Life This Week in South Korea: August 26-September 1, 2024
Monday, August 26
I took it easy today after my weekend of heavy bussing, walking, and sweating. In the morning I did laundry, got all my trash out, finished last week’s blog post, did my remote job work, and worked on vocabulary.
Tuesday, August 27
Today I met up with most of the group that I went souffle pancake and painting with last week…but this time we went to like…a petting zoo? Indoor? With no petting? You could feed the animals, but like with a long ladle-type thing, so no contact.
First off, it was FAR. And there was no bus that went anywhere near there. So it was train (aka STAIRS) for me…and then lots of walking from train to place. Then the “zoo” itself was quite large…we were there for several hours. I enjoyed the company and the animals but it was a lot for me. I DID get to see capybara in person, one of my two new favorite animals (the other being wombats). In the finch room the birds liked landing on my head – I think they thought my hair was straw for building their nests (#finchinsults). Afterwards we got a little dinner and then I headed home. Back by the stairy subway…and then I managed to get off the train a stop early but walked a ways (in the wrong direction) before I realized it…and then I was so far from home and so exhausted that I gave in and called an uber.
I’d looked at the weather for Sokcho, which is where I was going for a few days. It’s a beach town on the east coast of Korea…2.5 hours by bus. Anyway, Weather Kitty said rain rain and more rain there for the next two days..and as exhausted as I was…the thought of making all that effort to stay inside for two days…I almost bailed. Instead, I packed (could not find my bathing suit anywhere! Did I leave it in Busan in May??) and reserved an Uber for 6:45am and went to bed.
Wednesday, August 28
Put myself on auto pilot to Just Do It. Uber came on time. The express bus station was confusing and it was a while before I felt comfortable that I was in the right spot and getting on the right bus. I got the “excellent” bus for $5 more…and it was excellent, indeed. Nice high, wide seats with usb chargers and little tray tables and cup holders and privacy curtains. The ride was very nice.
Korea is very lush and green right now – thanks to the 6 weeks of rain we just had! But there are a LOT of LONNNGGG tunnels just out in the middle of nowhere, I don’t really understand it. I’m pretty sure they’re not under water. I’m going to have to look into that. But I feel like at least half the ride was underground. Well, “in tunnel.” Which sort of kills the whole looking out the window experience.
Anyway, the ride went quick, we arrived in Sokcho right on time to their very small bus station. I went out to the taxi line and showed the airbnb address to the first driver in line and he was like no no no. No no no? Huh? He was pointing down the street and kept repeating something over and over…and finally called another driver over to also point down the street and say the same thing over and over. FINALLY I realized they were pointing at The Airbnb Building, which was just a short distance away. They were like Just Walk There, You Lazy American! Ha. I really would have preferred the ride, in the heat and humidity with the suitcase, but they weren’t having it. So off I went.
It took two tries to get into the right building (it’s a condo complex with multiple buildings) but finally I got to the right place, tossed my suitcase behind the desk where the airbnb host had told me I could drop my luggage off early (I couldn’t check-in til 3 and it was only 11am), then headed off to find someplace to eat and sit. The building actually had a nice covered area with tables…it might have actually belonged to the 7-11 next door, but I sat there in the shade for awhile while I waited for some lunch places to open up. I read my book, there was a nice little breeze…it was actually a lovely wait.
Eventually I ended up at a pizza place for a gorgonzola pizza with honey – which I LOVE. It’s not “Korean” but I’ve never seen this in the US. I first saw it on a Run BTS episode a few years ago…and have had it a few times since I’ve been here. So Good!
Finally it was time to check in…and I was POOPED, so I turned on the ac and took a little nap. The room was very nice. Your basic officetel layout, with a comfy bed and comfy pillows and a balcony and a western shower.
I made myself get up at 6pm and walk over to the beach…and I wanted to go on the Sokcho Eye, a giant ferris wheel right on the beach. Unfortunately, there was a ton of stairs going up to the loading area…but I didn’t realize that til after I’d bought my ticket.
All the stairs and walking of the past two days have made a familiar but unwelcome tightness in the back of my right knee, which I recognize as the feeling I had Right Before my knee got so bad back in February…so…if at all avoidable, no more stairs for me for awhile.
Anyway, the ferris wheel was nice. You ride in like a round capsule with seating for probably 6-8, with a center table and windows all around. I’d planned to be on it right at sunset…but with all the darkening clouds rolling in, there wasn’t much sun to see. It was still nice.
Afterwards I sat near the beach for awhile, just watching people. And resting. Before heading home and to the 7-11 downstairs to grab some chicken and a drink. I planned to find a nice restaurant for the following night, but now I was tired and just wanted to get comfy at home to eat.
Thursday, August 29
I woke up pretty early, felt a little not quite right, but went out on the balcony for some sunrise pictures. It was cloudy and drizzly so no great pictures. I’d planned to get on a bus in the morning for the hour-long ride to Saroksan Mountain to go up in a cable car to see a) the view and b) an old Buddhist temple…but with the morning driizzle and the forecast (the cable car doesn’t run in bad weather) I decided to get back in bed for a bit.
Zonked out immediately…and woke up a few hours later with aches and chills and a fever. UGH. Fortunately I had some tylenol with me…and a thermometer…it went up to almost 102 over the course of the day…which was not fun…and a little stressful. Now I was REALLY in a strange place where I knew no one, I don’t even know if Sokcho HAS a hospital…I had no food, just the water bottle left from last night…and I knew I had to get back on a bus the following day to come back home. I really just slept on and off all day and night. Grateful for a softer bed than I have here at home.
Friday, August 30
And when I woke up in the morning the fever was gone, I was just wiped out. Again, I’d planned to get up early this last morning and go to a local lighthouse but…nope. Pass. I just took it easy til checkout at 11 and my bus home at noon.
Going home I only had the “premium” bus (I might have those two terms – excellent and premium – transposed), which was nowhere near as nice as the one from Seoul to Sokcho. Still, I managed to sleep most of the ride home so it was fine.
Bus to uber…was home by 4 and just crashed. Wanted to order fried chicken but it kept telling me the chicken place I wanted closed at 5pm on Fridays (which makes no sense but) so I ended up with pizza again.
And got in bed to watch kdramas til I fell asleep.
Saturday, August 31
Slept in, did some remote work, unpacked and straightened up…walked to the bank in the mall for rent money late in the afternoon. It feels a little less hot than it has, but it is still hot and humid and I am drenched by the time I get home. Had a bagel with tomato and melted cheese for dinner.
Wow, this is an unexciting post. Sorry for all the blow-by-blow accounts of my boring days. I might go back tomorrow and tighten it all up.
Sunday, September 1
WHAT?? SEPTEMBER? NOOOOOOOO!!!! I feel like I didn’t even summer yet. I had the heat part but not the fun part ;-( Sunset is already at 7pm, ugh.
I spent all day convincing myself to go that night to a thing I’d wanted to go to LAST year but chickened out on. I almost bailed again this year but I was like GO GO GO DAMMIT JUST GO. And I went. It was a light show projected onto the Dongdaemun Design Building, a very distinctive modernistic looking building. It was fine. The best part was I got myself there and back by bus, in the dark, with no mistakes.
So Proud.
But it was one of those things that didn’t really live up to the hype, BUT…you know if you HADN’T gone, you’d have regretted it, imagining that you were missing The Greatest Show on Earth. So I’m glad I went. It would have been more fun with another human as we would have then gotten dinner in the area and shared the hour-long bus ride together.
I’m not LONELY, per se…I just miss having someone to DO stuff with.
School starts on Wednesday. I’m getting a little pre-anxiety already. Good thing I have an appt with the psychiatrist tomorrow to renew my wellbutrin prescription. I’ve been on half dosage for a week cuz I was almost out – wasn’t able to make time with the trip last week.
Anyway. It’s been a good break. A long one. A little longer than most. I feel I did a pretty equal split of Doing Stuff and Doing Nothing, which is good. But I still don’t want to to go back to school. My most fervent wish is for my time, all my time, to just be my own.
Someday.
Kelley
I love your blog, the updates and the “rambling” of which I dint find rambling at all!! So fun to read! And your confidence and strength to move to a country, very unlike the US and fo it alone knowing nobody. You are very brave!
bettyewp
Thanks, Kelley! Yeah, I can ramble like nobody’s business!
I’m still trying to come to terms with feeling “brave.” It may look that way from the outside but from my side it all feels terrifying, ha ha.
joan schwenk
I love #finchinsults. I kept saying it out loud. Damn you are so clever.
bettyewp
Ha ha, this made my day!
Leslie Susan Clingan
Are you seeing Covid rearing its ugly head there like we are again here? We traveled by plane last Sunday and PC has been sick since. I am wondering if maybe that was the bug you dealt with on your little trip. Glad you took advantage of that softer-than-home bed and just rested once you started feeling so bad. At least you did it!! You experience the Ferris wheel thing, the scenery at the beach, the people watching. You had a change of scenery. Good for you. Tried to imagine what the train berths look like with the little curtains. Is it a single seat with a table and curtain or are you sitting with a few others? We rode the train from Boston to NY a few years ago. I wanted to sit alone with just PC but he selected a pair of chairs that were grouped with another pair where an elderly (more elderly than I) couple was sitting. I wanted to enjoy the scenery but instead we ‘talked’ the whole way. Can’t imagine going through so many tunnels and missing the pretty countryside out your window.
bettyewp
On the news I hear that cocid rates are rising here again but I haven’t come into contact with it personally (yet!). But this is much more of a collective AND masking culture to start with, so I feel like hopefully it will stay somewhat contained. That said, today I almost feel a little pre-fevery…so I just took some echinacea, oil of oregano, and vitamin c and will keep drinking lots of water. I feel like it just could be the constant temperature change from drenchingly hot to icy ac.
Oh, I took the express bus to Sokcho last week, not the train. So it was a regular (but large and cushy) seat, but the little curtain you could pull closed so your neighbors didn’t see you. I had a single seat, no seat attached to me, which was nice. When I was younger and traveled to LA every summer with my mother, we also took the train as she was afraid to fly. On the first leg of the journey, overnight from NY to Chicago, we always had a sleeper car with a door and beds that folded out from the wall and a private (but teeny) bathroom. When we got on the Silver Chief in Chicago we were just in seats in the main car.
I would like to do that trip once more as an adult.
EmD
Welp, just spent the last 45 minutes watching tutorials on how to make a souffle pancake, so thank you for that. But I am happy (still) to catch up with this post. I can talk myself out of doing nearly anything, so despite that you don’t think so, it’s pretty great to see you tell your inner voice “not today” and stick to the plans you’ve made…going to places you’ve never been to…by ways you’ve never travelled, etc etc. AND started to get sick there and worked through it.
Just a wow for me. Take the W!