then this swivel kick thing, and they gave us pads to put on our shins and wrists and this vest thing with red dots in the middle so people could practice kicking us and us kicking them. Oh geez....the whole time, I was just like...uhhh we just got here...haha.
It was intense. I was definitely sweating after the class. At the end of the class, we broke boards! They were those really thin boards kids can break. They said it hurts more to not break the board than to break it. Well, I broke the board with my hand and front kick, but, being the weakling that I am, during the swivel kick thing, I DIDN'T break the board and I got a red splotch on my foot.

Well, that was only the morning. In the afternoon, we drove about an hour and a half away to a temple for a templestay. We got there, and the English native speaker went to Northwestern! Small world. She came to this particular temple for a templestay, fell in love with it, and now has volunteered there since February. She seemed pretty zen.
Wait till you hear the schedule.
I am all about simple living, but this was a little too simple.

We got there around 5. We walked around their very steep hills for a bit. We went to our room, which was a floor and some shelves on the side. They provided some blankets and pillows, but it did not do much when we were sleeping. Dinner was at 6:30. Men and women sit separately from each other. They eat vegan food. I had soup and rice. At 7pm, there was Sunmudo training. Oh, how to explain this...
Sunmudo is a martial art. This temple is a famous one, and a lot of film crews come here to film them because they are...well, good at what they do. They do what you see in the movies.
So, we came just in time for the night Sunmudo training, which is the active training. Well, isn't it just dandy that we had Taekwondo in the morning to help us with this "active" training. There were consecutive punches and kicks and poses and meditation. For 90 minutes. Then, it was time for bed. They give you this schedule when you get there, and they pound these bells when it's time for everything.

At 4am, a monk went around banging on this wood thing and chanting around the entire temple to wake everyone up. 4:30am was another chanting session, which involves much bowing. Next, we did a sitting meditation, which involved sitting for about half an hour. I am not much for just sitting in a cross-legged position for so long. I need to move my antsy legs. Then, we did a walking meditation. There is a lot of stretching and bowing and moving muscles you never knew you had and stretching yourself silly.
We had a break until breakfast, so we lied down for about 20 minutes and all I had for breakfast was rice. Luckily, I brought one of those yummy breads from Outback, since I knew I probably would not eat a lot there. Not that I ever do here. I've only felt "full" once. After breakfast, we had an hour and a half break before Sunmudo training, so the girls went back to sleep. But, I wanted to go out and explore. When I am gonna be in a temple again, huh?
So, I took my book and climbed up the super steep hills (no joke, they are at more than a 45 degree angle) to a bench and read for a while. Sunmudo training in the morning was pretty much yoga and involved lots and lots of stretching and flexibility (which I don't have much of). Then, the insructor taught us 7 animal pose things they do. They consisted of a bear, tiger, monkey, deer, and some other ones where we contorted into these positions and then lifted our heels.
After that, we bowed ONE HUNDRED AND EIGHT times to the Buddha. I didn't know if I could do it, but I was really proud of myself for doing all of it. After a while, you would think it got harder, but it got easier. When we were putting our shoes on outside afterwards, this guy noticed we were speaking in English and he asked us where we were from, and he didn't have an accent. He said he was from Guam and went to DePaul for a year! Smaller world.
We went to a speech about Buddhism after that since apparently today is the first day of the lunar month and it was a special occasion so for lunch they had watermelon and apples and pears and oranges! Yummmmy!
After lunch, Hae-Yung (the girl who is studing abroad at ISU this upcoming year) and I stayed back while the girls went to pack up to go home, and it is a good thing we did because a monk approached us and started talking to us. He said he went to Emory University last November to speak about Buddhism in Korea. He was carrying a plate of fruit back for his "son," and he said we could see him. I heard something about a monk, but I thoight he meant his son was a monk-in-training. Turns out, he was talking about....
A MONKEY! Awww! Oh my goodness! He took us to his place of residence and showed us his monkey! I don't think I have ever been so close to a monkey before! The monkey was 14 months old, and the monk said he had him for 3 months so far. He said he was going to teach him how to do martial arts and the next time we visit the temple, the monkey could show us some of his moves. 😉 The monkey's name is Ogon ("O" means enlightenment and "gon" means cosmos in Korean..in Polish, it means tail).

We got back from the temple and just slept and showered. After showering, I noticed a huge redish bruise on my knee (like three of your fingers together) from kneeling. I didn't even know that was possible. We got ready to go out and while ironing, I burned my arm. I am really good at just bruising myself silly on this trip.
Tonight, we went to an American grill and bar, which was a buffet-style place where I took helping after helping of mushroom soup and ate some fruit. On the way out of the complex, this little girl saw me and said, "HUH-LOOOW." I said hi back and she just looked at her mom and started giggling. Sooo cute!
That's what some people do here. They see we are obviously not from here, and they'll go "Hi!"

I won't be able to write tomorrow night because I am staying with a host family for the night. Hopefully, I will not be sleeping the a hard floor again. Nothing like that to make you appreciate ANY kind of bed. :o)
Good night!

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