Between traveling outside of Seoul, completely abandoning my workout routine, grieving not being able to visit home, studying Korean, getting my hair cut by a Korean for the first time, significantly improving my make up skills and, behold, drawing a set of emoticons for a popular Korean messaging app, it’s been a busy summer, no doubt. So what I’m doing in the middle of the night, while awaiting my first day of class (after announcing to the world that I will, in fact, be going to bed early tonight), is, of course, coming back to my dry blog, my absence on which was kindly pointed out by my aunt (I melted) and providing you lovely lot with another short proof that I am still alive.
I have recently passed my one year mark with Korea and I almost cannot believe that so much time has already passed. Lots is still new and exciting, academics keep me busy most of the time and I can either do exciting stuff or write about it, there’s simply no time for both. My brother once asked me just how I think I’m going to have any readers if I post so irregularly. No one tell him that, but he’s probably right. Even I continuously tell myself: “I’ll write a new blog post today. Definitely today. Today is the day.” But then I have to move all of my possessions to my new room or try to catch up with the busy lives of my friends in different time zones or sometimes even just get that minimum amount of sleep required not to collapse the following day. Without a doubt, there are not enough hours in a day to do everything. However, I felt like a reflection blog post was in order, since I likely won’t be able to recap last semester’s or this summer’s stories in person to my friends and family. Not anytime soon, anyways. So here we are, hope you all still remember me.
I’m sure the spring semester was unconventional and challenging for almost every student. Myself included. I’m not going to write about the obvious again, because at this point we’ve pretty much heard it all. Partially, as usual, it was also my own fault for having taken on quite a lot of work, because clearly I have no concept of sparing myself. This is the point on my blog when I discourage my readers from taking 21 credits that include calculus and a design studio, as well as a *your third language class* taught in *your fourth language* (although this turned out to be a quite pleasant reverse Korean class for me). Finals week was a blur and I have no idea how I managed to maintain a friendhip-preserving social life along with a scholarship-worthy GPA at the same time. Just call me a genius.
However, after filling out 2 notebooks back to back with calculus problems, I can proudly say that my calculus knowledge has forever peaked. Seriously. Ask me what’s 2+2 and I probably only know because of Big Shaq. Area under a curve? Let me curve that question real quick. Taylor series? I don’t know her. The Sandwich Theorem? I am most definitely not thinking what you’re thinking.
I did very much enjoy my basic design studio (a/n: not a diss, this is the literal name of the class), even though it ate up my nerves and my time like nothing else. I recently got approval to take the same professor’s class starting this week and let me tell you I have never been more excited to get assignments because that syllabus be looking fiiiine. I just hope Rona doesn’t ruin the fun, like it almost ruined my summer.
Despite not being able to go abroad, I managed to spice up my holidays with some domestic travels to Icheon, Jeonju, Busan, Jeju island and around Seoul, most of which left me wanting to go back and looking at my photos mad that I forgot to take off my mask.
Also, since deciding that I wasn’t going home for the summer, I spent so much time with one of my, if not the best friend here in Korea that I was, at any given point in the day, probably at her house, walking to or from her house or sleeping. It reached a point where we even joked that if we got infected (yes, we, because come on), we could at least quarantine together, not that we weren’t already doing that. It amazes me how she’s still not tired of me. Jokes aside, I am extremely thankful to have her, because the past few months that I spent with her wayyy surpassed all of my expectations for the summer. Don’t know if my fragile heart can handle this temporary decrease in the frequency of us going out for dinner or (and) bubble tea, but my thighs will be grateful. Feels kind of like a break up and I am not enjoying it. When I said I wanted the summer to end I meant the humidity, not seeing her face 24/7.
I won’t go into any more detail now because I am tired and because, though my blog is sometimes funny and ‘a pleasure to read’ (or so I’ve been told), what it is not is informative, at least not in the way you’d imagine. Unless reading a mix of internet talk mixed with some irrelevant details about my exciting-beyond-imagination life is your cup of tea. Then welcome to the fam.
Alright, catching some zzzs now. Hope everyone is having a wonderful and safe day.