July 26, 2009

  • Red Meat and Buddhist Monasteries

    Dear Folks:

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    Above is our turtle, which we may end up keeping in our family, after talking with a friend this morning who reminded me that South Koreans are not too good to pets.  One student said he would take it, but his mother would only let him have one.  As soon as I made it clear that my children wanted the two turtles to be kept together, as they were friends, I watched him think for a second after which he announced, "OK, I can take both."  I strongly suspected he figured he could meet his mother's demands and ours as well, by dropping the turtle off just anywhere between our home and his, letting it fend for itself.  That, and he would have dibs on the one he liked the most.  My children could not accept this distinct possibility.  They know how the children think here, under severe pressure from their strict mothers about having many possessions, let along pets of any sort. 

    Well, it is morning, Dear Reader, and I sit solemnly before my computer, my bowels rich with the red meat and red wine of yesterday's evening meal.  If we have eaten steak before in Taejeon, it surely has been less than a handful of times.  My memory is not so great anymore, but with My Flagship (oldest son) complaining of small aches and pains, I felt that he might not be getting enough good quality animal protein.  In fact, I first bought pork, 540 grams for 6400 won, at E-Mart about 5 or 6 days ago, but my wife did not feel it in the bottom of the backpack I used to bring things home, and left it there, after placing the backpack atop our bookshelves.  I got the pack down yesterday to use again, and smelled something rank.  Yes, you guessed it, Astute Reader; the pig meat had gone bad in that time.  I bought the steak (bovine) in order to compensate for the lack of pork.  It worked.  My children were delighted, eating something they could not remember eating before.  I, for one, was feeling very masculine sitting there on a low stool drinking red wine and eating real cow meat.  I can't remember eating cow meat.  There was something manly about it.  Don't know what.  It may be entirely image.  Curious. 

    With my oldest son this morning, I saw episode 17, of the 1970's drama "Kung Fu," entitled "Night of the Owls, Day of the Doves."  A young lady asks Kwai Chang Cain what he intends to do, when he is fixing to leave her brothel.  He says, "I will continue searching for myself."  She says, "Is that all you plan to do"  He responds, "There is nothing else."  She accuses him of being selfish, "That's all Shaolin Priests think of, themselves."  She later implies that they have even a lower regard for women.  Her parents sold her to pay for their son to go to the temple to study and become a Shaolin Monk. 

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    Above we have My Little General in the bakery (Left) we often frequent before taking him to his Nori Bahng (daycare center ... Right). 

    Those monasteries depend on regular gifts to the temples to survive.  Here in South Korea, they even get state support, in that the national parks.  Whenever we go to Kyae-ryong Mountain State Park, just outside of town, we pay a dollar or so each to get in, and all of that goes to the Buddhist monks who live there.  They have the shaven heads, but it seemed a tad incongruous to me when I first saw them riding in SUV's down the single lane paved road which connects their monestary to the outer community, which all guests normally walk along.  It is a beautiful little walk, about 1000 meters, and lined each side with beautiful shade trees along a creek.  The trees are gorgeous in Spring, with cherry blossoms. 

    Note: With my detective skills fully honed, I deduced that those trees were in fact cherry trees, noting the blossoms, and through experience having come to realize that one thing leads to another. 

    Kung Fu Drama

    I bought all three seasons of Kung Fu from Amazon a few months ago, thinking my children, especially the boys, could learn something about nonviolence as a way of life.  However, the young man, David Carredine ends up kicking somebody's butt in every episode.  He gets thrown in jail a lot, too.  Still, they enjoy it, as does My Dandelion, my daughter.  That, and my wife enjoys it, so it's here to stay.  It keeps'em all busy, learning the English in the backroom, our TV room.  Plus, it cost me only about 75 dollah, so there's something to that, the thrift aspect.   

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    Today's Itinerary:

    We will probably go on our bikes to swim at Yoo Seong's Sports Center, weather permitting, of course.  Other possible activities would include juggling at the Town Hall Park, where we can also get a doughnut.  It is about a 30 minute walk there from my home, and we enjoy the walk very much.  That area has a Krispy Kreme factory that graced us with its presence about a year and a half ago, being the first in Taejeon, and maybe the first in South Korea, Land of the Morning Calm.  For a full year it was the talk of the town, or at least the talk of the ritzy neighborhood where we live.  It seems that poor people in Taejeon don't have funds or interest in doughnuts of this calibre.

    Given that our pastor is gone back to the US on vacation for this month, we will not go to church, and may actually attempt both activities, as my 3:30 and 6:00 classes have cancelled, for a family vacation.  The two students are in the same family, cousins no less.  But I need to call them and verify, make sure it included both families, as per the e-mail instructions I received earlier. It never hurts to check by phone on these kind of things.