The past few weeks have been sort of a blur of not feeling well and spending like 97.5% of my time studying. I’m at that point where I’m not keeping up, I know I will not pass, and yet I can’t just give up becuase I still have to go to class and not embarass myself by NEVER knowing the answer. I can’t not go to class cuz then I can’t get my visa extended for the next … months. So it’s an exhausting cycle of study, fail, study, fail.

I did grant myself the luxury one day of going to a cafe to study just to get out of my room for a bit

Had a big lovely breakfast and a watermelon slushie

And I’ve had a sore throat, cough,  and on again-off again fever for the past three weeks and no I haven’t been to the hospital cuz I’m spending all my time studying to fail.

I *did* go to the pharmacy for some symptom relievers…I tried to get more but she was like if it lasts more than three days you should go to the hospital.

They were the most frustrating of times.

I finally got myself to a print cafe to print out the forms to apply for my next visa extension…it was challenging figuring out HOW all in Korean…but I prevailed. Go Me.

If I was going to make time to sit in the hospital for umpteen hours I would go to the eye doctor because MAN my vision is getting bad FAST. I knew I had cataracts when I was still in the states but now it’s like I have a permanent layer of vaseline swabbed across my eyes. It’s dark, it’s blurry. I’ll get there eventually. I need to find an English speaking eye person.

Okay, enough complaining (maybe). That was all just my way of saying there was really nothing to write about in the first week.

Last week was more fun. And I’m only going to go into it briefly here because it’s going to be a standalone post soon – The One Where I Went on a BTS Tour AND Met a Friend I’ve Never Met Before. Stay tuned.

After mastering printing, I tried my hand at erranding. That went alright, too. I saw a big blue horse…

…and a kitteh umbrella

But the Big Fun was on Tuesday, when I got to meet my long-time online friend MB, who I met in 2021 on a Korean language learning platform. We got to share our Korean learning struggles, vent about the aches and pains of getting older and life in general, and we watched k-dramas together almost every night via text. She was coming to Korea with a friend of hers…and it conveniently overlapped with my time here, so we finally got to meet! She is every bit as nice in person as she was online and I’m really glad we finally got to meet, in Korea of all places!

I tagged along with them on a BTS Tour they had scheduled with a local tour guide. I actually skipped school to do so. I think that’s the first time in over a year that I’ve missed class to HAVE FUN. My trip to Korea was supposed to be ALL ABOUT HAVING FUN…and so far that has been mostly out of reach for me, so this day was lovely.

I wish I had more time to play with them but I’m on a pretty strict schedule of study, fail, cough, study, fail, cough, so…I think I can do something with them again next weekend when they’re back in the area.

I got pretty packages from my niece, nephew, and great niece

It’s Steve the Birthday Capybara!

Finally got my absentee ballot request sent off!

Saturday night I met my new/old friends from the states at the Han River to watch the drone show. Unfortunately, the great spot we (me and She Who is Dead to Me) sat in last year, was not where the display was this year….so when it started we realized we had a big bridge right smack in the middle of our view. Mwrrh.

Ugh, blurry faraway pictures with a bridge in the middle. Well done, Bettye. Still, we had a nice time just hanging out at the park chatting. Now they are in Busan for a week but I hope to catch them as they pass back through Seoul on their way back home to the states.

It was so nice to have “my” people here…even if we’ve never met in person before. I spend so much time/effort here trying to befriend new people, and keep up with the youngsters who walk fast and want to do a million things in a day…and late at night. It was such a PLEASURE to spend time with people who travel at my speed! And who like…we knew stuff about another’s history/past/story without having to Cliff Notes our way through things.

Okay. That’s it for me. Time to study a bit more.