Windy Winter

Here I am again… One shiny season fully upgraded. Windy winter has made his entrance through a new time level. The nice thing about living in a Korean temple and mostly outdoors is that you can notice time difference by the expressive seasons. To be honest, the cold isn’t that nice, but at least you get a fresh (frozen) nose (always look positively). Especially when we do the walking meditation (walking from top to down gate) at 5:30 AM and do about 1000 meter (about 30 minutes) walking at the pace of a penguin.
4 weeks ago it snowed here for the first time. In Seoul it already snowed several times last month. Probably because we are close to the sea and situated southeast of Korea it is a big bit warmer here. (Just for your imagination, Seoul ~ Golgulsa = about 5 hours by bus. Almost the same distance from Amsterdam to Paris). So after this small snowstorm, instead of doing walking meditation we had to sweep the snow aside on the trail where we normally do the penguin thing. It took us some longer and because off all the hard efforts one of the handmade twig brooms got demolished. Happily by sweeping our way to the dining hall we got warmed up by being active and after it we could have some warm breakfast.

Because that night it snowed pretty much, we also could have some fun with fallen white powder and my first snowfight was an ambush. Juno (one of the flying monks) was waiting for anyone to pass the Sunmudo School. I was the first lucky one and he was busy building a nice bunch of round rockets. When entering him I did some speed snow claying myself and made a sprint towards him to surprise him. My second throw was a direct hit and gave him a nice nose feed. Unfortunately a friend of him also passed and helped, I was trapped. They tried to powder my face with their home made rockets. After improvising a few of them in my face, eyes and nose I counted my changes (that was really quick) and directly run towards the school to save my ass from being ‘snowmanned’.
The next morning more people helped cleaning the road and I think it was a shame that they whipped away most of the snow that prevented us from having some more fun. Actually I already had some visualizing sliding with a sled (or any kind of slippery object) from top to anywhere lower to make total effort from the steep hills we are living in. So for next snowinvasion I have to be more alert and immediately respond to these weather occasions!

This first chapter of my blog was written last week. Actually 1 day after writing this part, the weather Gods wanted to give me an opportunity to let my fantasy run wild and dropped almost half a meter of snow spread over the whole day. This amazing snowfall created a lot of beautiful pictures and fun to play in this white ocean of cold powder. Me and some guys scanned the area for something to slide on and finally found a metal plate. After washing it and put a towel on it, we slide our way down from a steep part of the hill. Every time we passed a gutter we crashed and rolled or slide the way down further without our creative sled. A metal plate can be sharp too, so after crashing without my gloves on I made a deep cut in my thumb. When I taped my thumb, the other guys were halfway down where it was less steep. Finally we noticed that most fun was up but were too lazy to go up again in the slippery snow. We decided to have a snowball fight and tried to hit each other as hard as possible in the face or neck. When it got later I decided to make a 33 minute snowman and some other guys helped me.

Temple people respond quickly to all kind of situations and probably the Head master ordered a bunch of bold headed hats to clean the road. This was useless because the snowflakes were as big as giant cornflakes and came with tons down in our area. So when they asked us to help we just ignored them and threw snowballs at them. Finally we ended up in a small battle where they finally had to continue the Headmasters orders. Later on they had to use the temple crane to clear the road. It took maybe 2 days and certain parts of the road became really icy.

As the cold weather is on ruling matter I feel less motivated in different ways. I skipped a few Sunmudo classes in a row and overslept my first 2 times, though on Christmas and New Years day. I think it’s more that I missed the holiday feeling and missed my family in those days. I also love to walk in my jogging pants all day and watch some feel good Christmas movies and have a cozy gourmet or fondue at night with friends. At the temple it was just like any other day. Happily we got lucky because I asked Master Boorim what time the Christmas party started? After looking surprised for a bit he answered ‘if you want you can join the junior monks with Karaoke’, the only condition was to buy a lot of snacks. After this answer me and Heather didn’t had to think too long and joined them after diner.

This year was the first time I celebrated New Year in Korea. I noticed the temple is not the place to have a big party or expect a lot of activity at the countdown. The only program we had at night was doing 1080 bows. Normally the bows are used for punishment for the kids, so I didn’t really understand the fun of it. Next to that it is a kind of daily job for me to do 108 bows every 2 days, so I wasn’t most enthusiastic. So I just skipped this part and watched a movie with some steady temple people. 15 min before noon a handful of people went down and drink a bit and ended up in a mandu shop. It was freaking cold with crazy wind. Me and Chan went back to finish the movie (strange days) and the rest were crazy enough to do a 40 minute walk to get some chicken.

The next morning (06:30) we went out for the beach to see the sunrise and do some small exercise. For this day I had in mind to do a New Year’s dive. In The Netherlands it's a kind of popular and its a good way to start the New Year with good intentions, besides that it's really refreshing! At first I thought I would be too chicken because New Years Eve was mega cold and windy. The next morning the wind was more down and only -3 (instead of -7). As I told other people that it was my intention, they were curious if I still would go… Finally I was like, chance in a life time… and just undressed spontaneously and rushed my way into the ice-cold East Sea.

When I entered the water I didn’t even noticed the cold because I was too busy with running and flounder like a hunted chicken. On my way back I thought, this is too short so I went back one more time to feel the real cold and thought OK enough and sprinted back to hug my towel and dress up fast to prevent freezing body parts.
The funny thing was that another guy joined me a few minutes later. His reason was a box of cookies and he let on his jogging pants and shirt. Still brave and fun and afterwards we shared the cold together! :)

In December a handful of temple friends left and it was quite quit for visitors. Probably because of the cold weather, holidays, diverse diseases and flu’s floating around Korea. Last month we also made like 500 pieces of Kimchi with the whole crew. Everybody in the temple helped. First we collected the cabbages from the farm. This was pretty easy as we were with more than 10 people the job was easily done. We just threw the pieces to each other and finally in our old skool multi van. From the van into the kitchen and in the kitchen they were washed and dried to prepare them with a pepper and garlic sauce layer. This whole workout took us one week and we prepared Kimchi for one year. In a way we are lucky because the last pieces of the former stack were really sour and not really mjummie (in soup it’s great though). Now we got young fresh and delicious Kimchi 3 times a day!

By ending this time consuming work the whole crew got treated by an unlimited lunch buffet. These occasions are celebrated big and most of us ate more than 4 plates of everything you can imagine. We stuffed our pockets and hands full of bread and ice cream and went satisfied into the bus on our way back. Not much later, maybe a few days… the first victim got stomach flu and that night he perished from pain and sweat like a pig. I took a visit to check how he felt. Probably that night he infected me and a few days later I was suffering with cramps and ate hardly a full meal a day. Finally it went from one on another and more than half of all temple people endured a stomach virus. Most of them went to the hospital and the whole contamination lasted for at least three weeks. Happily I was one of the first and ended up in bed for a few days and took me down for a small week.

During last period I also got several different roommates. Most of them were late teenagers (like 18) and have so called difficult personalities. One guy was a pathological liar. He lived in a kind of dreamworld and was at the temple because his mother wanted him to socialize more with Korean teenagers. Besides that he is addicted to movies and using internet (who isn't these days). I noticed he isolated himself from others and didn’t seek for contact with his fellow teenagers. He has Korean parents but himself was born in Germany and lived most of his life in there and also a part in Boston (at least that’s what he told me). Most weird thing was that he acted like he couldn’t speak Korean, but he can! We finally found out because he used my friend's phone and his mother text messaged him back in Korean. I am still thinking about how he can keep up a lie like this for three weeks and fool everybody. He told me he was a forward of a premier league soccer team in Boston and also captain of this team (which is odd because forwards mostly don’t have as much insight as defenders or midfields). As I saw his muscle legs I believed him, but by playing temple soccer he just sucked. His Sunmudo skills were also far from good and complained every day about the temple. He acted like a kind of toddler, was sick or injured most of the time and told me how much he wanted to go home every night. When he slept, he grinded his teeth and the annoying sound went straight through my clay formed earplugs. Sometimes I just threw a pillow at his direction to stop it (and mostly it helped).
Maybe I sound quite negative, but in overall this guy doesn’t have the intention to harm anybody or anything. He even looks very friendly and peaceful for an outsider. I think he is confused by the fact that he looks Korean but feels Western (US/ European) by visiting Korea the second time and has some mental issues that probably is caused by spoiling him too much. So who to blame? In the end we didn’t make a real fight and just said normally goodbye to each other. I think I can understand his situation a bit because even Kyopo's have to get used to full Koreans. I hope he is doing well at the moment, but the only thing I blame him for is that he took my phone! Of course he said he didn’t, but he was the only one who didn’t have one. Sometimes I get crazy by the teenagers here, because some of them have loose hands and you don’t want to blame anybody innocently. Thanks to a Dutch friend living in Korea I got another phone. Ahram, thanks!

His follow up roommate just left last week (actually there was 1 more in between, but he was great). He only was my roommate for a big week, but he had the habit of sneaking out at night and drink, smoke or calm down his munchies (big desire to eat fat snacks). Mostly he came back at night (around 02:00 or 03:00) and woke me up by opening our wheezing door. Other notifications were that he just drunk my water without asking. Probably you think, what’s the big deal? But nowadays all outdoor water tabs are frozen, so you have to get your water at a dispenser and those are only at a few places. Actually I didn’t worry too much about it, because I knew he would only stay for like 10 days as a roommate. Finally he got caught at night and was kicked out (2 nights before the actual date to leave) because of the many warnings and disrespecting temple rules. The fact that he didn’t speak English was a burden because I couldn’t tell him just to stay in the room (I think it’s more that he didn’t want me to understand). At the end we just avoided each other in a certain way and didn’t get to know him really well. We had great fun in the snow though and probably if he could speak better English or me better Korean we could have some nice time. I’ve had a lot of roommates in The Netherlands, but having a roommate here is different because you share one room (and actually a lot more mostly) with each other. If the room is just for him I don’t mind that much what he does with it, but I just can’t live in a messy room or somebody that awakes me during my precious sleep.

Half of December a Dutch friend came by. I know Rachel from Arierang and the special thing about her is that she is really enthusiastic with our beloved organization and joined the board of directors really quickly as a vice president. Her character is really lively, positive, funny and she is always in for some adventure. One of these adventures ended up in this fall program for Adoptees and before she knew it she experienced first time Korea for at least 4 months! In this period many new friends entered her path, learned survival Korean, became a black belt in Taekwondo, learnt to be a Korean master cook, did a lot of intelligent games (with liquids), saw many beautiful spots and most important she visited me at the temple.^^
She was the second Dutch friend that came by for a small visit.

Sandra was the first to explore Golgulsa. She came like a handful of weeks before Rachel. Sandra is one of the most energetic persons I know and talks as fast as she thinks (Her thinking must be faster otherwise there will be stutters in her talking’s). I think she has a kind of plug somewhere hidden in her head to feed her with data… (Like in the matrix) and to process this data she talks like a chipmunk (that’s a kind of squirrel with a voice of a fast forwarded speed tape). My simple processor can hardly catch up with all the chipmunking and just like the sound of all the fast talking’s. I was blessed because Sandra took my job within Arierang and for what I’ve noticed is that she made this position a lot more mature and secure!

For Rachel’s visit it was a bit chaotic, because at the last minute in the morning I was asked by Boorim to join bongsa (community work). The work created by our headmaster was to provide old people from Kalkuksu (fish noodle soup). So the good fellow donated many liters of this fine noodle soup to half frozen halaboji’s and halmoni’s (grannies) to fill up their empty stomachs. The content of this work was doing dishes in some fine fresh weather with a lot of wind and just smile friendly when they brought back their dirty dishes at us when finished (I think it was more deriding us for wearing pink gloves and seeing men doing dishes).
Finally I was 90 minutes late and searched my ass of for Rachel and her friends. The stupid thing was that I couldn’t find them and nobody knew where they were. I looked at every spot except the top, because I wouldn’t expect her there (normally she complains about steep hills and too much activity). After 30 minutes searching I saw her breaking one of the temple rules by smoking at the top of the hill (bad bad girl). The second rule was to be broken by me. Normally everything in the temple is split up for men and women. So I live at a floor only for men (or most of them are just boys). This entrance also says something like ‘highly restricted to women’. Her crew existed of another female and a guy. So I just slipped in with the four of us to drink some Korean Jujube tea and show them my humble room. Here she surprised me by giving some nice Christmas gifts. Real Xmass tree balls (they are still hanging), a Xmass card, a red Busan handkerchief (limited edition) for the cold days, an exclusive silver keycord (she most have heard that I am really save with my keys) and another gift to break some more rules… A real can of Heineken! I drunk it after she left in a fervently way and even though it was warm it tasted great. I felt Christmas spirit all over and I am still thankful for this warm gesture!

So after the short introduction we went for some Archery to shoot some serious… rubber. At first I felt sorry for the bows that were going to be raped by a bunch of rookies. But after like maybe a short half hour they surprised me with their medieval powers. They hit the board several times and almost crashed the bull’s eye with their extreme sharpness. After an hour of playing they had to be back in time to catch the free bus to Busan again. I walked them to the busstop and thanked them for a lovely day. I noticed that it’s really nice to meet familiar people in a place where you are a kind of isolated to the outer world in a certain way. The funny thing about their visit was also that everybody was a kind of interested in my friends, especially when they see some beautiful girls.

The last 3 weeks it was a kind of chaotic at Golgulcamp, this because the winter program for kids started. Every year the temple offers a summer and a wintercamp for tiny terrors between 6 and 16 where they follow certain temple program. In the summer there were around a hundred kids I’ve heard. At that time I also heard it was complete chaos, stress and disorder during camp period.
To give a slight impression of what kind of juveniles we are talking about… In the first week 3 guys escaped from the temple and took a taxi to Gyeongju (45 minutes from the temple) and just run out of the taxi without paying. Finally they got caught and the funny thing was that I heard the story after I saw the guys running half naked (only shorts) bare feet in the snow at night being pushed by a junior monk yelling and waving with a bamboo stick at them. Weirdest thing was that the junior monk also was half naked on his bare foot. Also at night training there was a speech about the incident and we had to applaud… Strange guys here!

Luckily they minimized this winter camp to half size, so finally I was put up with a minimum of responsibility by teaching children from 9 to 16 English Class for one hour. As it was my first time teaching English to children I had to adapt a bit. Korean Kids are really energetic and mostly not really interested in boring teaching. With 25 children it was a kind of hard to keep everyone’s attention (Later I’ve heard that you should be lucky if half the class is giving attention). The first day was a kind of stupid because I prepared the learning materials for small children. So with flashcards for bodyparts they got bored really easily and saw they lost focus quickly. But by giving candy rewards at the end for the best team they got a certain degree of attention. After a while I noticed they like word puzzles and finding words in letter matrixes the most. So I just surfed my way around English teaching websites and printed them out. With self made team names and rewarding them by candy and cookies I got almost 88% of the classes’ attention during my 3 weeks of teaching. This also reminded me when I was that age. I was one of those guys who didn’t pay attention and rather like to talk or just tease the teacher instead of behave like a good student. Happily they didn’t teased me (as if I would let them :P) and ended my last lesson with a spelling test where everybody did his best (because of the candy prices of course). I wasn’t able to build a deeper relation with them because some of the kids only stayed for a week. It was a good experience though, but I am also a kind of happy it’s finished. For now, I can just train in the morning again!

Last writing for now… This weekend Hannah left. Hannah is an 18 year Kyopo (Korean person who was born and raised abroad) girl from Florida and stayed at the temple for 6 weeks. She is a funny little girl that claims to be a professional golfplayer and also likes to play in general too. Especially during our Sunmudo classes I had great fun with her and liked to kick her small behind and pull weird faces at her. On return she really liked to distract me when I was doing orientation for foreigners and pulled weird faces at me while I was explaining how weird this temple actually is. Happily her normal face is funny enough so I just could control my laughing muscles most of the time. Because of her background (Kyopo) and the fact that she is just a great person made it nice to have her around. I am really going to miss her this last month, especially the cookies, candy, toast and hot chocolate she gave me! :P

What?! Last month… Yes time is going fast and according to my agenda I only got one month left at the temple. In this month my big friend Theo will return and schedule will return to normal again. I am still not used by getting up at 04:00, but I created a kind of sleepmode during morningmeditation (05:00) where I can catch up a minimum of sleep. Furthermore … I experienced my first time of snowboarding in Korea and it was great! It went really smooth and this was the first time that I saw more than two Koreans on a slope! I hope the future will change this ^^…

My First Colourfull Fall

It’s getting cold in the early mornings and evenings but my first fall experience in Korea is something great. With great I mean to see the transformation of nature that turns into a colorful ocean of leaves. This tree rich mountain area has become beautiful and the lovely sun shines almost every day the last 6 weeks. Less great was the lately evening training we had a few weeks ago. One crazy junior monk put out his T-shirt at night training which to be happen outside around 19:30 with a 7 degree temperature. By doing this I pointed my finger towards my ear and circled around. When our teacher for that night, Drill Monk (I call him this way because he trains in a kind of military style) saw this everybody had to put off their shirts and do some fine flying kick exercise in combination with some relay racing. I tried to explain that I did some finger stretching yoga, unfortunately he ignored me (off course he did). The funny thing was that he also puts out his shirt (to show off ^^) and we looked like a naked bunch of mixed up mental monkeys in the open wild jumping, crawling and running in the moistures grass field. Luckily the training was a kind of intensive so you wouldn’t notice the cold too much. I hope the veggies and ginseng powder thee I consume every day stay me out of any fanatic flu’s or a snotty sniffer.

Actually this is only one of the many trainings we had (2 times a day 6 times a week). Sometimes it’s much crazier. The heaviest ones are the so called “Hell Hill Trainings”. These will start from the bottom of the temple area and go up all to the top in all kind of different forms. Like walk on our hands while the other is carrying the feet, or jump over each other’s back, walk on our hands and feet (like a gorilla) forward and backward, do flying kicks (forward, sideward and backwards) over the rest of the group while sitting on their knees, jump your way up with one leg while the other leg is on the shoulder of a partner, sprint up a very steep part or walk like a duck. If we are lucky we do also the 108 stairs where you have to do the same stuff on a steep stairway.

Sometimes the stairs is being used for some more creativity like doing pushups every three steps you make or just walking down it with your hands and feet. It’s really fun here and one (or maybe most) of the teacher’s enjoy people suffering (so we can do more bows! Tell you later about the bows). Actually I do like these kinds of trainings and think their funny. One time an assistant teacher told me that I wasn’t training hard enough because I was laughing. This is of course crazy because if you lose fun in it, I think it’s getting too serious. So if this specific person reads my blog… if you want to have a stairway contest I will defeat you and will laugh my ass off anyways (loose or win)! :P

Time is flying here and in a way that is a good sign. If you don’t enjoy a stay time runs slow. It’s almost my fourth month and I didn’t really have time to update my blog, login to Facebook a lot or try to keep up with my e-mail too much. From the last day I wrote at my blog a new volunteer arrived. A nice girl named Heather from Canada with a big bunch of red orange curled hair and some sweet freckles. She lived a few years in Seoul and worked as an English teacher. Besides that she is pretty active in the Sunmudo Art and has her first degree. We can get along just fine and I am happy that she is here. She will stay a little longer then me so I am not deserted with just some Korean jackass juveniles (which are really funny though). We divide our work and I take care of the office work and orientation at Monday, Wednesday, Friday and switch of the Sundays. We are really flexible to each other and in this way I feel lucky I am not fed up with all the work that has to be done here.

As the time had passed I got some more duties. One of them is the orientation (telling about the temple, Sunmudo and how to bow) and the other is guiding the 108 bows. This is like more than half an hour bowing and hitting on a split bamboo stick. The bowing is a kind of delicate and has a deeper meaning. It has to do with human suffering. Buddhists believe that by bowing every day 108 times their sufferings will be cleared and finally will reach enlightenment. I also read that it’s good for your health and joints. For my experience till now I think it is just killing my knees and figured out that counting (even in Dutch) 108 times in combination with bowing can be pretty difficult, especially when you are still sleepy.

A lot happens here at Golgulsa. This is caused by the diversity of all people that live here and the long and short stay visitors of this notorious temple. Actually I met so many people and experienced a lot of weird and hilarious situations these last months that I can write a book about it. All have their story and funny, crazy, sad or ridiculous specific characters. I will describe some favorites in short.
The King of tiny terror is Kim Young. He is a 16 year old boy who can manipulate certain people pretty well and can be very social and humoristic. He likes to swear in English and it sounds very funny. Some examples are motherfather (motherfucker), sun of a beach, asswell (asshole) and buttwikkel (buttlicker). KY was kicked off school and end up for a 3 month stay in this temple. Here he didn’t improve his behavior any better. He likes to smoke and tried to skip a lot of daily templeprogram. Because in the past some bad incidents happened they placed CCTV around certain areas. One of these places is the sesimdang. This traditional temple building is used by longer templestay people where I and also KY sleep (luckily not in the same room!). Sesimdang latterly means; clean our body and mind. Unfortunately this meaning doesn’t help change the attitude of most teenagers here.
Thanks to CCTV KY got busted on mistreating a roommate. When the poor guy left to his parents they found out. He had blue marks all over his body and we were shocked by this fact. After this discovery got to the surface KY could choose, report to the police or become a junior monk for the rest of his stay (3 weeks). This means wake up even earlier, do a lot of work (just become a slave), making many bows every morning, a lot of restrictions like don’t go out on Sundays and off course get a free monk haircut. Finally he chose for the monk option and after that it was very peaceful at the sesimdang. The first period we saw him around with a bold head, nice brown monk(ey) suit and a tab on his chest with the text “I may not talk” we teased him a bit but he could laugh about that. After a week he didn’t laugh that hard anymore. It was really tough for him and he wanted to get out 1 week before his final date. The senior monks here are not stupid and discovered his little escape plan. The punishment was seeable for everybody and to my opinion reasonable. If you agree on a 3 week stay as junior monk because you beat somebody up you can expect some karma back if you want to escape your responsibilities.

Another funny guy is Seok. The first time I saw him I was a bit scared of him. He weighs over 120 kilo has the building of a sumo wrestler and always looks (is) hungry. The reason why he’s here is because he wants to lose weight and prepare for the military service he has to enter coming year. When we had to go up the hill one of the first times for the morning chanting I scared my ass off. He was just sitting in the middle of the road where it was completely dark and almost run into him. A few meters on approaching him he said “good morning” into my face when he was taking one of his many breaks towards the upper chanting room. After that specific morning I just walked on the side paths to avoid these scary unpredictable moments and to avoid any heart attacks.
Actually Seok is a really good guy if you get to know him some better. He also likes to play with animals and bugs and sometimes he accidentally kills them. I think the animals don’t see it as playing and must also scare their ass of when for example a  frog butt get squeezed to see the bubble at his troth.
Ginahn, just came back from the army and is a university student in Architecture. He speaks some Basic English and likes to talk with me to improve his conversation skill. Unfortunately the topics are not that high leveled, we like to call each other all kind of dirty names and mostly say stuff like “Oh no, Oh my God and What the ….. We also have some serious conversations about women and what kind of alcohol we like. The reason why he entered the temple was because he needed some time to think about his life in a way and get more discipline. The last days we talked he said to me he was more motivated for his study after 1 month temple stay and knew now that life as a student will be easier after experience temple life. Waking up was not his strongest and because he smokes and drink(ed) a lot during the military service his body had to adapt to temple features. He left the temple last week but we became Golgulsa buddy’s and we will meet later to finish our deep conversations.

Chan Lee is my translating savior at this temple and also fixed my audio driver problem which was caused by a virus, thank you Chan! :) He lived for 2 years in US and his English is better than half of the French nation (or maybe the whole). He is here for a three month stay because he got a skin disease that just appeared last year. Chan is really easy going and he seems rather intelligent and mature for his age (only 19). He is only a few cm’s taller than me but he eats like 2 times his length. All the people are complaining because if you are too late for a meal he ate most of it. Even though he seems rather intelligent, he mostly reacts a kind of slowly. So sometimes he have to do some translation and I think half of the time he did not get the message and the Master has to tell it again. Probably it’s because he has a kind of long term cold and his brain is full of snort (the yellow liquid soft stuff in your nose). But I am happy he is here and can talk some ‘normal’ English.
One last person for this moment is my first and dearest roommate Theo who already left me a while ago… happily! For normal standards you would think he is a kind of awkward and actually when time passed I figured he really is… but even though he has his weird characteristics, I like him. He has a kind of closed personality and doesn’t talk too much. But being his roommate for like 7 weeks I get to know him a bit better. Like he never cleaned the room in that time, likes to walk around naked and his feet smell like cheap French cheese. The positive thing is that he loves Naruto and other Animation so that gave me more insight of his real mind, which makes it much more understandable and bearable of course^^. Besides that he can be really childish when it comes to imitate fighting scenes with all kind of funny sounds and voices. He is pretty good at Sunmudo and has a second degree in Taekwondo. He lived here for more than 1.5 year and I really admire his discipline and love for this Martial Art and Temple. The more I stay here the better I get to understand the people here. I realize now why he loves this temple so much and why it’s so special. He will come back in January.

So the people described are only a few steady templestay people which are a kind of close to me. Besides them there a lot more temple stay people that I really like and had great fun with. Also the Korean volunteers, teachers, monks and masters are all very nice.

Master Boorim is the multiman at the temple here. He is the right wing of the Head Master and is also the one that can give me punishment if I misbehave or break temple rules. The stupid thing is that I signed a contract for that. Young Bob Sunim (his pseudonym) is a charismatic personality and has a very calm sweet voice. I think his voice works a kind of hypnotizing and talks you into another spiritual dimension and let you do things you normally never would dream of. For example it’s not normal for me to wake up every morning at 04:00. In Netherlands I would ask like at least 300 euro a week for this kind of nonsense. He has the same height as me and smiles a lot and looks very peaceful. But all this is just deceivable, because his moves are like samurai pizza cat and he likes to hit people with a split bamboo stick when not obedient. If his mood is bad we have to do the Hell Hill, so he can feed some energy by seeing us suffer.

Probably you think oh my God, Milan is having a hard time there! Actually I have, I miss my mother and my bed!! Partly joking, all is pretty easy going and even Master Boorim is very nice to me. He has to be otherwise I will talk bad about him to all foreign visitors so he will get a bad notification on the evaluation survey and then he has to deal with BIG Master Monk. So in this way I have some power. I think I have to take advantage of this manipulating influence soon. I really need some more rest and get a good 10 hour sleep.

Happily I don’t have to do the 108 bows every day anymore, so I can update my blog a bit, write some stuff for friends and personal use, answer e-mail and do some updates for web design demands. My Korean study goes with ups and downs. To admit, more downs then ups. My teacher left this week and I only finished maybe 6 units of the first Chapter… pathetic. But with only 1 hour a day, half of the week cancelations because of the sleep catch ups, you can’t do too much. Hopefully with the winter period is getting quieter and get some more time to do some serious studying. But I just got some information that this will not be the case, while I have to teach English to a group of 25 elementary school children for one month! Yes, we never get bored at Golgulsa :).

Last for now… If you think poor Milan is totally locked in the temple, it isn’t true. We sometimes have very nice daytrips and do go out for a nice lunch once a while. After the Martial Art Festival we went for an unlimited buffet lunch where we stuffed ourselves with all that we can’t have at the temple. The good thing about eating almost every day the same is that you are going to appreciate food more. So that one time a week meat or fish taste better than normal. In this way I also think that you get more conscious about what food does to you. Finally after eating meat you feel your body gets tired easily and has to recover in a slight way because it’s all used to the veggies. But on the other hand it has become a kind of habit to poison myself with all kind of serious delicious snacks Korea has like chocopies, potato chips, chocolate bars and other bother your body stuff.
Besides food trips, Koreans love mountain walks, so do monks. Gyeongju is one of the most beautiful nature areas in Korea, so in this case I really love it here. A few weeks ago we had this wonderful trip to Namsan with the entire group where we had a nice picnic with a clear blue sky and amazing variety of fall view.

This blogpart is just a small percentage of what I experience here. There is happening a lot more which caused by all the different Korean and foreign personalities that live here or just visit us. This off course gives also an extra dimension to all what’s happening and in this way you stay social, busy, excited and active every day! Each morning is the start of a surprising and special outcome. Some more than others, but that’s makes it all more interesting…

See you at the next update!

Golgulsa Templestay

It has been a bit more than three weeks now that I arrived at Zen Ghetto Golgulsa, Korea’s most wanted Sunmudo Martial Art temple in the land of the morning calm. Actually it is the only Sunmudo temple that exists. That makes it even more special if you look at the background of this impressive forgotten Martial Art style. You can compare the setting of this temple to Shaolin fighting Monks in China. The historical fighting monks from Korea practiced Sunmudo for a long time. When Korea was invaded by surrounded countries the Government used the monks to protect Korea. After they lost an intensive bloody battle the invaders banned Sunmudo from Korea because it was too dangerous. At the end of the Japanese occupation beginning of 1960 Sunmudo a.k.a. Zen Martial Art was introduced again.

Last week a handful of pro fighting monks from Golgulsa went to China to have some exchanging in experiences of both Sunmudo and Shaolin Kung fu. They discovered that the old traditional Shaolin Monks are on extinction. The old chaps just meditate their way around these days and don’t like to get tired any more. So the traditional fighting temples are being trade in for just Shoalin schools for youngster that want to learn Kung fu.

This temple started the Sunmudo headquarters in the 80’s. I must say this form of Martial Art is very intensive and hard to practice when it comes to flexibility, strength and difficulty of patterns. It has very powerful moves and in combination with Meditation, Yoga and Qi Qong it’s more than just a sport. If you think temple life is boring, you’re wrong. At least at this temple it isn’t. It has around 20.000 Korean and 5.000 foreign visitors a year (daily visitors not counted). Next to like 6 senior monks, there are also around 5 junior monks and two handfuls of Korean and foreign volunteers. The senior monks are like ninja’s. They can jump like monkeys, make a split like if they don’t have any bones and sometimes fly like a squirrel. Most of them train more than 10 years every day. Most of the junior monks will become as flexible and jumpy as the seniors. Some of them already are and will maybe even become better.

My experience so far is very good, it’s beautiful here… I really love the mountain nature, the smell of the forest, the view towards other mountains and green landscapes, the colorful sunsets, the healthy food, the kind people, the intensive trainings and even sleeping on the ground. The only thing I don’t like is to wake up every morning at 04:00 by a false singing monk drumming a wooden bell like an idiot. Besides that the aggressive killer black ninja mosquitos are terrible! These nasty bloodsuckers produce bumps as big as overgrown teenage boobs without nipples. Happily it’s getting colder so they diminish in amount, so do my bumps.

Another specific thing you notice is that there are a lot of children or teenagers here brought by their parents. Some regularly visit the temple every year for a couple of months. Most of them are here to get some more discipline, other for some small delinquencies or youngster that have skin problems and want to get cured from it and then there is me (I am here for all three:)). After one week of orientation the Master Monk wanted to talk to me. His first question was like how long are you going to stay here. I said you needed a volunteer for 6 months at your website, so that’s my goal. Then he answered like, you have to stay for 2 years and become a teacher. I want to start a Sunmudo school in Amsterdam. I became suspicious after this answer, because he didn’t even see me train and it was only my first week here. So would he just ask any idiot that just want to volunteer to become a teacher? I said maybe later, I first do my 6 months period and then we will see. He seemed a bit disappointed but understood my decision (Finally I really like it here, but to live here for a like 2 years or even longer is a complete turnover). He gave me the responsibility to take care of the foreign e-mail and guide foreign visitors during their templestay. When I saw their English version of the web information I offered them my help to replace the PDF file that was over more than 80 megabyte (only 8 pages). My office hours are from 14:00 till 17:00 from Monday till Saturday. I think I am lucky in a way otherwise I had to clean toilets, weep 1008 leaves from the steep path to the top and pick never ending weeds. Now I just can go online for a while and still do some work and do an update once in a while. If you think Milan has got enough time in the temple your totally wrong. I have a tight schedule where the only free time is actually after lunch from 12:30 till 14:00. The last training is till 21:00 but before you are in your room and showered it is already 21:45 and we have to sleep at 22:00. And believe me you need those 6 hours sleep at night! Check my schedule:
04:00 – Wake Up
04:30 – Morning Chanting Service
05:00 – 06:00 Sitting and Walking Meditation
06:30 – Breakfast
08:30 – Sunmudo Training
10:10 – 108 bows, meditation, and tea time
11:50 – 12:20 Lunch
14:00 – 17:00 Office work
17:50 – 18:20 Dinner
18:40 – Orientation
19:00 – Evening Chanting Service
19:30 – 21:00 Sunmudo Training
22:00 – Bed Time (Lights off after 10pm)

So Sundays is rest day, you can do whatever you want between 10:10 and 21:21. Even though smoking and drinking alcohol is forbidden in the temple area, youngster are drinking and smoking outside the temple. I also got seduced by it several times and have to admit that Makoli is really nice with some mandu and pajon! Actually I really like the young people here. The Sundays are to have some fun, shopping, get meat to strengthen after a hard week of training and talk about how crazy the monks are. I also noticed the monks like to drink once in a while. They have this secret hide out where they drink beer and Makoli… They say the Alcohol relax their muscles. So probably when I finished my templestay I really have to relax a lot because my muscles will double up if I keep training here like an idiot.

Before I entered the temple I wanted to talk to my mother a bit better because I didn’t talk to her in normal sense since my arrival in Korea. Only about; food, are you hungry and why don’t you eat more? Where do I go, how long do I stay, when do I leave, why don’t you still talk Korean and don’t take any girls at omma’s crib unless you marry her.
Because I wanted to know more about her family whether she want to tell her own family about me and if she told my Korean father that I was already here for 2 months, I took my dear Bible Teacher David to do some translation. This was the fourth time I took somebody for translation and every time I get to know more. Also every time I hear more I got more suspicious about the relationship with my mother. I figured out that actually she want to commit abortion when she had me and that she never really wanted me. So in this matter she is honest and wants to publish it to me? At this current time I still have a feeling she is not accepting me completely. When somebody is visiting her, she gets nervous and I get a feeling she is ashamed. Also the few times that I spend there I am not always that comfortable. She still yells at me for simple irritations like walking on the bed (actually sleeping carpet), spreading one leg when eating on the floor (imitation lotus position can be very tiring), brush my teeth in the kitchen sink (the bathroom hasn’t one) and buying her gifts (not accepting Buddha gifts because she is Catholic) she don’t want. Lucky enough my little nephew is funny and crazy so I am not bored to death. We play stupid hand games (rock scissor paper) and can you do what I can? Besides that he is a really good dancer ;-).

After Chuseok (21 till 23 – 9 Korean Thanksgiving), I had it for a while. I decided to give us both some more time, space and will surprise her with stupid gifts again around end of February. Happily my father was enthusiastic when I called him and really want to meet me when he is better. But God knows if his broken ass bone gets recovered at all. I just wait till February and who knows. He is not really better then my mother but at least he is acting more in a way he miss me.

Back to some more positive topics… I just arrived back in the Temple for a 5 month in a row nonstop stay. Oh, besides the visit to my mother I really enjoyed Chuseok meeting up with Dutch/ Belgium friends in day and night time. Seoul stays a place where my discipline lose ground easily. Let’s see after 5 months. The question still remains is it that bad to have fun with a bit too much of Alcohol?

For about temple pictures, I hope to shoot some more later. But you can imagine that it’s pretty hard while training yourself and most monks don’t like cameras. Till next update!

Greenpeace, Gathering and Golgulsa

It’s me again… reporting you from humid hot & spicy gangster garlic Kimchi smelling Korea. It’s hot in Seoul and I am happy about it because I like to sweat a lot. Who doesn’t like to be wet by sweat outside and dry yourself at a cool air-conditioner inside a building, subway, taxi or anywhere except outside? Yeah it makes you aware that your body is functioning well. If you possibly get a flu or whatever… just drink/ eat Kimchi, garlic, ginseng, one of the other many Korean health boosters, eat a lot of tasty tzigue’s (filled up soups) or try some breath meditation for a while and flush your flu away.

Last week I coincidentally read an article about air-condition junkies, “airco is an addiction”. The more we artificially keep our cars and buildings cool the warmer the earth get. In the US 15% of the total energy consumption comes from use of airco. This is more than the total energy consumption of Africa! Air conditioning causes damage to the environment by the emission of greenhouse gases and the ozone layer damaging chemicals. The hotter its get, the more airco required - the more emission, the more reheating of the ground, the more airco; a terrifying vicious circle.
I was a polar bear in my former life so to show some respect to my ancient family I don’t put on an air-conditioner anymore unless my tiny butt slips away from my chair because of the small waterfall that creates by body moistures.

But enough about Greenpeace minded topics and weather reports. What happened the last 3.5 weeks? Most joyful of all was the Gathering in Seoul. This 5 day event was organized beyond expectations and respect to all the people who contributed to this mega event! The good thing about it was that you just can do your own thing and if you don’t like it, go to the next program part. The kick off was a pokertournament at the walker hill hotel casino. As I like to play poker at snowboard holidays with my drunken friends or just play online sometimes without money I thought let’s take a shot. Actually my friends often say that I play like an idiot and I always have to get beer because I am out first mostly. At the registration we noticed that we needed our passport to enter the casino (they don’t allow unidentified strangers) so we had to go back to the apartment to let them know we are legal strangers.
When we arrived to enter the groupbus to the casino, we noticed that the bus already left (3,33 min late!). What the… happily taxi’s are rather cheap compared to the Netherlands (10 km = 12 euro)! There we went, towards the casino. The taxi driver was a bit odd (in fact a lot). He talked too much and understood too little (even by Korean Hotel people). After explaining and threatening him to make it time, we made it in time… at the very last minute! Everybody was ready at the tables and we were the last to join. To make a long story short, I don’t play poker a lot but I got 4th of 50+. The first 5 got price money and at a certain point I was chip leader of the final table. After 4 hours playing I got really tired and just ended my play a kind of reckless and lost a bit of concentration. Nevertheless half a million won (around € 333,-) at my first real poker tournament. God watched me and also heard the inner talking that I was happy with fourth place ^^. I will donate half to temple where I will stay because I promised myself.

Other highlights from the Gathering were the crazy group games, the soccer tournament, the show at the temple and the closing party. The games were really funny and you could get a bit more personal with your temporary team members. Finally we did all kind of weird games (like butt bumping, imaginary watermelon eating, chicken wing clap counting, chocolate stick ring pass estafette and count your feet off the floor gymnastics). The best team wins chicken and beer (typically Korean) as a price together. Unfortunately we didn’t win, but had great fun in discovering each other’s talents ^^.

The soccer tournament was killing and confronting towards our health condition! In this kind of weather (33+) you need good stamina, to know that a ball is round and a lot of water to last till the very end of the tournament. In first nobody of the ‘Dutchies’ were interested to join (they are better in drinking games). My mini mission was to form a Dutch team that was brave enough to fight this battle. Arierang members have the ability not to sign up for something they don’t know for sure, so finally I was happy that we formed a team at the very last hour before the match. Looking at our position (we never play regularly together) I was glad we didn’t get slaughtered. I think our offense was our defense. We became partly last, thanks to an own goal. Man of the match of our team, the goalie! He played like spiderman defending his web. Without him we were vanished. Thanks everybody for lasting 4 matches in a row and fought till the very last end! Next time we make a goal! ^^

Before all this I was blessed by a nice Korean family that I know in the Netherlands. Family Lim offered me a place to stay nearby the Gathering location for free! As they know a lot of people in Korea they introduced me to a Christian community in Hwewa (nearby Dongdaemun). The place where we could stay was a big apartment. The original owners immigrated for one week to a honeymoon in Japan. Frank, me and our tour guide stayed there for the week. I really liked the place and I think it’s wonderful that they just offer their apartment to some unknown Dutch foreigners that sound strange and smell suspicious. After the Gathering I could stay at David’s (tour guide) place nearby. In their church (only 5 min walk) I could use some wireless internet and had some new food experiences.

During that period I got some bible study and I must admit that it’s interesting. We talked about missions in life and real importance’s. People nowadays are too focused on making money, career and more selfish reasons. But what if you die and have all these materialistic goodies and power towards other people? It doesn’t count in the afterlife. What is true importance then? According to the bible it’s serving God and life a righteous and a true way. We all have a mission in life and that is to cut of our ego. We have to serve and be helpful to each other and try to life in a harmonious unselfish way. Because there a lot of distractions in this outer world it will not be easy! Probably you think Milan has become a Christian… I believe that the Bible is a book of much wisdom that can lead you to new insights of life and help you to know God/ Jesus better. But I also believe this is only one part of the page. As Buddhism focus more on a practical way. Yoga and meditation are really powerful and you feel direct notion if you practice it. So for me I call myself spiritual though I have a long way to go…

And I am on my way^^! The thing that would let me wait to enter the temple was to fix my F4 Visa. I need a certificate of citizenship and I didn’t pay much attention to it in my preparations. Before I went to Korea I visited the Korean Embassy to arrange my Visa and they didn’t tell me to bring this document. It seems to be important, so after … I think a month I finally get my Visa at Tuesday! I decided to leave Seoul/ Ansan at the 30th of August and first visit another Christian community in the place where the temple is (Gyeongju) and after one day to enter Golgulsa!! I talked to a Dutch friend of mine who visited the temple there and he told me it’s beautiful with a lot of things to lose and gain some energy. I am really looking forward to that period!! For now I am just jogging my way around here and get some free outdoor exercise.

I really want to go and so some wakeboarding next week on the Han River. I’ve heard it’s really polluted, but more reason to do my best to stay on the water :). My stay here almost enters a new phase… the actual reason why I wanted to go to Korea so badly.




Keep you posted!

First 3 weeks...

For the people that didn’t knew... I am off for at least more than a half year to South Korea (probably come back around March). One of the reasons why I took this decision was a volunteering option to teach English at a Martial Art temple in Gwonju (old shilla dynastie) located in the South East of Korea. My fine roommate asked a Korean friend to search for a templestay and the result was beyond my expectations. A Temple where they practice Qi-qong, martial arts (www.sunmudo.com), yoga, archery, eat vegetarian food, learn to bow (108 times every day), pick weeds, clean up other ones mess and eh... wake up really early (03:45).

As coincidence was around the corner they were looking for a volunteer for six months! The advertisement for this job was put on a forum at their website end of March. I applied somewhere end of May (probably nobody's was interested) and a new step in life is made. As I know breath meditation and yoga are really powerful (www.unlimitedhealth.nl), I really going to experience a deeper meaning of existence. The environment is really natural. The whole package includes forest, sea, hills and caves. I've heard it’s a protected nature Area where cars and western chaotic is not prohibited. Except high speed internet connection off course! :)

Before we enter this saga I started with a kick off in participating to a summer school program hosted by NIIED (Governmental institution). Try to imagine 80 Adoptees put together from all over the world (US, Canada, Australia, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Italy, France and the Netherlands) drive around in 3 tour busses and fulfill a complete week of fieldtrips, cultural sightseeing events, excitement (fun park :)), nonstop till you drop food festivities, shopping and off course some late night bar boosts. At the end of the week I really needed a short break. Being back in your birth country and seeing a lot of Adoptees experience their first time visiting Korea makes you a kind of emotional and different mind thinking compared to the country where you are raised in.
Finally after this week I met a lot of wonderful people which gave me a great time that I will never forget. Adoptees share something special and we feel connected to each other. We all have the same issues in the country where we grew up (one more than another). The fine thing about Adoptees is that we don’t have to explain our background or appearance.

I also really want to thank all volunteers. These people did an immeasurable job putting their time and effort to help us enjoying our time during that week! They succeeded more then I / we probably showed them, but I know that organizing and host events can be so tiring. There are always people complaining about small (or big) things while some don’t have the smallest clue how much work it is to organize such intensive week full of chaotic cattle called Adoptees...

The generosity of NIIED is like a dream come true. Without them I probably stayed this summer in the flatlands and just biked around to a few beaches or lake trips. Now I have this wonderful opportunity to get known of some real Korea and life. Actually since my kind of active period for Adoptees this is only the second time (last year also), that any organization provide full payment for everything. Maybe you think ok that’s good, but it’s more incredibly awesome! No other Adoptive country offers these kinds of possibilities. I consider myself lucky as a Korean Adoptee! ^^

Looking back at it now makes me (even more) wonder how Koreans think of Adoptees. Why do they offer these amazing trips full covered without anything for it in return? Is it because they feel guilty of putting so many children for adoption? Does the government earn so much money to Adoption that they want to get even in this way? Maybe because of the Confucius background, that family is still really important and wants to help us to get known of Korea more in this way? Do they want to get back all of the high educated youngsters and boost their economy even more? Are Adoptees a bridge to the east and western culture and is it our job to reveal this understanding?
It all still remains a big question which hopefully we will find out in the near future, but most important is that Korea can be seen as a special country with a spiritual background. Only the flag itself is a mysterious puzzle for most of us. And if we look at the history, north and south tells us a lot about balance in life. Let’s pray that they will be reunited one day!

Last week I got a bit too drunk before the Finals of the world soccer tournament. I created some gapes in my memory and lost some of my personal belongings (incl. keys of my friend’s apartment where I can stay as long as I want) which resulted into this midweek at my omma’s.

My mother looks great (for her age) and I still wonder how she is so clear minded at that age (76). She is still having this good right one (slaps me if I don’t understand, and that’s a lot) and can yell like a Pansori (opera) singer. The first night I just slept at her place and at bedtime the rainforest was cut a 1000 square meter in decibel of snoring. I didn’t sleep much (or at all) and in the morning we had breakfast @ immo’s (auntie). She lives only 50 meters away. The funny thing is that I saw my nephew again. He is 8 years old now and knows a tiny bit of English. He’s like tiny terror and I saw Immo hit him with a stick because he doesn’t listen too much (familiar image ;)). Immo lives in a big apartment (120 sq mtrs) with 4 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms and air-conditioning in every room. They just live with the 2 of them. The father of my nephew is working somewhere in the South so he never comes there. My uncle died last year of cancer and the big house is as good as empty. Because I complained about my mother’s construction noise, they agreed that I could sleep over at Immo which was a lot better for my night rest. What did I do there? I ate lot… and ate even more till I looked like an oempa loempa. Besides eating I played a lot of Playstation with Wong ho (nephew). He is cute, we’re having little fart contests and sometimes he tries to tickle my balls or grab my nipples. I didn’t have my laptop with me (in Joey’s house) so besides having simple entertainment I was a bit bored and just Facebooked my way around and try to learn some Korean. But hearing all this talk from my mother and auntie makes me think where to start… (no pictures from family, cause I lost camera... come later)

Now 1 week further I finally arrived at Joey’s apartment. It’s great here! Joey is for a long Holiday in the Netherlands and her husband works from 8:00 till 21:30. Plenty of space, internet, many shops, restaurants, some nice hills, an outdoor fitness area and enough Kimchi to survive the winter. Besides that it’s only one subway stop away from my mother’s. I will stay here untill the IKAA Gathering where I can finish some web projects and chill out. The Gathering is a kind of mega meeting (like 5 days) where a lot of Adoptees (probably over 700) from all over the world will gather and participate to all kind of workshops, seminars, sport events, poker tournament, film festival and much more. This mega event will end 8th of August. I also was invited to join another cultural program where we go for a tour through Korea (like a whole circle) and end up at beautiful Jeju Island. On this program is also a lot of fun and cool stuff like rafting and a lot of sightseeing. But for now I don’t know, because it’s a lot to do all and it starts right after the Gathering.

The main event is off course the Templestay. This will be on the menu around mid August. If I enter this period you will probably see my next story. Hopefully till then and for now, everyone a nice holiday and catch up later!