화장실: hwa-jang-sheel: powder room

On my walk in to school this morning, Han Tae-Gyu caught up with me again. He had a dream, he told me, that I gave him a present of soap. Twice. I couldn't tell whether he meant that he had the same dream two times, or that I gave him soap two times in one dream.

He also asked if I liked soy milk, and said that the next time he saw me he would give me a box of soy milk. They have a way of saying things to me that doesn't seem to allow me to argue, and I still don't know when it's okay for me to decline a gift. If it's ever okay.

This week is midterm-exam-week, and I have no official classes. But I still go in to work every day, and for a few hours every morning hold an "English cafe" in the English classroom, for any teachers who want to come and practice their English with me. It's fun! Despite my expectations, Kim Yeon (the overeager, rude teacher I mentioned before) has been a scarce presence in the cafe, and my more frequent visitors are 3 techies who I have had little to no interaction with previously. They've been coming every day, and staying for about 2 hours most of the time. We have coffee and eat fruit and less healthy snacks, and talk about travel and pets and language and things.

But that's all beside the point. The point was this: mountain #3: I-don't-know-the-name-of-this-san, on the south-east periphery of Seoul. I didn't actually climb this one, though.

Rather, three of my English-speaking teacher-family members and I went out to lunch together, and then Park Mi-Ran drove us most of the way up the mountain. Then we had a self-serve traditional Korean tea ceremony at the top, which was splendid.

Lunch was mostly things I've had before. But also, we had fish. And not silly fish patties or fish sandwiches, either. They cooked a small fish whole, and then put it on a plate and gave it to me. And I ate it. I pried it open with my chopsticks, and peeled the skin away, and plucked the meat away from the bones, and ate it. I didn't love it or anything, and I only ate as much as I thought necessary to show that I wasn't sticking up my nose. But I didn't gag. Apparently cooked fish is now on the list of things I can stomach, which means it's now part of my school diet. I'm continually amazed at how easily I am transitioning to a diet which scarcely resembles anything I've eaten for the past 12 years, or ever.

This is a 500-year-old ginko tree next to the Water Bell Temple, where we had the tea ceremony. Many women pray next to it for fertility, since it produces so many fruit. Also, did you know that ginko fruit smell like sewage when you crush them? It's true.