Week XII and XIII: That's a wrap :)

Well here it is, my last entry from my three month sebatical from "real" life. The past two weeks have been relaxing, frustrating, wonderful and overall pretty good. The first thing that I did that was really cool was volunteer to make kimchi for poor people. My Austrailian friend and I were told about it from Pak Sa Bom Nim and so we went and were the only forgeiners there. They do this every year, just spend three days straight making kim chi in bulk. There were mountains of onions, rivers of cabage being washed and tables 300 feet long with old women just making kimchi. It felt good to do something a little more realfor a change. Later in the week I visited a temple right next to one of the biggest malls in the city. It was an interesting contrast and the buddah was like 50 feet tall carved out of white granite. The weekend was awesome, just spending time with the good friends I have made, seeing sights and living the crazy night life. My American friend and I went to a brewery with such good beer but the alchohol content was dangerous. The next week I spent studying the language and stretching a lot. I visited Lee Dong Gyu Sa Bom Nim and stayed one night with him and his family. It was great, and I taught the older adult class. The students were between the ages of 60 and 80+! In the morning I lead a group of middle school students in Moo Pahl Dan Kum before they went to school. So not a lot of training, but still teaching. Upon my return to Seoul it was time to prepare for the big International Thanksgiving party my friends and I were throwing. Friday night we started cooking at around 10pm and cooked, drank and played poker all night. We went to sleep between 7am and 1pm and then got back up to start cooking again. All the food was finally done around 6:30 just in time for everyone to arive. The party was a blast and there were around 35 people from all over the world there. Everyone was very impressed with my moms apple pie recipe. Today I went hiking with Pak Sa Bom Nim, Kim KS and my Australian friend. It was a good last hiking trip with my extended Soo Bahk family. I will spend the remaining couple days of my trip buying a few things I still want to get and trying to see all the great people that I have met here one last time. I guess this is the entry where I am supposed to give closure and try to sum up my thoughts about my adventures. Let me just say that this has been and experience beyond words and the few things that I have managed to post in this blog are only a scratch on the surface of everything that has happened to me in the past three months. I can't wait to see you all soon!:) Anyoung

Week XI: Time flyes when your having fun!

My mom and I had some great adventures this week! It was nice to share my experience with some one from my former life. The first day she was here we hiked Dobongsan mountain which was so beautiful with the fall colors fully underway. Some of these trees are so red I can't even believe it. Close to the top of the mountain we found this little table and chairs made of rock and we ate a lunch of kimbap, rice, egg, vegitables and tuna all wraped in seaweed like sushi. The next day we went shopping at Namdaemun market. This market is like a flee market on steroids and it was so crowded we could barely push our way through to buy anything. Then we had lunch at this delicious tofu house that makes these great soups all with tofu as the base. The next day was dedicated to shopping at insadong which is the market that has traditional Korean arts, crafts, clothing etc. It was great we found so many cool things and very inexpensive too! That night we went to Soo Bahk Do and my mom got to see what it was like to train in Korea. It was after this nights training that I decided that I need to take a break from training due to my hip and back issues. I am destroying my body and it is not good. I plan to replace training with stretching, strengthening and yoga. The next day we took a trip out of the city and visited the Korean Folk Village. It was really cool! It was a whole village set up just like in the olden days with a pottery center, farms, cloth mills, a jail, the whole deal. They also had performances. the first one was these young guys (and one girl) ridding horses and doing tricks on them as they ran around the arena. We couldn't believe some of the things these kids were doing. Then there were these girls who were jumping really high in the air on a sesaw and doing tricks and an old guy tightrope walking. The temple was the best part of the Village. It was pretty small but very peaceful and surrounded by gold, yellow and red trees. On my mom's last full day we visited a temple closer to the city which was a little too commercial and crowded. Then we took care of some things, got me some new glasses and bought another suitcase to bring home all the stuff I have gotten here. For her last night we went to a Buddist vegan restaraunt that was so good and they had a performance of traditional Korean dance and drumming right in the middle of it. Then we went out to a live jazz club which was really nice and it reminded me of some of the good things about living in a big city. It was sad to see her go, but I will be home soon. I now have the difficult task of telling the Sa Boms that I can't train and figuring out what I should do with the rest of my time in Korea.

Week IX and X: Training and Palace hopping

Upon returning to Seoul I decided it was time to turn up the dial on the training. I had several privates with Lee Dong Gyu Sa Bom Nim which were awesome. For these two weeks I trained for up to 6 hours a day upon the recommendation to the Sa Boms. My days basically consisted of training, studying Korean language with Kim Kyo Sa Nim, and eating. I kept this up for two weeks all the time suffering severe hip pain due to a preexisting condition that was agrivated by Korean ballistic stretching. I have decided now that if I want to get better at Soo Bahk Do and continue to train for the rest of my life I need to take it easy on my body and be more proactive about fixing some of my physical issues. It might be a little hard to convince the masters here that I need to stop training so much. Upon returning to CB I hope to do more yoga and overcome some injuries I have.
Last week Kim Kyo Sa Nim took me to a palace that was so beautiful and the leaves are changing bright reds and oranges. There was a performance being held there with Korean music and dance. Also some acrobatic "martial artist"/dancers who put on a funny show that was 80's boy band meets kung fu movie complete with beat boxing. It was funny.
Last weekend I visited another palace with my friends (one from India the other from Austria). It was so big, it took us almost all day to explore the whole thing. Then we stumbled on a performance of some sort of ritual they did in ancient times. They were all dressed in traditional costume and there was an orcestra of sorts playing the traditional music.
I also visited a really nice bath house this week with my Korean friend. There were all different pools of different temperatures and minerals. Also some saunas. It was nice to relax and do something good for my body after all the training. The leaves are finnally changing here, I can't believe that it is Nov. 6th and there are still leaves on the trees, some of them still green.
My mom is here now and we are having a great time. I will write more when she leaves and let you know what we did.

Week VIII: Islands and mountains

I spent the weekend with Mamie in Tongyeong. We had a blast. On Saturday we took a fary to an island and hiked around on it. On the other side there was a beautiful light house and the weather was beautiful too. Then we watched a Korean horror movie which was interesting and really scary. On Monday I hoped a bus to Wolchulsan National Park. Upon arival I explored town a bit and realized I had really sent myself off into the middle of nowhere, I thought people stared at me a lot in Seoul but here I think it is possible that some people had never seen a foreigner in there lives. It was a bit like Mexico, old ladies comming up to me and touching my blonde hair. The park was beautiful, I think they need to rename this mountain range the rocky mountains, they were much rockier than our rocky mountains. On Tuesday I entered the park and met some young Korean guys who spoke English. After helping me find a minbak (traditional Korean inexpensive lodging), they invited me to hike to the peak with them. It was an amazing hike, so steep with lots of treterous terrain and a huge bridge spanning this huge gap. The next day I set off to find the ceramics center. I hoped on a city bus to this village but I didn't know exactly where to get off. Then the bus driver and all the old ladies on the bus looked at me and said something and motioned for me to get off the bus. So I did. Then I didn't know which way to go but there was this touristy looking place so I went there. Well that happened to be the birth place of some famous guy so after exploring it for a while I asked the lady (in broken Korean) where the ceramics center was. She pointed across the highway where there was a sign pointing to the center. I followed the signs and after being lead through this little village I came upon a huge building under construction. Apparently the ceramics center is temporarily closed because they are building a new and bigger building. It was a little dissapointing but a good adventure none the less. I spent the next couple days enjoying the wilderness and then made my way back to Seoul. It was weird comming back to Seoul almost felt like comming home. That's all for now.

Week VII: Warrior monks

My time in Gyeongju was amazing, my favorite part of my stay in Korea so far. On Tuesday I went to Bulguksa temple and this white stone Bhudda in a temple carved into the hillside. It was beautiful. Then on Wednesday I took the road less traveled and went to Golgulksa temple which is the world headquarters of Sun Moo Do. Sun Moo Do is a traditional martial art from Korea and is closely tied into bhuddism. The temple has alot of bhuddas and other statues carved into the rock and the only temple that is in a cave. It was so beautiful. I arrived during a Sun Moo Do class and watched. The head instructor asked me where I was from and why I was in Korea and when he found out that I did Soo Bahk Do he was very happy to meet me. The Grandmaster of Sun Moo Do is actually a Soo Bahk Do Master also. The instructor invited me to have tea with him and then stay for lunch. After lunch I continued on 4km up the narrow paved highway to Girimsa temple. It was well worth it. It was the same size and beauty of Bulgulksa with a fraction of the people. The thing about sight seeing in Korea is that I am one of the attractions and hoards of children are thrilled to see me and want to say hi and ask me questions that they learned how to say in school. This is cute for about a day and then it gets really old and annoying when you are trying to have a peaceful visit to a temple. Thursday morning I went to the national museum which had some really amazing ancient pottery and bronze artifacts. However there were hundreds of children who all wanted to talk to me and point at me as I past. My experience at Golgulksa was so amazing that I decided that I should at least do one night of temple stay. Temple stay is where you follow the rotine of the temple and live like the monks for a day or a week or even years if you want. I arrived at 5:00pm on Thursday and got my room and then went to the dinning hall for dinner. After dinner we had a bit of free time and then went to the Do Jang and trained for a couple hours and then went to bed. The training was awesome and I could do a lot more than their normal visitors because of my Soo Bahk Do background. The forms are really cool, very artistic and have a lot of jumping and balancing moves. Sun Moo Do is less of a practical martial art and more of an artform. At 4:00am the next morning a monk came around hitting his wooden goard to wake everyone up for morning chanting and bowing at 4:25. We chanted for a half an hour, meditated for a half an hour and then did walking meditation for an hour. Breakfast was at 6:30 and then we had free time until training at 8:30. During this time I went to the top building of the temple and just sat and watched the sunrise. Morning training consisted of a half and hour of stretching and then we hiked to the top of the ridge and did breathing exercises. Much like what I have experienced in Soo Bahk Do training. We hiked down and proceeded to do 108 bows (the full bow where you get down in to a sort of childs pose and then stand all the way back up. It was hard but a good experience. Then tea time we had this great tea made from bamboo leaves. Then lunch. So that was my temple stay experience. I wish I could stay longer it was so amazing. It was so nice to be away from the city, the crowds, cars, and everything. There are monks and junior monks up there that never leave, that would be so strange to just follow that schedual every day for years and years. So after lunch I came back to Gyeongju and got a bus to Tongyeong to go see Mamie.

Week IV and V: Dinner with the Kwan Jang Nim

The last couple weeks I have just been continuing my routine and finishing up my language course. After a month of studying Korean I am still very helpless when it comes to communicating what I need and it has proved trying at times. I will be very relieved when I return just to be able to go places and communicate simple things. On Friday the Kwan Jang Nim arived in Seoul and taught the evening adult class. The class was awesome and he told his cookie story (for those of you who have heard it) which made a different impression on me the second time. Afterwards we went to dinner and I got to talk to the Kwan Jang Nim on a more personal level. He asked me all about Crested Butte (he remembered going there 10 years ago) and Tyzzer Sa Bom Nim and the studio. He also wanted to know about me personally. It was a really cool experience. Then on Sunday was the Dan test in Degu (4 hr. south of Seoul). To tell the truth I was dissappointed in the skill level of the candidates and what was required of them which was much less than in the US. However Korea is a different culture and they have a lot less support and organization than we do. After the test there was a demonstrations and me and some other foreigners did a team form using Ki Cho Hyung Sam Bu. Then today I traveled to Gyeongju which was the capital during the Shilla dynasty. There are so many mountains to climb, temples, museums, palaces, and other sights to see. It is good to get out of the big city too. I don't have my computer with me and I forgot the plug for my camera so I will not be able to post pictures untill I return to Seoul. I will try to keep the blog updated with new entries now that I am traveling around the country.

Week III: Green tea and So Ju

I have now settled in to more of a routine here in Korea, and the time has begun to speed up. A day in the life of me consists of waking up a little before 6:00am to catch the subway and be at the Do Jang and ready to train at 7:00am with Hong Sa Bom Nim. We train till about 9 or 10 and then I return to my hostel to do some homework/sleep/run erands or I go sight seeing to one of the many sights in Seoul until 1:00pm when I have language class for two hours. Then I get some lunch and study until I have to go teach the kids at 6:00pm and train in the adult class at 7:30. After Soo Bahk I usually get some dinner with the Soo Bahkers or some other friends. On the weekends I have been going out a lot and then sleeping during the day or hiking and visiting temples. Yesterday, I went off exploring in the mountains by myself and stumbled upon some really amazing experiences. After coming out of the subway it took me a good thirty minutes of wondering the streets of a relatively poor neighborhood just to find the trail. When I finally did find one there signs in Korean directing me to some temples. I hiked up the steep road and after about 40 minutes came upon a pretty small temple that was not a tourist attraction but an actual temple. The monk was a little surprised to see this young foreigner wondering onto the temple grounds. We greeted eachother and after I looked around for a while he invited me in of some delicious green tea flavored with other herbs and flowers. I wished so much that I could speak Korean, he tried to ask me some questions and all I could do was look confused. It was still pretty amazing. Then we exchanged goodbyes and I left in search of another temple. I followed the signs and the path began to narrow and steepen, eventually I found myself climbing an extremely rocky "path" with a little stream running next to me. When I reached the top there were some shabby old buildings and a monk sitting in a lawn chair. He greeted me and motioned for me to look into this little cave where I could hear chanting and drumming. There was some sort of ceremony going on in there. Once again I wish I could communicate and ask all the questions I had. I decended the mountain and made my way home. It is amazing what you can find and stumble into if you just go exploring by yourself. If you are guided by someone all the time you are limited to their experiences and you will never have a unique experience, this is what I have discovered at least. Last night I went out with my Bolgarian friend and some of her friends, drank So Ju and sang kareoke all night, such is life in Korea. The Korean holiday of Ju Sok is tommarrow so I have three days off of school and Soo Bahk it feels good to rest a little. Wishing you were all here!

Week II: The Melting Pot

As usual so much has happened in, what probably seems like to everyone back home, such a sort period of time. Sunday I hiked Kwanaksan Mountian, with the Soo Bahkers which is on the southern borders of Seoul. As is the case everywhere in Korea, there were so many people, it was rediculous. I have never seen so many people on a hiking trail in all my life. It was very fun and I got to know some of the Soo Bahkers better. On Monday, in Soo Bahk, Lee Dong Gyu Sa Bom Nim came and taught, which is a rare occurance, and a British Ee Dan showed up. He will be training at the central do jang for a year and it is nice to have someone to relate to. He introduced me to some people at his school and I have never met such a diverse group of friends. Koreans raised in Austria, France, and the US, a German, a Swiss, and Argentinian who moved to the States when he was 10 and a Korean. They were a crazy bunch. Also I have befriended another American who trains who is a red belt. He is married to a Korean girl and they are a fun couple to hang out with. This weekend I went out with them and a bunch of thier friends on Friday and on Saturday they had a party at their house. Partying in Korea is very intense, the night isn't over until aroung 6:00am. I have also befriended a hungarian girl at my language school who is married to a German professor. The amount of cultural diversity I am experiencing is incredable, and despite our differences we can still relate as humans. During the week I saw some of the sights Seoul has to offer including Jogyesa temple and Gyeounbokgung palace. The temple was a beautiful temple just wedged in on a random block, I just went in, bowed 8 times and meditated for a while soaking in the energy of the place. Time has begun to speed up a little but it still feels like a week is a month. I have found Koreans to be strange creatures in their views of the world and other people. They love and hate foreigners at the same time and although they have an obssesion with learning English no one seems to speak it. I am still struggling a bit with learing the language and accepting how different Soo Bahk is over here. Untill next time, Anyeong (peace)

Week I: Lost in Translation

My first week in Seoul has been eventful and interesting. I am training regularly in the morning and evening and going to language class in the afternoon. The language is very hard to learn and use because there are different words and endings depending on the levels of respect you need to show the person. However, I think I will be semi proficient in communicating essential things by the end of my travels. I hiked to the top of Namsan Mountain on Friday and could see the whole city. It is so huge, highrises and buildings as far as the eye can see, more then 10 million people all surrounded by majestic tree covered rocky mountains. It takes about 2 and a half hours to get from one side of the city to the other by subway. Luckily everything I need to go to is realatively close, less than 40 min. It has been frustrating to not be able to communicate or understand people. Even those who speak english do not understand me unless I talk slowly and half the time I don't know what they are talking about. The Sa Bom who teaches the evening class is the hardest to understand and speaks very little english, it is always a guessing game trying to figure out what he wants me to do or change. I have learned how to say "don't do that" "stop it" and "be quiet!" in Korean which has made the kids class a little better. It has been fun training with the other foreigners (that is what they call us over here like we are aliens) and helping them with their material. On Friday night I went out to the bars/clubs with some American friends in this district with a lot of Universities, it was crazy, so many people and over 150 bars. There was a live band playing raegge/funk in the park. "No woman no cry" in Korean it was awesome. Always thinking of everyone who has touched my life back home and I miss you all.

First Days at the Central Do Jang

Saturday, it was raining, I went to the central do jang, followed the signs upstairs, and come to find two korean men in a damp office with fake wood wallpaper on the walls and domed ceilling. This is the center where we all come from. The central do jang is so Korean, the wood floor for the training hall is bowed from years of moister and use, the dressing rooms smell like sweat and raw sewage (as do a lot of places in Korea) and the organized classes are not all that organized. But you've gotta love Korea. I spent the day with these men who I later have come to know better and they took me in as family. On Monday I trained with Hong Sa Bom Nim, the head of the central Do Jang, in a semi private class. He is going to do this special class three days a week for me and other Dan members. In the evening I came early to watch the kids class but I ended up teaching it and now I am the teacher of this group from now untill I don't know when. I thought it was hard to teach children when I could communicate, now I can't even tell them to be quiet or stop hitting eachother, Igo igo (Korean for Oui/Hy corumba). I taught again on Tuesday and it was a little better. The adult class consists of mostly foreigners, some Australians, Americans, Bolgarians etc. They are all lower ranking (white, yellow, green) but it is fun to have people to talk to and relate being in a strange land with. The training is hard and there are many things about my technique that need a lot of work, I feel like a white belt again and a little astranged. Korea is much different from the US as is Korean Soo Bahk Do. Communication is a constant struggle but I think it will become easier the longer I am here. Chal Je Buseyo (good night)

Arival

After 24 hours of travel from my Grandpa's house in Santa Maria California I finally arived in Seoul, Korea, a city alive with traffic, commerce, and the blending of cultures. I made it through customs with no problems, found the bus I needed and made my way down town to Namsan Hostel my new home for the next 3 months. One of the people at the hostel met me outside where my taxi dropped me off and led me to my room that is about the size of my closet at home, but it is enough. The hall and rooms remind me of a ship from the carribean and the bathrooms have a showerhead with a drain in the floor, no separate tub or shower, it's kind of cool. I wandered the city today, signed up for my language classes and tried to find a sim card for my phone with no luck. The subway is easy to navigate and amazingly clean (much nicer than NY). I find it very empowering that a small town Colorado girl like me can ship herself half way around the world to one of the most densely populated cities and function perfectly well, I have found the communication barrier to be trying at times. It is also enlightening to be the only white person in a sea of Asians with everyone looking at you like, "are you lost?"