Bowl of beer and other tales

As we sit here eating our prawn french fry chips and Joe sips on his "Royal Milk Tea", we reflect back on our day. Today was our mandatory field trip day! In a nutshell, we went to Hanok Village (a village of traditionally built houses amidst an otherwise urban sprawl) and Keumsan Temple in Moak Mountain (anyone else think this sounds like Lord of the Rings?) Both of these things were super fun; however, they would have been much more fun if it hadn't been 96 degrees with 89% humidity (these are real figures, folks), and if we hadn't been forced to wear our EPIK polo shirts that didn't so much wick moisture away from our bodies as hold it in like a sponge. Rough.

Anyhoo, here are some cool things that happened today:

As we were walking back from Keumsan Temple toward our bus, Joe and I were hailed by a group of Korean men and women sitting by the river having a picnic. Joe was given a bowl of beer and a piece of meat off their portable barbecue. I was also given a piece of meat, which turned out to be full on gristle, but I did my best to hold it in my mouth, feigning a chewing motion until we moved on toward the bus. These people were unbelievably generous and so enthusiastic. They kept doing the thumbs up sign and saying "cool!" As we walked away, Joe was playing with the chopsticks he had been given to eat his meat with and another Korean man saw Joe's obvious dexterity with said chopsticks and started bowing toward him and shaking his hand. Joe felt like a rockstar. :)

We watched a Samul nori performance--a type of percussion music with dancing involved--in Hanok Village. After the performers had finished, the audience was asked to join them in a dance. Joe and I started moving backward since we were super hot and to be honest, we were scared to dance. As I was stepping back, an old women who was crouched on the ground gave me a pretty hard push toward the dancing. She just pushed me and then went on clapping to the music. Awesome. Eventually we joined in--there was just too much good-natured peer pressure.

Keumsan Temple was breathtaking. Take a look at Joe's pictures on Facebook to get an idea. I can't really describe it. There was a main temple and many smaller temples surrounding it. I have never seen such beautiful and detailed painting, or such massive buddha statues. The temples smelled like barn wood: earthy and comforting. The painted wooden lotus flowers, cherry blossoms, and peacocks were my favorites.

It was a good day, despite the heat and the many bus rides (which I find loathsome and stressful). Onward to more training.....