Jeju Outdoors & Temple Stay

YAKCHUNSA TEMPLE, one of the largest in South Korea. We did an overnight Temple Stay where we had our own little room with sleeping pads on the floor, ate with the Monks and the staff, went to worship with them (4:30am, 10:30am, 6:30pm) and spent some time looking around the other temple buildings. It was really a different experience, nothing I'd ever thought I would do, and really fun. Monks are the nicest people! Imagine that.

Karissa at the coast

Buddha in a room amongst many others (500 total) in one of the buildings at the Temple

A small mountain about 10 min walk from Karissa's school called Sarabong, it's beautiful!

Cherry blossoms are out!

Workout Equipment on the Mountain (Sarabong, the picture at the top). And this is just a small part of it, it's literally ALL OVER the mountain walk that runs for about 20k.

We have been having quite the adventure! I've really fallen in love with Yoga all over again on this trip. The Yogi Master we took class from 3 weeks ago, it turns out, is one of the most famous in all of Korea. The school doesn't have a name or a schedule posted or sign out front, you just have to know about it. So lucky for us, Karissas friend Jason introduced us to it all. I've been going 1-2 classes each day during the week, and on the weekend we did our Temple Stay, did the Korean Spa (which they call the Sauna here), and relaxed.

I went to school with Karissa on Monday and had 4 classes of 6th graders doing a Q and A with me. Here were some of my favorite questions:

• What's your favorite pop star? (everyone, yes everyone, loves Korean Pop)
• Do you have a boyfriend, hee hee? They found that very silly
• How old are you? And then wowed by my answer each time and said "oh my god" -favorite elementary school kid phrase
• What is the currency exchange/time difference between America and Korea (pretty smart for 6th graders)
• And a question from the yogi master that can go in here: Do blondes go grey?

This week is mostly just yoga, acupuncture and sauna during the day, and awesome dinners with Karissa (and friends). Last night we went to dinner with the yogi master and 3 others. One of them teaches English at a University and she came along to translate. Having hours of conversation through a translator is something I have truly come to love and be entertained by. I think a lot is lost in translation.