Cultural Excursion

WOW. We just got back from our cultural excursion that fell in between our two camps. The last four days have been amazing!

First, we take a bus Muan, one of the other camps. We get rooms at their dorm, and let me tell you, it was like going to a five star resort compared to our dorm. The furniture was more modern, they have AIR CONDITIONING, they have a BALCONY with these great sliding glass doors, and they have a private bathroom in the room, with a shower. Heaven.

From there, we took the bus to nearby Mokpo, a city on the ocean. There, we attended the Mokpo Maritime Cultural Festival. We had reserved seating, which put us up close to the performances. We saw some traditional dance, drumming, fire spinning, etc. Then...pop music! First was a Korean rapper, who was quite good. Then on comes a Korean pop band. They were dressed ironically as super dorky guys with suspenders and bow ties, all in red and white. They played a fun ska-punk-pop mixture. Korean pop is fun because usually the verses are in Korean, but the chorus is usually in English or at least a mix of Korean and English, so we can sing along to them. But maybe the most entertaining part of that part of the night was watching how competitive Koreans are with their seats. If you even so much as looked like you were going to get out of your seat, they would pop their kid down to save the seat then climb over people to get the seat!! It was crazy. Also, we had surprise fireworks - they were speaking in Korean, so maybe they said something like "Now for the fireworks!" But they came as a complete surprise to us and I almost had a heart attack :-)

The next day, after a nice sleep in the luxury dorm rooms, we set off for a beach in Haenam. The beach experience wasn't quite what we were expecting. First, we watched a presentation of what was planned for this beach area (a nude beach, and a robot park!), and found out that the beach was man-made. Perhaps man-made means some shipped in sand and a lot of mud. So the water was muddy, and walking along the beach it squished between your toes. Also, it was a cloudy overcast day, which was a bummer. But they had all these white tents set up, that maybe you paid for. We had a few tents for our group. So we did a little swimming, had some lunch, and just relaxed. They had some fun water sports, like the banana. I rode the Fly Fish, a big clamshell-looking inflated piece, that sailed in the air behind a boat. That was a lot of fun!

Next, we drove to Jindo for dinner and show. Dinner was at this amazing restaurant where we got to eat in the traditional style, sitting on the floor at low tables. The food was great, and so was the experience! Then we went to the Korean Summer Music and Dance Festival, where we watched several performances in an auditorium. It was held in the National Center for Korean Namdo Arts, which was maybe the most architecturally amazing building I have ever seen! You can see an online picute here (http://www.namdo.go.kr/eng/sub05/01.html) but it really doesn't do it justice. Besides the facility, the performances were truly amazing too. The first was a Fan Dance and other dances, then a percussion performance and other musical performances. It was a very enjoyable evening.

The next day was what I was really looking forward to - our temple stay. We went to the Daeyeung temple in Haeman. Now, the communication to us on what a temple stay actually entailed was about zilch - about the same as communication about all of our activities. So, we didn't really know what to expect. First, our tour buses drove up the winding, steep hills up to the temple site. What I noticed right off was that there was a lot of people there! People all over, camping and walking around. We got off the bus and walked to our accommodations. The guys went to a separate location, and we went to a courtyard type of place. Half of the girls got smaller, 3-6 person rooms. The other half, including me, were in one big room.

For the rest of the afternoon, we wandered around and relaxed. Another thing I didn't expect, aside from it being so crowded, was that there were shops selling souvenirs and food and sodas and ice cream - all the comforts of home! Also, our meals weren't gruel or porridge - we had bi bim bop, which is rice and vegetables mixed together. Not to bad. After an afternoon of shopping, snacking and chilling, we had a "tea ceremony". This actually consisted of our monk talking to us about the philosophy of Buddhism, and drinking a small cup of tea :-) That was fine with me though.

After that, we really got down to business. We changed into our temple clothing, an orange vest and orange pants (see my photos). {Side note: next was dinner, and as it was the same as lunch, I wasn't in a big hurry to get there. Me and four or five other girls were hanging back, when the monk from the "tea ceremony" invited us in to a small room for a calligraphy demonstration - except with the language barrier we weren't sure what was going on. Katherine translated for us, and she's not the best translator :-) Anyway, we finally understood that he would paint on a blank folding fan. Then a game of Kai Bai Bo (rock paper scissors) ensued...and I ended up winning. So the monk drew my name in calligraphy on the fan!} Anyway, after changing and eating dinner, the ceremony started. A monk started drumming on a huuuuge drum. After a few minutes, another monk took over, and this happened a few times. Then the monks walked into the main temple, and we followed them in. The monks sung the prayers in a beautiful chanting. We had the words in Romanized Korean to follow along with, but it was really difficult. Next came the 108 bows, which was optional but I of course did. For this, we went from a standing position to a kneeling head on the floor position 108 times. We didn't know how to do this at first, but after watching others, we got the hang of it. The bowing was coordinated with drumming, so eventually I could do the bow without looking around. And we did this...108 times! It was pretty strenuous, and I sweat quite a bit. And today, the tops of my thighs are reallllllly feeling it! The whole time I was focusing on how happy I was to be in that place, and all of the blessings in my life. Just reapeating "thank you" each time with a smile on my face put me in a wonderful state.

After that, we took a rest, then went to a large space to practice meditation. This was the first time I had really tried meditating, and honestly I need a lot more practice :-) The monk (the same one as before) gave us instructions and said we would practice for half an hour, but it didn't feel like that long. Basically we sat in lotus position (I could get into half lotus) and sat still for 30 minutes. Near the end, my legs were so sore I had to let them relax out of the position. Also, it was difficult because there was a guy taking pictures of us the entire time. I think they're putting a magazine together for us or something. But it was nice to try this time. After that we went to sleep because...

The next day we were awoken at 3 am for walking meditation! We were awoken with the same drum used in the 108 bows. The same ceremony was performed with the drumming and the chanting, at 3:30 am. Then our monk took us on a walk around the grounds. First he pointed out some of the features of the temple, like where the great dead monks were buried, and the main banner explaining the purpose of the temple. Then the monk explained how to do walking meditation and led us through the path in the dark to practice! It was reallly amazing, I hung back to the very edge of the pack. It was so peaceful, with the wind blowing through the trees, the water pouring down the stream, and water trickling gently along the path. The sky was beginning to get light as we got back, and most of us fell back asleep.

To be continued...