What’s Up Korea? Temples Taekwondo & Taeyang

What’s Up peeps!
I’ve been in Korea 9 months already! Can’t believe time literally has blown right pass me but these 9 months I’ve tried to make worth it. I’ve been to so many places in Seoul I could probably write my own travel guide book for it! But these last 3 months (before my year contract’s up) I’m going to focus on traveling other parts of Korea. I’m going to head down to the amazing Yeosu Expo that people from around the world have been traveling to. I have also vowed to make it to Busan and visit the famous Haeundae Beach. Heard thousands flock there to enjoy fun in the sun (or lack there of because Koreans hate the sun and despise getting tanned.) Lately I’ve been debating on doing a Temple Stay or not. I’ve only visited 1 temple out here and would like to see more in the country side of Korea. There are a few reason’s I’m debating the Temple Stay. I’ve read about an expat’s experience at one in an English language magazine here in Korea. It seemed very calming and interesting but they only feed you like twice and they preach on Buddhism. Now okay MAYBE I can survive with only 2 meals. (I don’t eat a lot but when I do I need big portions. Lol) The biggest issue is the Buddhist teaching. Now of course I know a temple will be teaching something other than Christianity obviously, but if I’m not interested in converting or changing my beliefs, why sit through it? It’s interesting to know about but to hear about it all day I’m not sure I can handle. So who knows. I want to do it just so I can say to people “Yeah I stayed a night at a Buddhist temple.” Has a ring to it. 🙂

For the new year I rang it in with a buddy at a Buddhist temple. (Side note: this is one of my earlier videos, I really hate how I sound. Ah!)

I’m also on my red belt in TAEKWONDO! I test for my BLACK BELT the first week of July. I’m scared as a chicken though. I feel I’ll sckrew up and get the Tae Guk’s mixed up and totally embarrass myself. I fear I’ll mess up and they’ll look at me like “Now this is why women should stay in the Kitchen.”  LMAO. My instructor and I have to spar (fight) each other 5 mintues every day to prepare me for my spar fight at the Samcheok TKD headquarters for my final test. When we spar, I sweat like I just ran 10 miles in the desert and afterwards I feel I swam the English Channel. Didn’t know how totally out of shape I was until I started TKD. I love it though. I feel I’m really being able to experience different aspects of the culture. I’ve loved Martial Arts since childhood. My boy cousins used to play the Japanese video games and watch the movies and I’d be right there with them enjoying it. Even now back home I own a myraid amount of Bruce Lee movies. AND me telling folks back home that I have a BLACK BELT IN TAEKWONDO maybe puts a little more fear into their hearts when they see me next time. 😉 Lol. 

Below is a video of the one of the Tae Guk forms I have to memorize before receiving a belt. There’s 8 of them! The one in the video (Tae Guk Sa Jang) is my favorite. I think because I never forget it. The other ones I always do.

Last but not least my cousin Kandi from Texas (originally from Kansas) came to visit me! I honesty don’t think she enjoyed it much. We got stared at a lot (something I’ve gotten used to) but it bothered her which would bother anyone. Koreans love to stare at foreigners even though there are THOUSANDS in Korea. I don’t understand. I honestly think they don’t know that staring is actually rude to do. I wonder if they’ll find out soon though. The staring can be intense but 9/10 it’s because their admiring. They admire our hair, big eyes, and “small” faces. That Saturday her and I were on the subway train and this lady started taking pictures of me on her phone. When we got to our stop the lady got up and was smiling, came to me and kept repeating “beautiful, beautiful.” Quite strange but funny at the same time. That was the second time that had happen to me. Also this Korean woman touched my cousins arm. We first though Kandi had something on her shirt that the lady was trying to brush off but actually she wanted to touch her skin because it was darker. She wasn’t rude or mean about it and actually ran off afterwards but it’s still not polite to touch people. I had heard of this happening to people but had never seen it. It wasn’t all bad though. At a restaurant in Myeongdong the lady who was cooking our meat at our table literally fed Kandi meat wrapped in lettuce. It was quite funny.

Check out a little of our adventure below.