This Is What Happens When You Engulf Yourself (Completely) In Korean Culture...

I had a few holidays to burn off in the next few months and I really wanted to take the plunge and completely cut off ties from my western friends and Western life (what very little remains in Korea) while learning about something Korean that I was interested in. I was going to live with the Buddhist Monks for a week in the temple (I'm not joking) then I was made an offer that I couldn't refuse. A family and close friends of mine (the Kim's) who own and operate a tea art store and also handmade tea in the mountains (I run with interesting crowds here in Korea I tell ya) were going up to Seoul for a week to the International Tea Festival- they gave me the open invitation to go with them. They can only speak limited English and I only very limited Korean so I would really be caught in the thick of it!! I thought it sounded great as I have developed a deep love and appreciation for Korean Tea and yearned for more knowledge. I was to leave with them the morning of Tuesday June 26th at 11:00- here's how the first few hours of the trip went...

I met them at the tea shop just in time to watch them pack as much tea as humanly possible into a white beater mini van and clean the tea shop from top to bottom (it was going to be a crowed ride to Seoul). After departing in a rush 3 hours late, our white beauty broke down filled full of tea that had to make it to Seoul tonight. EEEEE! We had just pumped a 500 won coin into the toll road machiney-thingy and then the van just completely stalled and wasn't going to budge even when the tow truck guy tried his magic on it. So Mr. Kim went with the tow truck guy to the shop in town and we did what all good, old school, conservative Koreans do when things go bad...

We hitched a ride to the temple and prayed to Buddha!

Well actually they prayed to Buddha and I got lost in what seemed like hours of uninterrupted, completely still seated Korean style Zen mediation (I've been doing that a lot these days).

When I came to I was higher than a kite and loving life. After eating some watermelon in the hot-as-balls summer heat with the head monk of the temple and some of the other old Buddhist ladies, and discussing ways off improving zen mediation (the head Buddhist monk apparently speaks good English and gave me a very zen-like answer to my question "What is the best way to practice zen?")...

The time was 4:18 and we were finally off to Seoul 5 hours and 42 minutes late...