Monday, Nov 11

Just a day. Tutoring, class, remote work, homework, studying, memorizing my presentation.

The best part of the day was…every week the teacher “randomly” changes our seats, putting us next to different people with whom we do all our exercises. I say “randomly” because of the 10 weeks of class, I’ve sat next to one girl four times, and one boy three times. That hardly seems random, but whatever. The girl is Very Difficult to partner with because a) she speaks so softly that I can barely hear her, b) her native Vietnamese accent is so strong it’s hard for me to understand her Korean, and c) she always answers for me when I don’t know instantly. And I hate that. I mean, she’s a sweet girl. But hard for me to partner with, personally. However today I got matched “randomly” (again) with the Chinese boy I like sitting with because a) we’re at about the same level of Korean…so there are things we’re both like HUH, and some things he can help me with and some things I can help him with, b) I can HEAR him, c) he just has a pleasant, fun personality.  It makes class so much more bearable when you have a good partner.

Ramen with peanut sauce for dinner. I actually cooked for once instead of taking the easy/expensive route of ordering delivery food.

And OH. Yeah. Guess what came in the mail today?? MY ABSENTEE BALLOT. I sent the request before the deadline…and tried to vote some other way when I realized it wasn’t coming before the election, but…in Florida, there was no other way.

So, it’s my fault.

Tuesday, Nov 12

Got up and out early this morning. Sometimes I start walking and I’m like, okay, this is fine. Other times I start walking and my body is just like DON’T DO THIS TO ME. Today was the latter. I kept going but every step felt like such an unpleasant effort.

I took the bus over to Seongsu-dong, the next town over. I like going there because it’s close. If I’m lucky I can get a bus that requires no transfers. It has a big park (Seoul Forest) and walkable shopping/cafe/restaurant/gallery streets. On the weekends and even during the afternoon/evening on weekdays, it’s pretty packed with people just walking around…shopping, window-shopping, cafe-hopping. It’s good a people watching area, people are very stylish and fun to look at. But I was there so early this morning there was hardly anyone around…and the only things that were open were some chain coffee shops.

I was back home by 10am…finished my powerpoint for my presentation tomorrow, then went to class for a double whammy of hell: a writing test and a role-play presentation. All my “I’m Gonna Do Fun Things” is really paying off as I was totally stumped by the required grammar to use in the writing test – I couldn’t even understand the directions.

There’s no balance.

Tonight I worked on memorizing the presentation and doing the six pages (SIX) of review homework because tomorrow is the presentation AND a review test. And the final starts Thursday with the reading test.

It’s a WEEK. But just a few more days and I’ll Be On Vacation!!!

Wednesday, Nov 13

I spent the entire morning memorizing my presentation. I could run through it perfectly at home alone. I got to class and “performance anxiety” made me flub a bunch of lines. Ugh. Oh well, it’s over…

I did abysmally on the review test. I couldn’t even GUESS. I left a lot of things blank. Tomorrow is the reading portion of the final, which is at least multiple choice.

While I was taking my little test, over 500,000 Korean high school students were taking the CSATs (College Scholastic Ability Test), an event which is really significant here. They literally halt planes from taking off/landing during the hours of the test, the military pauses their drills, even some bus company workers who were striking for better rights, agreed to do it silently during the 9-hour test. Koreans take education and testing Very Seriously…and they didn’t want anything to distract/disturb the students during the test. Hope the kids can feel a little relief now that that’s behind them.

Thursday, Nov 14

Tutor, study, class, reading final failing, coming home to crash on bed in darkness til hunger got me up and i ordered Subway. Finished a disappointing kdrama and went to sleep.

The end.

Friday, Nov 15

Tutor, study, you get the idea. Today were the writing and listening finals. All three were train wrecks.

BUT – the tests were done at 3:30 (vs the normal 5:30 class end) and it was So Nice to leave class while the sun was still out, so I dropped my books off at home, and immediately headed back out to a nearby park for the last of the afternoon light.

It was DEE-VINE. Ha ha, my first “real” boyfriend’s last name was Devine. Anyway, there was still just a little light peeking through between the nearby buildings, just enough to make the red and orange trees glow for my visit. I didn’t go far, just to the cafe, where I had a nice treat. I am really fond of the egg tarts that you can get here at most cafes and bakeries…they’re just small, you feel like you’re being healthy cuz egg, but they’re really just like custard in a mini pie shell. So I had an egg tart and an ice coffee and just enjoyed sitting in the cool afternoon, watching the families walking around…there was a piano (?!) placed randomly on the sidewalk and occasionally people would stop to play a bit, which was nice.

Then I came home, just in time for a building friend to text me, “wanna do tequila shots on the roof?” Well, yes. Yes, I DO want to do tequila shots on the roof. So up we went and got a little drunk, which was lovely after the week of test stress.

And now it’s 11:20pm and Drunk Bettye drunk ordered yangnyeom (fried chicken covered in a seasoned sauce. Think buffalo wings, but Korean) chicken, which just arrived, so I’m going to eat chicken while watching a new (old) kdrama and then I’ll go to bed.

For a day/week that started out crappily, it ended well.

Saturday, Nov 16

Today ended up as a quiet indoor day. I did have tentative plans, but I didn’t sleep well (test anxiety insomnia, said Dr. Bettye), so I took the opportunity to be a little lazy in the morning instead of jumping right up.

I spent a lot of time creating an itinerary for a little trip I’ll take over the break to Gyeongju, which is known as Korea’s “Museum without Walls.” There are a lot of still-standing original historical places in a relatively small area, plus a cute main street area. I’ve booked a hotel right in the city center for two nights, and premium seats on the express bus. The KTX (high-speed train) gets you there about an hour faster, but the bus is almost half the price (even for premium seating) and I think I prefer the more leisurely speed for vacation.

At some point I lay down “for just a minute,” and woke up two hours later to the sound of rain. I hope it doesn’t knock all the leaves off the trees, there are still places I’m trying to get to! I had thought I might get out in the afternoon to go to a not-too-far place, but…with the rain I decided to pass.

I’m about to heat up my leftover drunk chicken from last night, ha ha…then I’ll do some remote job work and a little studying.

Tomorrow is another day.

Sunday, Nov 17

Procrastinated all day about studying for the speaking test tomorrow. I think I browsed airbnb for about two hours, looking at prices of places to stay in different countries. Then I looked at Trusted Housesitters for about an hour, becuase that is also an option for finding free places to stay in different countries.

Mostly just a quiet end to the week…