Monday, Aug 11

He’s not so sure about me yet, but I’m sure he’ll come around

Another almost completely sleepless night. I slept from 2-3:30am…and then again from 7:30-8:30am. I think it’s a combination of not being in my familiar, comfortable place…being in a different place…totally flip-flopped time zone…and I can’t find my allergy pills I take to sleep.

Went to the movies with niece, great-niece, and her best friend, to see Freakier Friday. I can’t think of the last time I went to the movies. Maybe when I had Movie Pass, remember that thing where for $10/month you could go see unlimited movies? That was great. But then they realized it was not great for THEM, and started putting more and mmore limitations on it til it just wasn’t worth it anymore. Maybe it shut down? I don’t remenber.

Tuesday, Aug 12

Learned to feed the outdoor fish

Green tea ice cream after sushi

Today was mostly erranding with my niece, lessons on how to care for house, dog, fish, car…and then a nice sushi  dinner out.

Wednesday, Aug 13

Loaded up and ready to go

Got up crack’a’dawn to drive niece, et al, to the airport for a 7:30am flight. They got off well…and I made it home in one piece. After not driving for two years, LA freeways are no joke. My vision doesn’t help. I can SEE. I SEE the cars, trucks, buildings, traffic lights…but everything is a little cloudy and signs are hard to read…and depth perception is off so I’m trying to stay extra far back from the cars in front of me. It was a littlestressful but I survived.

And stopped at 7-11 on the way home for a 7-11 coffee.

Thursday, Aug 14

Stayed in. Ordered groceries. Napped. Trying to eat a lot of protein.

Friday, Aug 15

Okay, who is this person?? I’d seen a creator on TikTok who’s also learning Korean and sharing Korean content. He’s in LA on the weekends…so, uncharacteristically, I messaged him to say we should meet up and practice our Korean together! Sure, he said, and plans were made. We meet at Koreatown Plaza in LA. They have a food court with all Korean food. We chatted (mostly in English) about Korea and creating content and TikTok. Was nice to have someone to talk Korea with.

It’s been interesting since I’ve returned…really no one asks how it was. Living in Korea. I had this really…outlier experience and people are just like well, you’re back now so let’s just get on with it. I mean, if someone came back from a trip or vacation, wouldn’t you ask them how it was?? And I always ask these two questions: what was the best part…and what was the worst part?

If I asked myself these questions about Korea I would say the best part was just that it was Korea! It was SO different than anyplace I’d ever been, visually it was constantly interesting to me, I never tired of just looking out the bus window and watching the streetscape pass by. I think the worst part was not having a car! There are so many places I’d wanted to go that were just very difficult to get to by public transportation. I would have loved to have had that freedom. Who knows, maybe when I go back I’ll be able to rent a car a couple weekends and visit the places I wanted to go.

Saturday, Aug 16

A quiet day, nap nap nap, but then my cousin (my same age cousin, the one that’s left in LA) took me to dinner at a cute outdoor Mexican restaurant by the LA River. It was cool in the evening, we sat under trees with twinkle lights and drank watermelon margeritas. I haven’t seen him since I was last here in Nov 2021 so we had quite a bit of catching up to do.

Sunday, Aug 17

TOAST!!! REAL SANDWICHES!!!

My niece and great-niece have the Japan thing, too.

My nephew is building this playhouse for my great niece. I’m thinking of it as my emergency home if things don’t work with longterm traveling.

Stayed home, napped, walked around the yard, napped more.

I’ve really got to get myself together this week. Japan is in just a little over two months and I am so not in Japan shape. It has hills and stairs like Korea!

Why couldn’t I like a flat country?

Hope everyone’s satying cool and safe!

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