Chuseok Goodies

Some Yummy Chuseok Treats!  (추석)

Student-made and decorated with pine needles!

Yummy honey/sesame seed filling.

Comliments of Shin-hye's mom.

Chuseok is one of Korea's two Thanksgiving Holidays.  (The other one is in conjunction with New Years.)The dates change each year, but it is a two day holiday.  And lucky for me, it results in me having a five-day weekend!  Saturday and Sunday are off, like normal, Monday is off for Chuseok, and Wednesday is off for some other obscure holiday.  Tuesday... well, my school decided to have a school holiday just for fun!  (I think most principals came to the same conclusion and aren't requiring students or teachers to be at school that day.)  Also, my recrutier and his wife invited me to visit his family on an island in Incheon all day Saturday.  I get to experience a real Korean holiday - celebrated by the locals!

Farewell Gifts

A couple days ago, I started telling some of my after school classes that I would be switching schools soon.  The reactions according to gender:

Boys - So can we watch a movie?

Girls - Tears and gifts

I am currently also collecting addresses so I can send the students postcards once I change jobs. 

The Foreigner's Market

This past weekend I made a trip to the foreigner's market in Itaewon (the foreigner-dominated neighborhood of Seoul).  I was waiting on the corner for a friend to get some cash from an ATM, when a white guy approached me with the line, "I know you from somewhere..."  I instantly figured it was just some guy trying to start up conversation and was not in the mood. 

Me: No, I don't think so.

Him:  No, wait.  I do know you.  Americorps.  

Me: What?! 

At that, he took off his sunglasses, and sure enough, I totally knew him!  I had met him during my ten months in Americorps, and now here we are bumping into each other on one of the streets of Seoul, South Korea.  He was one of the team leaders out in California.  I didn't know him well, but the few times we did talk, I got a good impression of him.  I remember he had wanted to pick up and move to teach English in Vietnam after our 10 months of national service was up, but Korea is where he landed instead.  Turns out he's been working at a private academy not far from Seoul for the last two months.  We exchanged phone numbers and hopefully will find time to meet up.

I love when "small world" things like that happen!  Totally made my weekend.  :)

Well... that was one of the things that made my weekend.  Seeing pig nose for sale as street food also made my weekend.  And no, I did not eat it. 

 

 Also, finding Velveeta Shells & Cheese at the foreigner's market made my weekend.  I had literally just been thinking that morning that I was in the mood for them!

 They made for a delicious, but salty dinner.  I forgot how salty processed foods can be!

Finally finding all of the ingredients to make Puppy Chow was the cherry on top for a great weekend!  I made this batch as a good-bye treat for my 5th & 6th grade after school students.  I hope they like it! 



Templestay 7 (The Grand Finale)

Probably my favorite part of the whole weekend was my bus ride back to Seoul.  I shared the experience with the four amigos from San Francisco.  And it was quite a trek!  There was a marathon on the island that weekend, so traffic was a bit heavy.  When our bus finally showed up, it was JAM PACKED.  As in, I was the last person on, and I barely made it!The poor old man behind me, who had just participated in the marathon, didn't make the cut.  He had to wait another hour or so until the next bus came.  As I said, I made it on, but I definitely didn't get a seat.  Ora  spot in the aisle, for that matter.  No, I was standing on the bottom step, just inside the door of hte bus.  My Bay Area friends and I were just hoping that the door wouldn't swing open en route.  Amidst all the bumps and sways of the bus ride (and there were a lot1) we had some pretty awesome conversations.  Sometimes you just really click with, and feel inspired by, people.  This was one of those times for me. 

Finally, about 30 or 45 minutes into our nearly two hour ride, the bus came to a stop to let a handful of people off.  Four people, out of about a hundred.  Ok, maybe not a hundred.  But, then again, maybe...  Anyway, the bus driver was motioning something towards me.  I interpreted it as, "Don't get off - people will try to get on and steal your spot!"  So I buckled down and didn't budge.  He urgently motioned at me, so I stood steadfast.  Right.  And then I realized that I had misinterpreted him.  You see, as he opened the bus door, it accordion-folded onto me.  I was no match for the door.  Bus doors are surprisingly strong!  As it opened, it slid me across the step and smashed me right up against the front windshield.  Brilliant.  It didn't hurt, but I was definitely trapped.  Arms pinned to my side.  I just kind of had to laugh.  There was nothing else I could do.

As I said, only about four people got off, so we still had another 20 minutes or so until the next stop, where enough people got off that we could stand in the aisle.  There we stood until it cleared out enough that we could actually sit down for the last 20 or so minutes of the ride.

Templestay 6

The final event of my templestay experience was to have tea time with the monk.  We drank lotus flower tea and had a large-group Q&A time with him.  I was surprised to learn that Buddhism has a lot more variation than I was originally aware of.  If I understood him correctly, it seems like Northern Buddhism is more strict, to the rules, and mystical.  They strive for enlightenment, where they understand the true nature of the universe, and understand thins beyond logic.  Southern Buddhism, the type that this particular monk practices, is more practical.  Southern Buddhism follow only the original teachings of Buddha, and doesn't have extra rules added in.  They practice mediation as a way to strengthen concentration and alleviate suffering, not as an attempt to have a mystical enlightenment experience.  Apparently, some monks in Japan can even get married!  I was totally unaware of this.  There are female monks, too.  But they practice at their own, separate temples.  Having the genders living alongside each other would be too distracting.

                                                     Some of the Q&A Highlights

He explained about the idea of oneness.  That everything is connected.  That there are no separate entities and that it is extremely difficult to live in the present moment.

Everything is connected:

A table isn't just a table.  It was a tree.  Now it's a table.  Later, it will be dust.

Your body is not your body:

When you eat food, the nutrients from your food becomes part of your body.  When you breathe air, the air becomes part of your body.  When your hair falls out, it is no longer part of your body.  Thus, your body isn't its own entity, completely separate from the world around it.

It is difficult to live in the present moment:

When your mind wanders, you are no longer in the present moment.  You are either thinking about the past or the future.  Even if you are thinking about yourself, you are thinking about the past because you are only what you've done so far. 

I've heard ideas like these before, but I've never been in a position where I could directly question someone who fully views the world through these philosophies.  The question I asked, related to these concepts, was about God.  I was a bit perplexed because I had always thought of Buddhism as a religion.  I was beginning to get the feeling that God played a very minor role in the Buddhism this monk practiced, though.  It seemed more like a lifestyle than a devotion, or inquiry in to the realms of God.  Also, if we are all one... if I am, in essence, also you... if there is no difference between us... then, are we all part of God?  Or is there no God?  I figured he would answer that God is not a separate entity.  That we are all part of a universal force that could be referred to as God.

His actual answer was a bit different, though.  His answer went something like this:  Say you were struck with an arrow in the ribs.  Your friend calls for a doctor, and a doctor comes.  If the doctor just sits there asking you questions about your family history, how it happened, etc., nothing will get done.  You will just waste time and eventually die.  Instead, the doctor should just focus on relieving your suffering and pull out the arrow.  With this being said, the monk concluded that questions about God are not important in his Buddhist practice.  He said it is distracting to think about, and doesn't solve any real problems - it doesn't relieve any suffering.

Definitely not the answer I was expecting.  Especially since I had thought of Buddhism as a religion.  But now I think, at least for this monk's version, Buddhism is more of a moral and mental practice.  A way of thinking and living.  Not an exploration, or journey, towards God.

After our tea and question time was wrapped up, we had a final meal - another delicious vegetarian concoction, and we were off on our way!  I was using a different bus to get home than the group tour, so I waited until they left.  Then, to my surprise, the temple guide and monk offered me a ride to my bus stop, since they were heading that way anyway.  During our short trip together, I discovered that the monk has been in Korea for nine years.  And that he likes trance music.  For some reason, this surprised me.  I guess in my head, I had mistakenly associated monks with the Amish.  being in a car and discussing techno and trance music seemed out of place.  Just one more detail that helped open my mind up to how diverse and dynamic Buddhism and monks actually are.  They're not necessarily the somber, quiet, and serious caricatures I have encountered in popular media's portrayal of Eastern religions.

Templestay 5

Breakfast was fun for me.  We were to eat breakfast in the strict, traditional way of a monk.  This meant that we had to eat EVERYTHING.  Every last bit of rice, seasoning, and oil.  And when we thought we had got everything, the monk poured some tea into one of our bowls.  We used that water (and a raddish) to scrub the bowl clean, and then poured the water into the next bowl to continue the process.  Once all of our bowls were scrubbed clean, we were left with a food-partically, oily tea mixture.  We then drank this dirty tea mixture.  Yep.  We had to.  Not delicious.  Then we silently put our bowls, sppon, chopsticks, and placemats back into their original arrangement.  There was even a certain way to pick up the bowls to avoid making noise.  I was pretty proud of myself for beign able to tie up the cloth the way it had originally been.  We did a test run beforee actually eating our silent meal to make sure we knew the correct order to do things, where to place our chopsticks, and how to tie the fabric.  No joke, there was even a correct place to put your sppon when you weren't using it, and a correct hand to hold your bowl in as you ate.  This was a seriously strict meal.

For a half an hour after breakfast, we performed "community works."  (Didn't realize I was back in Americorps.) Community Works consisted of cleaning up the temple grounds.  Some of the guys go thte "heavy work" - sweeping the footprints out of the dirt with twiggy brooms, while the rest of us looked around for litter - which was astonishingly difficult to find.  The place was already pretty immaculate.

Once everything was spick-and-span, we were supposed to go n a hike up the mountain with the monk.  The rain from a few days prior had made the terrain too dangerous and slippery, though, so we had to settle for a simpler walk through the temple grounds.  I was disappointed, but it was probably for the best.  I'm not sure how much more my legs could have taken after all of the prostrations. 

Templestay 4

After my fitful night of semi-sleep, I was ready for day 2.  My room was right next to the bathrooms, so I was excited to sneak over and beat the morning rush.  Things didn't work out as planned, however.  I had two sets of sliding ricepaper doors, and one set of big, wooden, hinged doors to open.  The sliding doors were no problem.  I unlocked them and slid them open.  The hinged doors weren't so easy. 

I unlocked them and pushed. 

And pushed. 

And pushed. 

But they wouldn't budge.  I could hear other people walking past my door to the restroom, and was totally embarrassed to be rattling my doors, completely trapped inside my small square room.  Eventually, magically, I have no idea how, I got them to open and joined the crowd in the bathroom.  (I'm going to blame at least part of the difficulty on the fact that it was four o'clock in the morning.)

At 4:30am, we met in the chanting hall and were lead in the morning bows as the monks sang their devotions to Buddha.  I guess Korean monks prefer singing over traditional chanting.  The temple tourguide led us through this activity, as with all of the other bowing activities, because our monk had recently undergone leg surgery and couldn't perform the bows easily.

At 5am, we switched halls and did 108 prostrations.  I was still able to feel my quad muscles a full 24 hours after the fact.  108 is a lot of times to get up and down on a mat in a matter of twenty minutes.  The prostrations are meant to be symbolic.  A way to lower yourself and raise up the Buddha.  A way to show your humility, and also, quite honestly, is often used as a form of punishment.  A DVD spouted off the reason for each prostration as we completed them.  There were three types of reasons.  I'd say the first sixty or so went something like, "I prostrate in repentance for (something I did wrong."  Then came, "I prostrate in gratitude for (something I have come to realize or appreciate.)"  Lastly came, "I prostrate to commit myself to (live a better life in one way or another.)"  Doing this exercise was probably the most enlightening thing in terms of understanding Buddhism better.  I was surprised by how connected to nature many of the prostrations were.  And also how compassion-centered they were.  In college I had read a book about Japanese Buddhism, which led me to imagine a much stricter, colder, and suffering-centered idea of Buddhism.  This felt much different from the mindset I had read about.

I had worked up a slight sweat by the end of our prostrations, and was happy to have another twenty minute breathing meditation to settle down.  Given that it was still before 6am, it's probably good that they had us get some exercise in before tyring to meditate.  If we hadn't, I'm sure I would have heard lots of snoring.

And we're down...

Now we're up...

And now we're back down again!

Templestay 3

I have heard it rumored that templestays are weekends of silence and hunger.  That was not the case during my experience.  The dinner they served was vegetarian and delicious!  I think I really lucked out by choosing this temple.

I could have definitely used a little exercise to walk off such a big meal, but it was time to ring the bell.  Each of us got paired up and got to experience ringing the giant Korean bell in the ritualistic way of the monks.  It's quite heavy!  I'm pretty sure that my partner and I didn't ring it as loudly as the other pairs.

The last item on the agenda for the day was to practice Seon Meditation.  Thankfully the monk was realistic and understood that we were beginners.  Our goal  was just to keep our minds still for twenty minutes.  He would make a noise indicating that start and stop time of the twenty minutes, so we didn't have to be distracted trying to keep track of time.  He also understood that it's hard for us newbies to sit completely still for a prolonged amount of time.  He let us fold up part of our mats and sit in a modified lotus pose to make it easier.  Honestly, the twenty minutes went by much faster than expected... except for right at the end when my entire right leg fell asleep.  I wasn't alone in this predicament.  After about ten minutes I heard lots of shuffling about as people re-situated themselves.  I also heard quite a few stomachs digesting the food we had just downed.  Sitting in complete silence after a meal with 40 other individuals is a bit awkward.  He had us sit facing the wall so that we wouldn't be distracted by one another, and instructed us to count our breaths from one to ten, and then to start over.  If we accidentally lost track of our number, or found that we were on number eleven or twelves, we would realize that our mind had wandered and could start back over from one.  We wrapped this activity up around 8pm, or so, and headed to the showers.  It would be an early bedtime, as the next day started at 4am, sharp!

The two dogs at the temple weren't overly friendly. 
But man, did they like to bark in the middle of the night!

I wish I could say that I slept soundly in such a peaceful environment, but that just wasn't the case.  First of all, there was a dog barking loudly from about 1am, to who knows what time.  Second, despite sleeping on the floor at my host family's house for a month, I'm still not accustomed to such arrangements.  And third, the rice pillow felt like a rock under my head.  I woke up a couple of times, and then once more at 3:59am, just in time to sit up before the monk started striking the morning wake up bell.

Templestay Part 2

As soon as I put my bag down and changed into the temple uniform, we got started.  The first activity on the list was to meet with the monk in one of hte halls and have a sort of orientation.  During this time, we practiced the proper way to greet the monk each time we saw him (hands in praying position, and a deep bow), briefly introduced ourselves, and were told that it was to be a mostly silent weekend.  For this reason, we weren't even supposed to wear slippers that could drag on the floor, but instead wear sneakers that would help us remain silent even while walking outside.  Inside the building, you always needed to wear socks.  They even told us the proper way to take off your shoes so you wouldn't get the floor dirty.

Next was the temple tour.  We saw the main Buddha hall (unfortunately, we were too big of a group to practice bowing or meditation in this small space), the monk's place of residence, and the medicine Buddha hall where you can offer up prayers of healing.  They also showed us where the monks perform their musical ceremonies - a small, wall-less structure that has a bell, drum, and fish-shaped musical instrument.  There was one other bell on the property, but it was extremely old and actually Chinese, so it wasn't in use. 

  (The carpenter carved the form of a naked woman holding up the corners of the roof after being scorned by the townswoman he fell in love with.  He wanted to marry her after he finsihed building the temple, but before it was complete she ran off with another man - and all of the carpenters money!  So the story goes at least.  Some people think he forgave her and carved her form so she could be closer to God.  Others view it as a punishment.  She has to bear the weight of the heavy temple roof.)

 The Musical Instruments

  

The last thing they showed us was a tree, which was considered a national treasure.  The legend of the 800 year old tree goes as follows:  At one point, about 600 years ago, the Korean government didn't like Buddhism.  They were trying to put pressure on the religion, and squash it out.  This particular tree produced nuts.  So each year, the government kept demanding that the people gather more and more nuts from a tree.  After a few years, the government's requests became ridiculous, and it was impossible for the tree to produce enough nuts for the people to collect.  Over the years, the monks' and townspeople's stress continued to escalate with the government's demands.  Eventually, one of the monk's despair was too great, and he decided to spend three days praying about the tree.  He didn't pray for the tree to produce the required amount of nuts, however.  Instead, he prayed that the tree would no longer produce nuts.  This way the government could no longer overwork the people by demanding large amounts of nuts.  When the three days or prayer was complete, there was a big storm.  Lightening struck the tree, and from that point on, it no longer produced any nuts.

After the monk explained this mystical story, the temple guide (who was always by the monk's side) awkwardly spoke up.  This wasn't the right tree.  Oops.  The legendary tree was actually located in a different part of the temple grounds.  This tree was just big and old.  (I personally think she should have just let us believe what he said.  We wouldn't have know the difference, and the poor monk wouldn't have been embarrassed.  Who can blame him?  This isn't his normal temple, so he doesn't know the ins and outs of it all that well.)

 

Once the temple tour was finished, we met back in the biggest hall, set out our mats and small tables, and began copying the sutras.  This was pretty cool, and I got to take home the scroll that I made!  They gave us a scroll with Chinese, Korean, and finally English that explained the teaching of the Buddha.  They then gave us a jar of ink, a paint brush, and another long scroll that we traced the symbols and words onto.

Templestay

In an effort to cross of one more adventure from my Korean bucket list, I participated in a templestay this past weekend.  The Buddhist temple I decided to stay at is located on Gwanwado Island, a 3.5 hour commute via public transportation from where I live.  Correction.  In reality, it was more like a 5.5 hour commute via public transportation.  I was a little late.  The plan was to get there around 2, stay the night, and then check out at noon the next day.  Everything was pushed back by about an hour or so, but it didn't matter much. 

I'll say right off the bat that it was a good experience, but not quite what I had been expecting.  What I had heard from friends, and read online, lead me to believe that this would be a somewhat strict, silent, and contemplative introduction into Korean Buddhism and the lifestyle of the monks.  I chose to go to this specific one because there would be a Russian monk present who could speak some English.  That way I would be able to understand more of what was going on, and get more out of the experience.  There were five of us who showed up independently (myself, and four friends from San Francisco), and about 40 foreign English teachers who came via group tour.  They brought a bit of a spring break vibe to the event - not something I had anticipated.  Regardless, it was fun - and as it turned out, I actually knew one of the people from the group tour.  It was nice to see a familiar face.

So, my day started off with me leaving my apartment around 9:30am, hopping on the subway for a little over an hour, and then eventually catching a bus.  (Waiting for the bus to arrive was what delayed my plans so drastically.)  Once I figured out which bus stop to get off at, I had a make-shift map to navigate around town.  The map led me up a hill and through the East Gate of the temple.  Once through the temple wall, I continued to walk all the way up to the very tippy-top of the hill where the temple office was located and found the person I had been in contact with while planning the trip.  

  

The East Temple Gate

The activities hadn't begun yet, so the only repercussion of me showing up late was that my rooming situation had to be adjusted.  Initially, I was supposed to stay with all of the girls in the group tour. We were all to share a large room and sleep on a bunch of mats on the floor - sardine style, which isn't uncommon here.  Given that everyone was already settled in there, I was actually given my own private room.  My delinquency paid off!  ;)

My Sleeping Mat

It's hard to tell, but my room was more or less a small square, with three sets of doors.  It had a electricity, a light, floor heating, a sleeping mat, blanket, and rice pillow.  

Out to Dinner

Here are a few of the pics from our fancy night out!  This restaurant, called O'Hills, is owned by a Korean actor, and is the ritziest restaurant in town.  I'm a bit underdressed for the elegance of the restaurant, but it didn't matter much.  The nutrition director (in charge of school lunches) invited me, Gina, and one of the administrators out for dinner.  The nutrition director, JinJin is a super upbeat, active, happy woman, who wants to learn English better so she can travel more easily in foreign countries.  She invited me over for dinners at her house, and the four of us set up a tentative date to an amusement park in Seoul.  :)

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The reastaurant is buffet-style. 
Famous for its steak and seafood.

 

She caught us mid-laugh.



Gina and I under the chandelier.

Me, JinJin, and the adminstrator (SeongJeon).