Musical Cars

Or maybe the Korean Car Shuffle would be a better name.

One interesting aspect of Korean culture is the desire to help other people...or possibly to get in other people's business. If you ever see someone having difficulty, you usually see several people around offering advice or giving directions. This comes in quite handy as a foreigner. :)

I went to Chinhae this weekend to visit my friend Amy. She lives at the top of a hill on an alley. The alley is wide enough for two-way traffic, and hits another alley behind her building, so there are two ways out. Unfortuantely there is also a school at the top of that hill, and it just so happened that the school had a homecoming this weekend. There were cars parked all the way up the hill on both sides of the alley, leaving a lane for one-way traffic if you folded your mirrors in. The alley at the top of the hill was completely blocked in by parked cars and rendered useless.

Our adventure started at 1240 when we attempted to leave for a salon appointment at 1:00. We go out to find Amy's car blocked in. Fortunately, all cars put their phone numbers on the windshields because parking often requires periodic shuffling, but Amy and I don't speak Korean well. We called, but the nice gentleman just hung up on us. Luckily several Korean men were standing around outside, and noticed our plight, so they started calling the gentleman as well. One even attempted to maneuver the car out of its spot for us, but the guy came and moved his car after about 15 minutes of blowing his phone up. Unfortunately, because of the tight parking situation, he couldn't move his car far, so the same guy had to get Amy's car out. It was WAY to tight for us.

So, twenty minutes later we finally have the car out, and we're ready to head down the road....except there is a taxi parked in it. He is waiting for us to move so he can go out the alley at the top...but he can't because it is completely blocked in, and he can't turn around because there is not any space. His only option is to back all the way down the hill. And he doesn't want to. So the guy driving Amy's car get's out and goes to talk to the taxi driver. Several other folks go to talk to him as well, after about another five minutes of arguing, the guy starts backing down the hill. But he CAN'T DRIVE! I've never met a Korean taxi driver that couldn't maneuver in an alley, but I guess I shouldn't judge. Amy tried to drive forward down that hill and nearly took the mirrors out within twenty feet...doing it backwards must have been awful. The nice man who got the car out of the parking spot came running back and motioned Amy he would drive us. So he jumps back in our car, and a couple of other guys go down to give the taxi hand signals to help him down the road. This took about another 15 minutes.

Forty minutes after walking out of the house we were at the bottom of the hill, 100 yards from where we started. We had been helped by no less that five Korean men, all complete strangers. And of course one of whom drove our car for us without us even asking! The whole situation was completely comical, and would have been funnier if we hadn't been late for an appointment. And the people could not have been nicer. Yes, we were all a bit grumpy in the process, but we were all talking with gestures and our limited Korean/English. Mainly, we couldn't stop laughing at the strangeness of the situation.

Warrior monks

I thought this was an oxymoron until I had the opportunity to learn a monastic martial art. I participated in a temple stay this weekend that was arranged by the city government of Daegu. They offer cultural opportunities for foreigners a couple times a year to help us learn about Korean culture. The goal of the temple stay was to teach us about Buddhism, and more specifically, Korean Buddhism. As I understand it, the adaptations were philosophical, but it appears to me that some adaptation was also political. In its history, Korea has been invaded many times by its neighbors, and the monks at some point had to learn to defend themselves, so they developed their own forms of martial arts.

I, along with about 90 young adults ventured into the mountains outside of Gyeong-ju to a temple called Golgulsa. The stay included many familiar elements of Buddhism: vegan meals, meditation, chanting, zen yoga, and spartan living. The less familiar element was the Sunmudo, which is the name given to the martial art taught at this temple. I was also unprepared for the bowing, which while expected, was much more difficult than it looks.

We started our stay with a tour of the grounds. The original temple is a cave temple. I was confused by the terminology of cave when I arrived there because it looks to me like little nooks in the side of a rock face. Built in the 6th century by monks from India, there is a gorgeous sculpture of Buddha cut into the face of the rock at the top. I ventured up to see it with the help of some ropes. Scary, but worth it. The rest of the grounds have been recently renovated and have some modern buildings as well as more traditional wood temple structures. After the tour, we ate dinner. I'll go ahead and say all three meals were composed of rice, soup, tofu, and fermented vegetables. Tasty, but repetitive.

After dinner, we attended evening worship. The rhythmic chanting and bowing were relaxing and really did help clear the mind. Next, Sunmudo. This, as any martial art, requires some serious flexibility and stamina. I consider myself to be in pretty decent shape for this because of all the yoga I do, but I was still giggling a bit with the clumsiness of my movements. After our valiant attempt, they treated us to an exhibit of the monks and some local masters performing different elements of the practice. Like Tai Chi and other Korean martial arts, the Sunmudo looked like a powerful, graceful dance. Another monk performed zen yoga elements of the practice, which involved not only flexibility, but incredible power. One of the most impressive feats was the ability to start in a lotus position, leap into the air and complete a full split, and land seated in the lotus position again.

After this we went to bed, or floor I guess. We slept in the traditional Korean fashion on blankets on a heated floor. Ordinarily this would make for a long night, but they wore us out well enough to sleep hard, and they woke us up at 4am to continue the experience, so we didn't have long anyway. :) We started the morning with chanting and meditation (yes, I stayed awake), and then went for a meditation walk through the temple grounds. Since the grounds are on the side of a mountain, this was a bit strenuous, but totally peaceful. The best part was the stars....this is the first time I've seen stars in this country. Usually the light and air pollution in the city obscure them. The walk ended at the meal room where we had a ceremonial breakfast.

Breakfast was bizarre and challenging. You are given a stack of bowls which you have to correctly arrange on a mat on the floor in front of you. You are given water to rinse the bowls at the beginning of the meal, and you are to keep this clean water in the final of the four bowls till the end of the meal. Buddhists do not believe in waste, so you have to eat EVERYTHING you take. At the end of the meal you are given some hot water and a piece of kimchi and you use this to clean the bowls. If the water is dirty, meaning you didn't eat all your food, you have to drink the water. The monks come by and collect the clean water, and then you dry and restack your bowls. The hardest part for me was that you can only eat until the master is finished and calls for the clean up. I'm so slow that when the monks started down the aisle with the hot water, I had to scarf an entire half of my meal. blech.

Next we did a traditional tea ceremony. The tea ceremony involves making and drinking three teas, which all had distinct flavors, but were made from brewing the SAME leaves three different times. The second brewing was the sweetest, and the third brewing tasted the strongest...surprising since the leaves had already been brewed twice! I chose to be the hostess for my table, so I learned how to serve correctly. I'm ready when you come to visit!

After tea we did some Zen yoga, had a short period of meditation, and then the bows. The bows are not to Buddha or anyone else; they are done to show humility or to humble yourself. This makes sense since you are physically lowering your body, but I didn't realize that it also makes sense because you are taxing yourself physically. I should have guessed since the penalty for breaking the rules at the temple is 1080 bows.... We performed 108 bows to represent the 108 agonies of the human spirit, but I only covered about 93 of those agonies, and I seem to now have the extra agony of burning thigh muscles. The bowing involves going from a standing position to a kneeling position with your head on the floor. Doing this 108 times in under a half an hour is an incredible workout. Thankfully, after the bowing, we stumbled down the hill for lunch and the end of our program.

I am exhausted and gimpy after my adventure, but it was definitely worth it. I am tempted to do it again sometime with a smaller group. I think a temple stay would be more peaceful with less of a crowd, but I'm not going to think about it till I can walk comfortably again. :)