This past weekend was a Blast

I decided to stay home in Miryang this weekend instead of venturing off to the Busan Film Festival with Kim, Dan & 3 other English teachers. I exercised a lot, read, did laundry hiked, etc. On Saturday night I rode my bike to the Health Center and jogged around the track several times; I stopped at watched people playing tennis on these clay courts underneath the lights, and as I was walking back, these 4 young Korean children invited me to play baseball with them. I became the designated pitcher, some of them could hit the ball well, others just swung and missed. I got a chance to bat and was able to crank some balls deep in the outfield for a home run ( I had to run the bases of course b/c there was no fence). After playing baseball, we switched to soccer. Now it has to be well over 20 years since I've played soccer, so I was kinda worried that these kids were going to smoke me!!!! It was three on two and I spent the whole time running up & down the field like a maniac trying to kick the ball in the goal. I scored several times and our team won by a score of 5 - 4. It was very very fun and was excellent exercise. The next day I was supposed to meet some teachers from my school to take a bus ride to a nearby famous Temple for a vigorous hike, but I was too late for the bus (what else is new) so I decided to walk along the river on my own. I crossed over this huge cement dam that runs across the river where people can swim during the summer time. I went up these steeps stairs to a small Buddhist Temple were I walked around and went inside to meditate for approx.. 30 min. After my meditation, I was invited by one of the monks to have lunch with them. There were about 15 people gathering around this long table, where we all sat on the floor and helped ourselves to this lovely (mainly vegetarian) Korean feast. We ate, eggplant, string beans, carrots, potatoes, etc. It was so delicious. One of the monks showed me a magazine from the Oct 2007 issue of CEO magazine in which there was a picture of him & the Temple community. This man was a very warm, friendly, loving and caring person who opened his arms to me in a most sincere and heartfelt way. I really enjoyed myself there and got to take a picture with them. It's been a while since I've uploaded pics onto my Flickr site, and I have lots of new great pictures to upload soon. It was a great, quite, and peacefully weekend here in Miryang.
On Monday I invited my friend Terry from California over to watch some on the football games from Sunday. We woefully watched the Jets lose once again, this time to the Giants. I'm glad I'm not missing much of an exciting football season at least as far as being a Jets fan goes.
Wednesday after the weekly volleyball game, I went out to dinner with 5 other teachers from my school. They took me out for a traditional Korean style restaurant where we once again sat on the floor with these little table close to the ground. We had Delicious Bu Chim Kay, a vegetable patty with lees, green onions, squid, shrimp and light egg batter yum yum; We also enjoy Bi Bim Bap; Rice, noodle, veggie, egg, spicy dish, and this awesome soup with homemade dough, green pumpkin, red peppers, etc,,,,,it was DELICIOUS !!! I also had traditional Korean Rice wine for the first time tonight!!! It was very nice, a lil sweet tasting; I learned a lot about the animosity and hatred the Koreans have for the Japanese because of them annexing Korea and colonizing Korea for a period of 35 years from 1910 until August 15th 1945 (Korean Liberation Day-another national holiday & a day off from school). The Koreans are a very proud, nationalistic, resilient, extreme, intense, fiery & aggressive group of people. I'm reading a great book called "Korea Unmasked" that explains the history, politics, religious beliefs,values & temperament of Korea and it's people. A very fascinating read. Did you know that Koreans have the highest rate of stomach cancer in the world b/c of all the hot, spicy food they eat?? Talk about being fiery, and intense...it shows up literally everywhere in their culture.
Until next time.

Live With Passion - Darren