It's getting hot and muggy.

There was a subway workers strike in the works, although whether or not they actually striked and subway service was ever stopped, I don't know. Dave was able to take it home from work, but there were demonstrators, hubbub, and extra traffic. The traffic was my problem as I was on the bus all day and had to deal with the increased number of cars roaming around. Personally, I think it made for bad karma on the roads because late in the afternoon when Mala was giving me a ride to the bus stop near her house we were almost hit three times by other cars. When I say almost, I mean imminent disaster and then some greater force stepped in and prevented it. Near misses are a way of life, so those don't count.

Tea today. Had an awesome time with Mrs. Chung who filled me up with fried dokk (gooey rice cake fried in oil) dipped in honey. Good stuff. All that oil in the pan = bloated. I was at her house for a really long time as we spent a good hour just talking about the names her poet friend had divined for Dave and me using astrology and intuition. I'm quite happy with mine. It's only two characters, which is a little unusual in Korea and reminds me of a name an artist might use: like Madonna or Tasan. It's Haran, which if you know a's and r's in East Asian languages, then you know a by itself is always short like in "taught" and r by itself isn't like r but is really the l but because it's alone it's said quickly and actually almost comes out like a cross between d and a sort of rolled French r. Wild. The .gif to the left shows the two characters as Mrs. Chung wrote them. Together they mean river orchid. Mr. Chong, who did the divining, said he surmised from my birthdate and birthtime, and from the the stuff that Mrs. Chung told him about me, that I'm quite strong. Mrs. Chung said she replied, "No, she's beautiful!" Beauty and strength are antagonistic I guess. Anyway, I guess the name sort of reflects strength (power) and beauty. The deal is that I was born in the year of the pig but in the hour of the dragon - whoa - suggesting a softer exterior with fire underneath. Incidentally, it's quite similar to the fact that I'm a Cancer with Leo rising, which makes the "river" part of my name seem even more appropriate.

I looked in the Chinese dictionary to learn the stroke order of the first character of my new name - gotta start practicing how to write it - and found that when the character for river and the character for horse are combined it means hippopotamus. How cute. Thus, in Korean a hippo is a hama. I love hippos.

We ran through the tea ceremony only once. I told Mrs. Chung that I wasn't going to serve this time because last time I totally pulled something in my back. She got a kick out of that.

I'm trying to find ways to return her generosity without having to really go out on a limb - meaning not having to spend a lot of money or having to entertain in my home (because I can't ever picture myself entertaining). So today I asked her if she wanted me to bring back anything from the States. She said no, she didn't need anything because her daughter can bring stuff when she visits later this summer. So then I asked her if there was anything she wanted me to take with me to the States that I could mail there since it would be so much cheaper to send domestically. Her face totally turned myong and she started asking about how much luggage I carry with me and relating stories about trying to send whole boxes of Chinese herbal medicine via air and it costing over $100. Geez. I said I pack light.

I'm starting to feel anxious, the weird chronic kind. Little things that would only cause mild anxiety are starting to feel huge and I know it's because I've got this baseline tension building about the trip. I'm at once excited but starting to freak about the long plane ride and about leaving Dave behind. God, the hardest moment is always passing through that gate into Immigration and leaving him behind. I hate aiports, I hate separations. I was talking to Mala today about trips. She was saying something about how it's not worth going back to India for a visit unless she's going to be there at least a month. She said traveling always stresses her out because she suffers separation anxiety from a place. Once she's actually separated, she's fine, but the anticipation and the act of it weigh on her. Exactly.