Monday, June 10

Well, my weekend hiding from the world was the right way to go, as I’m feeling a little better today. I’m trying to remain optimistic that the meeting/conversation with my one friend this week will go well…that they will be reasonable and kind…and we can remain friends.

In that spirit, I woke up bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, after sleeping straight through the night (a rare occurence). I actually jumped right up and went for a 2 mile walk around my neighborhood, SANS CANE/CRUTCH. That’s how good my knee has been feeling. As long as I know where I’ll be walking…that there will be no hills or stairs or unavoidable uneven terrain…and that I’m within walking distance of home, I feel comfortable going out un-aided.

Even though class is much closer now (.25 mile each way vs .50), there’s a short but steep hill to walk up to get there, so I take some sort of aid. The bigger issue is that the lady’s room is on the second floor…and I haven’t managed to go through 4-hour class yet without needing to climb all those stairs. So far it hasn’t been an issue but it concerns me…as I think they were the culprit in the first place.

Class is so-far so-good. But we’re still in the easy stages. The teaching styles of both of this term’s teachers are a little looser than last term, and I really prefer the more structured lessons. But there’s really no homework, which feels so weird, so I can spend that time practicing and memorizing things that I know I struggle with.

And it’s so nice to be home in 10 minutes vs 20. I know it’s only ten minutes, but at the end of the day ten minutes really makes a welcome difference.

Tuesday, June 11

My sad, soggy sandwich ๐Ÿ™

I’ve been here 9 months and only just now am I starting to feel some independence…not having to rely on other people to go places with me because my phone was trying to kill me and kept leaving me stranded away from home. For some reason during the “knee injury” era my phone magically decided OHHHH….Now I Understand What You Want! So being released from the shackles of not being able to walk far, being unable to climb onto a bus, and an uncooperative mobile data, now I want to go EVERYWHERE.

So I told LEP#2 I would meet him this time near his home (he’s been, very kindly, coming to my area every week because of my injury). So I ventured out, on the bus, ALONE, WITH A TRANSFER, to an unfamiliar area. I would be lying to say this trip was without anxiety. And my phone didn’t REALLY work when I was on the bus. The app is supposed to track my travel and tell me when my stop is coming up…and it really didn’t do that, so I had to stay super attentive to the announcements (when I tend to daydream as I look out the window)…and managed to not miss my stop. Did have a rough step getting off the bus. They’re so high up, that last step is always a doozy! The crutch was actually a better support for that than the cane, since it was taller and sturdier.

Anyway…fortunately the app started to work again and showed me very quickly that I was walking in the wrong direction (of course). I found the Starbacks (always such a relief when I actually arrive at my intended destination) about 20 minutes ahead of schedule. I ordered a bucket of honey grapefruit black tea (IT’S THE BEST) and a melty cheese sandwich. And tray, bucket of sticky liquid, cane, and still slightly off-kilter me (#foreshadowing), made our way over to the tables (it’s a HUGE Starbucks). And I ALMOST made it. In fact, I don’t really know what happened exactly…the tray has juuuust made contact with the table, I thought I’d won…then bucket of icy sticky liquid slowly started to wobble…and I just coouldn’t save it in time. There was a big crash. There was sticky liquid everywhere, including the poor girl at the next table…my shoes, my purse, the cane, the floor, the plate my lovely sandwich was in. I heaved a great sigh of embarrassment when Starbucks Girl came dashing over to me with a mop and an armful of paper towels. She was an angel, cleaning everything up, asking if I was alright, helping my table neighbor mop herself up…and then she went and got me a new tea. MY ANGEL. I apologized like ten times to her and the innocent sticky girl next to me. I got a lot of ๊ดœ์ฐฎ์•„’s (kwen-chahna), which means “it’s alright.”

LEP#2 arrived as I was still trying to deep breathe my way to calmness (does that ACTUALLY work for anyone?? It NEVER does anything for me). I shared my embarrassment over my mishap…he shared his excitement over his upcoming trip to Japan. Sadly, mostly in English because I just don’t have enough vocabulary for my stories.

Uber pickup spot

I rewarded myself for getting there via public transportation and surviving my “oh those clumsy Americans” episode with an Uber ride home. That’s the deal I’m making with myself now if I’m venturing outside my (geographical) comfort zone. If I bus THERE, I can Uber home. I have yet to venture onto the subway. Visions of the millions of stairs loom large in my head and I just…don’t feel quite ready for that yet.

Wednesday, June 12

Getting a little more anxious with each passing day as I get closer to friend meeting. Breathe, Bettye, Breathe.

Other than that, just a regular day. Tutoring in the morning. Studying til class. Dinner at home. Finished a meh k-drama.

But still, even MEH k-dramas are better than almost anything I see of American tv. I *have* watched a couple things here and there since I’ve been here. I don’t like to start new dramas til they’ve finished airing, so sometimes there’s a little gap where I have nothing K (or J) I’m dying to see…and then I’ll watch something American (or other).ย  And everytime, I’m just like OH, they’re so…ACTY. It’s literally uncomfortable me to watch. Ha. The words coming out of their mouths just seem to sound and look so unnatural to me. Even when there’s the occasional American character on a k-drama. As soon as they open their mouths I’m like NOPE.

Thursday, June 13

Well. The much-awaited meeting is not taking place this week after all. It’s been pushed off for another week, leaving me feeling a little more pessimistic about the success of this conversation. And now I have to wait ANOTHER week.

On a lighter note, and a bit of a throwback to The BTS Days (I was so obsessed!). I thought I could share this bit of news since they were such a part of this blog for awhile there and…they were the ones who really opened the doors to Korea for me.

As you may or may not know, all the members are currently serving their military duty. South Korea requires all male citizens to serve at least 18 months in the military, anytime between the age of 18 and 30 (it used to be 29 but they actually changed it to 30 so BTS could keep BTSing one more year and bringing billions of dollars into the country). They still have mandatory service because technically, North and South Korea are still at war, as the Korean War (1950-1953) really “ended” with a standoff, and not an ending at all. So to remain secure against their neighbors to the north, they keep an active army at all times.

ANYWAY. The oldest member, Jin, was the first to enter back in December 2022…and also the first to finish. His discharge date is today, June 13…which also happens to be the group’s anniversary date. They celebrate each year’s anniversary with “Festa,” where they do something special for “Army” (the BTS fan army, not the military Army). So it was very apt that Jin was released on this day and he was able to have a Festa event all on his own. He actually had a live event where 1,000 fans were able to walk across the stage and get an in-person hug from him! It was a big deal to Army. I somehow never hear about these things til too late. Plus, I’d let my Army membership lapse as they were no concerts coming up (you pretty much have to be Army to get tickets to a BTS concert).

So, welcome back Jin Seokjin.

Friday, June 14

This is my fourth time taking the Korean class…and I’ve always missed (due to kidney stones or hospital appointments) or had to leave early, the class field trip. Today I FINALLY got to participate in the outing with my teacher and classmates! Yay ๐Ÿ™‚ We actually have TWO outings this term, but the next one is on a day I’m scheduled to be in the hospital for that stupid kidney procedure. Fingers crossed for The Miracle of the Spontaneously Disappearing Kidney Stone, eliminating the need for surgery.

We went to the National Hangeul Museum. Hangeul is Korean’s alphabet/language system. The museum has exhibits sharing the full story, showing how Hangeul developed and changed over the years, etc. It was very interesting, and I might return sometime on my own when I’m not trying to keep pace with classmates. I’m actually going to write a separate post about the museum and our visit, so…try to hang on til then ha ha.

I was GOING to try to brave the subway to get there because it was a little far…but there was a transfer on the route…and that made me just anxious enough that at the last minute I opted for Uber. On the way back I had one of those embarrasing “tickle in the throat” never-ending coughing fits. i’m SO self-conscious now about ever coughing in public, let alone coughing for like 20 minutes in a car with one other human. I had only a few sips of water left in my bottle and one throat losenge, neither of which really did the trick. If we hadn’t been on the highway stuck in traffic (the destination time kept moving further and further away as I was dying in the back seat) I would have asked the driver to stop for a minute so I could get out and cough to my heart’s content outside. You know how it is, the more you try to contain a cough, the more you need to cough.

I’m sure no driver was ever so anxious to let a passenger off as this one.

I rewarded myself for getting through the week with delivery fried chicken and three episodes of a new kdrama.

Saturday, June 15

My least favorite weather report is GOING TO RAIN AND THUNDERSTORM ALL DAY…and then it doesn’t. I love the promise of a rainy day when I can just stay home alone with no obligations or sense of guilt that I’m not “doing something.” That was today. In fact, Weather Kitty is STILL saying rain and thunderstorms all day…and it is practically noon and not a drop.

I’d planned to stay in, do laundry, straighten up my room, get all my trash/recyclables out, study, and write many, many, many practice sentences. And “do something” TOMORROW when the prediction is for a nice day.

So…I stuck with the plan and stayed in all day and was productive (per previous paragraph).

Sunday, June 16

You know what’s really annoying? How long it takes to get fat off your body…and how quickly it comes back. I lost 35 pounds in the first 3-4 months I was here. Not intentionally, but my outlay of calories was more than my intake. Walking more regularly than ever before in my life…and having a tough time ever really getting enough to eat. The scale went down, the tummy and hips got noticably smaller. Clothes were WAY loose.

It didn’t suck.

Then two things happened in February. I hurt my knee and walking was kept to a minimum…AND I finally got food and grocery delivery sorted out on my phone. So then I was moving less and eating more. So even though the scale has gone down even a few pounds more since then (which I don’t really understand) …my tummy is big and fat again. I can no longer feel my hipbones under just a layer of skin…now I have to poke through a fat layer to find them. But the big belly is the worst. When it gets smaller, I forget how big it was when it was big. And then it’s a shock when it gets big again.

Damn.

I’m very conscious of it now. So I’m trying to eat more mindfully…more meals prepared at home, less take- and eat-out. I know, I know, I just had fried chicken last night, but that’s really not the WORST thing…Plus, I spread the box out over three meals. Anyway, I’m a firm believer that it’s your OVERALL diet and exercise that makes the difference…one day does not make a difference. As long as it’s just one one day and not seven one days.

I don’t think I mentioned it here because I was trying to see how it went, but I’d actually considered one of the semaglutide type drugs for weight loss when I first hurt my knee and every doctor was like…your weight is adding to the problem. And yes, I can lose weight on my own, but we all know how slow it is to make an appreciable difference…so I thought some help was in order. I knew my knees would be in better shape going forward if they weren’t supporting so much weight.

Sadly, those drugs are not yet approved in Korea, so…that ended that.

And this post ends this week. I have a lot going on in the week ahead – THE TALK (hopefully), a CT-scan at the hospital to determine if I need the surgery, a friend from the first term back here in Korea for a visit and we’re going to meet for dinner one night, and I think Japanese food one night with a girl from my building. And who knows what else might arise. Seems like there’s always SOMETHING.