Thusday, June 27

I was too tired to do this last night, so I'll try to remember what happened yesterday!

Thursday, David had a break.  Two of his friends (Tori--a teacher from Scotland who has been here longer than David, and
Puran--Leon's Korean wife who calls me mommy) entertained me for the day.

Tori and I started out with breakfast at Paris Baguette--a bakery place with all sorts of foods that were recognizable!  We spent some time talking about her work--she has a different job than David--she works at a university teaching students who want to become teachers.  She mentioned the pressure that Korean high school students have to do well at school so that they can get into the best universities, the high suicide rate among teens here in Korea, breakdown in family life.  It's interesting--Korea has adopted much of the Western life-style in a very short time, but has not yet learned how to cope with problems that may come with that.  She mentioned that there are a lot of orphanages here in Korea.  Koreans on the whole don't know how to deal with disabilities, and so if their child is born less than perfect, they are counselled often to put the child in an institution.  Adoption is almost unheard of here.  She thinks that this attitude is starting to change sometime.  She was teaching a Society and Change class, and asked her students what they would like in their future.  One student said he would like to have 2 children and then adopt some.  She had never heard a student say that before.

She also mentioned (and I have heard this from so many of David's friends) that David is extremely generous. He organized a Murder Mystery night last month, and all proceeds went to an orphanage.  Each Christmas he goes out with his guitar to an orphanage and plays and sings for the kids and distributes presents.  Charity is not nearly as common in Korea as it is in Canada.

After breakfast we went to the mountains to a Buddhist monastery.  Korea is about 50% Buddhist and 50% Christian.   This  monastery is probably a tourist destination, but monks also live here, and people are encouraged to come for Buddhist retreats.  It is a beautiful area--very green and lush--lots of forest--a very quiet place.

This is the gate to get into the monastery:

 These are Buddhist warriors--they are HUGE!!!

 To the right here is the largest temple in Korea.  Tori said it was quite beautiful inside--but we couldn't get in because it was being renovated--both inside and outside.

 I had wanted to go into this temple.  The doors were open, and I had taken my shoes off (custom), but there was a monk there chanting and kneeling.  It was interesting watching him--it was almost like some sort of choreography-while he was chanting he would ring a bell or play some sort of wood percussion instrument, and kneel, bow or stand up.  We left, and 10 minutes later when we came back, he was still at it.

This is another temple. The ceiling is covered with lanterns and there are requests for prayers hanging down from them.  Lots of icons around.  The ones in the middle are gold Buddhas.

There were a couple of  flower arrangements left there--gifts for the Buddha.

Another Buddhist altar.













After going to the monastery, we met up with Puran.  She took us to a Korean restaurant for lunch.  This was a lovely place.  The table was low to the floor, so we sat on mats on the floor--after removing our shoes at the door.  Tori and Puran were given towels to cover their legs--one was wearing shorts, and the other a dress.  I was wearing pants, so I was OK!  They were quite concerned that I get a lunch that would not be too spicy for me--since I am not accustomed to Korean food.  So after discussions with the waiter, they made a choice for me:

 This is Bibimbab--a bowl of lots of colourful veggies and sprouts on a bed of rice, with some hot sauce in the middle.  The girls made sure that there wasn't too much hot sauce for me!  There were also lots of sides (in a Korean restaurant the sides come free)--cucumber soup, egg, spinach, lotus root, sweet potato, pickled raddish, pumpkin soup, and others.  The meal was really quite good!

There was a lovely courtyard with beautiful flowers and plants there.

Afterward we went to an area not too far from the restaurant.  It is like a conservation area--large forest area around a lake or a reservoir.  There are walking trails throughout the area.  Even though in places you can see the tall buildings of the city, you can get the feeling that you are miles out in the country.  The air is much cleaner and fresher here as well.  Luran was saying that when Leon had his cancer, they often came here to spend a half day--much more restful and relaxing than in the busy city.

These are pear (or peach) trees.   Each fruit is covered with little  yellow paper bags so that the birds don't get at them.

Other crops being grown here in the middle of the city.

 A familiar sight--a board walk through the marsh.  Classes come here on trips to study plant and water life here.

  When we were done with the conservation area, we went to a huge market--it covered several city blocks.  Part of it was indoor, and part open air.  They sold all kinds of things there--kitchen tools, furniture, small appliances, fruits and veggies.  And lots and lots of dried fish and other dried seafood.  Some of it looked pretty disgusting!  And the  people sitting by the stands were kept busy trying to keep the flies off the food.

You probably can't see this very well, but the box at the front on the left is dried seaweed--very popular here--and very healthy.  Women eat seaweed soup after giving birth--it is supposed to restore your figure more quickly.  And you have to eat seaweed on your birthday--it gives good luck for the coming year.

This is a very old gingko biloba tree--so old that it is protected.  I have a gingko biloba tree in my backyard too, but it's not so famous yet!

This is the Martyrs' Cathedral.  In the late 1800s, Korea was overrun by the Japanese who killed many of the Catholics that were a part of the Mission here.  This cathedral was built as a memorial to that event.










So that was my Thursday.  When I got home, I spent time reading Jane Eyre on my Kobo--I started it on the plane down here.  It was one of the books on my Kobo.  I hadn't read it since high school.  Quite an interesting story.  So David downloaded the movie for me, so I watched the movie rather than blog.  It's good to have some down time.  I feel quite overwhelmed sometimes with everything that I am seeing and hearing here.  I still have to pinch myself at times to see if I am really here--and that it is not just a dream!