MONDAY, OCT 16

My daily rest stop on the way to class. I rest my hips and heart for 5 minutes…then I tackle The Hill.

After my fun and exhausting weekend, I was NOT prepared to go back to class, but…sigh. I went.

I had the tutor, Joon, in the morning, and he’s great. Helps me a lot. I try to do the lesson with him that we’re going to do later in the class in class so at least I already have some familiarity with it, even though I can’t understand a word the teacher says. So I was feeling pretty confident when I went to class….but then…she went off-script. She was pulling material out of who-knows-where and I was just like whaaaat is this?? And I spent 4 hours tensely hoping for her to not call on me for anything.

And just as we were walking out the door at the end of class, she handed us little slips of paper with our midterm grades on them.

Oh. I didn’t really need to see THAT. Reading: 35 (yes, out of 100). Writing: 49. Listening: 47. Speaking: 66. Overall grade, 49.25.

You can lead a girl to Korea, but you can’t make her learn.

Of the three best students in the class, two failed. So, you know, there’s a little bit of “misery loves company” there.

I promptly set that on a shelf in my brain, got a honey grapefruit-ade and sat with my friend for a bit on my veranda (haha), then met up with one more girl to go grocery shopping.

Food shopping seems to come in three flavors here: convenience stores, a million of them as far as the eye can see; local corner marts, that are like vegetable stands; and the big super markets. So I go to the Emart 2-3 times a month and load up…as much as I’m willing to lug home half a mile. Emart is, first of all, IN A MALL (I hate malls), then sort of like a cross between a regular American grocery store, and Costco. It’s HUGE and it sells a lot of things in only large quantities. It’s always PACKED, and guess what, all the labels are in Korean. So it makes it Very Challenging to grocery shop. I’ve ended up at home several times with a bag or box of WHAT THE HELL IS THIS. And you make the best of it cuz you’re certainly not walking BACK there, and you don’t have space in the tiny refrigerator for mistakes PLUS corrections. So you use the mistakes up as quickly as possible and try to do better next time.

TUESDAY, Oct 17

My comforter from home (YAY), some jeans from home in smaller sizes, all the Lipton tea bags, all the Equal, compression socks (that I can’t get on) some thin bike short trype things to wear under dresses, a card reader, a new wireless receiver for pairing my laptop and korean keyboard…and my replacement debit card.

Oh dear, this was a day. I feel like I was near tears much of the day…out of frustration at not being  able to just LEARN. I had my tutor in the morning before class and I was getting very frustrated because I Just Could Not Understand – Remember – Utilize what he was telling me. Then he gave me a bunch of homework for our next class on Thursday…on top of the homework I’ll have from class, and the new vocabulary to learn and ALWAYS ALWAYS going back over the basics cuz there are some building blocks missing.

Then I had class. And it was the “better” Tuesday/Thursday teacher who goes a little more slowly and will explain briefly in English when absolutely necessary…and STILL I was just LOST. So there’s the frustration of not being able to Get It…and the anxiety for four hours, just waiting to be called on and present my ineptness in front of the class. And THAT’s honestly not even as bad as when they then try to EXPLAIN it to you..IN KOREAN…you know, that language I couldn’t understand the FIRST time you said it…and then they won’t let it go and they’re like WE’RE STICKING WITH THIS TIL YOU GET IT – not in a mean way, just in a – what they think is – a helpful way. Leave no students behind. Even the old ones. But really PLEASE I BEG OF YOU just move along, pretend I’m not even here, and I’ll try to figure this stuff out tonight.

So…just not a good day. Met a friend for dinner…and then my slippery metal chopsticks wouldn’t hold the noodles and it took me forever to eat a bowl of jjajangmyeon and I think more of it ended up on the front of my shirt than in my mouth.

One good thing: the package that Katie sent on Saturday, Oct 7, FINALLY arrived! So now I have my comforter from home, two more pairs of jeans (I DO NOT HAVE ENOUGH CLOTHES HERE!!!), Lipton tea bags, Equal, a new dongle to pair my laptop with my wireless Korean keyboard, a card reader so I can get pictures off my camera, a pair of compression socks (my feet have been SO swollen here, more on that in a future post), a pair of like mid-thigh length underpant/bike short things so I can wear dresses without creating waterfalls of sweat on the insides of my thighs when I walk, and last, but certainly not least…my resplacement debit card…because of COURSE I lost my debit card in South Korea.

I look forward to sleeping with the comfort(er)s of home tonight.

WEDNESDAY, OCT 18

And I hit the wall. The wall of stress and anxiety and exhaustion and frustration. And I took an E-day. I don’t really know what that means. It’s something my ex used to say when he was taking an unscheduled personal day – he was “banging an E-day.”

I slept late (and delightfully so, under my lovely comforter), paid bills, did my tutoring homework, did my class homework, watched half a k-drama while eating lunch, and tried to get a jump start on the next chapter in the text book. I don’t usually get very far with that. The tutor will help me get sorted out tomorrow.

And I’m going to bed early. Me and my comforter.

THURSDAY, OCT 19

Dreary morning

Back to our regularly scheduled program. Tutor in the morning, class in the afternoon, dinner and study group in the evening. Mon-Fri is pretty much just school-related activities.

I finally heard back from the medical center today. I’d been trying to make an appointment – the last time I had a kidney stone was back in February 2022. I’ve been in Korea less than two months and I’ve had three separate pain issues. Guh.

So tomorrow I go to the Korean urologist…who may or may not speak English. I wrote and translated a brief history of my kidney stones. I hope I did well or I may end up with a liver transplant.

FRIDAY, OCT 20

My list of Go Here, then Go There…and There and There

They use stickers instead of bracelets

This one I know without the translation

Alrighty then. My first experience with Korean healthcare. I’m going to write a separate post about it in more detail…but let me just say there were two sides to the experience. The whole process is done in-hospital: initial consultation (with lovely translator because Dr did not speak English), x-ray, CT scan, blood/urine, follow-up with Dr, picking up prescription from pharmacy. Not that I needed it, but the hospital also houses a funeral home (worst case scenario). Truly one-stop-shopping.

It all seemed very efficient and organized as I moved from department to department. Sort of like DMV, you sign into a kiosk and get a # then wait for your number to be called to pay, be directed, etc. I never waited anywhere more than 15 minutes, except at the end when I needed the translator for the follow-up with the doctor.

So A+ on their part.

But the experience itself was low-key (and by low-key I mean VERY) harrowing :-\ as *I* did not know the efficient and organized system and kept getting upset at not knowing what to do or where to go. It was another DON’T CRY DON’T CRY DON’T BE THE WEAK PATHETIC AMERICAN WHO CRIES situation. Plus, the scan/x-ray outfits didn’t fit…so there was that.

I was pretty much a deer caught in the headlights trying not to cry the entire time. Was I always this sensitive/emotional??

The net is there are two issues: one not urgent but that is causing me pain BUT that they can give me painkillers for…and the other that is possibly more urgent about which we will know more next week when I go for a follow-up and they will have made a determination by looking at the scan.

I was exhausted by the time I got back to my room…I needed a little wind-down time and some lunch before heading to class.

Before…

After

In the evening I met my friend for coffee…then we walked around to find someplace to eat…ended up at a bulgogi (beef) place where we had just a mountain of meat and mushrooms and banchan and it was quite nice.

I came home after that cuz I was just POOPED.

Between hospitalling in the morning, and dinner wandering in the evening, it was a 3.5 mile day.

SATURDAY, 10.20.23

The building where I live

A piddly morning. I never left the room. Ate cereral and PB&J and finished up some of the weird random foods from unsuccessful shopping trips.

SUNDAY, 10.21.23

It was such a nice cool day, I always appreciate those. My friend and I went to brunch at a place I really like in my neighborhood…then we went to a nearby cafe to study. It was nice enough to sit outside…which was super nice.

She forwarded me an Instagram post that suggested anwering these three questions at the end of each day:

  1. What happened today that I’m grateful for?
  2. Which actions moved me towards my goals?
  3. Are there any changes I can make?

So: 1) I’m grateful I got to spend such a nice day with a new good friend. I’m still a little amazed I’ve made friends here at all, so to have met someone whose company I so enjoy is like a little miracle – a little Korean miracle. 2) I spent no less than 17 hours doing homework/studying today. I’m not exactly sure if it’s moving me towards my goal of being able to speak Korean well enough to live here and be competent enough to speak with people, but…it’s all I can do! 3) Hmm, that’s a hard one. I think today…I did well. I don’t know what I would want to change. I did productive stuff, fun stuff, and social stuff. I ate well. I stayed outside almost all day. I’m actually pretty pleased with today.

Well done, Bettye! Ha ha ha.

I will leave you on that high note and say see ya next time….