Monday, 12.25

This was like deja vu from the week before when I was lost in the mall and couldn’t find the right Starbucks to meet my friend…and here I was back again

Merry Christmas! It was a white Christmas here, very pretty…but not enough to impact travel. My building friend and I went to the big mall for vegetarian lunch. Schools, offices, and government buildings were closed, but stores and restaurants were open. The mall was PACKED on Christmas Day! We had a nice lunch then came home so we could work on our presentations that are due Wednesday.

Tuesday, 12.26

Three-day weekend is over and it’s back to school. Just a regular day. The weather is a little milder thann last week (40 during the day instead of 10!). Nothing too exciting here.

Wednesday, 12.27

Got my December Care Package from The Child! Gloves and Long Silk Underwear, oh my!

My Angel Friend, Jacqueline, brought me back cookies from the convenience store…

Had my presentation today, it went okay. I always leave out a few words or markers when I’m in front of the class, but for the most part I think it went kinda okay. We got last week’s test back – I got an 85. Some stupid mistakes, ugh.

Halfway through the class I started feeling fevery…but I hung in til the end then came home and tylenol&cold medicined-up. Had some soup and went to bed.

Thursday, 12.28

Walking to the train…

Seoul has cornered the market on STAIRS

Yay! Thursday! Hyungun Day! We went to get 족볼 (jokbal), aka “Pig’s Trotters.” I’d always thought that was like pigs’ feet, like their hooves…and I couldn’t understand how you could eat it! But it’s more like the meat from hocks/hind legs and it’s extremely tender with a nice fatty “crust.” Yeah, I’m about as far from vegan as I can get these days 🙁 Also a really nice soup 만두떡국, sortof like wonton soup, clear mild broth with pork dumplings and rice cakes and scallions. That’s something I’d love to get delivered if I can ever figure THAT out. And, of course, more somek, that lovely soju + Korean beer combination he introduced me to last week.

After that (there’s always an after that! Like you have main meal at one place, then you go someplace else to either have coffee and maybe dessert, or drink more), we went to a 포장마차 (pojangmacha), a plastic tented outdoor bar/casual restaurant – drinking food. If you’ve ever watched k-dramas you’ve seen these.

Here we had grilled shrimp (BIG shrimp) and more somek…and just talked and laughed. He’s really fun and pleasant to hang out with. I didn’t get home til 1:am. I can’t think of the last time THAT happened!

So first they bring the shrimp in their entirety, then they cut off the heads and take them back to the kitchen to re-saute in butter and garlic before bringing them back to the table.

Oh, I didn’t go to class today. I still felt poorly enough in the morning that I made the executive decision to skip…and yes, I still went out to play later. I’d have to be on my deathbed to skip Hyungun Night, ha ha. Plus, the drinking helped. #healthtipsfromDrBettye

My love for narrow alleyways crowded with people and restaurants continues

Friday, 12.29

Guess what I got?? A kidney stone. Ugh. 4 ayem….took drugs, they took awhile to catch up to the pain, so it was probably 6am before I was able to fall back to sleep…then I had to get up by 10 for a tutoring session at 11. I’d already decided to not go to class again. Stuffy nose and painkiller grogginess would make sitting in class for 4 hours really miserable. So we went over in our session what I’d missed in class these past two days. I worked on homework and vocabulary and finally got last week’s blog post finished and posted!

Went to the nearby mall with my building friend for dinner and grocery shopping.

Saturday, 12.30

SNOW! 눈! (NOON!) As soon as I realized it was snowing, I jumped up and threw on clothes and ran out with my camera to stroll around the neighborhood to look for pictures. I had just gotten my December package from Katie so I finally had gloves and my long silk underwear and these things helped immensely. I’m still wearing canvas sneakers with no socks, but…some girls can just not be tamed ha ha. 

I walked around for a bit. It was that nice quiet snowtime…I ended up over by Paris Baguette (a Panera-esque chain) and sat for a bit with coffee and a pastry. Just sitting by the big window with yummy goodies, watching the big fluffy flakes fall and the people walking by…was one of THOSE moments. Those moments when you just go AHHH. This is nice. It was all worth it. I’m glad I’m here.

Snow always seems to do that to me.

Afterwards I came home, edited pictures, worked on my daily Korean sentences, and just sort of piddled the day away.

By evening, however, the planets unaligned themselves and I was once again struggling with ordering online, ordering food delivery, registering for things….why is everything such a struggle?? I swear I want to hire someone (Korean) for an hour and meet with them with my phone and laptop and just say here, YOU DO. Make it all work. PLEASE. I love it here but it is EXHAUSTING always struggling trying to read everything, do everything…EXHAUSTING.

Sunday, 12.31

What did you do this weekend, Bettye?? I BLEW MY NOSE. I’ve been through an entire roll of toilet paper devoted entirely to nose blowing…and it ain’t over yet. It’s 1pm right now and I think today is a stay at home day…my mother said I need to clean my room and study before I go out to play…and I’m not feeling entirely motivated to do either. Tonight is New Year’s Eve…and I KINDA want to do something but I also kinda DON’T. I know which will probably win.

I have New Year’s Day plans with building friend, Jacqueline. She found a traditional Korean restaurant with a vegan menu and they serve some rice cake dishes…and for Koreans, rice cakes on New Years is like black eyed peas in the US. *I* never ate black eyed peas on NYD but I know it’s A Thing. And they have the soup that I liked at the jokbal place the other night, the 떡만두국 – teokmanduguk, so I’ll have that to fulfill my Korean NYD tradition obligations 🙂

I’ve been thinking a bit about New Year’s resolutions…and the two that are rolling around in here are DATING – I don’t know how…seems like it will be much harder for me here than back home, but…I think I will make a concerted effort to put myself OUT THERE. Ugh. And whipping Bettye’s Big Adventure into shape across all platforms and see if I can build it into something.

How about you guys? Any New Year’s resolutions for 2024??