Well my fine folks, it is now less than a month until I'll be rejoining the life of rain, scallies and expensive beer. I'm looking forward to it! It has been so long since my last blog mainly because this fine website decided I was Korean and thus provided me with a page full of said language. So it's not due to lack of activity on my part let me assure you. Well now that's cleared up let me "crack on" as they say (sometimes).
What seems like an eternity ago I went on a merry excursion to a little island off the west coast. Had muchos fun indeed sitting round a fire and trying to have a korean style barbeque with one bag of coal and a rusty barrel. We then managed to find a singing room at the end of the beach and several hours worth of Beatles songs ensued. The following day saw the inevitable hangover + beach = sunburnt fool. All worth it? You betcha. You can find the link for those pics under the link "Ringo pics" or here if you want http://www.ringo.com/photos/album/photos.html?albumId=42131092
The following weekend saw the end of a golden age. My Irish roommate decided to up and leave and go to China. There was fairly good reason for this departure however-he'd finished his contract. The last night of Mr. O'Shea can be seen in full in the pictures I've sent you.
As a break from the norm (as one might put it), myself and Ris went for a spiritual experience the following weekend. 48 hours of abstinence was enjoyed at (get this) a Buddhist temple. Before we arrived there we stopped off at a couple of nice beaches for a rest and some sea air. When we got there we got our amazingly stylish orange attire and shown where we'd sleep. We then got a talk on the temple rules and some basic Buddhist philosophy. In the evening we went to the main temple for a breif service which involved bowing, chanting and incence. After that we had tea and listened to a really cool monk who kept trying to chat-up the girl sat near him. He spoke more in depth about Buddhist philosophy, which was interesting but badly translated. It's difficult to really get behind an idea when you're told "Enlightenment path way is good to people be"...unless you're talking to Yoda of course. Before bedtime (10pm) we made lanterns and I'm sure you'll agree ours was the best lantern ever. The highlight was definately getting up at 4am to pray and then go on a meditative walk through the woods. After the walk we had breakfast very much in the style of a devout Buddhist. This involved four bowls, some water for cleaning and the usual rule-finish everything. We were told that if one person didn't finish we'd all have to share their leftovers, mmmm yummy. The directions given by the monk sat at the front of the hall were to use the big bowl for rice and the second largest for the side dishes (spicey cabbage and radish etc). Another one was for a seaweed-type soup and the final one had just water in it. We were to not talk (or make any sound for that matter) and hold the bowls to our mouths so others couldn't see what we were eating. The monk at the front had a stick which he clacked whenever he saw fit, at these intervals we had to bow or pick up a bowl or something. Once I'd forced down the last grain of rice we had to clean our bowls and chopsticks with the water bowl and a piece of yellow radish. I gave it a good go to get it spotless but apparently we were all useless. The monk showed us all his perfectly clean bowl of water and then our effort-starched, rice and kimchi (the cabbage) sullied water.
After breakfast we made some kimbap (rice and stuff rolled in seaweed) and Ris was oh so proud of his creations (as the pictures show)! Then we went on a trek through a national park and, as I'm sure you'll agree, saw some stunning scenery. It was bloomin hot and I think I lost three stone but it was well worth it.
So that's that...possibly for the last time! Will see some of ya in about three weeks then!