Karissa's Adventures: Happy Birthday to Me!

Nice weather makes every thing better. I got to leave work a few minutes early on Monday before the Children's Day holiday Tuesday - also my birthday - and took the opportunity to get some beach and sauna time. Gwakji is one of my favorite white sand beaches on Jeju. It's not too far from my house and easy to get to one of my favorite saunas in Oedo (pronounced Way-do). In the last week I've been to the sauna 3 times and I feel super relaxed!! Yesterday there was no school and I celebrated my birthday with some morning yoga, a lazy pancake breakfast, a hike on our favorite oreum, and beers with the girls and the brew pub in town. At home in America I'm 28 now, but here in Korea I've already been 29 since New Year's.

Again with the delicious sandwiches. Thanks, Jason!

Pretty mountain flowers

I love Jeju cows.

This past weekend was Buddha's Birthday. It's celebrated on April 8th of the Lunar calendar, so that changes every year on our Romanized calendar. Some friends and I celebrated at a beautifully decorated temple called Nam-Guk-Seon-Won in the south-east of Jeju island. We attended the long morning service which consisted of chanting, more chanting, a very short meditation, bowing, chanting, more bowing, a sermon by the head monk, and more chanting and bowing. I'm pretty used to these sorts of things by now, but this one was longer and far more crowded than usual. Buddha's Birthday is like the Christmas of Buddhism. It's the one day everyone goes to temple and gives offerings. My bum was pretty close to the man's face behind me a few times! This service was the first time I could follow in the prayer book with our chanting. A very nice woman next to me helped me follow in the book and I read in Korean and chanted along with a few prayers. The prayer books are printed in Korean with Chinese translations, right to left, top to bottom in the traditional way. It was slightly confusing, though.

The main temple building decorated with lanterns for Buddha's Birthday

You give an offering and then pour water over Buddha's head for luck

Jason and I enjoyed the nice weather this weekend with a trip to Hamdeok beach and a walk up the oreum near the beach affording amazing views of the ocean and the island. We went to the fabulous sauna at the big resort in Hamdeok (remember that one, Emily?) and ended our day with fajitas, super nachos and margaritas at Jeff & Genny's house along with a mini Star Wars marathon. Sunday was brunch at Jessie's (where we had Christmas dinner) and then exploring the Sangumburi Crater. Having a car makes sight-seeing sooooooo much easier here! It's easy enough to get around in the city and immediate "suburbs" with taxis and buses, but I really love having a car. Car = freedom.