4th Aug: Insadong; Jogyesa

Jogyesa is the largest single floor temple in Korea, and the main temple for the Jogye order of Korean Buddhism, which represents the traditional history and culture of 1700 years of Korean Buddhism. It was built in 1910 and is pretty impressive. There are 3 massive Buddha statues inside and the outside is beautifully decorated. Buddhism isn't really a religion as such but a philosophy. Seon (more commonly known as 'Zen' from Japanese) Buddhism was introduced to China around the 7th century and spread into Korea and Japan, and greatly influenced culture and development in those areas. For example the Samurai culture in Japan was inlfuenced by Zen Buddhism.
We met Tina's best friend Seung Jeung in nearby Insadong which was quite helpful as she is Buddhist so that's where I got my information from!

3rd Sep: Namison - (Nami Island)

We haven't been to many places outside of Seoul so on Wednesday we got the train out to visit Namison (Nami island). Namison is a small island in the pukhankang river which was named after a famous Korean army general (General Nami) who died aged 26, and was the filming location for a TV drama which became massively popular in Japan 10 years or so ago. Since so many Japanese came here to see the island it's been turned into a bit of a tourist attraction. You take a 5 minute boat ride out to the island which is tiny but beautiful, it is basically one big garden. There are quite a few wild animals to be found running around including ostrich's. You can hire bikes and tandems and all sorts of other vehicles to travel around on or just walk around and admire the place. We were really lucky to find the ostrichs as they roam free on the island and currently have a baby to look after so they normally stay hidden. They also had a Bonsai garden which had some pretty cool Bonsai trees that looked very old.

We also tried an old style korean food which is basically a rice dish served in a hot metal box which needs to be shook up to mix everything, so to do this you get a pair of gardening gloves to hold it with (it's red hot!). 30 or 40 years ago this was a normal school packed lunch. All the kids would put there box's together in a heated area and use gloves to get it out and mix it up at lunch time.

Language learning made easier

If you happen to be learning Chinese, Korean and Japanese at the same time you want to be getting your hands on one of these; an electronic dictionary. Since everyman and his dog in Korea is learning either English or another language there's no shortage to choose from, but this one (Nurian X30) seems the best for multiple languages and pen-recognition. Now I no longer have to spend 10 minutes trying to find a character in the dictionary by stroke order. Life just got a little bit easier. Also my mp3 player is on the way out but since this little wonder plays mp3's and videos I don't need to buy another mp3 player just yet either, bonus.

31st Aug: That day again!

Well the 31st of August has come around for the 27th time since I was born and that means i'm now 28 years old! (In Korea... although I was already 28 years old here!). Of course I am actually only 27 according to the English way but that's different cultures for you.

The day started with opening cards and gifts, great food in the middle and a very nice location for the evening; SamcheongGak which is a restaurant recently made famous as a TV drama about chef's is filmed there and is on TV at the moment. We actually saw them filming a scene when we arrived. The view from the terrace is perfect. Korean traditional tea is ... incredibly bitter but good for a man's health! (not that green stuff in the glass, that's kiwi juice - delicious).

29th Aug: Last day of Komdo

It's only been 9 weeks since the first day but after training normally 4 times a week and numerous group gatherings for dinner or drinking it seems like about 6 months. Every other Friday the club goes out after training and this Friday was one of those so after finishing training and after I took a few photo's with our teacher and others we went to a nearby restaurant.
What I didn't expect though was that they all knew my birthday was coming on Sunday and had prepared a surprise for me. After we sat down (on the floor) I was presented with a cake complete with candles and some really nice gifts from the group (a miniature bamboo sword, handmade fabric print of our komdo photos made by one of the members, and a very beautiful sword bag to keep our swords in which you can see in one of the photos!).
I really didn't expect anything like that, as since I had not been able to speak Korean that well my conversation with everyone had been limited to say the least, but they said that "we sweat together so we are like family now". I even had the Korean version of 'Happy birthday' sung to me. Before we left I had to say a quick speech which I certainly wouldn't have been able to do 3 months ago, but I just about managed to thank everyone for putting up with my poor Korean and for the gifts, and let everyone know I really enjoyed being in the group.

27th Aug: Changdokgung

We were able to visit this place by taking an English language tour, you can't walk around unguided as this place is on the world heritage list. Changdokgung is another palace which was used by the kings and queens of Korea a few hundred years ago. We call them palaces because royal families lived there but they are very different to the palaces western kings and queens were (and are) living in, being more about peace and quiet.