Hwagaesa Temple Stay

Got to the temple around 11, they gave us clothes and showed us to our rooms. In our group, it was Julia, Ben (not my Ben, from Chicago), Ellie (from Scotland), and Alex (from Whales) and me. There were some other foreigners there too, a girl from the Ukraine and two boys from Singapore. Ok, so they split us up into boys and girls room.
We ate lunch of rice and veggies and kimchi. Then we were sent to meditation for two hours. They didn't really give us any instruction so I wasn't really sure what to do. I tried clearing my mind but it was tough. The meditation room was so hot and it was basically just a room with white walls, nothing to look at or anything. After that we took a hike up the mountain behind the temple. It was the head monk, the Ukrainian girl, the Singaporians and a lady who has been there for three months studying. About halfway up the mountain it started raining so hard, it was crazy. And we just kept on going! The monk was chanting the whole way up the mountain. We got to the top and I was so exhausted and soaked! We hiked back down.

It was pretty cool. So, then another round of meditation, then work which consisted of us cleaning the bathrooms. Then we ate dinner of rice veggies and kimchi. After dinner our main monk gave us some instruction on how to bow and why they bow and stuff. Then we had chanting then more meditation. After the last meditation of the day, we had tea and watermelon with the monk and the lady from the hike. They both spoke fluent English. We had a chat with them for awhile, I'll tell you more about this when in person, very interesting stuff. Then off to bed at 9pm. Wake up at 3am, straight to meditation. After meditation was bowing 108 times. I only made it to 43. It was tough. It's a full bow from standing to on hands and knees. I'll show you when I get home, pretty cool. Then off to chanting, then breakfast of rice veggies and kimchi at 6am. Then rest. We slept for a few hours then it was time to go home. We could have stayed through another dinner, but we were ready to go. I don't think any of us could do another meditation. I'm sure it sounds like a pretty relaxing weekend, but I was so worn out I slept Sunday night for 14 hours!!! It's really hard to explain the whole experience but basically it was intense. That's the only word that really encompasses the weekend. My favorite part of the weekend was the hike (even though my legs are still sore) and the chanting.