walking home

yesterday, i had a kind of small adventure, a daily adventure, an adventure between school and home. yesterday, we planned to go the lake, to run. but yesterday and the night before, it rained and rained. so yesterday, we watched as the weather went from dreary to the sky lightening to a fresh breeze to puddles evaporating to a temperature that was pleasant and bearable and i almost forgot humidity existed. 

it was in the happy place and at this happy moment, that we decided to walk home for school. it's an idea we've tossed around before. the idea of it. because sinchang isn't that far from onyang. because they are both a part of asan. and the bus makes a lot of stops and still only takes 30 minutes on its round-a-bout way. so at 3:38pm yesterday, we began walking. we took the most direct route, following the route of the 451 bus that we take home normally. map-quested, the way was upwards of eight kilometers. further than i thought it would be. the way consisted of little sidewalks, frequent lights, many buses passing, beautifully yellow green rice paddies, our friend j passing us twice in his granny smith apple green car, flowers that looked and felt like mini velvet brains, a monster spider with the biggest butt i'd ever seen, crossing a highway, and a stop at a toast shop to celebrate our survival with peach smoothies and ham and cheese sandwiches.

things i liked stopping and noticing: the way that the yellow green rice paddies looked like wheat when up close. that tiny roads cut through the rice paddies. the color of the sky and how quickly the clouds moved through it. watching the spider weave it's web, slowly, perfectly, one spoke at a time, around and around. seeing flowers i hadn't even imagined existed, how velvety they felt, and how convoluted they looked, like sulci, brain folds, wormy things, but were still a bright, pleasant fuchsia color. such a strange flower. how bus drivers kept offering to pick us up because they didn't know why we were on the side of the road, walking. how every piece of available land has something planted in it, and most likely will be or already has been, replanted. how there are several ways home that we still have to try (and will). and that blessed, blessed breeze that blew on my face and through my hair the entire way home.