3rd day in Daegu
As you might well imagine, after a whole night of drinking and partying and less than enough sleep the night before, we didn't make it out of bed very soon the next morning.
Still, G.M. was there to pick us up and do a little shopping, as J.J. had made me promise to pick up a new pair of glasses with his best friend (probably along to guarantee they met his taste..).
Frames start at 35 Euros and go to about 150 for normal ones, of course way over for well-known brand names. However, the glasses only cost abot 20-30 Euros together, so I was able to get a whole new pair, complete with an eye exam, for about 70 Euros in 15 minutes.
There isn't all that much to see in Daegu, it being just a big industrial and army city, so we just strolled around the shopping areas, taking it easy for once. We decided that we had just enough time to go see a movie before M. and I had to take the bus to Haeinsa, a secluded buddhist temple in the mountains an hour away, so we say Bangkok Dangerous, a new movie with Nicolas Cage.
Movies are screened in their original language with Korean subtitles, so it was quite a treat, even for us. Cinemas are huge, a lot like their American counterparts, just because they are much sought after. Koreans go to the movies much more often than Germans, many going once a week. That makes it cheaper than going to the movies in Germany and also promotes the rapidly growing and internationally renowned Korean film industry. Koreans make such good movies that Hollywood began copying them around 2 years ago. At least 10 Korean classics have been copied over this short time, including "House on the Lake" with Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullok. They do tend to ruin the wonderful scripts and unique camera techniques of the originals though.
After the movie we had to say a very sad goodbye at the bus station with promises of seeing each other again soon (G.M. is planning to travel to Germany next year).
The rest of the students along with our professor were supposed to meet us in Haeinsa and then the actual program was to start.
However, when we arrived in Haeinsa, it turned out to be a city as well as a temple higher up. We had to take a taxi even though there weren't any around and all our professor told us on the phone was that we had to hurry up if we still wanted to eat dinner.
Frustrated by this treatment we still managed it up to the temple complex in time to eat a quick dinner. While eating we picked up some amazingly bad vibes radiating off of the other 3 students that had travelled with the professor. It turns out that the temple doesn't have any record or knowledge of us coming and M. left the paper with the contact details of the specific monk everything was arranged with at home in Germany. So our only choice is to bed in the regular 'templestay' facilities and hope that things turn out right the next morning.
But along with sleeping in the templestay department, taking part in all of the temples ceremonies is mandatory, including getting up at 3 o'clock in the morning for a morning ceremony....
Still, G.M. was there to pick us up and do a little shopping, as J.J. had made me promise to pick up a new pair of glasses with his best friend (probably along to guarantee they met his taste..).
Frames start at 35 Euros and go to about 150 for normal ones, of course way over for well-known brand names. However, the glasses only cost abot 20-30 Euros together, so I was able to get a whole new pair, complete with an eye exam, for about 70 Euros in 15 minutes.
There isn't all that much to see in Daegu, it being just a big industrial and army city, so we just strolled around the shopping areas, taking it easy for once. We decided that we had just enough time to go see a movie before M. and I had to take the bus to Haeinsa, a secluded buddhist temple in the mountains an hour away, so we say Bangkok Dangerous, a new movie with Nicolas Cage.
Movies are screened in their original language with Korean subtitles, so it was quite a treat, even for us. Cinemas are huge, a lot like their American counterparts, just because they are much sought after. Koreans go to the movies much more often than Germans, many going once a week. That makes it cheaper than going to the movies in Germany and also promotes the rapidly growing and internationally renowned Korean film industry. Koreans make such good movies that Hollywood began copying them around 2 years ago. At least 10 Korean classics have been copied over this short time, including "House on the Lake" with Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullok. They do tend to ruin the wonderful scripts and unique camera techniques of the originals though.
After the movie we had to say a very sad goodbye at the bus station with promises of seeing each other again soon (G.M. is planning to travel to Germany next year).
The rest of the students along with our professor were supposed to meet us in Haeinsa and then the actual program was to start.
However, when we arrived in Haeinsa, it turned out to be a city as well as a temple higher up. We had to take a taxi even though there weren't any around and all our professor told us on the phone was that we had to hurry up if we still wanted to eat dinner.
Frustrated by this treatment we still managed it up to the temple complex in time to eat a quick dinner. While eating we picked up some amazingly bad vibes radiating off of the other 3 students that had travelled with the professor. It turns out that the temple doesn't have any record or knowledge of us coming and M. left the paper with the contact details of the specific monk everything was arranged with at home in Germany. So our only choice is to bed in the regular 'templestay' facilities and hope that things turn out right the next morning.
But along with sleeping in the templestay department, taking part in all of the temples ceremonies is mandatory, including getting up at 3 o'clock in the morning for a morning ceremony....