the blog

Life This Week in South Korea: July 28-August 3, 2025

Monday, July 28 Had an early morning hospital appointment: 7:30am to get bloodwork done, then 9am at the nephrologist. That’s what I thought. But surprise, they also wanted me to pee in the cup. WHY DON’T THEY TELL YOU AHEAD OF TIME THAT THEY’RE GOING TO WANT YOU TO PEE IN THE
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This Week in South Korea: July 21-27, 2025

Monday, July 21 Finally got my butt up out of bed and off the drama-box and did something productive. I packed my medium size suitcase with stuff to take to the PO to pack in a big box and ship to Katie’s by boat. It’ll take 2-3 months to get there, so
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This Week in South Korea: July 14-20, 2025

I’M LEAVING KOREA IN THREE WEEKS. Sorry, just had to say that out loud in the hopes that it would stop it from careening around in my head. Monday, July 14 Well, today was par for my course. Since even before I came to Korea, I’ve been hearing about and wanting to
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Life This Week in South Korea: July 7-13, 2025

Monday, July 7 Big News! I left the building! Ha ha. I walked with friend K to the kebab place in the alleyway behind our building to get dinner. Not far, but far enough, as it is HOT. Started my clean-out. Went through like 15 spiral notebooks and had to tear all
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This Week in South Korea: June 30-July 6, 2025

Monday, June 30 A quiet day. Read, did remote work, napped. The usual. The weather report keeps calling for rain every day, so I don’t make any plans to go do anything…and then it doesn’t rain. Annoying. Tuesday, July 1 Ooh. Today I paid my last full month’s rent here. I’ll only
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Looking back: July 2012 | i blog every day

This is from July 2012. I was still living in Brooklyn. These pictures are from my stoop area. The blog was titled “i blog every day.” Interesting how much 2012 sounds like 2025. I blog every day. …in my mind. all through my day i have moments and I think “ooh, this
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This Week in South Korea: June 23-29, 2025

Monday, June 23 – Friday, June 27 It was just a rainy week of computer piddling and productivity, remote work, napping, reading, writing, sorting out insurances for the future, and reading news about the war that wasn’t, then was, then wasn’t. I didn’t even pretend that I was going to leave the
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The Coffee Shop I Never Went Into: A Story of Regret

When I thought about coming to Korea, I had this picture in my mind of becoming a “regular” at a local coffee shop. A place I’d stop in a couple times a week, to either sit and chat a bit with the barista, or take a cup to go…a place where I
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Looking Back: June 2009 | a change of plans

This post was originally published in June 2009 on my former former blog, “I Think I Saw a Dragonfly.” I’m resharing it here as part of an archive series called Looking Back. I realized I still had posts from the blog I did even BEFORE my last blog, Bettye Rainwater Photography. That
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Life This Week in South Korea: June 16-22, 2025

Monday, June 16 Today was a not much of anything day. Shocker. BUT I did get through my entire To Do list, AND had a long nap, so…there’s that. The rainy season has come early to Seoul. Which fits perfectly with my “I don’t want to leave the house/depression” era, but not
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Looking Back: June 2012 | Winding Down

This post was originally published in June 2012 on my former blog, “Bettye Rainwater Photography.” I’m resharing it here as part of an archive series called Looking Back. vacation started today. at 4:01. pm. not a minute too soon. i have ten days to do anything. to do everything. but tonight –
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Life This Week in South Korea: June 9-15, 2025

Monday, June 9 After a morning ticking boxes off my To Do list (which is like sweeping against the tide), I had a stupid dr’s appointment in the stupid afternoon. Usually I’m able to schedule for first thing in the morning, but Ms Doc is going on vacation and only had this
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Where Bloggers Live: My Five Favorite Things About Summer

Welcome to Where Bloggers Live: 2025! Happy New Year! “Where Bloggers Live” started out kind of like HGTV’s “Celebrities at Home,” but…with bloggers! We all like to peek behind the scenes and see inside people’s homes, interests, and lives, so every month this wonderful  group of seven bloggers family of amazing women
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Life This Week in South Korea: June 2-8, 2025

Monday, June 2 I don’t know. I like you guys. I kinda feel like I should protect you from MY WRATH at this RIDICULOUS DAY. I think I need to calm down so you don’t have to read 27 paragraphs of &*%^#%#!!!! Long story short (actual long story here complete with 27
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The Best Seasons to Travel to South Korea: Part 2: Spring

Last fall I posed the question: what’s the best time of year to travel to South Korea? And I quickly canceled out June/July because it’s the monsoon season and July-September because they’re disgustingly humid and hot, and it’s frigidly freezing in January and February. That pretty much just leaves autumn, from Oct
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The Long Version of Today’s Experience at a Korean Hospital (if this isn’t something you’re interested in, keep scrolling and trust that you’ll have missed nothing important)

Back Story: Remember in this week’s This Week you read about my upcoming eye surgery and the curiosity (to put it mildly) about why I was being admitted to the hospital two days before surgery SLASH I’m messing with the timeline here, don’t be alarmed if you’re confused. It’s confusing. In next
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Life These Days in South Korea: May 22-June 1, 2025

Thursday, May 22 I finally, after what felt like a 97-hour journey, arrived back home to the goshiwon at 3am. Like the trip to Japan, this one also had many moving parts for me to be anxious about. And I was too anxious to try to take my anti-anxiety meds with me, so…
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Four Days in Fukuoka: Serenity, Steak, and a Stubborn Cold

I am officially a Language School Dropout (cue the backup dancers), and I’m fine with it. I gave it my all for 18 months. But I wanted to enjoy the rest of my time in Korea, so I unenrolled from the university. That meant I had to physically leave the country and
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