I finally got the Korean word for fish. I had the guy at the tourist information office write it down for me and I show it when necessary. However, when I order food at a restaurant I look at the pictures. I discovered that the Korean word for ‘fish’ is ‘fishe’. They add an e at the end of English words ending with a consonant, an advantage of being a linguist. So I eat fish every couple of days. The rest of the meals are French pastry, fruits and milk.  On Sunday, I was walking along the raw fish market in sokcho city on the east coast, looking at the fresh fish and at people sitting at wooden tables and on the floor on the side walk and dipping slices of raw fish in a red sauce ping it in a green leaf. I stopped by a couple, pointed at the food and asked ‘what’s this?’, ‘How much is it?". I did not want to be cheated with the price. They answered in Korean and wrote $30 for me. Unexpectedly, the lady wrapped some fish in a green leaf and dipped it in the red garlic sauce and handed it to me. I ate it while laughing and it was very good. She was probably thinking I was begging for food. I thought I would try raw fish. So I asked the waitress how much the fish was and was about to sit down. Passers-by were helping out and wrote $40 for me. I expected her to say $15 as I thought $30 was for 2 people. I did not expect her to raise the price $10. Since I only had $25 in my purse and they neither take credit cards nor traveler’s cheques.

I did not eat raw fish and had to rush back to the hotel eating hot fresh rice crackers that I bought for a dollar. I got tempted to try them while watching the man make them. I had to rush back to the bus station to take the bus back to Seoul. The trip back took an hour and a half longer than the way to Sokcho as a result of the heavy traffic. people were on holiday over the weekend. I got to Seoul later than expected and got to the hotel even later. I was looking for an ATM machine to withdraw cash. The streets were deserted so I ran back to the train station and changed money at the reception. The hotel restaurant was closing. So I ran across the street and bought banans and milk for dinner. I packed quickly for my next morning flight to the Jeju Island where I am right now. Yesterday