POE Orientation, Day 2

We started the day with morning lectures. Well, the first lecture was us learning the cup song/You're Gonna Miss Me When I'm Gone from Pitch Perfect. Playing the cup game at girl's camp all those years really paid off...
After cups, we learned a traditional Korean folk song, Arirang. Arirang is absolutely beautiful. The song comes from the "sorrow of poverty." It represents "han," the collective feeling of oppression and isolation in the face of overwhelming odds. (These quotes come from a YouTube video, "Meaning Behind the Song Arirang.")
After lectures, we piled onto the bus and traveled to a Buddhist temple (another one).

I think this is Chinese script (it's not Hangul)

Here I go, creeping on children again. This cool Buddha thing was in the dining hall.

Another vegetarian Buddhist meal: the "ham" was made from beans, apparently. In Buddhist temples, you only take as much food as you can eat because you can't waste anything. Which means, I had to choke down the soggy/cold fried eggplant and the salty/fishy seawood soup. I was gagging by the end of my soup, because I was forcing myself to finish. Luckily, I got someone else at my table to eat the last few swallows.

My new friend, Edith. She's from Scotland. I love her accent, even if her language is colorful at times.

I looked like a monk, right down to the rubber shoes.

At this temple stay, a monk led us in 108 bows to Buddha, a representation of 108 different afflictions. I wimped out halfway through, slipped out the back, and took pictures instead. ;)

Do you see all the hundreds of little Buddhas inside the temple, on either side of the big Buddhas?

Oh...our POE guys forgot to mention that this temple stay included a ridiculously long and tiring hike...

We stopped along the way to meditate on some rocks...this is our tour-guide monk.

I swear, South Korea has some of the most majestic scenery.

We dunked our feet in this waterfall/pool. One girl slipped and fell in. Which actually probably felt pretty nice after our sweaty hike.

Do you see the cool carving on the rock wall?

Stairway to Heaven. Not really what it's called. Only some of the group climbed up to the top (I didn't, because we had just hiked a million other stairs and rocks).

Dinner

So much food. They kept bringing out more dishes, so by the end, the entire table was covered. Korean culture is very communal: you just share all the dishes.

The greyish-looking dish is a kind of fruit (that I can't remember the name of)...but it was delicious.

 I don't think Koreans believe in preparing meet without the bones: this fish tasted quite good, but, as you can see, it's the entire fish tail. Seeing all the innards isn't the most appetizing...

Octopus (surprise). You just grab a tentacle with your chopsticks and shove it in your mouth. You just do it. And I'm still alive to tell the tale. It didn't taste half-bad this time.

Raw beef. Again, I'm still alive. But it's not my favorite. 

The beach, as if we weren't already exhausted...

More stairs to the viewing point. Are you kidding me?!

Just me and a taekwondo lion...

Military ships? We are awfully close to the North, after all...

After the beach, we were required to go out as smaller groups of people in our district (so, Chuncheon people and surrounding cities). Ugh, I was so frustrated that it was mandatory to go out. I think we all just wanted to go to bed. Oh well, at least we went for bingsu first and I was able to opt out of the soju party afterwards...