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.