On Friday I started coming down with a cold. I felt it coming. I hate feeling it come on while I’m at work, because there’s not challenging it. I have to stay there all day and become its victim like I’m clasped down onto a bed and injected with it.
Well anyway, I went straight home after work and had a small bite, did what I could to qwell the cold and went to sleep. I went to sleep early because I planned to meet my director at Soksu station Saturday morning to hike up Mt. Samseung. I went to sleep, but didn’t sleep well at all on account of my festering cold. But I woke up Saturday at 8:00, made some tea with the honey I got for Chuseok, got ready and left, filling a little ill, but not much worse than the night before.
I met my boss and we left the station to hike up the mountain.
We hiked up for nearly four hours when we finally came upon an old Buddhist temple. A service was actually going on when we got there. The service consisted of a monk reciting prayers and followers praying, standing up, kneeling down, then bowing with their foreheads to the floor. They said a short prayer, then stood up again. It was very interesting to see. And there, on the side of a mountain.
It was beautiful.
Down the path there was a small garden. And what struck me as very odd were the famous set of large rocks that people visit, called “Fertility Stones.” Why are they called this? Well, they are shaped, by nature, to look like male and female genitals, and found just beside each other. People go there like they would go to a wishing well. It’s a little added luck, but not what they put all their hope in.
Me and the Male stone
We walked around the temple, ornately painted with beautiful stonework and I saw a massive drum and giant bell. The bell rings once on January 1, my director told me. And on December 31, it rings all day long, I assume once every hour.
It’s a very large bell. I don’t know what the drum is for.
Well, after we hiked the mountain, his wife picked us up on the other side and we went back to the school where he had to do some work and offered to feed me. All the blood that had been flowing easily through me slowed down and I started feeling heavily fatigued and terrible sick.
We went to the office and sat down to eat. We had noodles with a very thick dark sauce, which was less than appealing in my state, but I ate it, and it tasted fine, but I started to loose my mind looking into the bowl and thinking how tired I was. And without thinking through what I was saying, I looked up and said, “I’m sorry, I can’t eat this. I’m so tired and don’t feel well.” And I felt bad for how I said it because he was then very concerned for me and apologetic. I tried to reassure him saying it was okay, that I wanted to hike the mountain and that it was good that I did. He apologized again and I went to the pharmacy, bought a warm tonic medicine drink, a medicine powder, and a pack of capsule medicine, which cost me a total of 3 dollars (3000 won) and I went home.
I laid in bed unable to sleep, but relaxing with my feet up and the medicine working and when I finally got out of bed, whatever time it was, my director showed up with medicine. He passed it off, visited briefly, then left. I spent the rest of my night in my room, took medicine once more, fell asleep on and off throughout the night, and here I lie, 10 o’clock Sunday morning feeling much better – still sick, but it’s on the retreat.
This is only 1/4 of Seoul! You can see the gradient of pollution from a hazy brown to blue above... ugh!
The beautiful mountains... and the filthy smog from surrounding cities sifting through...
Somewhere, behind all that pollution, is my apartment in Anyang.
I love Dragonflies!
