Life This Week-and-a-Half in South Korea: August 16-25, 2024

Friday, Aug 16

Wow, my blog terms have gotten really wonky!

It’s Day 2 of Vacation…and I’m still just piddling in my room. Which is fine. I have plenty of things planned for the next couple weeks.

One sad thing: my longtime building friend Jacqueline will be leaving in two weeks. Her time here in Korea has come to an end. That’s an ongoing thing here: you make a friend, you lose a friend. Because most people are not here as long as I am, so…as I always say, “Everybody Leaves.” 

Even Hyunggun, if we were still friends, is leaving Korea this month for the UK. I got that intel from Jun the Tutor. He didn’t get his scholarship but he has found a way to go anyway. I’m happy for him. I know how much he wanted that. I’m secretly hoping he has the decency to at least say goodbye to me before leaving the country, but that is probably just my relentlessly hopeful heart and not going to happen. I wonder if Jun told him I finally (FINALLY) passed my class. Again, a friendly “congratulations” would not be out of line. I know they talked about me last time they saw one another cuz Jun mentioned something about saying how much he respects the fact that I never gave up and just keep putting in the time and work – and that was before I passed! So. Anyway. Just things that enter my brain and distractingly roll around for awhile.

Anyway. A newish school friend is moving into the building September 1 so that will be fun. We’re doing some day trips together over the break. And an American friend I’ve never met in person, is coming to Seoul in the end of September and we’re finally going to meet, so that’s a big thing to look forward to! We became friends through that Bangtan Academy language learning site I was on for quite some time…and we bonded over BTS and k-dramas.

SEPTEMBER. I can’t believe that. I’m here almost a year…and will soon be doing my second round of months here. Unbelievable.

Saturday, August 17

I had a plan. A PLAN, I say. I was going to Insadong to a dish store. I saw it on Instagram and it looks so charming. I’ve been wanting to make my little room here homier…now that I’m pretty certain I will be here another year. All last year was a little suspenseful, not knowing for sure how many times they would let me repeat Korean 1 before no longer extending my student visa. Now I know I can spend a year in a class safely. It was also always in my mind that maybe I would move to someplace with a kitchen, or that was lower rent. But really, especially now that I’m in the laguage annex which is a 5 minute walk from me, I’d hate to move far away. Also, I’ve spent part of what would have been my apartment security deposit, so I think it’s just time to accept that (unless something significan changes) this will be my home for the next year til I leave Korea.

Leave Korea  🙁

ANYWAY, it was the first day since class ended that I was able to sleep in a bit, so I did that instead of getting up and going out in the hell they call the outdoors. The pretty dish store has been there 20 or 30 years, hopefully it’ll be there another week or so.

I just stayed in, piddled, napped, finished my book, and studied a bit from the new text book.

Sunday, August 18

Today was Hair Day. Always a stressful day. I wanted to try one of two new places…but my friend that wanted to go too, had a lower budget so we ended up going to a sort of far away place that was supposed to be cheaper. I was getting a whole head perm (just for shaping/smoothing, not for curls) and a shorter, more layered cut.

HOW COME NO ONE CAN EVER DO A LAYERED CUT ON ME? Not since my lovely Japanese boy whose shop closed up in 2020, have I had anyone cut my hair WELL. I know my hair CAN be good…cuz it HAS been good. You know when it was really good?? When it was growing out from Level Bald…like, once it got a tiny bit of length on it, the layers were PERFECT, at every stage. But as soon as I started needing to get it trimmed, it got messed up again. What IS that??

Anyway. The cut is weird. The perm is weirder. I’m gonna give it a week for the perm to maybe relax a bit and then I’ll go somewhere ELSE, local, to fix up the bottom.

But THIS kids, is why I always try to get my hair cut/done right at the start of a vacation, so if it’s AWFUL, I don’t have to see anyone I know…and it has a little time to relax, grow in, me figure out how to style the new weirdness before I go back to school/work. So for now it’s just in a pony every day.

THEN, there was a transportation mix-up and I ended up paying both ways, when I hadn’t even wanted to take Uber but…and THEN. This poor kid, she left her phone in the Uber when we got dropped home after hair fun. So I spent my afternoon following up on every possible lead: Uber driver contact, Uber customer support, Korean Taxi Association, T-Money (the Korean transportation payment system) Taxi Support, calling her phone (which was locked and on silent) in hopes the driver would pick up…and every 30 minutes a text from her asking if I’d located her phone yet. It was a lot of phone calls for me. In Korean. Very stressful. I don’t do that for MYSELF. After about 4 hours, one of her Korean Level 4 friends tried calling the phone and the driver finally picked up and they were able to have enough of a conversation to get the driver to come back here with the phone…for which he charged her 50,000w ($38 US), which for HERE, is outlandish. And THEN, she wanted revenge on the driver for charging so much and asked me to give him a poor review. I did not. I don’t want that on MY Uber rating. I almost always give 5 stars…I just left no review. I understand her desire but…I shouldn’t have to risk MY rating for that. He DID return it, and honestly, pretty quickly.

Suffice it to say it was a stressful, aggravating day. I’m glad she got her phone back, I can only imagine how terribly stressful that would be, plus, she’s leaving Korea in a week, so REALLY needed a phone to coordinate everything.

I know I sound like a horrible person.

Monday, August 19

And today…She Left the House. I had plans with a newish friend (classmate from two classes ago and she’s moving into my building Sep 1) to go to this “valley” to see this ancient painting of a bridge, with the bridge actually still there. It’s better than it sounds, ha ha. And she SAID to me, “it’s a bit of a hike,” and I thought she meant it was far away (cuz it was about 90 minutes by bus), and I was like oh that’s okay, I like looking out the window…but in reality, it was a HIKE. Like…up a mountain. A HIKE. Ha ha. Me, out for the first time far from home without a crutch or cane, hiking up a MOUNTAIN. It was a LOT of stairs.

Korea has a LOT of mountains, like right next to cities and where people are living, so hiking is a very popular hobby here. So they do a nice job with making the mountains as accessible as possible. But stairs, even well-c0nstructed, are my nemesis these days. But what was I gonna do? I was there, she was there, she’d TOLD me…so…up we went. It was HOT, mid 90s…humid, sunny…and steep. BUT…I survived. We did the shortest loop, which was still pretty difficult…and I stopped everytime there was something to sit on (there are not enough benches in this world) , and I survived. And at the very end, we came out at a different spot than we started out…and THERE was the painting and the stone bridge! You could have seen it with zero hiking! Ha ha.

Still, it was nice to be out in nature, in the woods. I was surprised the stream bed was so dry with all the rain we’ve had. It would have been nice to sit at the edge with our feet in the water.

Afterwards we walked to a well-air conditioned French(ish) bakery and had fabulous icy, fruity drinks and I had a pistachio twisty danish thing. We just sat and talked for a long time in the cool air. She’s very interesting to talk to and has interests in a ton of different areas.

We parted ways around 5:30, I treated myself to an Uber home (I’d bussed there) cuz it was hot and I was tired. Took about an hour…and when I got out of the car here at home, I was CRIPPLED, ha ha. Oh dear.

But it was temporary, just from straining it and then sitting for a long time…

Tuesday, August 20

…the next day it was fine 😉

But to be safe, I took it easy today. Well, I did laundry and straightened my room, but only went out once for ice. It was high 90s out THERE, and there was nowhere I had to be, so…

Wednesday, August 21

Today, again, I PLANNED to go out…but it was just TORRENTIAL when I woke up, with no signs of stopping. There’s a typhoon hitting southern Korea right now and we’re getting some of the heavy rain up here as well. So I went back to sleep…piddled around doing things like trying to clean out my camera roll and organize Instagram folders. Watched a really good movie. I give it a 9.5/10 and Two Thumbs Up…and that’s really high for me. It’s called “18 x 2: Beyond Youthful Days.” Taiwanese-Japanese romance. Really lovely. It’s on Netflix with subtitles if anyone is interested.

I kinda miss when I used to do the book and movie reviews in my weekly (maybe it was monthly) posts…but I know I was losing readers’ interest when everything got ALL KOREAN ALL THE TIME. I still predomonantly watch Korean and Japanese programs…but I have watched a very small handful of English-speaking things since I’ve been here. Some documentaries. I am still struck everytime how weird English sounds coming out of people’s mouths. Like the timing is off or something. And how unnatural the acting seems. I try to convince myself it’s just a Korean bias, but really, really it does not seem like that. The Korean actors just seem better. And I don’t say that about like Japanese or Taiwanese or other Asian actors. But the acting just seems so NATURAL. Not like “ACTING.” They just ARE that character having that experience…and we get to watch.

Tomorrow I have plans with other humans so I can’t bail due to bad weather 🙂

Thursday, August 22

A quiet day at home…I’d love to say I straightened up my room but somehow I ended up making a big ‘ol mess while trying to organize. Two building friends are moving out soon so a lot of their discards have wound up in my room! It’s fine, I just need to get it sorted out. It *is* hard when you’re leaving a temporary but sort of longterm living situation, to get rid of all the stuff you can’t take home with you, but that isn’t “trash.”

Anyway, I did not bail on my “other human” plans even though it was hot and blustery outside. I bussed over (with a transfer and everything, ha ha) to a cafe that specializes in souffle pancakes…and provides you with watercolor utensils, so you can eat’n’paint. I went with three cute young girls who have seemingly boundless energy. I don’t EVER remember having this kind of energy. After we were done eating and painting (and we were there for 4 hours!) they realized we were close to a big shopping mall and wanted to walk over. I had to pass on Phase #2. The mall is always so exhausting for me. I think it’s the lack of real air or something. Anyway, it was a fun afternoon and good to be out.

Friday, August 23

One of my building friends is moving out today…we made several trips to a nearby clothing donation bin to clear out her excess stuff. I felt so bad seeing what was being dumped. I was like “but all your Korean clothes!” But she just didn’t have the space to fit them in her luggage to return home. I’m already afraid of that situation in another year.

I dumped a small bag myself of stained, torn clothes. Remember when I first got here and fell in the parking lot and hurt my elbow? That shirt was torn and bloodstained…another tee shirt had mystery holes in it..and there were several bras with broken underwires (guh). Time to do a bra restock.

When I came here I had planned on returning to the US on this break since it’s the longest one. So I made sure to have a year’s worth of most things, knowing I could restock when I went home. But then it was just too $$$ to go home, so…now I have to either do without, find reasonable facsimilies, or pay expensive shipping costs to have them sent here to the US. OH WELL.

Today is my one year anniversary here in South Korea. Incredible. In hindsight the year passed so quickly. And I think the coming year will go even faster. On break I’ve been working on my lists of places I want to go while I’m here, to make sure I hit the top choices in the next year. Last year I missed all the good fall foliage spots cuz that %*$^#$! friend kept saying yeah we’ll go yeah we’ll go but kept pushing it off til it was over. I should have just gone by myself.

Life Lesson: Just Go By Yourself. Even when, yes, it’s more fun to go with a friend…going alone is better than not going at all and missing out on things you want to do.

Can I live by my own life lesson? We’ll see 🙂

Saturday, August 24

Got up and out early. I wanted to go to Insadong for a little shopping. I’m mainly bussing these days. The train from Point A to Point B is usually faster than a bus, BUT…there are many more bus stops than train stations, so I can get to a bus stop more quickly than I can a subway station, so it usually ends up only being only about a 10-minute difference. AND I can avoid all those ridiculous train station stairs!!! Plus, I like being able to look out the window. See the different neighborhoods (dongs), get the lay of the land, what’s where. Also I sometimes see things and I’m like ooh, I want to come back to that. On the subway you’re mostly underground and see nothing.

And while I’m getting better at navigating (or at least I’m not as anxious about it), I usually make at least one error on each trip. In my defence (defense? omg), it can be hard to tell which side of the street you’re suppoed to be on to get on the right bus. If the stops on both sides of the street are going to have the same names (which they do), they really should add another identifier, like N S E W for which direction you’ll be heading/which side of the street you should be on. Also, in the main city areas, the busses have their own lane in the middle, so the bus stops are in the middle of the oncoming lanes of traffic, and then it’s REALLY hard to tell.

BUT, at least I’m noticing faster. Usually within 1-2 stops I’m like OOH I THINK I’M GOING THE WRONG WAY which is really annoying, especially when I got the primo seat with powerful air conditioning just overhead.

Anyway…I made it to Insadong’s main shopping street. It’s pretty touristy on the main street, but the little side alleyways still have some original hanok style buildings with the intricate rooflines, and some authentic Korean restaurants. I was gift shopping, so didn’t mind the touristiness of it.

The weather was DISgusting…exactly like it was last year when I arrived. Best described as tropical…but in a rain forest kind of way, not like a tropical island. As soon as you walk outdoors you’re DRENCHED, and I get drenchier than most, so am always carrying around a cotton bandana or vintage handkerchief…and depending on where I’m going, a Japanese fan or a hand-held rechargable fan. But this day was beyond the scope of even those aids…especially when it started to RAIN. And me WITHOUT AN UMBRELLA (#MissDoAsISayNotAsIDo). I always have to weigh what I’m already having to lug around…and I knew I was going to be carrying purchases home so opted to leave the umbrella at home. OH WELL. The good news is every little souvenir shop on the street carries inexpensive umbrellas and I quickly grabbed a cute aqua one for 3000w, which is $2.26.

But the rain did cut my leisurely shopping morning short. After getting the main thing I went there for, I headed home.

The rest of the afternoon was just relaxing at home, then meeting Jacqueline (building friend who is leaving Korea next week) for dinner. She arrived in Korea on the same day that I did in 2023, and moved directly into this building. We never shared a class, but we met in the administrative office one day when applying for our ARC cards…we were getting our hands slapped for not having the right picture size (shouldn’t “passport size” just be the standard for all government/immigration/visa pictures??). That’s when we discovered we were both here from the US and lived in the same building.

It was nice always knowing there was someone in the building to check on me when I was sick or hurt, she brought me food a couple times when I just could not get out – like when I had food poisoning in February, and when I had a high fever for like two days last fall and there were very few things I could bring myself to eat. In return, I would accompany her on errands she felt uncomfortable doing alone, and ordered delivery food for her (she was never able to get that ability). She was my “breakfast out” partner as well, which was nice. Most of the younger people here prefer evening activities…so it could be difficult to find morning companions.

Anyway, she will be missed.

Sunday, August 25

Another solo outing! I don’t know if any Non-BTS, non-Koreans would have heard this news, but in the beginning of August, BTS member Min Yoongi (aka Yoongi aka Suga) rode a motorized scooted 500 meters (which is just over a quarter mile) on the sidewalk from a bar/restaurant to his home…turned sharply into his apartment complex driveway (I saw the CCTV footage), fell over, stood right up, picked up his helmet…and before he could get back on, several nearby police officers went to assist him and noticed alcohol on his breath. Did a breathalyzer, .022%. .08 gets you a DUI and license revocation here in Seoul, and possible fines and prison sentence.

And BTS haters and the media have just been running amuk (amok? amuck?) with this news. Yes, he did something wrong, something illegal, he broke a low (apparently electric scooters had only recently been added to the vehicles covered by drinking laws and he claims he didn’t know that, *I* didn’t know that, but…if I learned anything from my Criminal Justice Associates Degree – ha ha – it’s that Ignorance of the Law is No Defense (defense, right?)), he should certainly be subject to the punishment appropriate to the action, as anyone would. However, this is being blown SO far out of proportion. It was a SCOOTER. On the SIDEWALK. No one was harmed. He should pay the appropriate penalty.

But MAN, people are going BERSERK. Haters are sending advertising trucks to Hybe (BTS’ management company, aka The Company that BTS built) with messages like “Suga is a drunk driver. He should leave BTS,” and “You told fans to hold their heads high but then went and committed a DUI,” etc. And sending funeral wreaths to line the sidewalk outside the building, like “BTS is Dead.”

Anyway, he just went to the police station this week for a formal interrogation, made several public apologies, is prepared to accept whatever legal punishment comes his way, but people, lay off. Do y’all remember me sharing the story of Lee Sun Kyun last fall, the wonderful actor who was accused of allegedly using marijuana at a club in Seoul…and then a bunch of rumors came out and the police kept calling him in time after time for public (like on camera) questioning…and in the end…he killed himself.

Korea really holds idols and celebrities to a high level…like because they have this talent and appeal they must be held to a higher standard than “common folk.” And their punishment should reflect this. Which, in my opinion, is not right.

ANYWAY, I heard some international ARMY (BTS ARMY, not military Army) had paid to have banners hung around the HYBE building showing support of Yoongi. And so I went there to see them in person. When I was there, there were no trucks or wreaths, just banners saying like “BTS is SEVEN,” and supporting Suga.

I know I don’t know this young person, but I can only imagine how he must be feeling right now. He made a stupid, stupid mistake, that reflects publicly not only on himself but on his BTS brothers, and BTS itself. I wonder how THEY are feeling. I hope THEY are being supportive and not like YOU IDIOT, YOU RUINED EVERYTHING, ha. Not funny. And he has a history of depression…and I hope he’s able to get himself through this.

But that’s why I went to Youngsan. Which is an hour-long bus ride. Even longer when you factor in me getting off a stop late, then trying to walk back a mile (cuz I didn’t yet realize I’d gotten off at the wrong stop or I would have just crossed the street and gotten on a bus going back in the other direction), coming face to face with the tallest staircase I have ever seen in real life, trying to find a detour around it, ending up trapped in a huge apartment building complex (they’re like whole cities), before FINALLY getting myself back on a main road with a bus stop. All while I am just dripping.

I hear other people say they’re sweating or “dripping,” and I look at them and I’m like, no. I have little rivers running from my forehead, the back of my neck, my chest, under my b**bs, between my thighs. I literally sweat everywhere except under my armpits, which is interesting. Anyway. I must have been a sight wandering around the apartment complex…it was a very UNdiverse area, only very Korean businesses and mostly old people.

But…I made it out, I got on the right bus…which dropped me not even half a block from the HYBE building. There were lots of people taking pictures…I took two Japanese girls’ pictures and they took mine with the BTS banner.

After THAT, (but wait, there’s more) I took another bus to Itaewon to a bakery cafe that specializes in salt bread. I’d never heard of salt bread before coming here, but it is very popular. Picture/imagine a croissant, but it’s super SUPER soft light bread, like BREAD, not like a flaky pastry. Croissant are lovely but usually so flaky and messy…salt bread is just a delight. Anyway, this place had different flavors and toppings of salt bread. I went specifically for the chocolate covered one. Which was like if a chocolate-covered pretzel was just the softest bread imaginable…jwith just the tiniest bit of salt flavor. Heaven. I ate that one there in the air conditioning. And took a pistachio one to go. Pistachio is a popular flavor here, while I don’t find it all that often back home. I love pistachio. Same with grapefruit. It’s very popular here, in the US, not so much.

After that, home. On a very crowded mid-day bus. I was sitting on top of the wheel well so my knees were higher than my lap…and I had someone next to me the whole time. The back of my right calf still feels like it’s about to cramp, and I’m writing this Monday morning.

When I got home I ate lunch, lay my head down on my desk (aka dining table) and fell immediately asleep. In fact, the first time I felt like I started dreaming even before I was asleep. That “woke me,” but I put my head right back down and slept like that for about an hour. Woke up feeling chilled (still in wet, sweated-on clothes, with wet hair), took a warm shower and got in bed. Was afraid I was going to get sick from the extreme heat into ac then back into extreme heat. But I feel fine today, just a little tired still. And knee a little achey.

All these outings I’ve been going on have been sans crutch. I just started leaving the crutch at home maybe two weeks before class ended…and so far so good. It’s still not “normal,” but I am mostly without pain, and the little bit of pain I occassionally do have…well, at this age, we all have various tweaks and twinges, no??

I am really happy and grateful to finally be able to get out and go places. Now the hardest thing is just deciding where to go and what to do! I’m literally spoiled for choice.

Halfway through vacation…eek…I don’t wanna go back! I just wanna play every day! At least there are some holidays in September and October. The summer session had No Holidays (well, the second day of class was a holiday, but that hardly counts. They just should have waited til the next day to start the class) and I felt that.

Can you feel fall approaching where you are? I wish I could…