Nam Jang Sa
January 08, 2006

Today was another wonderful busy day with the Eric Bull family.  I visited a few places that he worked on.  Jin's husband Eric is an architect who reconstructs and builds traditional Korean homes, buildings, etc.  I visited a few buildings he worked on, a temple, and a extremely large historic stone wall (Moon Kyung Sae Jae) that impeded Japanese invaders from attacking Seoul.  We also visited a very large outdoor set of a traditional Korean TV drama.  It's a tourist attraction now.  The entrance to the area wasn't modern and fake though.  It is called "First Gate to Seoul."  People long ago had to enter via that gate if they wanted to go to Seoul.  It was where the King resided and everyone who passed through was documented.

The temple we visited was exquisite.  It is called "Nam Jang Sa."  A female Buddhist Monk (a biguni) named Jung Won invited us to have lunch while we visited.  She also sat with us as we enjoyed tangerine tea.  She was very gracious and had extremely kind eyes.  She presented me with a gift of wooden beads that she placed around my wrist.  She said it would prevent bad dreams.  It was another memorable day in Korea that I'm certain to remember for a very long time.

Here's another big montage of my day.

What I learned today about Korea:  1)  In a public setting most Koreans won't use each others names.  For example, to speak to a women (if it were English) who has a son named Timmy, you would say something like "Timmy's mom."  It's improper and impolite to use their first name.