It sucked.  In case you were wondering.  Went off somewhere 4 hours away by bus.  Noraebanging, mekjuing, and dancing by 2pm.

Dinner of roasted pig followed by hours of more drinking, singing, and dancing only to be topped off with what my boss called a Christmas party where all the teachers sat in a circle and sang Korean carols and asked me to blow out candles on the cake.  Then we ate cake and 번데기.  What a combo.

(FYI, 번데기 = silkworm pupae= GAG!)

On and on this went until we passed out in crowded rooms with heated floors way too hot to handle.  Up early for fish soup breakfast and back on the bus for noraebang as we went to a colleagues wedding.  Didn’t actually go to the wedding. Just the reception and ate the food as we watched the bride walk down the aisle on the TV in the corner.

Korean style.

My kids called me out on my education today when I tried to teach them about the planets, including Pluto.

Yeah, I know it has been downgraded from a planet to a star.

But, they insisted on only 8 planets and then asked me, “What school, Teacher?  No Harvard? No Oxford?”

Doc: Lori, you know Tiger?

Lori: Tiger the animal, or Tiger the golfer?

Doc: Tiger golf.

Lori: I do.  And, boy is he in trouble!

Doc: Trouble?  No.  Just fun. He fun guy.  Have fun with women.

Lori: Ok.

Doc: So, Lori.  If Tiger proposed you what would you say?

Lori: Proposed?

Doc: Ask you to his bed.  What would you say?

The other day Liz and I combined all our classes and popped in 2000 movie version of How the Grinch Stole Christmas.

When Kelly’s students told her what we did that day, they explained to her how they watched the movie with the green gorilla who hated Christmas.

Right now I feel like that green gorilla.  Counting down to ‘Nam…can’t come soon enough.

This weekend is another of our shcool’s teachers’ retreat.  Here is what I know so far:

1) I MUST go.  I wasn’t asked if I’d like to go.  I was pretty much told I HAVE to go.

2) I also MUST prepare some sort of entertainment or act to put on for the teachers.

3) I am told I should ‘dress sexy.’

I feel like I am being pimped out.

Buddha carved into the side of the mountain at Golgul Temple

I spent my weekend at Golgul Temple, tucked away down in Gyeong Ju in the southeast of Korea.  Home to one of the oldest and most historic Buddhist ruins in Korea it was a great place to go and live like a Buddhist monk for a day.

We arrived just in time for a vegetarian Korean meal where our only rule was to eat all that we took to avoid 9 years of bad luck.  After a quick change we were off to the temple’s gymnasium for some chanting, meditation, and a 90 minuted Sunmudo training session.  This ancient zen martial art is a specialty at this temple as the monks practice Sunmudo as way of uniting mind, body and spirit to reach enlightenment.

While they were enlightened, we looked like morons trying to mimic their jumps, kicks, and graceful movements all the while giggling our heads off instead of maintaining the intended state of mind.

Lights out at 10pm for a quick sleep before being by a monk walking through the hills at 4am chanting and hitting his wooden block.  It was the most peaceful way to wake up I’ve ever experienced.  In the cold, dark morning, we hiked up the hill to the temple for our 4.30am meditation and chanting session in an unheated room.  Forty-five minutes of sitting in this uninsulated temple up in the hills during the start of a Korean winter didn’t make for ideal meditation conditions.

We followed this with walking meditation and then straight to a ceremonial Buddhist breakfast where once again we were taught to appreciate the little things.  Here we ate everything that we took and then learned to clean our bowls with a piece of kimchi and some hot water that we had to eat and drink when finished.

One of the monks teaching us how to clean our bowl after we eat. He told us beforehand as the meal was to be eaten in total silence.

A traditional tea ceremony with the coolest monk I’ve ever met who answered all our questions from ‘can you marry‘ to ‘aren’t you starving?!?’ led in to some touring around the temple grounds before our last meal at lunch time.   Once we had finished and packed our bags, just about everyone was ready to head to McDonald’s and undo all we had just been taught.

Our monk and his assistant preparing for the tea ceremony.

Experiencing life as a Buddhist monk for a day didn’t take me to enlightenment, but it was enlightening.

Lots and lots of yummy Korean food.

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These hills are actually tombs for the kings and queens of the ancient Korean Shilla Dynasty.

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Fresh water at various temples around Gyeong-ju supposedly good for the stomach.

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A bell atop the hillside at one of the temples.

I decided to brave the Korean hair salon again.  I didn’t have a problem with it until I came home and saw all your horrified looks at my literally yellow hair, so this time around I was going to go for a different approach to my color.  Fingers crossed it wouldn’t elicit the same response it did a few months ago.

So, I headed over to my saloon and sat in the chair with my magazine picture of what I wanted done.  In a lovely combination of Konglish, my crappy Korean skills, and my stylist’s crappy English skills I believe we were on the right page to achieve coloring like this:

Now, I could go into detail about how the second he started to paint my hair I knew this was going to go awry.  Or when my scalp was burning after the second round of color I was certain we had a miss communication and continually tried to clear it up to hear resounding “No, it’s ok. It’s ok.”

It wasn’t ok. I looked like a 100Watt light bulb.  It was bright…way bright.

The next day, I was telling my Korean colleague about the mishap and she offered to call and talk to the stylist.  He told her, “Ah, I did the exact opposite of that.”  Uh, yeah.

So, I went back the next day.  Again, showed him the magazine and hoped for the best.   Certainly it would be good since my colleague told him what I wanted and we had the picture (again) and everyone was on the same page.

Three hours later and my hair was on the complete opposite end of the color spectrum. But, not so much one solid color.  More like an orangey root system that fades into a light brown that cascades into a dark blackish color.

Thus, a lead into the ‘complements’ received today:

-Oh, Teacher.  Hair changey? Really?

-Your hair.  You look old.

-Teacher!  You Korean now!

-At least it’s better than the blonde you had yesterday.

There really is some wonderful food here in Korea.   It’s not all crappy cafeteria food and dried squid.

I love to eat and I actually love to eat Korean food.  I came across this blog written by a couple of foodies who love to eat food too and do a great job of explaining and taking pictures just for you.

So, for your inquisitive minds wondering what I’ll be eating this winter, I’m linking you to the people at ZenKimchi who have nicely listed together some great Korean winter foods.

Check check it out!!