Life This Week in South Korea: November 2-8, 2026

Monday, November 2

Again with the “up and out early,” who even am I these days?!?

I headed to an island park about 90 minutes away…but it was an easy route, and I don’t mind a long ride. I’m perfectly happy looking out the window and reading my Kindle.

However, I was not so fortunate this time and the “long leg” bus was jammed full, I had to stand and I saw no hope of ever getting seat. I don’t ride the same routes enough to know that oh, when we get to X, a lot of people will get off cuz that’s a major hub. So I ended up just getting off after a few stops and waiting for the next bus…where I still had to stand for about 10 minutes but then get a seat for the last 30.

The long ride was well worth it as the park was lovely and peaceful. Seonyudo Park was renewed from an old water treatment plant. You can check out a water purification system, an aquatic plant garden, and an ecological forest. But I was there for the river views, fall foliage, and swings! They had these great swings overlooking the river – they just looked like regular 2-person porch swings, but then there was a foot pedal thing so you could push the swing pretty energetically! I loved it.

The walk and long ride wore me out and I got home around noon for a little lunch…then started checking the coworking app for a good seat. You can see what’s available before you check in…and I specifically wanted one of the window seat, adjustable height desks (I’ve gotten very spoiled very quickly!)…and while I waited for one to open up I read and napped.

Tuesday, November 3

Stayed close to home today and just went to the coworking space for a few hours…came home, read…and went to sleep early.

Miss Excitement.

Wednesday, November 4

Grabbed a latte to take with me to coworking from a place right next door to me that I hadn’t ventured into yet. The latte was gooood but I also got this iced lemon cookie that was sooo good! It was thick, almost like a small round blondie (remember those?? is that still a thing??). So – morning treat joy.

THEN, and this was a real gift. Four hours at the work desk. Zero back pain. ZERO. Usually, even in the good chairs, eventually there’s pain…it can take longer to really settle in, or it’s at a low enough level that it’s bearable for the time I’m sitting there, but it’s there. Today, nothing. No pain, zero zilch. What the heck kind of pain relief magic is that??

Who knows why, but I’m grateful.

In the afternoon I went to Yongsan, about an hour by bus, to meet my friend K – that was in the language program with me and lived in my building the second year I was here. Because her mother is Korean, she was able to get the long-term visa, which lasts as long as she wants to live here, as long as she renews at the appropriate times (every 3 years I think?). So she now lives here.

We were getting together to discuss world events (ha ha) as yesterday were the midterm elections in the US. So we met at a cute “Instagram” cafe with yummy pastries. I had a “healthy” (ha ha) yogurt with granola and strawberries and honeycomb…and a fa-ta-la drink that really just tasted like a cranberry spritzer. It was pretty, but meh. I don’t care for cranberry flavor.

But they had a nice outdoor terrace that I risked life and limb to climb up to (seriously, Korea), as it was a really perfect afternoon to be outdoors. And we thumbs-upped and high-fived America 🙂

I had my first “oops, I’m on the wrong bus” moment since I’ve been here, so I just got off and ordered an uber and was home toot suite.

A Good Day.

Thursday, November 5

I’d had early morning plans for today…and my brain woke me up pretty much every hour on the hour all throughout the night for fear of sleeping through my unusually early wake up time. When I finally woke up a little before the alarm was due to wake me for real, it was raining. Negating the morning’s plan. So I rolled over and went back to sleep.

Delicious.

When I woke up naturally a few hours later I was getting dressed to head to the coworking space…and re-whatever-it-is-ed my wrist and was in pain all over again. Ugh. I’ve been so good about wearing the snug, soft support brace and that does seem to have helped keep things in place…but I was distracted at the change in plans this morning and forgot to put it on as soon as I got up.

Sigh.

Dumb.

Anyway, due to my hurt paw, I kept the day simple with just some time at coworking, and then home to read.

End of day – no better. Sometimes I magically wake up the next day and all the pain is gone. Fingers crossed. On my left hand.

Friday, November 7

I cancelled the day’s agenda of fun because my stupid wrist hurt. A LOT. I ended up spending most of the day just laying on the bed listening to an (awful) audiobook cuz just the act of holding the phone or kindle and swiping or scrolling was too much.

I actually reached out via online form to the orthopedic place I went to in 2024 when I tore my meniscus ligament to make an appointment cuz enough already. But I don’t know if they’ll call back a US number. If I don’t hear back and it’s still this bad tomorrow, I might (MIGHT) just go there (it’s close by) without an appointment to either see a doctor for a consultation or make an appointment to come back another time to see a doctor for a consultation.

I did go out, at Dr. Google’s suggestion, to the pharmacy to get some anti-inflammation cream that gets rubbed into the area, even though I never really believe topical things work (I’m a tough sell). It seems slightly better this evening, but it was already feeling slightly better, so I don’t know if it’s the ointment or just…getting a little better on its own. Cuz eventually it always does get better on its own. It just seems like it’s doing it more frequently now, and the pain is lasting longer (sometimes days instead of hours).

That was my thrilling day. Well, I did get a scoop of mint chocolate chip ice cream at Baskin Robbins while I was out…and ate to the house music that was about to blow the roof off. Not your typical BR musical fare.

Saturday, November 8

Well, this day was a big weird yawn. I WAS going to get up and go to the orthopedic center right when it opened…but then I didn’t, ha ha. I hate the time-wasting aspect of going to the doctor. There’s so rarely a good outcome and I just…didn’t go.

I’m on the downward side of pain mountain, anyway…as is typical for this mystery injury anyway. Hopefully by tomorrow it’ll be even better as I’m going on a little day trip to a national park and some kind of Japanese reproduction village where they film Japanese shows in Korea (?). I’d like to take my camera but…the weight of it is still a little iffy in my right hand.

So I didn’t really do anything today. Which, yesterday, felt nice…like I was playing hooky…but today it just felt sort of…aimless and unsettled.

I spent some time fighting with a little video camera I’d bought while in the US and have never gotten it 100% set-up…because I get stuck in this loop of, “before you do B you must do A but you can’t do A til everything is 100% charged (everything IS 100% charged) and you can’t charge until you’ve downloaded the firmware update but you can’t download the firmware update til everything is 100% charged” GGGGAAAAHHHH AAARRRGGHHH!!! Why is everything so difficult ALWAYS?!?

And because I ate breakfast and lunch at home I feel entitled to get delivery for dinner but my bank account is saying NOT SO FAST. I got used to being able to do and have whatever I wanted in Vietnam cuz it was so affordable…but Korea is not as affordable!

Hopefully tomorrow will be more entertaining.

Sunday, November 8

The day started out with me making A Dumb Mistake. Blah blah blah, I sent money to pay my rent into the wrong payment system here in Korea…blah blah blah, wasn’t able to transfer rent to my goshiwon host so now I have to go to the bank in person tomorrow to get it sorted out. And I’m always afriad it will be “found out” that I no longer live here permanently, no longer have a permanent Korean phone number or Korean identification card and my Korean bank account will be shut down and the Korean police will come knocking on my door.

But that’s now for Future Bettye to deal with.

TODAY Bettye has to contend with the fact that she’s scheduled to go on another group trip – but just a small one, four people, and just for the day…and the guide is driving us…AND IT’S RAINING AGAIN. Oh, I don’t know if the post about my southern weekend trip will have posted by the time you see this (I get so confused when I have multiple posts going on at one time!), but once you read that you’ll understand how NOT HAPPY I was to see the “rain all day” forecast for today’s outing.

It’s a two-part outing through a new app called Gatchi – which means “together” in Korean. And it’s sort of like if Tinder and Meetup…had a baby. The concept is finding activity partners to do specific things with (find the prettiest rooftop cafe or have beer and fried chicken by the Han River or meet for language exchange), but it’s in sort of a dating site format, swiping on people after seeing their picture, age, dates they’ll be in Korea, and the types of activities they’re interested in doing. It’s really a clever concept and I hope it’s a success for the two brothers who developed it.

And…since it was a Long Day with a lot of pictures, I’m actually going to write a separate post about it so this post doesn’t turn into an epic novel (I know I tend to do that and I’m trying really hard to break that practice).

But here are just a few pictures from the day, and I will say that in spite of the weather and the walking (and the fact that I may have reinjured my knee a bit), it was a fun day and I met some really nice people.

Soyosan Mountain

Nijimiro Studio

That’s another week in the books for South Korea. I can’t believe I only have another month-and-a-half left 🙁