Yes, the one eyed bunny is looking at you.

There are moments when life is wonderfully absurd. Such as when you’re standing at a rest stop ordering a caffe mocha, with our sister-in-law, the gray clad Buddist monk in line has whipped out his silver cell phone as he waits for his coffee, while you’re being told “It’s the Korean,” way as the man you meet an hour ago is insisting on paying for the coffee, before he and his wife drive you back to Seoul. Unfortunately these are the moments when you shouldn’t laugh like a child, even though you want to for sheer joy of it, the absurd wonderfulness of life .


So what does this have to do with a one eyed porcelain bunny? Everything.

Jenevieve and I went to Incheon to make pottery and do some shopping on Saturday. After taking an hour bus and a short taxi ride, we arrived in Incheon pottery village, or part of it. First on our list to do was to play with clay. At one of the stores, Jenevieve inquired where one could make pottery. We were directed to a white cast iron spiral staircase to a second story where an ajoshi(older man) and an ajumoni(older woman) were working in an open room, filled with pottery in various stages of production. Neither one spoke English, but when making pottery it’s more about touch, pressure, and feeling. The ajumoni deft experienced hands guided us through the process. After taking our bowls off of the potters wheel, we decorated our pieces and then picked a glaze. In twenty days, I’ll post pictures of our efforts.

Having finished our primary goal we moved on to our second goal, shopping. If shipping was dirt cheap you would all be getting pottery for Christmas. I couldn’t resist buying a teapot and cups, glazed dark brown with green and red highlights. Beautiful. Jenevive had a very particular thing she wanted to buy, so we walked down the hill, wandering in and out of shops looking for the best deal. After debating for a bit, we decided to go into one last store, a small one. On entering we almost bumped into a couple negotiating with the owner. Soon, the husband began to talk to us, introducing us to the man who made all the potter. He was an affable man, very social, with solid English. Soon he was asking us questions, such as where we lived, etc. When we said we lived in Seoul he offered to drive us home in half an hour. We said maybe and headed back to one of the other shops to pick up my teapot. We ended up going back to the last store. The gentleman meet us on our way back and helped negotiate a price for us. It was really quite humorous, involving boxes, sizes, phone calls for shipping estimates, amazing. At the end of the transaction something happened, the gentleman handed Jenevieve a porcelain pig, me a rabbit, and his wife a two ducks and said, “I love you” and laughed. After that it was off to Seoul, with a pit shop for coffee. And that is how we got home on Saturday. The Korean way.
And that is how I made my new friend Fu the one eyed bunny.