Two more days

[I accidentally removed several photos from these blogs... oops].  


This past Friday: Stacey, Donae & I visited Yakcheon-sa, the largest Buddhist temple in Asia. Quite ornate, amazing colors. Noticed great acoustics as the monks chanted and periodically made rhythmic tappings with a stick. At one point, from the third story windows, we could see a man outside heaving a large wooden log into a bell. The paintings on the wall were... different. There was one depiction of a meditating man being decapitated. From his neck, spewed a tall reaching fountain of water, upon which his head floated. Stacey and I are quite curious about this, and would like to look into its possible meaning. I mostly enjoyed sitting in a tiny temple situated on a shady hill nearby. The gentle fragrance of incense brought calmness to our beings, and we three sat in silence before the altar for a few moments. Here's the main temple:

After the temple visit, we took a taxi to the nearby Jungmun Beach, where the waves were high & lovely, the sunshine intense, the water clear & blue, and swimming temperature ideal. The sounds of air-raid-like sirens alarmed swimmers, followed by an announcement suggesting that swimmers get out of the water- as the waves were too strong. How annoying. What ever happened to quiet signs which read "Dangerous Currents, SWIM AT YOUR OWN RISK"?

This past Saturday: David invited us to join him to Mosulpo, where he teaches students twice a week. The drive down was hilly & scenic... and included Mysterious Road, the optical illusion of a gravity road. We had the car in neutral and it appeared to be rolling uphill! Kind of like the Mystery Spot in Santa Cruz, CA. I've googled the phenomena, which occurs in various parts all over the world. Apparently these areas are all optical illusions, rather than areas of "strange gravitational/ magnetic pulls". Worth checking out. We continued on, picked up 5 of David's students, and proceeded to the Glass Castle museum/theme park of glassworks & mirrors... brilliant! It's mostly a sculpture park of amazing glass pieces/installments. In the center, there's a cafe where we stopped for ice cream. The entire back wall is domed glass, and water runs down the outside making it seem like a rainy day. But the sun was out... giving it a gorgeous sun-shower effect. This is one outdoor piece, made of several glass panes, lined up:

After dropping the students off, we went to the Chocolate Museum... but it was closed. We drove on, stopping at a very interesting store/house to buy some drinks. The entire front wall was made of recycled drink cans. Very neat.

The drive home was lovely, as David so thoughtfully drove the coastal road, heading up the West coast at sunset. Amazing views... sun setting over the water... very huge windmills on the edges of the land. Beautiful places... great company... thank you. life is good.

Home on the Range

... Home on the Range was one of my choices for karaoke the other night. Don't ask me why. Sometimes, with certain people, a night of karaoke seems to evolve into "I can pick a cheesier, funnier, more dramatic song than you..." There were a few moments when my laughter prevented me from being able to sing.

09.17.09

Jogging will get me hot & sweaty… ideal conditions for showering if the only option is a cold one. It reminds me of being at DLI (Navy, language school) on P.T. (early morning exercise) days: if one didn’t manage to catch the first wave of showering, one’s shower would surely be cold. But here, there won't be the slightest possibility of getting a warm shower, until they get the water heater hooked up. My last hot shower was in NY, September 4th. Trying to stay positive… at least the days are still sunny & warm. We’ve gotten plenty of beach time- I think I’ve swum in the ocean half a dozen times since my arrival. It’s a 25-minute, less than a dollar, bus ride to the very beautiful Hamdeok Beach.

All these beach opportunities… how? I have yet to start teaching. The private school I’ll be working in (and also live in) isn’t even completed yet. They’re still doing construction. Very poor, very poor planning. School’s tentative start time will be the first week of October. Apparently, we’ll be paid from September 15th- which is when it should have opened (the recruiter who hired us was 150% certain of this LOL). Normally, teachers are put to work immediately upon arrival. When I arrived in Bucheon two years ago for a job… it was about 1 a.m. and I was required to attend a meeting that morning around 8 or 9, obviously feeling a bit useless and extremely disoriented. This time around, we have weeks of free time before actually teaching. So here I am, with the company of two fun females- Stacey from Nova Scotia, Canada and Donae from Washington State. We’ve had the luxury of relaxation on this gorgeous island.

There are a couple of Koreans who have been showing us the ways of our area. "David", our school’s director (principal) has taken us to restaurants, the beach, markets, his friend’s horse farm, a live music club, and of course, a ‘norae bong’ for karaoke (singing several tunes to include John Denver & Richard Marx). "Jennifer", an assistant who’ll be living a few doors down on our hallway, has taken us to cafes & shopping, given us useful information and has been a great, fun new friend.

I predict it’ll be a great year ahead, though slightly bumpy for the school until they get everything into proper order. I won’t be working the sweet 5-12 p.m.-older- students-evening-shift as promised, but rather doing the 9-5 M-Th, 9-2 F. Not the hours I’d hoped for, but I’m excited to be teaching the little ones again (K-6th). I’m grateful to have this job, these new buddies, and a very reasonable, likable director. Life is good.

Yoga of India in Korea

As we were about to enter a restaurant the other night, we spotted a yoga studio, Yoga of India. My new friend / co-worker, Donae, & I went up to check it out. Inside, we discovered a beautifully arranged space, dimly lit, comfortable, and adorned with Indian wall hangings. Sitting on a floor mat at a low table was the petite Korean yoga instructor, whose Indian name is Soma. She had studied yoga in India, spending time in Kerala and Pune. She welcomed us to join her classes at a very reasonable rate of 40,000 won ($) per month, for two classes each week. It’s about a ten-minute walk from our abode.

The next morning, we attended our first class. Behind the sheer, purple curtain, 18 or 19 mats were neatly arranged in the clean, quiet studio. We were a few minutes early, and the instructor welcomed us to choose our places for meditation. Though the sing-songy verbal cues were all in Korean, Donae and I had little difficulty following Soma’s sequence of asanas (postures). Her sun-salutations are almost precisely the same ten-step salutations that I do, and I could tell from the repetition when she was instructing us to inhale or exhale. Soma occasionally used the English or Sanskrit word for a posture, which was very helpful. There were about 6 or 8 other students that we were able to follow. For the next month, we’ll get two evenings a week of yoga: the perfect complement to another 40-day cycle of absolute sobriety and daily chanting of the mahamrityunjaya mantra. As the language of love is universal, so is the practice of yoga. Alhamdulillah!

Keep moving

Keep moving

Finally, after being so sick
a husband has died.
At the appointed time
a baby was born.

You keep moving, coming and going
You keep moving.

Lock,
unlock,
lock,
unlock,
lock,
unlock

You keep moving with events
of your big, little life

And that’s it. That’s what it’s about.
You are alive. You are.
A bag full of blood, sweat, and tears.
You are
keeping it fun
With love, all around you.
With love, it’s all around you.
Love, if you let the world love you:

A mirrored rejoice.

What's going on

What’s going on

I am not yet awake, just dazy eyes
gazing out into reality, my world
which ends up being enough happiness
to make the day worthwhile.

That man who used to sell me coffee
has the warmest blood
flowing beneath his tattooed skin,
behind his smile, through his beating heart.
His brown hair is growing.
I thought of him as I thanked him for the coffee,
(and I think about him now.)

Later, as I wiped away the juicy remnants
of that fuzzy, ripe summer peach
I remembered the nature and conditions
and thought and work and tender care
behind its being: all that brought it to my hand.

In the nighttime I see the moon that everyone sees
if they look. I still wonder about those bricks
that make up the wall that supports the building
upon whose wooden floor I used to sleep.
I wonder about the men who made the bricks,
who laid the bricks, who drew the plan of that place, still standing:
and I love them.
I touched those bricks being rained on, being looked at by others.
I think about the other sets of eyes, the others who will look at,
who have seen those bricks.

The others, like all others, are not me.
The others, like all others, they are me. We are same.
Helping make the world go ‘round
with some, or a lot, of goodness within.