Foreigner day at a Buddhist temple in Busan

I spent the day today at a Buddhist temple in the city of Busan. Busan is the second largest city in South Korea and I'm living in one of its suburbs. The temple I went to puts on a special talk/activity day for foreigners. Today we heard from a Zen master who was originally from Philadelphia. He's been living all over the world since then at Buddhist centers. His talk was a basic overview of Buddhist philosophy. His talk was interesting and motivating. I think I might look into Buddhism more after hearing from him.

After his talk we had a break. My friend, Karen, and I walked around the temple, drank tea, and ate some snacks. We even chatted with the Zen master in a small group. Then it was time for the activity part of the day. Today's activity was paper lantern making. We made two different kinds of lanterns. The first was the orange one on the right in the photo. It involved "painting" strips of paper with glue and then pressing them onto a metal-wire frame. After letting it dry you can put a candle in it and hang it from a line. I actually have it lit right now in my apartment and it looks great!

The other type of lantern we made was called a lotus lantern. It is much more ornate and is supposedly made in honor of Buddha's birthday which is the 21st of May--right around the corner. It is made using the same kind of lantern we had just made but then you glue on the flower petals around the outside of it in order to make it look like a lotus flower. They are actually quite beautiful and surprisingly difficult to make! I had a ton of fun doing it though. During are time there some children who were on a retreat at the temple for a week joined us and made their own lanterns. They were dressed and treated as monks which meant people were not allowed to touch their heads or play with them. They were really cute though!

The ceiling of the temple was covered with ornate painting and hundreds of paper lanterns. The colors were amazing! It was such a bright, warm, and welcoming atmosphere. The pictures I have don't do the temple justice.

The papers hanging from the lanterns have wishes written on them.

First few weeks in Gimhae

I'm sitting in my apartment on a lazy Sunday. The sun is out and shining and I'm about to hit the shower and do some grocery shopping. I wanted to let you all know a little bit about what I've been up to the last few weeks though. It really shouldn't take long because mostly I've been at work.

Wonderland is a pretty fun place to work. I enjoy all of my coworkers and most of my students. Some are just a bit of a challenge. I work most days from about 10:30am to 7:30pm although I tend to go in early just to get comfortable and be sure I have everything ready for the day. I'm teaching kindergarten, elementary, and middle school. I have 2 kindergarten classes for and hour each and then the elementary and middle school students for 40 minutes per class. There are days where I don't know how I'll fill those times but most days I actually have to give some homework to the older students. My coworkers are all fun and we've hung out on the weekend and evenings.

The most challenging thing has been getting used to living alone again. I'm used to living with people so I tend to have the TV on or some music playing in the background just to make it feel like other people are here. The language barrier also makes for a bit of a hurdle when going grocery shopping. I'm hoping to find a Korean cookbook so I have a better idea of what to buy at the grocery store. Ovens aren't very common here. Most people have a gas stove top and a small fridge. Some have the luxury of a microwave or small toaster or convection oven but I'll have to wait until I've made a bit more money before I can afford those.

I went for a hike with some friends the last two weekends. It's been really nice to get outside and actually experience spring again! It's been a long time since I've had the hope of summer since I spent last summer in South America where it was actually winter. It's getting pretty humid already and from what I hear it is only going to get worse. I grew up in Minnesota, though. I can handle it.

I promise to get some pics up soon!

Hope all are well!

Zach

http://english.visitkorea.or.kr/enu/SI/SI_EN_3_2_1.jsp?cid=293196