Long Good Day cutting trees. Meditation. Marathon training. Dinner. Bar. Bus. Bed.
Thursday:
I planted potatoes today on one of our alotments a 5 minute bicycle ride away. Potatoes are a strange plant. To plant. There are no seeds. We plant the potatoes and then we plant the shoots to make more potatoes. That's not strange at all actually. I just never imagined it to be this way growing up.
THe morning passed slowly at first as my body struggled to bend and flex after a long day of cutting trees yesterday which was followed by meditation, marathon training, dinner and then a day at the bar.
I remember before entering the bar Yang's instructions to the bar,"When we get to bar we must project our positive energy."
But I wasn't remembering while weeding. I was struggling a bit.
I remember being in a little bit of an existential dilemna at the time. I remembered to have deep breathing to minimize my stress.
I was planting potatoes. I was planting them deep but I knew that I was breaking JuHee's example which I knew might bring us into disharmony. It was taking longer than her method of just planting the potatoes just above the ground. She came over.
"Greg, I think maybe that I should plant and you should weed because my planting is faster."
"Okay," I said and switched.
I felt bad because I was breaking a cultural norm. I was struggling about whether to do something that I knew was wrong or to break what my supervisor was doing for me.
I decided what needed to be done. I would do just do what she tells me to do, because its the right thing to do.
We switched again. I planted quick and shallow. A friend of Yang's came. He looked upset and spoke to JuHee.
"He said we should be planting deeper."
I felt satisfaction after the situation worked itself out and I had kept the harmony. I realize that this is a sign that I have changed my decision making process in this moment.
An hour later I went to weeding the bean plants.
Squating and walking, I thought about my breathing and meditated in the moment, I ripped up weeds.
Two ajumma's came up and starting speaking to JuHee.
They looked at me no covered from head to toe- with exposed arms and shorts and told me that I should protect myself.
Soon enough JuHee told me that they invited us for food. They gathered black bean leaves which I just learned that we could eat that. I took some seurebireum to bring to. The older ajumma looked at it took it and threw it on the ground. One person's food is another's garbage.
It turned out they were cousins of Kim Yang Ju, a friend of Yang. They fed us a lot of rice, dried squid in a red sauce, fried eggplant, a puree of fish, katnip and barley tea.
They asked me questions and JuHee translated in asides.
By the way I'm trained because they had be wash myself with a hose and gave me a fresh fhirt and t-shirt to wear.
We finished at 5. We walked the bikes home. I went about planning a rocket stove that I convinced Yang to build with me. Yang came over and I showed him the design. We went to a few different people to get a metal cutter. We found a large one at the nearby wrestlerl, dog selller. We found the cutter amidst the sounds of 40 barking dogs.
We took measurements and discussed the concept. Yang cut the metal. Sparks flew everywhere and in the darkening sky the the sparks lit up the side off the house. JuHee who was peeling garlic inside stopped. Her face looked surprise at the light.
"Can I try?"
"Do you want to try?" he asked surprised I think at the comfort of it.
I did it.
We cut some more and then he said he had to go.
He then told me that Choson Ilbo is coming to interview me for my Wwoofing tomorrow.
I talked to my wife and thought about the coming future ahead. I will be harvesting tea and food to bring home. Time is running out on the farm but everything is running smoothly. Good karma.
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