The Best Adventure EVER!

Today started out as any Saturday does.  I headed to the commissary when it opened to avoid having to drive in the CRAZY Saturday traffic.  (Side note: Everyone here runs red lights and speeds.  Being American I know this is wrong and don't do it.  Today on my way home from Post, though, I was feeling like taking a risk, so I ran a red light that wasn't protecting an intersection, just a crosswalk, that had no one in it.  Just as I get in to the crosswalk, under the light, I notice a cop flipping a U-turn and I think "shit!" Well, the cop didn't blink an eye and crossed three lanes of traffic illegally and parked.  Only in Korea, right?)

Then after putting our groceries away I took my Calculus I pre-test, that I have been procrastinating for like a month... and passed it.  CAKE!

While I was taking the test Adam packed our camera and we headed out to Mt. Palgong.  The leaves are in their peak foliage color and we were told that there was a festival PLUS the other day when I took a drive up there I had seen a sign for a temple we hadn't been to, Dorimsa (도림사).

We drove up the rode to the temple and found a haven in the mountains.  It was beautiful up there and even better is it wasn't full of tourists... there was just us, the monks and a few worshipers.  It was so serene.  We wandered around the temple taking pictures and then about 30 minutes in to our exploring a man started yelling at us in Korean.  At first, I thought he wanted us to go away and stop taking pictures and then it dawned on us that he wanted us to come in to his office.  We realized he was monk.  He spoke very little English (he called his computer guy in who spoke a lot more English in to help for a few minutes) and we speak even less Korean but we sat, drank tea, ate persimmons and attempted to communicate.  We came to find out that he was 57 years old.  He paints amazing pictures and he gave Adam one because the man in it had round eyes like Adam.  He also plays the drums and took my phone number and email so that his assistant can call us when they schedule the next time he plays the drums.  We also found out that he had served in the Korean Marines for 3 years 2 months.  It was quite fascinating to sit in there with him drinking tea.  One of the best experiences of my life.

Here are a few of our pictures from the temple and our tea with the monk.

Each stack of stones represent a wish someone made.

Adam and our new friend, the monk, 스님 (Seh Neem).

Here is a BIG version of the wishing rock stacks.

스님 (Seh Neem) plays this drum.

Thanks for reading!!