a work retreat

deery-lou.
three weeks ago we had an office retreat/farewell trip. we headed north to gwangwon-do. on the agenda was sokcho [a harbor town], naksan-sa [a buddhist temple set against the east sea], and seorak-san national park [a mountain area]. the trip there was quite long due to traffic. and the fact that i was nursing a cold didn't help much. i slept most of the way there. breakfast for me that morning consisted of cigs, pringles, coke, two oranges, and more pringles. quite healthy huh. we stopped for lunch around two for some much needed food. soon after that we arrived at the hotel, which was actually a guest house set out in a very rural area. on the road that lead to the hotel was a dog farm. i like to think that they are raising them for pets not food. but a sign said fresh dog, chicken, etc. so i might be foolish to do so. the guest house was quite nice. didn't get any pictures of it though. there were two large bedrooms, one small one with a bed, a living room, a kitchen, and a nice deck that looked out onto the valley. it was quite peaceful. after we unload the bus we set out for naksan-sa. naksan-sa is the only temple set against the east sea. it is dedicated to gwaneum, the goddess of mercy. here's a little history about naksan-sa taken from moons handbook south korea:

naksan-sa was founded in 671 by the traveling monk uisang. after his return from china, uisang came to this spot to try to meet gwaneum face to face. in a seacliff cave, high above the crashing waves he prayed and meditated for days, but she didn't show herself. in frustration , he threw himself into the ocean, whereupon gwaneum immediately appeared and saved him from death. in response, uisang established naksan-sa on this bluff and dedicated it to her.

unfortunately last year there was a huge fire there destroying most of the structures and trees. however what is still there is amazing. its such a beautiful place. standing on the cliffs overlooking the sea was breathtaking. you could feel the energy of the place. christine, young, and i stood there for quite awhile. it was just so peaceful. they are in the process of reconstructing the area. however, i'm sure it's going to be some time before the trees are fully restored.

from naksan-sa we walked down to the beach to regroup with the others who had left. jk told me that during the summer this is a very popular place to come. there were a few hotels along the beach. it seemed quite nice. jk stopped at the fish market to get some food. we were going to have a cookout back at the hotel. that night the owner of the hotel cooked all of our food. we had pork, steak, shellfish, etc. it was like a feast. the steak was like eating butter. so freakin good. once we finished eating we had a meeting to discuss school topics. i did my best to provide input but i felt so out of it that it was hard for me to concentrate. finally around midnight i told them i had to go to bed. i had asked christine and them where they were planning to sleep. they had taken the room with the adjoining bathroom. that left the big room and the small one with a bed. then i asked jk where he'd like to sleep. he said he was going to probably sleep on the couch since he was going to watch the olympics. i figured that it would be all right to take the room with the bed. well, obvisously i was wrong. before i could settle in horace came, jumped in the bed, and said he was taking this side. i told him that i didn't want to share a bed since i felt sick. he told me he didn't want to share a room with snoring koreans and the new teacher. then he threw it that this whole weekend was for him so he should have the room with the bed. not really wanting to argue i grabbed one of the pillows off the bed and said, "if i'm sleeping on the floor i'm making sure i have more than one pillow." and with my stuff i left for the other room. needless to say i was a little annoyed. christine and the others were a bit surprised by it too. when i awoke that morning no one had even slept in the room with me. when i say anna she told me that no one wanted to bother me since i was sick. meanwhile i heard horace come out and say how great he slept in the giant bed.

once everyone was rallied we packed up the car. it was time to leave the lovely guest house and head for seorak-san national park. i had been there last year around with my old taekwondo class so i wasn't really looking forward to it. the whole day was a giant deju-vu for me. the only difference was that there was no snow on the ground. i would like to visit the park again, just not during the winter. i'm sure its amazing in spring or fall. thats when i'd like to go back. we took the cable car to gwongeumseong. i decided not to take the hike to the top since i had done it the last time. while the others were on their way i went to check out the temple. it was a small temple down from where we got off the cable car. nothing to great but the views from it were nice. i meet back up with the others and we took the cable car back to the park. we walked around the park a bit then left. there was brief confrontation between me and a certain someone in the bus. won't go into the details but the gist of it is that someone told me to stop acting like a princess and share. i basically had to bite my tongue and did my best to ignore it. although i really wanted to lash out, i realized that doing so in front of co-workers wasn't cool. so i took the higher ground. the trip back seemed to take forever. i didn't think we would ever see ansan. there was so much traffic. we finally reached the apartment close to 11pm. overall the trip was pretty good. jk did say to me that the next retreat would be in a different country. i won't hold my breath for that to happen but who knows.

here are some pictures from the weekend retreat.
sokcho/naksan-sa/seorak-san photos

be well…