Sunday - start of templestay at Beopjusa Temple

The drive here was beautiful across several mountain ranges. This time we drove up to the temple and delivered the luggage right up to the office of Templestay. SunLee came to greet us and got us set up.
First luggage into the rooms, Jerry got his own room in the basement, the ladies each their own and we men one for three.
The mattrasses are about 10 cm think and firm. I can still sense the floorheating, so its going to be a good night!

We then walked to lunch. Serving ourselves from the buffet it's important not to take too much as nothing can be left. We have to remember that 80 people have had to work together to create even one corn of rice. We cannot waste their work. After lunch we washed up and set the plates to dry in an intricate pyramid structure. Rope and I were both close to making it collapse, but Jerry actually did. Next we went back to the office to meet with the head nun for Templestay. She explained us about the rules. First and foremost you have to participate in evening and morning chants. Secondly you have to observe the mealtimes, as they are set according to the monks routines. Thirdly we have to wear our devotees uniform.

So we have by now participated in lunch at 1150, dinner at 1730, evening chants at 1830. Next we have morning chants at 330 (yes you read correctly), then some more sleep and up for breakfast at 600. You can see our uniforms in the pictures.

The headnun then went on to tell about program she can arrange for us, we have done woodblock printing, created lotusflowers and done a Forrest walk meditation. The walk was in an area reserved for the nuns and monks.

We continued with dinner and then a little bloggwriting....