As the ol’ saying goes, “another day, another temple”. Geumsansa [Gum-sahn-sah], one of the larger and more known temples in the Jeollabukdo Province, is about 45 kilometers east of Buan (I know this means nothing to those not in Korea. One of these days I will add a map). In other words, it’s a doable biking distance.

This was a welcoming sign, 6km from the temple. I like the cruiser handlebars and the massive chain ring.

This was also a welcoming sign. At this point, I had cakes of salt all over my face.

The Triple decker Mireukjeon, originally built in 766 AD, held a large Buddha. It was destroyed in 1598, then later restored in 1635. I would have liked to have seen the three story Buddha.

Above is the ceiling of Nahanjeon hall.  As Mallory stated in another post, building interiors are often vivid and intricate. It’s not what I think of peaceful monk meditation…drug induced meditation perhaps. Casino carpets and kaleidoscopes come to mind.

The Great Hall (Daejeokgwangjeon), once three separate halls, was later made into one after the destruction of the halls in 1597. It really was great.

Happy Lanterns!

This one was last painted in 1993. I see a T-shirt design here.

I thought this was a nice design touch on the drainage port.

The sun went down right after I left the Temple. Riding the bike home wasn’t really an option. Luckly, I saw a bus to Kimje (city next to my home town) at the temple entrance. I gestured to the bus driver that I wanted to bring on the bike. As you can see, he was cool with it.

The Temple Tour went into OT today.  Gaeamsa [Gay-ahm-sa] was the one temple, located less than 20 kilometers southeast of Buan.

I removed the month of dust off the seat, pumped the tires to 35psi, and took off for Gaeamsa.

It wasn’t a beautiful day. It was overcast and the air was damp. (Yep, I could have been in Oregon today.) I almost reached the temple when freezing rain started to fall. But, I looked up at the sky and yelled a few words. It took about an hour, but the sky eventually heard, understood my English, and stopped it’s nastiness.

It was me and three other visitors upon arrival. Five minutes later they left and it was just me. (okay, there was a dog barking, but he tired out quickly.) Peaceful.

I’ve never really given a lot of attention to the painted patterns on the temples. Today, I did. Today, I was alone. Today I saw the motifs on the exterior walls and the patterns of greens, reds, and blues covering the underside of the eaves. Amazing.

I stopped at the gift shop. I left with a 20 dollar box of incense. I don’t know what happened, but  20 dollars of incense didn’t seem unreasonable. It smelled so good! In the shop, the cashier lady saw me looking at some bamboo salts. We tried to communicate. The only Korean I understood was “Here, eat this.”  I tried some salt with her. The single crystal was potent. Sucking on it brought out a sulfur taste. I must of not shown any sort of disgust because she gave me a small packet of salt to take. “Service!”. OK!!

It’s the Lunar New Years, a big holiday for many in Korea. It’s a time when families get together,  elders give advice and money to the younger gens, and guys go out drinking with their hometown friends. With our families a few thousand miles away, I and fellow Buanite teacher-friend, Linda visited some Buddhist temples instead. We decided on Naejangsan, about a twenty minute intercity bus ride south of Buan.

It was a byooteefull day. The sky dumped several inches of snow the night before. The temp was somewhere around freezing which is just where i like it for these hiking activities.  The sunlight pierced through some high clouds while at the same time a few lower clouds were spitting out some flurries. It was cool.

We planned on doing a Triple Temple Tour but we only managed to pull off a Two Temple Tour. Which…was perfectly fine with me because, of course, ‘Two’ still begins with a ‘T’ ^^. Our detour happened just after hitting up Temple Two. We saw a sign pointing up a mountain side and the innate human desire to summit was too much to resist.

The switchbacks on this trail were rare. The trail went straight up the mountain side. There were many steps, stairs, and more steps, and an occasional knotted rope to make it humanly possible.

I’m discovering that its really not the temples I like so much, its what surrounds the temples. The temples are located in beautiful areas, at the confluence of valleys, perched under the protections of staggered stones, or resting along mountain sides. Nature surrounds.  I don’t know anything about the Buddhist faith and maybe these statements I’m making are obvious, but these places are escapes and i imagine, real escapes a 1000 years ago.

I believe the hardest thing about this Korean language learning, besides having to learn a completely new alphabet and set of sounds, is that the language is so concise and so indirect at the same time. Am I talking about AN apple or THE apple? …okay fine, an article is not necessary. I can indicate that a noun is plural, but i don’t have to. If I choose not to it’s both plural and singular at the same time. And sure, if I wanted to add a subject, or an adjective to make a sentence I could, but why? I just need a verb to not only make commands but also make statements and questions.

Elementary Korean, King and Yeon - I’m still stuck on Chapter 7 of this book. It’s been this way for the past month.  I hit a major wall.  I sort of crawled over and saw some of Chapter 8 but the vines of the previous 6 chapters dragged me back. I shouldn’t be surprised. The intro of this book warned that this could happen. The concepts of Chapter 7 or of any other chapter are not difficult to grasp. It’s just that this introduces verbs, like 60 of them, and then piles up all the vocab and grammar from the preceding six chapters. I’m determined to make it over.

One annoying morsel about this book: While this is the most helpful book in my language learning, its also the one that has the most errors….by far!  The answer key, in particular, is horrendous. Sometimes it omits answers, but not on purpose as some books do. In sets of questions, instead of giving the answers, it just gives the questions again. Many times, at least in the last three chapters, the answers don’t match the questions. This certainly doesn’t give me confidence, especially since this book claims to have had many revisions.

Mal should be somewhere over the Pacific by now.

Mal and I started the day in search of a bike lock. Instead, we found exercise equipment along the Jeonju River, a Hanok village, a Ginkgo tree, and some Misirang Imsil Jeejuh Pijuh (Cheese Pizza).

Buses
Lacey curtains and surly drivers that can be surprisingly helpful - get on first and watch the locals avoid sitting next to you. Watch out for the heaters!

Cars
In the way, especially the idiots who think it’s impressive to drive SUV’s around Seoul…guess what? It’s really f’in not!

Scooters
Everywhere - scary!!!

Subway
Great fun, once you get the flow of it. The current is fast and sometimes confusing, but it always takes you where you want to go.

Bikes
Interesting to see old people dressed in blazers, no helmet, riding at night…in icy conditions.

Beverages
Coffee -I’m a snob when it comes to steamy black liquid (no, not that liquid, the other liquid). Nescafe? Really? Okay whatever turns your crank.

Tea - Not as abundant as I had expected except for some citron tea.

Juice - Grape - yuck!, Orange - meh… Apple - yuck!

Soju - How can something look so innocent and yet be out to kill you? Or, at least make you act like a fool? Ohhh soju, I love you, yes it’s true (heart).

Beer - Haven’t had enough to really have an opinion to know how I truely feel about K-beer. Hite is okay, just add some soju.

Kids

Disgustingly cute - I mean really guys can y’all just cut it out. I’ve wanted to take about ten of ém back with me already…even though they’re whinny and bratty like all kids, they all just look like baby kays

Old Peeps

Blatant starers, which is totally rad. I mean even the kids lose interest within 30 seconds - but not the oldies. They are dedicated. I’ve wanted to adopt about three sets of grandparents - so curious and sweet!

Everyone Else

Generous, stern, and highly confusing. Treatment between the sexes is very different, also age. Even if you are only a couple years apart there is a very marked difference in terms of respect. Sexism - Ageism… love or hate doesn’t really matter, just get the f over it and enjoy the wonderful, giving and crazy people all around you!

K-pop

Like everything that’s addictive, so BAD for you. Watch out when visiting here, before you know it you will be humming Rain’s latest mega hit to yourself or doing a Wonder Girls dance in line at the grocery store.

Noraebang

AWESOME  - no other way to describe the little karaoke rooms they have here - just plain ole AWESOME!!!!

Movie Theaters

How I love asian Movie T. with their arcades and huge lobbies. They take it to another level here - it’s assigned seating, which is sweet. Oh and so is the Caramel Popcorn mmmm sweeeet

Restaurants

There’s no point. I won’t eat meat/fish and they won’t accept that. Ever.

Favorites/survival foods

Kuul - oh lil” oranges how I love you soooo

Zek Crackers - kept me alive on bus rides

Paris Baguette - kept me alive in Seoul