I added a new word to my Korean active vocabulary today: 흙 [heuk = dirt].
Why am I now able to talk about dirt in Korean?
I had a plant – a flowering houseplant whose identity I don’t know well, but it was given to me while I was in the hospital last summer by my friend Seungbae (who is now a proud resident of Mexico City, believe it or not). My brother Andrew attached the flowerpot to the top of my IV cart, decoratively – here is a picture.
In fact, the flower is the longest-lived houseplant I’ve had since my time with Michelle in the 1990’s. I’ve made several attempts to keep houseplants but I seem to have a singular talent for neglecting them, and they die.
So this plant has lived nearly a year, and I feel some small attachment to it. The thing was looking droopy and forlorn lately, and I decided it needed an infusion of new, higher-quality dirt. So I got linguistically brave and ventured into the neighborhood plant shop and with my dictionary I figured out how to ask for 화분용 흙 [hwabunyong heuk = flowerpot-use dirt], and bought a bag of dirt.
I did a transplant of my little flower to some new dirt. Now I have all this left over dirt, and I’m thinking of buying another plant. Let’s all pray for their survival at my unproficient ministrations.
[daily log: walking, 7 km]