seokmodo, minbaks, great stone buddhas, and caps

here's some pics from a weekend hiking trip i took to 석모도 ('seokmodo'), a small island off the coast of incheon, with my friends matt, his wife hyejin, and their friend juhee.

our plans to make an early start on saturday morning were foibled by heavy drinking the previous night (surprise?), but we didnt let this get us down. after waking up around 11, instead of trying to rush out as quickly as possible to make up for lost time, we decided to take a leisurely (and delicious) breakfast at a pancake house (that served these excellent cinnamon pancakes) before boarding the bus that would take us west to the outskirts of the beautiful coastal city of incheon.

from here we took a ferry over to seokmo island. it was a beautiful day.

[on the dock waiting for the ferry, looking out toward the coastal islands off incheon]

upon setting foot on the island, we boarded another bus that would take us around to the other side of the island where we would begin our hike. the island is basically just some stubby, forest-clad mountains popping out of the ocean. not many people living there. not a very popular tourist destination. not a high profile hiking spot (hiking is THE sport in korea, but most people venture only to the most high-profile mountains which are as a result TEEMING with people). in other words, the lack of people made this the perfect place for a weekend trip in late spring, early summer!

[hyejin and her friend joohee (who, other than her motivation, was poorly prepared for the hike) take a breather before doing a little cliff scaling]

[matty and i take a gander at the view]

[we rest on a flat rock before heading down the other side of the island]


[zoomed in view of the distant temple below]

[one of buddha's secret chillout spots]

[there's buddha in the distance... see him?]

After our hike we managed to find a pretty reasonable 민박 ('minbak') to stay the night. Minbaks are kind of like motels, but smaller. we got some food at a local restaurant and picked up some beers to take back to our room. We had a nice evening kicking back and throwing back a few with some good chitchat sitting out on the deck and a couple nice arguments to spice things up. Later, Matt coerced me into playing a game of caps with him which was foolish but not as foolish as how stubbornly i kept playing even after i was clearly unable to represent myself... I slept on the floor.

[the view from the deck in the morning before heading back to seoul]

flea markets and 'won' buddhism

well hey!
it's been a while, hmm?
im on serious catch-up now - about seven months+ now?
not much excuse for not keeping up with things. it's been a busy summer, fall, and winter for me. my last semester of teaching in seoul was in conjunction with a semester of online grad school (more on that later), and these last few weeks of being back home haven't lent themselves to much time on the internet. ive been focusing on being back with my girl, my family and friends (and computer problems - as always - to boot)

lotsa happenings: summer in taiwan with ginny, a masters in applied linguistics, deciding to leave korea, and plans for going to africa and hong kong in the very near future. but before i delve into those things here, i want to catch up from where we left off...
i believe in my last post, i was nearing the end of my first semester at Hankuk university of foreign studies. the next event i have pictures for was the flea market at school, so i'll start there.

every semester at HUFS we organize a day for each class to take a break from classes, decorate their room on a theme of their choice, and engage in general ridiculousness. this is flea market day (the idea being that everyone also brings in old things they want to get rid of; the classes try to sell their stuff to each other and raise cash in other ways such as setting up gambling games, selling food, and random thievery). there are various prizes awarded such as best decorations, most money raised, best english use, etc. competition is easy to create in korea, as (in my opinion) the education system largely facilitates this attitude toward academics, and it also permeates into other areas of people's lives such as economics, professionalism, society, family, and pretty much everywhere else. so, although the money raised goes to a local orphanage fund (which is wonderful, dont get me wrong), this is not what is on everyone's minds. do i sound a wee bit cynical? oops.

it really is a fun day, though, albeit a bit exhausting for everyone, teachers included (especially those who have to return for night classes - cue violin music). the class i was in charge of organizing and representing was the 1C class. teachers actually really like this day because it can reinvigorate a class that has lost its steam near the end of the 20 week term (the 1C class being one of those). our theme, if i remember correctly, was 'returning to kindergarten'. other than the colorful streamers and balloons hanging from our ceiling, though, im not sure how well we managed create this atmosphere. we DID have a live concert, which was a lot of fun, in which a few students and i played some music to candlelight. they chose the songs ('creep' - radiohead, 'time is running out' - muse, and 'falling slowly' from the movie 'once') to which i played guitar and assisted with vocals, and of course i had to play a solo at the end which i cant remember what i chose. our other guitarist (tom) actually played in a local band in hongdae (an indie, artsy, and a little crazy young-people-district in seoul) - we sounded a lot better than i expected; our vocals guy named 'chan' was really quite good too.

[me and student dongjae 'david' playing some dice game in their halloween-themed classroom]

['hadi' taking money from students from the 1A class]

[this was our 'kindergarten'-themed classroom; they're playing wii bowling for a tournament we set up. that's JYJ mid-swing - it's really kind of cool that the flea market allows students from other classes to wander from room to room and meet other classes which normally doesn't happen unless you live in the dorms upstairs]

[john from 2C class - i cant remember their theme exactly, but it involved decorating their classroom as a beach with ocean, setting up prop-tents on the floor, and the guys cross-dressing (not the ajossis, or middle-aged men, of course)]

[2C in all their glory]

[the 1B class set up a 'gonggi' tournament which is like the korean version of jacks. one player throws four pieces down, tosses the fifth in the air, picks up one piece, and catches the tossed one, repeating this until all four pieces are picked up; they then throw down the four pieces again and pick up two at a time, tossing and catching the fifth piece each time; round three is picking up three pieces and then the last one, and round four is picking up all four pieces on the ground with one toss of the fifth after that, the player has to toss all five pieces in the air and catch them on the back of their hand. the number caught on the back of the hand is the number of points scored for that player, and they then continue from the first round of tossing and picking up one piece at a time. so you can only score points if you make it to the tossing-onto-the-back-of-your-hand-stage without making a mistake which would require you to hand over the pieces to your opponent. short games usually last to 15 points or 20 and some people are just insane at this. i sucked. horribly.]

[my 1C class (with teacher matt in the back)]

[the 1As had a military-service theme (if you're not aware, all men in korea have to serve 2 years and this creates quite a culture)]

[teacher vince wii bowling in the 2C classroom]

[2C's Ahreum selling strawberry-cream-saltine treats]

[the championship round for the gonggi tournament - 1A's Jinny was the winner; it was an exciting game]

that weekend i went to temple with two of my 1A students, chuck and smith. the sect of buddhism to which the temple belonged was 'won buddhism' (wonbulgyo) which is a anti-image sect of buddhism established about 100 years ago in korea by a man who, according to the tradition of wonbulgyo, attained great enlightenment and forsaw the modern world becoming consumed in a material culture and therefore emphasized an detachment from materialism (hence none of the recognizable symbols of other buddhist traditions) and a spirituality rooted in faith with strong adherence to moral discipline. the doctrine outlined by this man's (can't remember his name) became a part of their religious text. i received a copy of the text from these very friendly people which i partially read. i cant remember specifically what else the doctrine is based on, but i do remember being surprised and pleased by a number of things i experienced there.

first of all, the church service is largely reflective and personal. there are a few chantings and reading that everyone does together, but the main purpose of the service as far as i could see it was to facilitate inward exploration. after the service we did some stretching and massaged each other's backs (very similar to warming up for choir practice or something) before heading off into small group discussions. i was struck by how this structure to communal worship was very similar to the organization of church time in christian churches in korea. the small group time was especially wonderful. instead of attempting to interpret scripture with the purpose of establishing mutual agreement on the fundamental meanings of Jesus' words, as is the general custom of bible study in most of the christian churches ive visited in korea, this group session consisted of simply asking philosophical questions about existence and the false implications of the world we live in. questions, thoughtful and poignant ones, were valued, not answers.

ive never been good with answers in bible study and often feel uncomfortable when i hear others giving them, so this was a refreshing and welcome change for me. won buddhism values three forms of spiritual practice (getting these from my wonbulgyo book now): 'samadhi' - the cultivation of the spirit, 'prajňā' - inquiry into facts and principles, and 'śīla' - the consideration of moral choices (karmic action)

in short, i found the experience to be spiritually stimulating and encouraging. i was delighted to have the chance to feel comfortable in a spiritual community in korea. it is amazing where and how you can find encouragement sometimes. experiences like these keep me exploring. although i consider myself a christian, ive found 'brotherhood' in people of many different backgrounds. both the good and bad experiences end up being positive for me and the growth of my own faith.

andong - old buildings, mask dances, soju, phalic ring-toss

weeeellll.... it's been quite a long time, hasn't it?

although in the past, my absence from the blog-o-sphere has been entirely due to laziness, this time i have a good excuse

as you may or may not have been aware, my computer has been in dire straits recently; about a month ago it decided to quit on me completely. i had to replace the motherboard and so i have been without easy access to the internet ever since then. now things are mostly back to normal, but part of me misses the blessing in disguise it was to be freed from the distraction of owning a computer.

anyway, i have it back now, and im gunna put it to good use, and that means making up for lost time. our first stop is 안동 ('andong'), a city in central south korea about half-way between seoul and pusan, rich in traditional culture.



sometime in march i made some tentative plans with a couple of my students to visit there for a weekend once midterm exams were over. so on saturday, april 18, we met early in the morning at the express bus station in seoul, grabbed a quick breakfast of ramen, and got our trip underway. we stopped first in downtown andong from where we took another bus to 도산서원 ('dosan confucian academy'), a historic site about 40 minutes out of the city.


[hadi and david on the bus to 도산서원 ('dosan confucian academy') - established by Lee Hwang in the 16th century]

[walking down to the academy]

[view of the flooded river valley]

[really sweet-looking little island temple in the middle of the river; at first we thought we HAD to go over there and check it out, but later we decided to leave it alone (actually we were just feeling lazy but we rationalized it by saying that it would be better remembered as a mystery in our imagination - pretty good, eh?)]

[dosan confucian academy]

[froggies in a pond]

[david has trouble figuring out how to use the old fashioned toilet]

[little closer shot of the distant temple on the river]

after wandering around the academy complex for a while, we thought about our options for getting back. the next bus to the city wasn't going to be coming for about 2 hours and we also wanted to look around and see some other places too. so in the end we opted for climbing up over the hill and exploring what was beyond on foot. it was hot, and climbing over the ridge was not easy, but it was exciting to just go wandering down a road in an unknown area and see where it led.

[on the road]

[this is what we stumbled upon eventually: another little complex of traditional buildings]

[coming back over the hill]

we ended up missing the next bus as well, but while we were standing around like a bunch of fools, a ski-lift operator guy from the states who was working on a 2-year contract as a electrical engineer here offered to give us a ride in his truck. we got into town in no time flat and popped into lotteria (a fast food chain in korea) for a rice burger (instead of a bun, it has rice on the outside). it was pretty gross.

[downtown andong]

after walking around town a bit, we chose to take a walk on the 월영교 ('weoryounggyo' - a bridge along the river that runs through andong downtown)

[weoryounggyo]

[path up to the top of the ridge]

[view of the river from above]

[a natural refrigerator dug into the stone cliffside]

[some old grass and adobe huts]

[we find a park and take a break on this huge swing]

[david gets his ass handed to him at see-saw]

starting to get hungry again, a call is made for heading back into town in search of what had been on all our minds since we first caught a whiff of the downtown streets: 안동찜닭 (andong jjimdark - steamed chicken in a tasty sauce with potatoes, green onion, spinach, red peppers, sesame seeds, and bean noodles). it's a spicy, succulent dish that is just perfect with andong soju (totally different from the chemically-tasting, factory-made soju, this stuff is thrice distilled and is usually 30-40%).

[seaching the back streets for the right place]

[some ajummas playing street 윷놀이 'yutnori' - a traditional korean game played by tossing 4 sticks in the air and interpreting their landing]

[our delicious dinner]

fully satisfied with our mean, we decide to head to our hostel, a traditional house that david found on the internet (there are many such places for visitors to andong). when we arrived, we noticed some people gathered outside the main building, playing the 거문고 ('geomungo' - a traditional, black, stringed instrument with ridges and frets, plucked with a wooden stick and leather thimble)

[the instructor invited me inside and attempted to teach me 아리랑 'arirang' - an old, korean folk song representing the korean feeling of 'han' (an emotion that is not easily explained in english - a deep sorrow that is a result of many years of oppressive rule)]

아리랑, 아리랑, 아라리요...

아리랑 고개로 넘어간다.

나를 버리고 가시는 님은

십리도 못가서 발병난다.

Arirang, Arirang, Arariyo...

Crossing over Arirang Pass.

Dear who abandoned me [here]

Will not walk even ten li before his/her feet hurt.

[david gives it a try]

[go stop occupies the majority of the rest of the night - hadi looses by epic proportions]

[view of our hostel from outside the next morning]

after a tasty breakfast at 'mammoth bakery', hadi parts ways with david and i, having to return to seoul for some rediculously lame reason. david and i, having shed our cumbersome burden of a companion, jump on a bus for 하회마을 'hahoe village' (an entire town preseved in joseon-dynasty period architecture, folk tradition, and clan-based culture).

[view of the countryside as we walk from the bus to the village]

[old medicine cabinet]

[a church - obviously not from the preserved time period. it's here because of the people who actually live in the village]

[building style and community structure]

[an interesting traditional version of 'ring toss']

[wait a second... is that stick shaped like a...?]

[while we were chilling by the river, some strange guy was posing the whole time with his wooden sword for his parents]

[an old, outd00r stove]

we were lucky to have picked sunday to visit the village because sunday afternoon is the only time to view a mask dance performance. we headed over to the open-air auditorium early to secure a good seat. despite the apparent japanese high school excursion that seemed to have coincided with our visit, we were able to get a pretty good view of the performance.

[see andong mask dance post]