The Last Week in South Korea: August 4-10, 2025

Monday, Aug 4

Four Days.

Tuesday, Aug 5

I had a plan. A breakfast spot I’ve wanted to go to the whole time I’ve been here. Set the alarm, got up, was getting ready…got an email from supervisor at the remote job “can you do this HUGE LIST asap??” So I decided to not go for breakfast but to get as much of this job done today so I can worry less about it the rest of the week when I have other things to do: some fun, some HAVE to.

I’ve been so focused on I DON’T WANNA GO I sort of forgot I have to TRAVEL. I have to do all those flight prep things: reserve uber (done), download shows for the plane (done), get plane snacks (not done), get the rest of gifts to take home to three different locations of family (really not done), get my carry-on stuff sorted out and organized, etc. And I still have Final Packing – that can’t really be done til the last day…and I have to give the room a good cleaning and get all the food and trash out.

And because I have obligations, all I want to do is nap.

Wednesday, Aug 6

Just more packing, resting, packing, resting. Still can’t really finish up til Friday. I don’t know how people pack so far in advance of leaving.

Went to last dinner with building friends. Just the mexican place around the corner where I’ve been a million times, but it’s easy and close and inexpensive. I do look forward to having good Mexican in CA.

Thursday, Aug 7

And today…she left the building.

Today was gift buying. In hindsight, yes, I absolutely should have done this long ago…because now I was scrambling AND had to unplanned things to my suitcases.

First I went to Shinsegae Heritage, which is related to Shinsegae Department Store, a fancy department store in Seoul. This was in an old bank, so had beautiful architecture, ceiling and molding details, etc.

Each floor is a different…”theme”? One floor was high end designer shops, Chanel, etc. One floor was an exhibit by an artist who uses all AI and coding to create “on paper” art as well as light installations. It was pretty cool.

Another floor was an exhibit by an aritist who used just bamboo and recycled materials to create baskets, cushions, and other decorative items. He worked with nickel silver and hammered it to such a thinness, it was really lovely. Also on this floor was a tradittional tea cafe and traditional Korean snacks shop. I’d planned to buy more gifts there but the salesladies were like they must be eaten today or tomorrow, which obviously wasn’t going to work for me, but I still got a few things…and some fancy rice cakes for the house ladies, for making such a nice home for me (and everyone).

After Shinsegae, I noticed a street filled with shops and street vendors, so I got some other gifts from there. By then I was exhausted and sweaty – doesn’t take much, so I headed home.

Rested a bit, changed my sweaty clothes, and want back out to the mall for more gifts and my last Starbucks Grapefruit Honey Black Iced tea.

Made my last dinner in the goshiwon kitchen.

And had one last night with my beloved view. Sorry for blurry picture.

Friday, Aug 8 – D Day

Departure Day. Can’t believe it’s actually here.

I didn’t have to leave til 4pm for my 10pm flight, so I’d left all the last-minute packing til today…and now that I had all the gifts, like boxes of things…I had to start moving things around from suitcae to suitcase to get everything to fit. I;d had a nice neat plan up til then – everything I’d need in CA in the two smaller bags…and I wouldn’t have to even open the giant bag til I got to Florida.

Nope.

G helped me get my bags downstairs…I gave the building owner’s sister, Monica, a gift and told her how much I appreciated all their hard work in making such a nice home, we hugged, I cried, G said don’t cry. I got in the uber and off I went.

The uber driver drove like a literal bat out of hell. GPS said it would take just under two hours to get to the airport (we were right at the start of rush hour). I don’t know increment Korean gauges speed limits by (like in the USm miles per hour, but they don’t do miles), but I saw on signs (as they blurred past) that the speed limit on the highway was 100 whatevers per hour. He was going over 160 whatevers per hour! Now, I’m a chrinci speeder, I’m confortable with normal amounts of speed. But this was CRAZY. We got to the airport in an hour 15.

I was an hour early to check in my bags so I wandered around a bit then found a seat. Eventually got in the baggage check line, it was long but moved pretty quickly. The hyper-speed trip was forgotten and we were on to the next issue. First, my carry-on bag was too heavy. I’ve never even had that weighed before. Anyway, because she was like “it’s x kilograms over, you need to take something out,” and I had no idea what x kilograms feels like, I didn’t know what to take out – and had nowhere to put it anyway, cuz everything else was STUFFED to the brink. Finally she said, “okay…just don’t put anything else in there,” and she let it pass. Then my giant bag was overweight, which was not a surprise. And I was just like here’s my credit card – again, there was nowhere else to put anything I might have taken out. I paid the overage fee and off I went.

Next stop, security. That line moved quickly to get to the outer people…but he looked at my boarding pass and said “you have to go to check-in.” I….just WAS at check-in. I didn’t understand, he didn’t offer any other other explanation, so back I went to check-in. Before I got back in the long line, I found a person and told him what the security guy had said, he was like “you need to go to check-in.” I was like this can’t be right, I’ve already checked-in. Finally he asked to see my boarding pass and went AHHHH, follow me…and off we went, away from check-in, to a big metal door. He pushed a button, said wait here, and walked away.

What is going on???

I finally got buzzed through the metal door to the x-ray room…and there came my giant bag rolling down the belt. I am sweating bullets at this point. She gets the bag up on the table and starts digging through and pulling stuff out. Hair straightener, Labubu in box, a bag of stickers and pens for my great-niece. Puts the bag back on the x-ray belt and we both watch the screen as it rolls past. All I see is a bunch of squares and circles. I don’t know how they make any sense of that. She goes, “you’re fine,” then messily smooshes everything back in my suitcase and I’m free to go.

Back to security. Another line. Another x-ray machine. And my rolly carry-on gets pulled out of line again and now these people start digging through my bag. Until they find the culprit. A half-filled full-size tube of toothpaste. Oops. Didn’t meant to be a threat to national security with my pearly whites, sorry. Into the trash it went, and I was excused.

Even with my light-of-speed trip to the airport, all this nonsense took an hour…and now I just felt anxious and wanted to get to my gate and sit and catch my breath and stop sweating ad wait to board. I’d planned to eat at Shake Shack in the airport, but I decided to pass.

Sat next to a 20-year-old Korean American boy from Los Angeles who’d just spent two months as an exchange student in Seoul and now was returning home. HIS anxiety was that he was carrying two cartons of cigarettes, and while he’s of-age to smoke in Korea, he’s not in the US, plus he had over 200 cigarettes (the max for travelling?) between his carry-on and checked bag. So he was sure he was going to be arrested by the customs police yadda yadda yadda. I finally managed to convince him that if there was any issue, the worst that was gonna happen was that customs would take the “too many’ cigarettes and dump them in the trash.

The plane ride itself was uneventful. I dozed only little bits…the food was not very good. It’s not a scenic flight cuz except for the very beginning and very end, you’re just over water. Plus, they darken the windows to “put you to sleep” for the majority of the flight. This is now my fourth time making the trip from one side of the world to the other and it’s lost its excitement. Now I’m just like could I please just sleep??

And when we were making our final descent and the pilot said like “arriving at LAX on Friday, August 8 etc” I was like wait, what?? My confirmation email from the airline had said arrival on August NINE. My niece was expecting me on August NINE. She was picking me up on August NINE. I was in the air, I had no way to contact her til we landed…and then its all huffing puffing dragging bags around thru immigration (fortunately I was the ONLY US citizen there at the time, so I walked right up and went right through, but it’s still a lot of walking. I didn’t get to call her til I was waiting at the luggage carousel. Fortunately, she was able to come get me, just with a bit of a wait.

We went through In&Out for food, came home, and I went to bed probably within the hour – it was like 11pm by that time.

Saturday, Aug 9 (for real)

I slept 20 hours out of the first 24 hours I was here…only just really getting up at 7pm Saturday night in time for dinner and a movie…and then I went back to bed…

Sunday, Aug 10

…and did not sleep a wink all night. So I was exchausted all day Sunday for erranding and getting house and animal lessons, dinner, and second watching of K-Pop Demon Hunters with my great-niece who is obsessed and knows every word to every song.

And then I went to bed and slept for 90 minutes.

Now it’s Monday morning and I feel like a confused zombie.

The End. Welcome to America.