a break from the tales of thailand

I'm sorry, dear reader, but I must take a break from Thailand and come back to reality here in Korea for a moment. I apologize in advance for the negative tone this post is bound to assume, but this blog has been so much about my life in Korea, and that hasn't ended yet.

Another payday came and went with no transfer into my account. It was four days late again. The reason I was given was that there was extra paperwork to be done since it was my last pay. This led me to believe that the extra paperwork was due to my severance - makes sense, doesn't it? Well, I have now been informed that I will only be getting my severance in late September or early October, which makes it pretty useless as it's meant to help me get by until I find another job.

I can't wait to say good riddance to all of the bullshit that the Korean education system has dealt me, but I suppose that will have to wait yet another month. That is, of course, if I get the money. They didn't even ask me for my account number in Canada, so how were they planning on paying it to me? I can only assume that they would have deposited it (or tried to) into my Korean account, which, as of tomorrow will be closed.

I have finally received my pay for the after school program that I worked at last semester - the semester that finished six weeks ago. At least I've been told that it's in my account, I'll know for sure tomorrow when I go to close it.

I should have known that I wouldn't get out of here without any more problems, and I suppose I was stupid and naive to think that I would... but this place has become the height of ridicule for me. I really don't want to be mean, but the work ethic here is terrible, nothing gets done on time, people are lazy and stupid, sexist and racist, and discriminatory against foreigners.

I will be relieved and happy to be back in a country where women are respected, where contracts are adhered to (and if they're not, there is recourse), where I am not treated as a lesser being, and where you can usually count on getting what's due, on time. Good riddance Korea. I thought I might be a little sad to see you go, and I thought I might get a little nostalgic, but the Gimhae Office of Education has tainted and destroyed any good feelings I had. Canada, home of my heart, get ready, cause here I come!

the dragonfly days of summer

that's right, dragonfly, not dog. don't think i've mentioned it, but the dragonflies are out in full force. it's pretty incredible to see hundreds of them just floating through the air above you. haven't taken a picture yet because i haven't had my camera with me and they probably wouldn't shoot that well, being as small as they are, but i'll see what i can do.

it's been hotter than hell of late... hovering around 30 C, plus humidity, which brings it to something like 50 C (okay, might be exaggerating a little) which is kind of nice on some level, but i am praising the fact that i have air conditioning in my apartment. i don't know what i'd do without it sometimes. it's one of those really nifty ones that has a remote and all kinds of controls. i'm not sure what most of them are, (the remote is in korean) but as long as it keeps spitting out cold air, i'm ok.

the coolest part is that i can adjust the temperature. if i want to leave it on when i sleep i can leave it on warmer so that i don't wake up in an ice box (not to mention that it can't be good for you to sleep in the freezing cold of the aircon, can it?).

anyway, we're in high summer here, and i've had the afternoons off all week, so have been heading up to the roof to work on my base tan. it's coming along very nicely. got a bit of a burn on my legs yesterday, but they're fine today.

the heat is also good for an excuse to not go to the gym, i mean, i'm melting anyway, right? been getting there as often as possible, but they don't have the luxury of a working aircon (korean for air conditioning) so sometimes it's just too hot to work out for very long.

eleven days to thailand. and 39 days to home. those are some numbers that i can live with! (as opposed the million degree heat).

the beginning of the end

this is the last week of the spring/summer semester for middle schools across korea. lucky me. and i guess lucky kids too, though most of them will spend their summer vacation studying. as we all know, i'll be going to thailand (in less than three weeks now - 18 days if you wanna get right down to it).

monday was my first last day of class. my after school class finally finished. i've been teaching an extra two hours every monday for the last two and half months. it was my favourite class of all though, and was sad to see it end. i had three girls that showed up every week without fail. the rest of the (20 odd) students showed up a maximum of four times each. so i ordered pizza for the girls and got them little prezzies. they got me a necklace and a jewelry box... so sweet. they all have my email and i hope they'll use it, especially Siria, she is an amazing bright teenager.

Grace, me, Siria, and Mia - my after school girls.

today was my second last day of the semester (tomorrow will be the third). this didn't only mean that i only have one class (in august) left with these kids, but that one lucky class was having a pizza party for lunch. at the beginning of the year i devised a plan to try and keep control over my classes... a little reward system that i call "my sticker program". lots of teachers have them.

basically every period a class would start out with five stickers. when it was time to settle down, or if they got out of control i would count down three... two... one... zero. if by the end of the word zero they weren't quiet, they would lose a sticker.

the class at the end of the month with the most stickers would win prizes. these usually consisted of a printed certificate from me, a not-so-shiny canadian penny, a pencil, some candy, and a choco-pie (a kind of chocolate cake with marshmallow that the kids all love). the school didn't pay for any of this, i did. but i figured it was a small price to pay to have them all be quiet when i needed them to be. in some classes it worked extremely well, in others, not so much, but at least they could gauge when they were about to get in trouble!

well, the second part of the program was that whichever class had the MOST stickers at the end of the semester would get a pizza party. i didn't think this part through that well, since it cost me an arm and a leg and they weren't even all that appreciative, but today was the party. class 1-5 were the winners... which was expected since they won two months in a row and got five stickers in just about every class i had with them.

anyway, here are some pics:

mmm...pizza and "no teacher! don't take my picture!!!"

cuties. very quiet and shy...but that can be a good thing!

me and my little friend.

this girl never attends my class since she's handicapped, but she was allowed to come to the party. plus she loves me. she makes me little gifts and gives them to me in the hallway. she's the happiest middle-schooler i've ever met! she spent the whole class giggling about something!

they're a bunch of pretty smart kids and i'm proud of how far they've come in such a short period of time. and yes, when it's time to go home for good, i might get a little teary eyed over some of them, but that's just part of the job, isn't it?

g & t, fire, and newness...

another weekend has passed. i've only got about four left in korea, so making the most of them is pretty important. on friday i went to mr. parks (of a hobo-christmas fame) to hang out with brandy and a bunch of other waegooks... at around 1 am kim and i decided to go shopping at the "trial mart" next door for some shirts. this is one that we both bought:

HAHAAHAHAAHA!!!! you thought it said "poopie", didn't you!?!? i love korean shirts!

on saturday i went out for a nice dinner with kim and scott (who is new in town and knows kim from back home), then we went to the "cockstail" bar near kim's house. i'd never been before, though i have been to the one near my house... this one was much nicer.

it was nice to go out somewhere that you could drink something other than beer. (korean beer doesn't sit well with me, and lots of bars don't have mixed drinks.) it was a nice place too - plush and comfy chairs replaced little stools, dim atmospheric lighting, and the best part, a bar show. yes, the bartenders throwing bottles around.

they started light with just a plain bottle. then they added light sticks to the bottles, then sparklers, and finally full on flames. it was cool. here are some pictures.

pretty cool flames

more cool flames.

this was a guy blowing fire.

these are the addictive deep fried spaghetti and seaweed snacks - provided free of charge!

i stayed out WAY too late, but it was a really good time. lots of good friends and lots of gin and tonic. i can only hope that the rest of my weekends in korea are as good as this one was.

waegooks vs hangooks

i did something this weekend that i can pretty much say i've never done before. i played soccer - or as many of my friends would call it - football. i played in high school, during gym class, but have never (even imagined) playing it for fun!

saturday night a bunch of foreigners were going to play against the gimhae men's league team. i was going to go and watch, but my wonderful friend, kim, convinced me to play. she was playing, she assured me, and there would be other girls too. so i agreed, thinking it would be a fun and different way to get some exercise. i'm hooked.

the pitch. we rented it for three hours. 7-10 PM.

before we started playing one of the guys came up to me and said "do you even know how to play?" my reply was "kick the ball into the other teams goal and don't touch the ball with your hands." i'm still not familiar with the intricate rules of the game (if there are any) but i think i could be good at it with some practice.

we also made some new friends - from busan, and from france. yes, that's right, france. we met a bunch of guys who are in korea on internships with korean air... it was strange for me to speak french with them, what, with my funny accent and all!! but it was nice to speak it for a bit and to realize how bad it's gotten... i'll need a brush up with all of my french friends when i get home!

who's playing first? not me...! later on you couldn't have torn me off the field!

even though you can't see my face i swear that's me on the right! a little down time... (bill and kim on the left)

we lost every game we played, but that's ok... i was just there for fun and the korean team practices together regularly, so they're really in tune with each other.

team photo - photo d'equipe - the waegooks

after we played 16 of us went for dinner together - all sweaty and smelly - i'm sure the koreans at the restaurant appreciated that! but it was yummy and gave us a chance to talk more with our new french friends.

francois, bruno, mathieu, and arnaud... teddy is not in the picture... sorry!

waegooks eatin' bokumbap (spicy fried rice with chicken)

there's a women's team here in gimhae who play together every saturday and you can bet that i'll be there next week, and the week after, and every week that i'm in korea. anyone back home know of any women's leagues around town??? like i said, i'm hooked.

just another...

i worked in a bank for almost five years. not in a branch, but in customer service answering the phones - on the front lines of complaints at that; for three of those years i was a supervisor. when i wasn't on a complaint call, there was other work to be done, but when that was done, all i could do was sit there and wait for the phone to ring. to alleviate the boredom i became addicted to cheesy online games like the ones at popcap. we weren't supposed to play games, but everyone just kind of looked the other way... when you're bored, you're bored... and you have to find anything to make work bearable.

this worked for a long time, but i was sick of my job long before i left it to come to korea. in fact the bank job was one of the reasons i came. i didn't want to just go out and find another mundane, run-of-the-mill kind of job, i was free from university and was looking for adventure... so i moved halfway around the world... and here we are.

the thing is, my job here, though at times crazy and full of excitement, has it's fair share of boredom as well. for instance, winter "vacation" - don't worry i won't get into it again!!! - spring "vacation", exam time, anytime that i don't have classes to teach really. i thought school #2 was different since they gave me time off last week and the week before when there were no classes, but today changed my mind about them.

i found out late in the morning that my afternoon classes were cancelled. i got excited; i imagined myself outside tanning in the glory of the days' sunshine, getting to the gym early, going home, taking a shower, making a nice dinner, relaxing in the evening... i should have left the dreaming for bed time. i was made to stay at school until 4:30 - FIVE HOURS.

five hours of doing nothing inside, at a desk, when i could have been outside fulfilling my day dreams. i just don't get it. i think it's one of those things that will confound me forever. all the other teachers were asking me why i was there, wondering the same thing as me. it's just crap. i can deal with it, but it threw off my whole day and just made me pissed off.

as i've said before, i could understand if i had some kind of work to do, or even a computer that worked properly, but i literally spent half the afternoon with my head on my desk trying to nap. what's the point? i might as well be a "bad" student who is being punished for screwing around in class.

if it was a reason to leave canada, it sure as heck is a reason to leave korea... so really this is just another bullet point on my list of reasons to leave...

the Bonghwang-dong

no, i'm not writing about dirty things... this post is about the area in gimhae known as bonghwang-dong (dong being akin to 'hood). this is a historically significant area that has recently been renovated to increase it's importance. basically gimhae has been home to people since the bronze age and this particular area housed the ruling class of the Geumgwan Gaya period. it is also the site of the first archeological excavation in korea (in 1920).

really it's a nifty little park now. i'd never visited it though it's been in the back of my mind since fall. i pass by it all the time and today i was walking by and decided to finally check it out.

a map of the whole area. i basically walked around the whole thing in about 30 minutes.

at the front entrance (bottom left of the map) there is a big field where kids play and families picnic. to the right of the field there's a little 'lake' (more of a dirty pond...) which is sort of neat because it has a traditional boat sitting in the middle. on the shore there are raised houses in the style that would have been here hundreds of years ago.

see the boat? and the house? there's a walkway that goes out over the water.

here's a better shot of the boat. (it's actually filled with water.)

i veered into the wooded area to walk around the whole area. when i got to the top i found the Hwangse Rock. i'm lucky the area was renovated in the last few years because that meant signs in korean, english, and japanese, so i could actually learn about the area.

the hwangse rock.

the rock is significant because the son of the prime minister of the Garak period hung out here with his girlfriend, before he knew she was a chick. they played the "urinating game" (whatever that is) here, of course, she couldn't pee standing up and had to trick him using a peice of bamboo. i know, it sounds really weird. here's what the actual sign says:

Hwangse was the prime minister Hwang’s son at the time when the King Gyeomji (Suk King), the ninth king of Garak, governed the country. The prime minister Hwang and Chul were friends and made the promise that if they had a son each, they would be sworn brothers and if they had a son and a daughter respectively, they would be married. The prime minister Chul told Hwang the lie that Yeoeui was a man when the Hwang’s family was ruined.
Hwangse and Yeoeui was brought up together. One day Hwangse suggested the urinating game to Yeoeui. Yeoeui evaded the crisis by using hemp stalk. This game happened at the place call the Hwangse Rock now.
Yeoeui became feminine as she was growing up. Hwangse doubted her sexual identity so he suggested her that they went to the Geobuknae for a bath. Yeoeui was at a loss for the suggestion and confessed the fact that she was a woman. Finally they made a promise to be married.
Afterward, Hwangse got married to the princess Yumin according to the order of the King in compensation for winning the war with Shilla. Yeoeui missed the general Hwangse and was dead. Hwangse also missed Yeoeui, became sick and died at the year when Yeoeui was dead. And the sad legend that the princess Yumin left home to the mountain Yumin and became a Buddhist nun has been handed down.

uh, ya, ok. sorry for making you read that... but it's kind of funny isn't it? (on a side note i wonder about the translations of historic sites in canada and if they sound as bad in other languages as the korean ones do in english...)

the bonghwang-dong is also home to the Yeoeuigak. a shrine to Yeoeui.

up the stairs to the shrine.

and a little further there is another area with raised houses and other traditional buildings.

raised houses and semi-underground buildings were typical in the Gaya period.

this was a neat little area. you can't get in any of the buildings, but they're neat to look at. i'm going to put up some more pictures on my flickr account if you're interested. that's pretty much the bonghwang-dong. it was a nice walk on a beautiful day with a little history lesson to boot!

picture posting insanity...

and another walk...

as promised... since the weather was beautiful today i took pics on my lunchtime walk. i won't narrate like i did the other day but rather just let you imagine. the walk today took me about an hour - so i'm only posting a tenth of the pics that i took - 110 in all... enjoy!

the front entrance of school #2.
the wall blocking in the school and the pedestrian path next to it.
the "big" street i have to cross on my walk... i go up the little alley across the street.
another pedestrian street. the funny looking wall is a "kindergarten" or as we call it, daycare.
a pretty park.
a typical korean house. (though most koreans live in apartments... and this house is probably divided.)
a funky front gate.
one of the roads i walk down. the mountain is to the left.
a neighbourhood garden... i'm sure in a month this will be full of veggies!
koreans LOVE recycling and will go through the garbage to pick stuff out... i was surprised when this man looked at me and thought he might get angry that i was taking his picture, but he didn't.
the depanneur!
what's wrong with this picture?

couldn't resist. these kids must have done something really bad to have to spend the entire lunch hour standing with their arms in the air! the girl on the floor is writing lines... god i HATED doing that in high school!!!!

well, there's another little glimpse into my life here... i'm off to facebook now!

let's take a walk

so i've told you before that i've started going for a walk on my lunch break. today i (finally) remembered my camera so we can take a walk together!

this is the wall below the playground when you leave my school. the kids aren't allowed to leave school grounds, but when a ball goes over the fence one of them has to run down here. there are always trucks parked here - i assume their drivers are eating lunch at one of the restaurants across the street. we turn left at the end of the wall.
these are the bottom steps of the climb up to gimhae college. you'll get a better view of that soon.
this is the school (fourth floor) from up the steps. i caught a kid climbing on the fence here last week... looked like he was going to jump the four storeys down to the field. but i made him go back to school...
when we get to the top we turn right towards the college. it amazes me that they have any students! with a hike up like this... the nearest bus stop is still an eight minute walk from school... all uphill... where the two roads join, if you look to the right:
there is this really nifty area with rocks. there's a river down there, i can't wait to see it in the rainy season! right now there isn't much more than a trickle. these formations are all over the place. i guess to keep the water in check and not flood everyone's houses... even though basements don't exist here.
a little further up above the rocks, we have some pretty trees. the leaves are still all growing, this place will be gorgeous in a week or two.nah, don't go up there, it's just another building... keep going to the right and we can see some nature!
walk down this path for a bit, but don't go too far... it's a dead end. but there are some pretty flowers. and though you can still hear the screaming kids (even this far away...voices carry in a valley...) it's rather peaceful. at the end of the path, turn back and we'll come upon another of those rocky areas...
kind of pretty isn't it? the water is really dirty... and i sometimes wonder if isn't sewage... at least it doesn't smell bad.
this is the lower part of the rocky area - across the water... you can walk across a strip of cement and climb up the rocks. keep going and turn back onto the road.
just before we hit the first rocky area, we turn left down this path. looks like a path to nowhere again, doesn't it?
well, it isn't. it leads to some stone steps that take us down here. walk along the path to the end and turn right.
then it's down the stairs (hard on the knees - they're pretty steep) and back to school!
and when we get there we have our regular welcoming party "teacher! teacher! hello!!" these girls meet me everyday and we chat for a bit.
they always cover their faces... it's supposed to be so that their faces look smaller... ya... ok... anyway, they're sweet if a bit loud... they try.

hope you liked the walk. it takes me about twenty minutes... probably just about how long it took you! see you next time! on thursday i'll post the walk i take at school two... there's less nature, but a very interesting neighbourhood.

rain, rain, go away...

when i woke this morning i knew it was stormy. the sunlight usually streams in and wakes me up - sometimes a full hour before i have get up... grr.. but today i only woke up four minutes before my alarm, which is set for the latest possible time that i can get up without being late for work.

before leaving i looked out the window. sure enough, it was overcast, but it wasn't really raining. i grabbed my umbrella and headed out. i started thinking how great it was that i have these fancy hiking shoes made with gortex *guaranteed to keep you dry - or so they say. i figured this was the best way to see if it's true... a fifteen minute power walk in the rain. as i was walking the rain started getting heavier until finally there were just massive drops of it. i couldn't believe the size, i've never seen anything like it before. is this a glimpse of what is to come in the "rainy season"?

anyway, there was thunder and lightning and the whole deal along with the fat raindrops... but with my awesome shoes and umbrella i managed to stay relatively dry. the only part of me soaked when i got to school were the bottom half of my jeans. fun. my feet were toasty and dry though... so i guess gortex works!

the clouds cleared away by lunchtime (yay!!!) and i was able to go for my daily walk, which was great... but again, i'm kicking myself for the camera... figured it would rain all day so i didn't bring it again :( oh well... i promise some pictures soon!

just a matter of time...

today was a pretty good day. it was sunny on my walk to work, and i remembered why i always tell myself to bring my camera everywhere and then promptly kicked myself for leaving it at home!!! oh well.

third period was the national english listening test for the grade two's. so i was free... but i wasn't really. i teach five classes a day at school 3, my co-teacher agreed that it's a lot and we came up with a solution. (sorry if i've written about this before) one period in the day i have "off". what this means is that i visit a class that i don't normally teach, just to say hi and meet them. this is great for me because it's only about 20 minutes - and then i'm free - it's also great for the kids, because they all feel cheated that i'm not their teacher. i feel like a rock star again! (when i first arrived i was bombarded with "i love you" fifty thousand times a day, a round of applause and cheers every time i entered a class, and kids who were just crazy (like in the beatles videos) to meet me. it feels good.

anyway, today third period i got to go to a grade three girls class where i actually knew one of the students from my winter camp. it was really nice... we just chatted and i told them the "i'm fine thank you and you story" (might get around to posting it if i remember. it was nice. then i had over two hours to kill before my next class. so i went to the doctors down the street and had my stitches removed - i know it's a bit early, but it's healing really well and they were really starting to bother me... it went well, even the one that was embedded in my skin... it only bled a little.

at lunch i went for a 30 minute power walk and discovered that i can be on the mountain in just a few minutes... that's tomorrow or next week... see? bring your camera everywhere!!! anyway, i'll take some pics of my typical lunch time walk soon and post them for you. the afternoon went smoothly and i got to leave half an hour early! went to the gym to discover i have lost another three pounds!!! for a total of 11.3 lbs... YAY ME!

so, i guess it's been a good day... things are looking up after weeks of 'badness' the sun is shining again... i knew it was only a matter of time... this weekend is chris's going home party in ulsan, so i'll have some pics of that next week... sad to see him go... but change is just a part of life.

the trip you don't want to make...

one of my stitches has been consumed by my skin... that might be a problem when they take it out. stupid doctor.

i guess i still haven't actually written about the hospital... according to one of my students korean hospitals are either "really good" or "really bad". i guess i ended up in one of the latter. oh well, lesson learned, right? but really, when it's a emergency do you have choice?

the hospital was kind of dark inside when we got there. it wasn't even 7 PM so i'm not sure why it was so dark... the lights may have been turned off or simply insufficient, i'm not sure. i walked up to the counter and there was a young man. he didn't speak any english, so it's a good thing i had the korean man with me... even though he didn't speak english either. at least they could communicate together and the korean man knew what was wrong with me, so he explained. they wanted my passport, which i didn't think to bring, but he was relieved when i handed him my health card. (which isn't really a card, but a peice of paper).

they brought me around a corner, down a short hallway, and through some doors into the "emergency" area. a couple of nurses were standing behind a counter. i showed them my hand and made a stabbing gesture. one of them came from behind the counter and pulled me toward a gurny. "sit down" at least there was some english. the gurny was covered in that brown fake leather that so many couches are upholstered with. no sheet. no giant roll of paper. nothing. just the brown fake leather that has probably seen thousands of other patients. ew.

i sat holding my hand and looking at the floor. it had spots and splotches of dried blood all over the area that i was in. ew. i couldn't beleive it. but i knew at that moment that i wasn't "in kansas" anymore... and that i had to watch carefully to make sure the proper hygenic precautions would be taken with me. the nurse came over and took my blood pressure, making sure to ask me "mensa?" what has my period got to do with anything? but she wanted to know when i had last had it. i told her.

a couple of minutes later a man came over to me, i'm not sure if he was a doctor, nurse or orderly, but he grabbed my hand, opened the wound (which by this point had stopped bleeding) and walked away. a nurse came over and started putting all kinds of things on various trays. she looked at me and told me to lie down. i started to, but she pointed at my feet and said "shoes". (what IS it with the shoes???) so i took them off and laid back but still watched her to make sure the utensils, needles, etc... were coming out of sterile packs. they were. thank god!

a few minutes later another man - the doctor i assume since he stitched me up - came over. he didn't even look at me, let alone say anything to me. he grabbed my hand. i looked away. the next thing i knew i was experiencing more pain than i had when i stabbed myself. he was anesthetizing my hand to give me the stitches, but it felt (again, i wasn't looking - not good with stuff like that) like he had jabbed the needle straight into the wound. it must have sounded like every emergency room horror story, because i was screaming like freddy kruger was after me. i've heard people scream in situations like that, but never imagined i'd be one of them. it hurt. a lot. anyway, finally, or thankfully, my hand went numb, and he started stitching me up. he didn't ask first if it was frozen, just started stitching. i guess he didn't care either way, or maybe he knew.

i could feel the stitches going in because they were pulling on my hand. it kept moving involuntarily and the doctor was getting visibly aggravated by it, but still said nothing. a few minutes later it was over and he just walked away, never speaking a single word, or looking me in the face. way to make a foreigner feel better in a bad situation. the nurse told me to make sure and not get it wet for TWO weeks. "what?" i said. i didn't beleive her and i know it's total crap, but i made sure there wasn't a communication problem and counted out fourteen days on my fingers. she nodded. what a load of bull. then i was alone on the fake leather gurney.

no one told me to stay or what to do, so i got up to look for the korean who drove me. i couldn't find him. i didn't know what to do. was i supposed to pay? there was a sign that said "cashier" but no one had given me a bill. i wandered around the reception for a bit wondering what i should do. the nurse came up to me and gave me some papers, one of which was the bill, the other a prescription for i-didn't-know-what. (painkillers) i paid the bill without hassle, and looked around again for the korean who drove me. i didn't think it was possible that he would just leave without me, but his car was gone.

i walked out the back door and into the pharmacy across the street. the korean man found me there... he hadn't left after all. i filled the prescription, picked up some gauze, and then the korena man drove me home. i finally ate my dinner - it was half cooked when everything started - and the rest as they say...

the thing that bothered me the most was not the blood on the floor, or the pain of the needle, but that the doctor didn't even look at me. fine, if you don't speak english, but everyone (in my experience) can at least say hello. every other doctor i've seen since in korea has had some grasp of english... you'd think that a person in medicine would have picked up a little somewhere... so i can't imagine that he didn't look at me because he was shy of his english, so then what was it? bad bedside manner? a hate-on for foreigners? i don't know... either way, it made the experience a lot worse than it had to be... now i have the fun task of finding a way to get the bloody things out of me! and with one of them grown over, that is sure to be another exciting tale.

Easter Sunday at a Buddhist Temple

well, darn it if i didn't go to church this easter! they may not have been celebrating easter but it was holy ground nonetheless! i was supposed to hike up the mountain with kiwi Dave (these are the dave's i know, i know, these are the dave's i know ;) ...) but i just wasn't up to the task. we were already up there when i realized i wouldn't make it to the top, so we went to Dongrim Temple instead. there are actually three or four temples on Sineo Mountain (the one next to my house that i'm always going up). i went to dongrim once before but my batteries died when i got there so i didn't actually look around, but i had the opportunity to get a good look yesterday.

125 steps to the landing, another thirty or so after that... gotta work to get to the temple!

me and the giant bell. they have these at all temples.

detail at the top of the bell. isn't the painting gorgeous?

the giant Buddha at dongrimsa. (sa is korean for temple)

part of a chandelier that i found in the back of the main building at dongrim - i guess they got new ones!

one of many "little" buddha's. (well, they were about my height...)

at dongrim we could hear chanting coming from the forest so we followed the sound. what we came upon was a sort of rest area with parking and a map of the mountain. there was a guy offering help and suggested we go to the next temple up - Eunhasa - which is where i thought we had just been... so we headed further up the mountain. there were tons of koreans out in their hiking garb - which is hilarious because half of them just drive up then walk a half a kilometer on the road... this is hiking in korea!!!

anyway it only took about five minutes to get to Eunhasa. i found out that it's one of, if not the, oldest temple in the area, hailing from the time of king suro. the chanting that we heard was coming from there. they had loud speakers set in the trees broadcasting the ceremony that was going on indoors. we didn't go in as we were unsure of the procedure or etiquette of it all, but the chanting was quite beautiful.

the steps up to eunhasa.

offerings left at the temple.

the bell (in the background) at eunhasa.

some of the "hiking" koreans at eunhasa - they were posing for their friends, so i took advantage...

i took 130 photos yesterday... i could've taken more, but dave was giving me funny looks the whole time! (thanks dave!) he doesn't even OWN a camera!!! some people just don't understand... see the name of my blog? anyway... it was a nice day - a three hour hike/walk in the mountain and seeing another bit of korea... i only have four and half months to get it all in.

stay tuned for the story of my trip to the hospital last week for stitches... like i said, not a trip that anyone wants to make. the hand, btw, is healing nicely, i think it is anyway... i can type a lot easier now... but it still looks a little gross. wanna see? WARNING: the following pictures might be kind of gross for some of you! (but i know you'll look anyway!)
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the day after it happened.

today - the swelling has gone down considerably.

ciao!