Cherry blossoms

Though it's only Wednesday, today is my last work day of the week. On top of that, this morning I found that the various tests that had been scheduled for today corresponded exactly with the three periods of classes I usually have on Wednesday. Except for the fact that I have to be picked up from school at 5 pm for my volunteer session at SOS, I essentially have today off.

I just got back from a walk and lunch. The peak time for the cherry blossoms is already almost over; the trees have begun to drop their petals. I had hoped to pay a visit to one of the special cherry blossom sites nearby, like Ssangeysa temple, but because I'm so busy it's been difficult to find a time.

As much as I would have liked to see the trees in Ssangeysa, in some ways it seems excessive. The cherry blossom season is a brief ten days or so, but every day this week I've been viewing the trees. They're everywhere in Suncheon, foreground and background. There are young ones on the street near our apartment in Yeohyangdong. There are great, tall old ones on the mountain behind my school, where I just took a walk. All of them have pale pink or white blossoms. It seems almost gaudy, inappropriate in some way, when I look at the mountain in the middle of town which has yet to shed its shabby winter coat of leafless trees and austere evergreens, and here and there a bright spreading of branches stands out like a cluster of feathers.

Still, I'm tempted, with these four hours to kill ahead of me, to walk down to the river and take the walking path, this time in the opposite direction from the bay. I want to stand underneath the pink trees and look up into their branches, so that all I see is pink. I want to see it, concentrated, before it goes away for the rest of the year.

In Japan I remember Naoko, Elliot's sister in law, talking about springtime in Seattle and saying how surprised she was to see the cherry blossoms last so long. At Reed, the circle of cherry trees at the center of campus bloomed for a couple weeks at least. It was beautiful, but we still looked forward to when the petals would begin to drop and we could have our own 'flower-blossom viewing' with free sushi for everyone. I wonder why trees blossom for so short a time in Korea and Japan, compared to the States. I'd like to see the petals against the background of green leaves, but it doesn't seem possible here. The petals are gone before the tree's leaves even sprout.

Tomorrow is 'Picnic Day,' basically a day when all the different homerooms go on different fieldtrips. My host mother checked to see if anyone was going to Ssangeysa, for my sake, but told me this morning that one of the first grade classes is taking a trip to Daegu, a city a little further north that I haven't visited yet. It'll be a long trip, from 7:30 am to 8:30 pm, but I can't really pass up the opportunity. I had been thinking about going to the river tomorrow in lieu of Ssangeysa. Maybe I'll just go right now. It's beautiful and sunny out. I can see the trees lining the river from the entrance gate of the school. It seems fated. I even brought my camera to school with me today.