Buddha & Rain

It was funny tonight I got done eating with my family and my host dad suggested that we go to Bukhansan National Park. Do you know of that place? Well anyways there is a famous Buddhist Temple there. I am not really into Buddha nor have I ever really known about Buddha until I came to Korea. I actually got Buddha 101 from our first trip. Well anyways we got up there and my dad wanted me to rub Buddha's belly. Which I really didn't want to because it looked really dirty (Buddha's belly was a differnt color than the rest of his body) there were a lot of people around me waiting to touch his belly. So I just laughed and said no thank you. Well my son said she is not Buddhist, she is christian. And the dad said, so its good experience. LOL

Then we walked a bit further and there was a drinking well. I got to try the water, and it was the most fresh water I have tried in a LONG time! Then as we were walking further my host father goes, oh I think you will have a great experience up there as he pointed up the 5 flights of stairs. So I thought to myself, "experience" - he is going to have me try something. I already knew that we were walking up to a Buddha temple where people were probably worshiping him at. I could smell the incense in the air. When we got to the top I looked to the right and there was a Giant Buddha ingraved into the humungous stone that was sitting on the mountain. In the middle was a beautiful green tree and below the tree were about 20 people bowing down and worshiping Buddha. My father said, "Lets have a seat." I couldn't say no, even though I am no Buddhist he said that it was okay- more people began to trickle up the stairs (we were surrounded by a lot of people! I looked behind me and there was a girl who was doing a special bow. My host father told me that if you do it 108 times you get blessed with a clear mind, and understanding. It was very peaceful up there but I felt out of my element. Just FYI, I don't have anything against people that believe in Buddha, its just not my thing. Anyways...

All day yesterday it rained. Today was very sunny and hot. As I was sitting there watching all these people praying/worshiping Buddha for about 15 minutes (which was a very long time to me- it wasn't like rubbing Buddha's belly where I could just say no thank you- If I got up it would have been a distraction, and I don't know what my family would have said- so .... as I was sitting there I began to pray to God. I said, "Please God let it rain so maybe we can leave." Sure enough it started pouring raining!!! NO JOKE! I couldn't believe it! We were pretty wet! I was laughing the whole way down the mountain to myself. And thanking God for taking me out of that situation. God is good! :)