"I lift up my eyes to the hills..."

Jin took me on a day trip the weekend after my birthday. It was a surprise, so I had no idea where we were going. (I love surprises!) We had to take an early morning bus about an hour outside of the city and then transfer buses and ride for another half hour. It was a little complicated and it was so nice for Jin to take care of it all!

The morning mist was beautiful around the mountains...
Jin and I on our way to the largest women's Buddhist temple and college.

There was this beautiful path on our way up to the temple. It was quiet and peaceful and we were the only ones there that early in the day.


Entrance to the temple. We couldn't take any pictures of monks/nuns, so we had to stick to buildings and scenery.

The view from inside the temple grounds.

The main temple and oldest temple on the grounds. They were having a kids camp, and teaching the kids how to meditate and what to say. (That's what the posters are for)

Mats you kneel on to pray.

Buddha surrounded by individual carvings of all his different disciples. What I don't understand is how they know who is who or how many he even has. Especially since there are so many different Buddhas!

Either way, they're pretty cool looking. It might have taken a VERY long time to get these done...

Guardian angels that used to be outside the temple walls guarding it. Now they're inside the medicine Buddha's hut. Nobody knows why. (Seriously, I asked)

The medicine Buddha.

Another temple where the Buddha is surrounded by his disciples. Not sure why they're bigger though. Maybe they were kings and princes? Kinda hard to say.

The large temple grounds. This area started the college for women to learn the Buddhist ways.

It was actually a pretty amazing temple experience because while we were there a foreigner came up to us and gave us fruit. But she was dressed in the Buddhist monk clothing! A little while later we were able to sit down and talk with her. She explained how she had ended up in Korea studying Buddhism at the women's college. She also explained a lot of Buddhism that I had been wondering about.

Apparently there has always been a disagreement between the monks who think practice is more important, and the monks who think theology (or theory) is more important. To me, it sounded a lot like Christianity in that respect! She explained the tradition of the robes, the shaving their heads, and the different temples.

Religions are surprisingly the same sometimes. However, the biggest difference is that Buddha did not claim to be God. He doesn't save people from themselves or their sin. He only teaches people how to be separated from the world. How to remove yourself enough from it that you can rise above the human conditions of sickness, suffering and death. And there are many Buddhas. There is only one Christ.

However, there are similarities between how the two religions react to each other. Buddhism is split into many different sects... just like Christianity. Some disciples say one things is better, another says some other thing is more important... just like us. It makes me wonder what the difference is there. I wish there was some. Didn't Christ Himself pray for our unity?

We hiked deeper into the mountains to see some "marbles" from the bodies of departed Buddhist monks. When the Buddhists burned their leader after death, they started finding marbles that had formed from their body. Supposedly one body had as many as 300 marbles! (How somebody lives with 300 marbles in their bones, I will never know.) The more marbles you had, the holier you were.

Sadly, we were disappointed. The marbles were hidden inside the mountain and the only thing at the top of the mountain were more temples reserved for the truly devout Buddhist.

Seeing all the temples and alters built to Buddha and mountain gods made me think of David's psalm (121): "I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come? My help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth."

I remember learning in class that David is talking about being surrounded by the idols and temples that were always at the tops of mountains. He was seeing all these, and thinking about the LORD and the difference between Him and the idols that people worship. I think I am starting to understand more how David felt. These mountains surround the city... and there are temples on every one of them. So where does my help come from when surrounded by all this?

It comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth.

Birthday - Part 2

On Saturday night after going hiking with Jin, I met up with Christine and a few of her friends for Indian food! There's a popular Indian food restaurant up by one of the universities called "Maya." It was the first time I had actually sat down to eat Indian food at an Indian restaurant! (The owners and employees were Indian too!) It was delicious! Spicy... but delicious.

There were 3 different types of curry dishes... all so good! And there was yogurt to add to them if they were too spicy... I definitely made use of it! There was a dumpling filled with veggies and you dipped it in mint sauce, but it was WAY too spicy for me! There wasn't really a way to tone it down either. Oh well. But there was nan! YUM! There was butter, garlic and veggie nan. Melt-in-your-mouth good. There was also a very strange round piece of dough for dessert. It was a little too sweet to enjoy though. It was covered in a sugary-syrupy paste. Bleh.

Then Sunday I celebrated with all my friends! The plan was to go to a pastry shop, buy a cake, then go to the dessert/smoothie shop next door. It turned out to be fantastic! There was a little confusion with all our orders at the smoothie shop (called "Can More"--I dunno why), and they even ran out of some fruit juices. Which was so tragic! But it all worked out.

These are some great girl friends from Church (and Women's Bible Study)! We took up a good amount of the place with all the people we had...! Whoops. haha

Jin's high school friend "Kenny" was able to come too! He goes to my church as well, and it's great running into him every Sunday! His birthday gift to me was so thoughtful too! ...It was a Kid's poster to help them learn the Korean alphabet! Absolutely perfect. Jin and Kenny were pretty funny that night... and oh so chatty.


It was fantastic having my close friends there... My birthday started out rough, but they definitely knew how to take care of a homesick-culture shocked-23-year-old girl. :)

(Needless to say I REALLY miss the smoothie places back home... *sigh* Planet Smoothie... Jamba Juice... I hear them calling my name!)

All in all it ened up being a pretty great birthday weekend. I am so thankful for all of my friends who made it so special... <3

My Birthday

My birthday was both good and bad.

On the day of, I was incredibly homesick. I cried the night before. I cried the day of. I opened my parents' card... cried some more. I even cried at work. I could hardly help it. Ugh. My boss was nice about it, and he tried to cheer me up with a gift, a pep talk and a cake. I really appreciated it.

After work Brendan took me to the hooka bar and cheered me up a little. It's definitely a nice setting in there. Low lighting, cushions to relax on, and relaxing music. Pretty fun!

My birthday weekend was 10x better than my actual birth-day. On Saturday Jin took me hiking! We explored a good part of a mountain close by. I can actually see it from where I work! The hike absolutely KILLED me though. haha. These mountains here are so steep! Maine is going to be cake by the time I'm done here.

Steep path/steps up the mountain!

Yeah... it was pretty windy up there. But the view was beautiful!

More events from my birthday weekend to come later...!

Mud Fest!

1. Muddy
2. Cloudy
3. Rainy
4. Monsoon-y
5. Drunk people-y
6. Ridiculous house party
7. Still Fun


Even though Mud Fest was all those things, Jin and I still had a good time. We made the most of the weather by walking around and exploring the rest of the beach-side town after they closed rides down because of the rain. We did a few things before it started raining, too. I "made" a mud/clay pot too! When it's delivered, I'll take pictures and post them on here. We also played a few shooting games and other arcade games at a little Korean amusement park. It was kinda like the run-down ones you see all the time in America.


The two things I would probably change next time though are the housing situation and transportation. For this first time, it's ok because I didn't know enough to organize it myself. However, next time I think taking a train will be just fine. Especially since almost everyone on the bus was drunk on the way to the beach at 8 in the morning. And a 3-4 hour bus ride with drunk people is not the best way to travel, let me tell you.

The house itself was good... and it was nice to be in a house even though everyone was crowding in. But I forgot how drunk people have no sense of decency or courtesy for other people. Jin and I would leave the house to come back and find some drunk person crashing on our stuff. Yuck. Drunk people also don't know how to close doors when people are sleeping. Sheesh. The house party went till 4am (at least), which was to be expected... but still, next time I think I'll go camping and just wash myself off in the ocean. It's not like I took a shower in that nasty bathroom anyway. (What is also a mystery to me is how couples could go into that nasty bathroom to do nasty things... it's the size of a very small closet!)


Anyway, the ride back was not bad. We left early due to a monsoon warning and them kicking everyone out of the water. But the waves were fantastic to watch! (I did feel bad for the lifeguards though... there was more than one hungover/drunk foreign skinny dipper. The ones I saw were all male, and I think I've had my fill of white butts for awhile.) But the bus ride back did take 2 hours longer than normal... mostly due to the heavy rain. It was kind of tedious, but I still enjoyed it overall because of Jin's company.

Maybe I'll go back next year...

4th of July

The 4th of July just wasn’t the same here in Korea.

It rained. There were no fireworks. The BBQs and beach trips were canceled. The baseball game I went to with church friends was rained out.

All-in-all, my 4th of July sucked.

I missed America, my home, and my friends so much!

That feeling hasn’t really left all this week. Especially with my birthday approaching.

I want to go home!

A Proud Moment

Yesterday I ordered delivery for the first time here in Korea!!!

I wasn't completely on my own, which was a good thing. Jin was there to help and coach me! He taught me what to say and how to order, what their responses might be... etc.

It's a little difficult because even though I know what to say to order... I'm not exactly sure what they're saying back to me. (Eek!) So potentially that could cause problems. But Jin encouraged me to just hang up if it happens. hehe.

So we did a few practice runs with Jin being the "delivery guy," and then the moment of truth came. I was so nervous! But I called the store... and after a little while (and one call-back) our food was on its way! Success!

Needless to say, I feel like I might be able to survive at least partially on my own in this country. ;)