It’s 9:18 am and I’m laying in bed counting down to when I can have my next dose of NyQuil. They say you should only have one dose every six hours, but for me I need it every five. I’m impatiently waiting for the six-hour mark to roll around because I want to avoid further liver damage.
This stuff is fabulous! It puts me out for a good five hours of deep sleep – no more waking up thinking I’m riding on a train or a plane.
If I didn’t call out of work today, I would be half way done with my first massage. I feel so horrible for going to work yesterday. HORRIBLE! I feel horrible because now my clients are going to get whatever I have – and whatever I have is bad, really bad.
I never get sick. Whenever I hear people complaining about their ailments, I scoff and think to myself “Stop being a baby and suck it up,” now I’m the baby. I am thee biggest baby out there.
I have a half hour before my scheduled NyQuil dose, so I have time to write about day three of Korea.
Kristina, Sarah and I wake up bright and early for our journey to the buddhist temple.
It was a long walk to the temple, so we had to put on hiking attire. I chose to wear my new shirt that I purchased for $3 on a street in Korea that reads:
Paris in the world,
There’s really only one Paris in the world.
We started our journey by hiking up this long, steep Korean street. Anything uphill does not get along well with me, but I was hungry and Sarah said there was a cute restaurant in the shape of a mushroom when we arrive at the top. Mushroom house was my incentive.
On our way there, we passed by a lot of strange little restaurants. There are so many obscure places to eat in Korea.
This is one of the restaurants, but you eat outside in campy-looking tents.
Anyway, we arrive at the mushroom house and order the pork. It was the best tasting pork dish that I ever had in my life! It was delicious. Fortunately I remembered to take a picture of it half way through.
This was considered an upscale place to eat in Korea. They served us western-style by giving us soup and salad to start, and then the main course. I felt rich and privileged for eating there, even though the whole meal only cost $13. They served us a glass of hot water when we first arrived. I thought maybe hot water was a Korean thing, but they were the only restaurant to do that.
Five more minutes until my Nyquil – yay.
Okay, so we hike a little bit more up the hill after we eat. We walk past some angry turtle monuments.
And some writing etched in rocks.
Sarah poses.
Kristina poses.
And we arrive at the temple.
It is time for my NyQuil. Here we go, down the hatch. Ahhh, much better.
We go inside one of the temples and see people praying. When you see it done in the movies, it’s different. When you see it done in person, it’s very strange. People sit or Kneel on pillows in front of a statue of buddha and stand up, then bow down, stand up and bow down. I didn’t want to leave until I counted how many times this is done, but it became too strange for us to be there after maybe three or four minutes so we left.
They say Buddhism isn’t a religion, it’s spirituality. But the way those people were praying – some sitting and studying scriptures, some sitting with prayer beads and others going up and down, up and down on their hands and knee’s makes it feel like a religion to me.
In my opinion, I think religion is any type of worship – person, place or thing. I love my camera – that can be a religion. But what my camera does for me, that’s spiritual. Can spiritual growth only happen out of loving something?
I think the NyQuil is kicking in.
It was old inside the temple except for an oddly placed clock hanging up on the wall. It looked like a cheap plastic clock you can buy at walmart for $5. I kept staring at it and then staring at the people praying, and then I would look at the buddha statue – something just felt off.
Trail to the monastery.
Doorway shot.
A real life monk!
After checking out the temple’s, we go on a long, arduous trek up the mountain.
This was no easy task, but I give myself props for doing it. The hike seemed like five hours almost all uphill. It was insane, but glorious. I must have had some divine intervention beside me pumping my body full of electrolytes because I was totally up for the challenge.
Kristina, Sarah and I all laugh hysterically when we see this pic of Sarah with her hair poofed out.
I taken so many awesome pic’s, but I’m going to put them on Flickr rather than post them all here. I’ll only post the bare essential photo’s here.
When we reached the top, it was pretty cool.
After we reached the top, there was even more trail to hike on.
But we were still happy.
Oh I’m so tired, but I want to finish out this day.
When we made it to the end of the trail, we taken a crazy bus ride all the way down the mountain. It was like being on a rollercoaster – I loved it. It was even more spectacular while listening to Rockapella on my Ipod.
Later that day, we went to a Korean barbecue (at least I think that’s what it was) and sat on the floor for our meal. Shoe’s come off at the door.
I like the way the food looks before its cooked.
My friends are adorable!
Most places in Korea serve water in strange plastic containers they leave out on the table’s. It’s strange because all restaurants do this – in the same non-elegant plastic containers.
And you drink your water out of a metal drinking glass.
Okay, more bed for me. I’m beat.
Read it to absorb my awesomeness 