Self Discovery weekend - oh yeah!

I missed posting for a couple days - wasn't feeling well...

But I am excited to tell you more about Self Discovery weekend.
So here I was, barely a purple belt, full of excitement, heading out into the middle of nowhere, hours away from any known civilization, into the middle of herds of dangerous animals, poisonous plants and whatever creatures might lurk out there.....

It was way out, for sure. But there were no more dangers other than the ones we created with our own fears.

I remember well my first "traditional" weekend. After I had recovered from the shock of "no bathrooms", and after we set up our tents, we were getting hungry - all that driving and the fresh outdoor air had made us hungry.

Now remember, we weren't supposed to bring any of our own food. It was supposed to be provided. I had secretly been looking around for cans of chef boyardee, or some other prepared food, perhaps we were only going to get some army rations or power bars or something.

But nothing of the sort. We soon found ourselves digging some shallow holes and putting some good sized rocks into them, then adding firewood and startig fires. In no time at all Grandmaster Tae Yun Kim was performing what I call "food magic." In a very old fashioned way, she cooked - and showed us how to - rice, soup, and some Korean meat dishes (I'll go into details about this on my food blog).

That first meal was better than any meal at a five star restaurant. Not only did it taste fantastic, but we all felt a surge of energy inside us, and a deep sense of connection with how the food was made and where it came from.

Stay in tune as to how our next day started, after a peaceful night under the stars (well, ahem, inside the tent...)