Haeinsa Temple

hi everyone.. i know that i've been terrible at keeping up with my blog and my mass emails. i'm sorry for that but in my defense i've been sick. i caught a terrible cold last week and could barely function in class let alone write an email to anyone.

well here's what's been going on:

a couple of weeks ago i went out with some friends and experienced my first nora bang.. basically this is a room that you rent to do karaoke.. as anti-karaoke as i have been in the past i found it really fun. there were 20 of us belting out queen!

last weekend was carey's birthday so we went out to dinner and did some late shopping on saturday night. on sunday i went shopping AGAIN and got myself some new adidas shelltoes (yellow stripes!), a lot of other stuff and some gifts for carey. on wednesday (her actual birthday) we decorated her desk and got her a cake (we're so cute).. it was so adorable to see all of the elementary students with their faces pressed to the glass window when we were eating our cake.. they looked like puppies for sale in a window..

this week has been full of work meetings and mentoring.. it's all finally over (for this month at least) and it went alright..

yesterday was absolutely wonderful.. i went with TIWA (Taegu Internation Women's Association) to Haeinsa Temple. We took a bus a little over an hour outside of Daegu up the mountain to the buddhist temple. this was most definitely the most beautiful place i have been in korea so far. i went for a hike, watched some drumming performances, ate a traditional lunch(which was vegetarian, of course.. and you weren't allowed to leave one scrap of rice and had to be almost silent while eating) , took part in a traditional tea ceremony (the tea was very strong but nice, and the whole ceremony was so particular and delicate) and saw the tripitaka. the tripitaka are the collection of all the writings and teachings of buddha printed on a series of wooden blocks (81, 340 in total). they are considered a national treasure as well as a world heritage treasure. it was amazing and they were stored in a number of buildings and as we were looking at them there was a long line of people who would stop to bow at each building. haeinsa temple is actually called a 'dharma temple' since it houses the tripitaka koreana. they are considered to be the best in the world, 52, 382, 960 letters are carved and completely uniform with no mistake or omission.

i'll stop being a history teacher now, i just found it interesting.. really interesting.. their website is www.haein-sa.org i am considering doing a temple stay in the spring.

i've attached a lot of pictures, the mountains are so pretty right now with the leaves changing.. the monk who was walking with us told us that we should take example from the trees.. that people usually think that fall is the end of summer.. but that's not true, it is a continuation of summer.. we should see life like this as well.. that death is not the end, only a continuation of our journey.. he said that just as the leaves that fall from the trees, we as people should learn to abandon our possessions..

after that morning/afternoon i did not want to go to work.. but i did and had no problem getting to sleep.. i'm not sure if it's because it was so relaxing or because i was up at 7 am! probably both.

anyways, this weekend is halloween and there is a big halloween party.. i think i'm going to skip it though and have a night to myself for once.. plus i've never been too keen on halloween.. not since i was too old to trick or treat anyways..

i miss you all... and hope to hear from you soon..

jen xoxoxoxo