Monday, July 7
It doesn’t look pretty, but it’s yum. Chicken kebab bowl with french fries.
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.
Was in the mood for an italian ice, but…I don’t think that’s a thing in Korea. I got this mystery cup instead. You know the like wax coke bottle candies? This is sort of like that, but ice instead of wax…and super tart fruit flavors instead cola. Did not like. Ate anyway.
Started my clean-out. Went through like 15 spiral notebooks and had to tear all the pages out so they could go in one bin and the metal spiral thingies could go in another. THAT was not a fun task, but it’s done and the pile is smaller. Tomorrow is the textbooks.
NOT a fun task.
Tuesday, July 8
Hibiscus is the national flower of Korea. This is like a weed bush on Long Island. They reseed themselves EVERYWHERE and when it’s not flowering it’s a very nondescript shrub.
Whoa. Woke up this morning and felt like going outside for a walk. Of course, the hottest day of the year and NOW I want to go out! So I walked around the lake on campus, took some pictures. Probably won’t make that walk again. I did not go up the hill…and I was not carrying a heavy bookbag, so it wasn’t as difficult as it used to be to walk to class…and I stopped and sat everytime there was a spot to stop and sit.
Came back, cold-showered, did my remote work, fought with some things on the computer, lay down for just a little bit with my eyes closed – did not fall asleep. Got KFC, watched an episode of my current kdrama…fought with the computer some more…
Wisteria-covered pergola at the top of the lake. This used to be my rest stop on my way to class, before I started my ascent on the hill.
I’m trying to do a 30-day challenge on TikTok – preparing to leave Korea. But I’m filming on a little video camera and I transfer them to the laptop with the sd card and THEN comes the struggle of trying to get them onto the phone to upload to TikTok (I can upload them from my laptop but I can’t add captions or music or anything). Phone cable, bluetooth, airdrop, icloud, onedrive, dropbox…I’m trying all these things…the video is not even 2 minutes long, people upload MUCH larger files to their phones, why does it have to be such a problem every time I try to do it?? I finally got it moved over, I can’t even tell you how I did it cuz I was trying so many things, it was just finally in my files on my phone, I have no idea what put it there. But I hate when the computer fights me. Why can’t we all just get along??
These are the lake geese.
Wednesday, July 9
Lotte Tower
Finally got to an iconic Seoul destination I’ve wanted to go to since I first got here! Two friends went with me, and I was glad of that cuz otherwise I might have bailed at the last minute.
View to the west, overlooking the Han River, with Namsan Tower on the mountain in the distance right under the sun.
Lotte Tower is the tallest building in Korea, and the sixth tallest in the world. Up near the tippy top they have some observation decks where you can see a lot of Seoul laid out before you. It’s not in the MIDDLE of Seoul, but it’s in the midst.
We tried to pick out landmarks, but couldn’t quite place where we live (they both live in my building).
Seoul is the land of high-rise apartment complexes. The big green space is Olympic Park, the main venue for the 1988 Seoul Olympics. Now it’s a giant cultural and recreational space. I went there once with She Who is Dead to Me in the fall of 2023 when we were trying to find pink muhly grass and walked a MILLION miles. Never found the pink muhly grass. But I can attest to the fact that the park is HUGE.
The evening was SO HOT. I think the day maxxed out at 99 degrees (F).
I got home just in time for a (quick cold shower and a) 10pm call from an insurance broker (#thankstammy) and got some clarity on my whole “after Korea,, after 65, traveling internationally” situation…and it looks like it might be a little more affordable than I’d at first thought. I still have to decide on the international insurance. I’d been working with a broker there, too, but she’s disappeared ;-\ But at least all that is getting sorted out.
Thursday, July 10
Sky from my window.
Stayed in and took it easy today. I’ve started a daily series on TikTok: 30 Days til I Leave South Korea, and every day I’ll be sharing what I did that day to prepare to leave, sometimes it’ll be real prep stuff, like getting rid of stuff in my room or getting my last Korean haircut…and other days it will be me doing something from my “before I leave Korea” bucket list. Like yesterday was the trip to Lotte Tower…and today was how I have to start eating/using up all the food in my room.
I used to post my daily OOTDs on TikTok every day without fail, when Fashion Schlub was still more…fashion. But when I started being more about Korean content and just my daily life, I just could not get into a regular routine. Now I have No Excuses! And so part of the series is me challenging myself to post something every day and to learn more video/editing stuff. Cuz right now I’m Really Bad.
If you’re interested, I’m at Bettye’s Big Adventure
Friday, July 11
Ironically, I’ve had the thought a couple times this week…”ooh, I didn’t take a nap today!” I thought maybe I was all caught up on my rest. So today I was surprised when, while I did have plans, I just kept sleeping and sleeping…all the way til 12:30pm!
Capybara pudding hee hee
I did get myself up and out around 6:30 to go to a cafe that has capybara shaped jiggly pudding, whicb I’ve wanted to try since even before I came to Korea! It was three bus rides away, which is more than I typically do (my limit is usually two), but I made it. Had a nice little dinner of a really good cream cheese and tomato bagel sandwich, which was way more tasty than I expected…a lemon pomegranate ade (they’re all about the ades here)…and the yummy capybara-shaped chocolate pudding.
It was late and dark (8:30) by the time I was all done, so I ubered home.
Saturday, July 12
Guess What I Did?!?
I went into “my” coffee shop! The new “regret” coffee shop. Today was their opening day. I was busy all morning getting rid of stuff in my room that’s not going home with me (that was not much fun), so it was late by the time I went and they had no more baked goods 🙁 The banana bread had looked So Good on their Instagram. But the barista (maybe the owner) gave me the sweetest orange to make up for it, which I thought was very kind. I loved sitting at the table in front of the window, it was great people watching on a Saturday afternoon. There was a man sitting at a a table when I got there, working on his laptop, so that’s a thing. I will definitely take advantage of my remaining few (FOUR) weeks here to work in the coffee shop with all the cool kids, ha ha.
Since today was a productive day, tomorrow should be a fun day, but I don’t know what. There are a lot of places I won’t go on the weekend cuz they’re just too crowded. But it looks like a lot of rain is coming in the next week, so…it’s a tough call. I never did make the spring/summer bucket list wheel.
Sunday, July 13
Crashed today. I did a lot more this week than I’d been doing and I think it caught up with me. And more on the agenda for next week!
PS: I’m writing this on Monday, July 14…when I was just walking home from the bus, I was passing The Coffee Shop and the barista/owner was out front fiddling with the awning…she saw me, did the “ooh!” recognition face and head nodded to me and I head nodded to her…and look, I’M PRACTICALLY A REGULAR!!! 🙂
