Chuseok

Korean Thanksgiving is here and I've been having a great time so far.  Friday and Monday night I ended up in Itaewon with friends.  Those not familiar with this place, it's a little area of Seoul where all the foreigners go to party, shop or eat familiar food from home. It's a cool spot...lots to do.  Friday eve I watched some bands play, which I totally loved. Nothing better than live music and tons of drinks! FUN:)

Saturday I went on a temple stay at Hwagyesa Buddhist Temple with a friend.  I wanted to try it out and so we booked a 24 hr stay.  It was beautiful...lots of pretty views, and lots to do.  There was a small group of us, half Koreans and the other half foreigners (like moi). We hiked (actually slowly walked, like tiptoed) through this walking path. The idea was to be 'one with nature' (hence the extremely slow walking), and made it to this incredible view of the surrounding area. (Pics to come).  We then toured the grounds and got a clinic on Buddhist ideology.  We learned how to meditate and the purpose (which I am still kinda unclear about lol). I think the purpose was to uncover who the TRUE SELF is...which is to be enlightened...hmmm...best not take my word for it haha. I suggest google!

Anyhow, not only did we learn to mediate, and do this at very odd hours of the day (4:30am), but we also did this whole bowing routine where we basically admitted to all of our faults and wrong doings (me: smoking, drinking, gossiping, lusting cheese, eating meat again...polluting your minds with false info about Buddhism), AND...was FORGIVEN for all of the above. CLEAN SLATE!! Lovely!

Monday found me at Olympic Park with two lovely ladies where we took pics of ourselves inappropriately with statues...and searching the park high and low for this cool bike that we could ALL ride at the same time. But no luck...couldn't find the bike and decided that ice cream would be a better option than riding a cool bike anyhow:) Olympic Park is a pretty cool spot! I actually really enjoyed the statue park and thought the scene to be a beaut. Pics to come. (Keep forgetting my drive with all my pics on them lol). The evening brought us to Itaewon again, where we did nothing but eat and drink the rest of the afternoon and evening away. We found this one really cool pub called "Rocky Mountain....tavern" (I think).  It's a CANADIAN pub and I LOVED IT!!! Lots of canadian team jerseys everywhere, TV's with sports on and lots of yummy food and drinks.  I indulged in an extra spicy caesar, beer and french fries - YUMM-O! Heading there this Friday again actually for Sam's bday...but instead of taking the subway home, we have decided that we will be spending the night at this all night sauna. (right next door to the canadain pub) I'll let you know more about that once it happens, but these saunas are an inexpensive place to stay once the subway closes down for the eve. It's like $7 a night for a stay.

Anyhow...gotta run!