I realized pretty early on in July, that the month was not going to be much more than rain and pain…so…I’ve saved you all from those boring weekly updates.

Here are the month’s highlights (aka the boring monthly update):

* When they say the end of June to the end of July is the rainy season (Jangma) in Korea, THEY AIN’T KIDDING. It rained like five out of every seven days I’d say…and HEAVY rain. I don’t live in a flood-prone area, but I was constantly getting alerts directed at people living in low-lying areas or near cliffs, etc, to GET OUT NOW. There were pictures of cars driving down the street and in a matter of minutes, being almost submerged in rainwater (HEY, THAT’S ME). For me it just meant having to keep my window closed almost all the time (the room would get soggy within like 15 minutes if the window was open even a crack) and having to carry an umbrella (plus crutch or cane) every day when going to class.

Hope I don’t see this place again for awhile.

* Within about 10 days of the kidney stone procedure, the catheter that had started out painless, became uncomfortable…then very uncomfortable, then painful, then very painful. Imagine, if you will, sitting on a sharp (vertical) stick…and the stick being stuck in you for the next three weeks. Walking and standing were unpleasantly uncomfortable, sitting was painful to the point of being unbearable…and even laying down caused cramping (contractions?) around the catheter which were NOT fun. So there was NEVER relief. I contacted the hospital several times to say This Needs to Come Out but they were like, mmm, no, the doctor wants to wait the full month. This was infuriating. What about “do no harm”?? I missed a couple classes and had to leave early a couple more, because on the worst days I just could not sit in a chair for four hours straight. So, really, for the greater part of July, I went to class and home. And that was IT. I managed to go with my class on a field trip cuz it was a little better day and there was little sitting involved…and I sat on the roof with a building friend one sunset with ice cream. Towards the end I HAD to walk to the bank to get money for rent and the laundry and that was miserable. But, this past Monday (a month and two days after it was inserted) the catheter from hell finally came out. I had read beforehand on the internet how they remove a catheter and there was plenty of assurance that OF COURSE there would be some sort of aneasthesia or numbing agent. NOPE. So THAT was fun. A relief, but not a pleasant process. Ugh. I was still sort for about a day…but now it’s four days and I’m back to normal and feeling fine.

I managed to make it to this month’s class trip, yay! I took the subway and everything! On my own! With transfers! It was a big day 🙂

* I got a job! I’m going to be doing remote part-time work for the CA law firm my niece works for, doing data research and updating mailing lists. It will be about 10 hours a week. I really need  a way to start paying down my credit card. All the medical and medical-related expenses from the past year have made my credit card balance go up up up and I can’t afford to max out my card this far from home. So hopefully if nothing else bad happens, I might be able to get my main travel card almost paid off in the next year before it’s time to leave Korea. I’m still getting all the adminstrative stuff sorted out but it looks like I should be starting next week.

My midterm grades, from left to right: my name, reading, writing, listening, speaking, overall average

* Old news at this point, especially as the final is only nine days away, but I passed/did well on my midterms. The speaking, the listening, everything. I had an overall 85 averags, woohoo. Go me. Now the pressure is really on for the final, as I might finally have a shot at actually passing Korean 1!!! However the second half of the class always quickly gets much harder, grammar points come fast and furious, and honorific speech comes in and that’s just…I have never kept up well with that. The good news, is that being on the full dosage of wellbutrin for the first time since I’ve been here, I’m handing the final weeks of class much better than in the past. I don’t sit in class and try to avoid eye contact with the teachers so they don’t see my eyes filled with tears of frustration and anxiety.

We had a culture class where we made some traditional Korean crafts – well…a reasonable facsimile thereof. These little mother-of-pearl “inlay” (not inlaid) keyrings and cell phone button things…and a collaged box.

I tried to do the national flower of Korea, which is the … oh shoot, I can’t think of the name right now, but it’s basically a weed shrub back in NY ha ha. And my keyring is supposed to be the yin-yang and one of the stripe blocks from the Korean flag. Trying to cut out such small shapes AND then remove the adhesive backing AND then placing them on a small background, REALLY showcased just how trembly my hands have gotten.

Other people were really creative with theirs

Those are really the main points of July. There was just not enough day-to-day variety to warrant weekly posts. But now that there is no kidney stone, no catheter, my knee feels like 95% better, the near-constant rain is coming to an end…I plan to start getting out more. And keeping my fingers crossed that no new ridiculous things happen in August, cuz enough is enough already!

One night a building friend texted me “I’m bringing home ice cream, let’s meet up on the rooftop!” and I managed to drag myself up for a bit and it was nice to be out.

Sorry I was MIA…I was honestly just trying to get through each day doing as little as possible…and anything outside of class that involved sitting, was OUT.

When I started calming down from the whole You Know Who debaucle I convinced myself I needed to Get Out There and Meet People…so before I knew how ridiculous the catheter situation was going to get, I committed to this Instagram dinner meet-up…and then proceeded to dread it for the next three weeks. Fortunately, it took place two days after the catheter removal, so, while I still had “going new place/meeting new people” anxiety, I wasn’t in any physical distress and I made myself go. And in the end, it was fine. The two other ladies were just here visiting short term and have already returned home (US and UK), and the three Korean gentleman are a tour guide (photo right) and two of his middle-school friends who he bribed invited to come along to round out the numbers (Korean: Non-Korean). They were all lovely, there was good conversation, we exchanged IGs, but I doubt any actual friendships would come out of it as they’re all married men, not exactly looking for a n unmarried American woman to hang out with, ha ha.

It was just good to be outside…and see people and activity. After a month of rainy, painful, reclusion (is that a word?).

Right before the catheter got so painful, I met LEP#2 at the Han River. This is a mascot of something. Korea has a LOT of mascots and characters.

Here’s to August!!!