Arrival in Korea, Oct. 6, 2012

7:11 AM in Incheon and I have just gotten up after staying at Joy’s Dad’s place last night.  It’s a small apartment at the top of a small apartment building, grayish stone with rusty reddish streaks, three floors and no elevator. He is the caretaker for the place and he has the roof apartment, with a large area of open cement roof as a deck. Inside there is a kitchen/living room/dining room/bedroom (all the same space), a small bathroom, an extra room with a bed and cabinets full of storage, and a small storage room. This is outside of Incheon so there are trees and some small fields around. There is ocean to the south and a huge coal fired power plant just about 1 km. away. It’s an amazingly clean plant with very few visible emissions.

Last night Joy’s older brother met me at the airport, then Michael and her father and step mother came. We went to dinner and it was great to have Korean food again. They have such interesting and tasty food! Last night we had thin slices of pork broiled over charcoal burners and then wrapped in large lettuce or sesame leaves with rice, garlic, and a variety of condiments. There were lots of side dishes – 2 kinds of kimchi, cabbage salad, some kind of fish in a sweet/sour sauce, breaded pork with a sauce, two kinds of soup, a kind of sweet noodle broth and some sweet fermented apple juice tasting stuff for a dessert drink. So many different tastes!

Being here brings back so many memories and images from when Joy and I were here, almost 18 months ago now. Each time I revisit one of the places we were before it brings back the memories and I miss her so much. It’s a clearing thing though as well – revisiting the memories, opening them, loving them, and changing them to fit the new reality of how things are.

Time lapse – now it is Monday afternoon and I am in Mokpo, at Joy’s brother’s apartment. Elizabeth (his wife) took me to see a big salt drying area today – many acres of small flat pools where water is let to sit in the sun and evaporate, leaving the salt behind. I didn’t know that “salary” comes from the word salt, when salt was money…

I think that life will get slower and less interesting once I get to the temple in Thailand, but right now there is lots to see and do and tell about. I think I’ll leave it here for the moment though.