2017 Temple Stay in Historical Gyeongju

For information on where to find English speaking temple stays in Korea, visit https://eng.templestay.com

To welcome the New Year, I decided to opt out of the usual bar hopping shenanigans and bring in this New Year's Korean style. My bestie, Andrea, and I headed to Gyeongju to participate in a temple stay. This is where you get to sleep at a temple and participate in the daily routines of a Buddhist monk. We picked Golgulsa temple, which specializes in Sunmudo - which is a mix between martial arts and yoga. It just so happens that a local TV station was filming a documentary during this time. Sooooo I'll be on TV in Korea. How cool! I keep telling my students that I'm famous and I get nothing but eye rolls. Haha. When it airs, I'll post it.

Anyways, so to fully participate, you have to wear 'temple' clothing which consists of an orange vest and brown, puffy, Aladdin like pants. The pants were massively too large and we looked a tad bit ridiculous but it was entirely too fun and vital to get the full experience.

Our schedule went something like this:

1pm: check in. Now, most temples are located deep in the middle of nowhere. We took a bus to get here and it literally dropped us off in what can be compared to somewhere in Kansas (probably. I've never been to Kansas). We were having a fun conversation about hitch hiking then all of a sudden, along comes a car and he slows down.. rolls down his window and asks if we were headed to the temple stay. We said yeah and this nice Korean man gave us a ride the rest of the way. I love when things like this ironically happen. So we checked in and I did an "interview" for the camera man explaining why we decided to do a temple stay for New Years. He specifically asked why we would partake in this when its western custom to "party" for the New Year. I told him we have probably partied enough and we could do that anytime. Why not take advantage of this amazing cultural experience while we're here?!

2pm: Archery. I haven't touched a bow + arrow since girl scout camp however many years ago that might have been. Was I eager? A little. Mainly because I thought I'd be pretty alright. But it was so cold and gripping my fingers onto the bow in the cold felt like I was poking icicles. I didn't hit any targets but my arrow still went a ways and that was fulfilling in itself.

330pm: Sunmudo demonstration. Sunmudo could basically be summed up as a 'zen' martial arts. There are moves with your hands and feet like you'd see in Taekwondo or Karate (karate is japanese, did ya know?) but it still is so soothing and peaceful and completely the opposite of forceful. It was really great to see a foreign woman kicking butt at this stuff. And even greater to watch a skilled monk flying in the air in such a soothing manner. All in all, it was a good show.

5pm: Dinner. Buffet style and all vegetarian.  You are not allowed to waste food. There was rice, and soup, and kimchi, (obviously. there are these things at every meal no matter where you are in korea) and I don't remember what else. It was delicious though and a solid meal. They say you're supposed to eat in silence for "self-reflection" but not all of the people participating followed this suggestion.

530pm: Sunmudo video. Half of the video was in English where these two foreigners (I say foreigners because people who don't live in korea are foreigners. but i guess i really mean these two "white guys") do a documentary about their stay at Golgulsa. And the other half of the video is in Korean and I don't understand it but the images show these INTENSE ass exercises and workouts that daily Sunmudo monks participate in. They are climbing down steep ass steps on their hands and feet as if they were animals with four legs. It. is. intense. I could never undergo training like that, I'd probably die or give up. Loads of

respect for these people, man.

600pm: "Orientation." I'm not sure what that means because it was mainly in Korean. There were LOADS of Korean people there. Singles, couples, families. The monk explained that the next day he'd explain more in depth to us in English. As far as foreigners.. it was me and Andrea, a guy from Brazil, a guy from Chicago, and a woman from Hong Kong but lives in Australia.

630pm: Evening chanting. We learned how to properly bow to the almighty Buddha. I am not good at this. Every time I attempted to bow, my glasses would fall off. And getting back up in a timely fashion was difficult. But it was fun to learn. And I did it. We were given an English translation to the chants but it was still difficult to follow. Humming to the rhythm worked. Did my best!

700pm: Sunmudo training. We were inside. And it was still cold. And I was too damn cold to really focus. But I tried almost my very hardest to keep up. We learned several different moves, some of which I surprisingly still remember. Yoga meets martial arts. Solid.

Somewhere after this, we were expected to do [at least] 108 bows. You "bow" for many things. They gave us a list. You can bow for good health, or family, or happiness, or good fortune, etc etc. Bowing was way too difficult and 108 was out of the question and maybe Andrea and I suck a little bit but we opted out and took a walk down the road instead. We stumbled into a little shop that doubled as someone's home. The woman and her husband were sitting by the fire and watching the news and their daughter was sick, as we heard her coughing. Usually, they sell food. But it was too late for all that. We got some ramen and watched the protesters and their candles in Seoul on their big TV. Did you know that the president in Korea has recently been impeached? And no

violence was involved. There wee just millions of protestors in the capital with candles, every day, until something happened. Wild. The woman gave us some rice and kimchi as "service" and we all sat, eyes glued to the almighty television. I'd never imagine spending a New Years Eve like this in my life. But wanna know what? I wouldn't do it any differently and I'm glad that I wasn't just given the opportunity, but I reached out, grabbed it, and embraced it with open arms. We eventually left and headed to sleep.

400am: Alarms were set. And failed. We were supposed to wake up (optional, though) to hit the giant drum and participate in morning chanting. We heard the chants from our room but we stayed, nestled in our floor mats (you sleep on the floor). We were awake....but nah.

500am: Sitting meditation. Meditation is hard. Especially when you're in position and your legs are falling asleep. But have you ever really sat down and cleared your mind in complete silence? This is amazing.

600am: Breakfast. All vegetarian, of course. For New Years, Koreans eat rice cake soup (tteokguk). It's really good. Koreans honestly find a use for rice in all ways possible. I should start taking pictures of these things. Breakfast was solid.

630am: Head out to the beach. Sunrise is at 7:15. To welcome the New Year, it is Korean custom to watch the first sunrise. I love this. There were so many people at the beach to celebrate the welcoming of the New Year. And none of them were jumping into the freezing cold ocean like psychopaths. It was great. And I've never seen a sun rise the way I saw it this morning. It was amazing. We built a fire on the beach to keep warm and drank instant coffee. People everywhere were trying to snap pictures but I know that you can't take a good picture of the sun (or moon) so I just stood there, absolutely cold as Antarctica, and enjoyed it. It's going to be a phenomenal year.

1000am: Tea time with the monk! Five foreigners.. one monk. I don't know the tea we were served but it was MASHISAYO!! :) We were able to ask any questions to the monk. I, personally, was too cold and too tired to do much of anything. Luckily, Andrea had a plethora of questions for this man. She asked when he knew he wanted to become a monk. And he told us that he had a calling when he was 14 and then told us the story. It was seriously an experience I will always keep with me and I'm so glad I was able to be a part of it.

Before checkout, you had free time and another meal. Andrea and I obviously headed out because we were ready to get into a damn bed. But we celebrated my first sober New Years in who knows how long. And although I was cold as all fuck, and although it won't ever top my New Year's in India, the experience I had with one of my best friends in the whole entire world was definitely one for the books. I'm going into 2017 in a positive mindset. I had a major setback in 2016 that made me really refocus my entire being and I'm glad I celebrated the New Year in the most zen and peaceful way possible. I definitely would have enjoyed the temple stay a lot more if it wasn't so cold. But it was still a positive experience and another check off the Korean bucketlist.

I know I haven't wrote in this blog since I moved back to Korea. Just know - I'm super busy but I'm well. I picked up a part time job (obviously I did) on the weekend as a waitress in a restaurant owned by a man from Canada. That's been fun. I've hosted an art event, more than once. I've held a potluck at my apartment. I've gone hiking in the middle of nowhere. I've been real life camping in a tent for the first time.  I went to a music festival. I participated in a scavenger hunt. I won first place in trivia. I flew to America so I could be in my best friends wedding. I substituted my vacations away. I have sung more karaoke than you will in a lifetime. I've done a whole lotta shit. I've been embracing everyday to the best of my ability. And I still won't buy new clothes or new items and I'm not sure if I want to save little things, such as brochures or ticket stubs, to scrapbook. And although this may still be a loss for me, I'm so thankful to be surrounded by positivity and friends from other cultures driving me to be the best me I can.

Happy 2017!

hanging at the fire station

For more information on temple stays in Korea