oh me, oh my, omija

Having only been at Omija Village for a few days, I already feel well at home. We work a little longer here than I have at other places, but I'm finally doing real farming and not just moving stones. This is what I wanted, to feel that connection with the earth and with nature. And I like it. Today was predominantly spent raking soil, planting seeds of various roots and vegetables and topping it off with some watering. I am sort of bummed to only be here a week as I'd really like to be here to take care of it all, watch the seeds sprout and then eventually eat the harvest of my labour. Maybe I'll swing back on my way home to see how it all turned out.

I'm not sure if i mentioned it in the last post, but this place is beautiful. I'm surrounded by luscious tree filled mountains. Streams and brooks running around us. Tons of omija trees all around. And clean crisp fresh air.

This morning I woke up a bit early (the smoke alarms low battery alert may have aided in this a little) and decided to check out this hoodoo I could see in the distance.

very cool. except what was cooler was that there wasn't just one hoodoo, but a bunch.

Every morning I use my japa mala, given to me by Sharon just before my cross country leg of this journey, and say my mantra 108 times (twice around the bijas). Since being in korea I've been using Patanjali's Sutra 1-33, it holds relevance to me both for it's meaning and something I need to work more with as well as it being the sutra I had to discuss during yoga school. Usually I recite it while laying or sitting in bed, but today I did it while walking around the hoodoo grounds. It had a nicer feeling to it. As the birds chirped and squeaked and the other animals rustled and made noise, I felt more connected to myself and the earth.

When I finished Mr Kim, my "big brother" here, (I think he's technically the groundskeeper or something like that) was waiting and we were off to make breakfast. I made kimchi chigae for the crew today.

and if i can be so bold, I'll go ahead and say it was darn tasty (and hella spicy!!)

So, today started out just so wonderfully, and it has continued to stay that way.

Here are two more pics of me on my first nights meeting the guests.

they kept making me take shots of makoli and plum wine.

this guy really liked me, and his wife enjoyed stuffing fresh cooked meet and doenjang in my mouth.

I'll end this pic with two of three cute little fellas who love to be pet here (the jindo is not kept near these guys but i'll snap a pic of him soon for y'all).