The day was still young when we got home. After eating the Kraft mac&cheese Dave had bought for me on the black market, we headed out to the gold market and Insa-dong. I bought two more sets of silver chopsticks and spoons. We drank tea in the old tea house where little birds tweet and fly overhead. It was early afternoon and we had the place to ourselves. The old man working there was chopping up ginger at a table nearby. When he was done, he poured handfuls of the chunks over the flames of burning candles. He was very nice. On my way out he handed me a little turtle made from stone, and with that smile I love so much, he told me I should make it into a necklace.

We walked a block east, near Chogye temple, where we picked up a wind chime like the ones I see hanging from temple eaves all over the country. We bought a huge container of incense too.

Just down the street from there was a shop selling Chinese tea sets. I wanted to take a look inside, so we went in just as the proprietor was sitting down to tea. He invited us to sit with him and two other women. We did. For an hour we drank cup after cup of boi cha, black as the blackest coffee and tasting of earth. He poured with the fluid gestures of a man who is one with the ritual. He told us stories in Korean that Dave translated for me.

He said: In Japan tea is the spirit; in Korea tea is politeness; in China tea is art.

He said: Drinking tea alone is becoming one with tea. Drinking tea with one other person is tasting the tea. Three people drinking tea is conversation. More than seven people having tea is drinking water.

He said: There was once a very famous Chinese scholar/philosopher who was known for his keen insight and wisdom. People from all over would come to ask this man questions, but he would never answer them. Instead, he would only say, "Drink tea and go." In Korean it sounds like Geek Ta Go and it is the name of the store in which we were sitting.