Happy Chuseok!

last saturday was chuseok, which is like the korean version of thanksgiving, only without the pilgrims. it is on the full moon and is to celebrate the harvest season. my school gave us friday off, and there was also no yoga class on sunday, so that's plenty of reason to party. ....and party i did.
it was a fun-packed, long weekend that began on thursday night at my place. about 7 friends came over for some dinner and drinks. after dinner we headed out on the town in hongdae where we bar-hopped, dancing the whole way, until dawn. we crashed at a jimjilbang (a rather lame one, but w/ a decent sleeping room) until 2pm (yikes!).
we were supposed to go hiking friday morning, but it was already late, and we were feeling a bit rough...so we opted for a pancake* brunch instead, which was a delicious idea (*for those of you in korea, butterfinger pancakes rock...try the cream cheese and mozzarella ones. YUM!).^^ we were all pretty wrecked and in need of real sleep, but it was such a nice & sunny day out, we decided to go chill by the han river and catch the sunset. the riverside park was a nice idea ... barefeet in the grass, cartwheels .... we played a little kickball and then after the sunset we frolicked w/ some sparklers and then laid on the ground to admire the big moon. later, back at my place, a new couchsurfer arrived (another german dude) for the night. so we all went out in the neighborhood to introduce him to korea: a dinner of kimchi, korean pancakes, military stew (yuck), jumakbap (seasoned rice balls), a korean egg roll & the crappy korean beer (cass). after dinner, we found a noraebang (singing room) around the corner, which we happily occupied for a couple of hours. it was a slumber party that night in my box-like apt. 4 on the floor and 2 in the bed.

saturday morning, we were off to do a temple stay just north of seoul in a town called suyu. i've been wanting to do this for a while, and chuseok seemed like the perfect opportunity to spend 24 hours as the monks do. so, you'd think that this would be a very calming and, perhaps, enlightening experience...but man, i will just say that it is probably one of the more difficult things i've done. the temple, as most temples go, was beautiful and serene, located at the base of a mountain on the edge of bukhansan national park...we could hear the sound of the monks chanting, accompanied by the clack of the wooden bell, as we arrived. the temple was quite busy on chuseok morning, as practicing buddhists come to pray and honor their ancestors. there was also a handful of other foreigners registering for the temple stay program. our schedule during that 24 hour period consisted of: waking at 3am, meditation (6 times for a total of 5 hours), chanting (once per day), bowing (108 times, at 4am), hiking, working (cleaning), eating and sleeping. i've been practicing with meditation quite a bit lately since starting my yoga training course, so i thought i'd have some sort of breakthrough at the temple. nope. first of all, we never meditated for less than 45 minutes at a time, which is longer than i've ever made myself sit still in the lotus position (hard enough as it is). secondly, it's not the easiest thing to focus on one thing and/or try to think about nothing for that long. i actually did fine for the first 4 times...no amazing experiences or anything, but i was comfortable and calm enough and, surprisingly, not sleepy throughout and it was quite positive. the last two times were just brutal, though. i had a strained neck muscle all weekend and that started to really bother me, and my hips had simply had enough of that position. it was pretty much like torture. but i survived. we all did. :) big respect to all the monks in the world. i don't know how they do it day in and day out. the head monk at this temple was one of the happiest and most energetic people i've ever met...and he claims that he only sleeps for about 2 hours each night and that is all he needs. i guess the trick is to learn how to meditate, and to the point that it is like the best thing in the world (cuz that's really the majority of what they do). i'm really glad to have had that experience, but i was completely spent afterwards...i crashed for a good 12 hours the next night. check that one off the list of things to do in korea. :) i'll continue to meditate on my own...and once a day will do me just fine. :)