Saturday Outing

Clear Saturday morning, 45 degrees.  It's the first mild day in a while here, and we use the opportunity to head to Yangjae Flower Market, Korea's largest flower market.  It opens for wholesale at 1am every Monday to Saturday, and opens to the public at 6am.  Highly protective of our sleep, however (I smiled reading a Wall Street Journal article called "Sleep is the New Status Symbol" -- an oldie but a goodie), we get there at a much more reasonable 10am.

Expecting it to be packed, we were pleasantly surprised to have the giant greenhouse largely to ourselves.

A bit overwhelmed at first, we approached the situation much as one would approach a buffet: by doing a once-over and checking everything out first.  We got excited about just about everything (rare for us, I know).

The first time I went to Yangjae was back in the fall.  For the last four months, I've been taking myself out on an "artist date" every Tuesday afternoon.  It's become a Sabbath of sorts for me, a time to unplug, think, wander, and play (can't take credit for making this up: it's a core tool in "The Artist's Way" and one of the the key principles of a time management book that Andrew and I love called "Manage Your Day to Day".)  While the practice seems to be gaining more and more traction (Obama apparently takes one day off each week to just think and Bill Gates takes two weeks off a year to do "nothing"), it still results in some funny conversations:

Tyler (after a particularly challenging day at work): "What did you do today?"
Trish: "I went to the aquarium!!"
Silence.
Peals of laughter from both of us.
Trish: "Wait, why are you laughing?"
Tyler: "No reason, five year old Trish."

As beautiful as that fall trip to Yangjae was, I've been hesitant about going back because it was also just so hard.  No one spoke English, and buying even just two small potted plants was a huge win (as was getting them back home).

So I was downright shocked at how much of a pleasant and inspiring experience today's trip to the flower market was! -- of course, it helps that we now know our numbers and can string basic sentences (okay, phrases) together like: "lots of sun or just little?" and "water -- how much?"

We are now the proud owners of all of these delightful plants...we promise to do all that we can to keep them alive until you all come visit!

For our living room (yes, that's an orange tree that Tyler's been wanting for the last three years and the most unique bonsai tree I've seen!):

For our bedroom and my meditation/yoga room (saying "my room" really never gets old):