Buddhist temples.

A lot of the exchange students went to a Buddhist temple over the weekend and it kind reminded me of a story I was told when I went to a Buddhist temple myself with my uncle a little while ago.

They're not exactly "fun" places.

Sure there are the rigid wake up calls (3am), prayer and you get to be whacked on the back with a giant stick (to make sure you don't doze off to sleep, 'cause of that ridiculous wake up time) and you get to eat spectacularly bland food.

But there's more.

It's an open secret that a lot of Korean gangsters go and become monks at the end of their careers so you really do want to be careful (in the kind of don't-make-them-call-in-their-underground-contacts kinda way). Also a few years ago, old gang rivalries flared up and monks from two former gangs took to beating the crap out of each other with 2 by 4s at these temples.

Cuddles and goodnight,
Daisung.