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Neighbors
I was on the roof reorganizing my laundry when a small voice said, “아주머니 누구냐?” Who is that lady*? I looked down two stories and saw a little boy bundled from head to toe. He peeked at me between his beanie and scarf and waved. “Who are you?” He shouted. “I’m your neighbor!” I waved back and asked him what his name was. “Kim Yoonu!” He said too quietly for a person on the top of a house to hear. “Kim Yoo?” “Kim Yoonu!” He said louder, still too shy to actually shout. “Kim Ooyu? Kim Yoonu? Wait, tell me again!” He stared at me in defeat while his parents…
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June 17, There Is Always a Weird Roommate
The Russian twirled a butcher knife a foot away from where I was making a snack and said, “I like your scarf.” “Yes, I’m wearing it because I am cold.” I responded neutrally, remembering how when I went to gather my laundry this morning I found that instead of hanging his clothes on the second empty line, he simply pushed my clothes to the middle of the first line and hung his underthings so that they were touching mine. “Are you cold because you’re alone?” “…what?” I stared at him, baffled. His conversational timing was nearly as off as the Male Korean. “Alone, A-L-O-N-E.” He explained, committed to steamrolling through…
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Site Updates!
Thanks to my very thoughtful friend, my logo has been updated! Look upon its glory: Catch me putting this on everything from Instagram to YouTube to temporary tattoos. Thank you, Ashley, for commissioning this~ I have also rebooted my Abs__Abroad Instagram account for your enjoyment, so take a look weekly to step into the places I write about.
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January 16
We are all in COVID purgatory. My two roommates and I sat around the table passively watching an IU music video and arguing if it was the theme song for a famous drama. The Russian stopped by to show us his Cookie Monster socks and discuss the origin of pickles. With my head pillowed on my arms I looked up from my midday stupor to ask House Owner when cafes would open again. I just want to have a coffee by the beach, dammit. “Oh no. The government has just extended level 2.5 until the end of the month.” This means no open gyms, no ice rinks, no classes, no…
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January 15, Fated
I rode the bus to immigration to pick up a document then wandered until I stumbled upon China Town and then Freshman. “Oh! Abigail! Is that you?” How random, how fateful to come across my roommate in the afternoon outside of China Town. I joined her on her mission to find a dumpling restaurant and we conquered three wicker baskets in the single room restaurant. Neighboring China Town was a gaudily appointed Texas Street. We hopped over the imaginary line. “We’re in Texas, now!” The feel was different: all the stores were closed except for Russian souvenir shops and garbage rolled across the street like a tumbleweed. Not even the…
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January 14, Meet and Greet
The Russian hit on me in the first five minutes of meeting me. Sir, please read the room and my travel-weary face. A moment before he looked me up and down and said “you’re looking good”, I was deboning a chicken and chatting with him about his job when he suddenly stroked my forearm and I was so taken aback I just said “why”. “Oh. I don’t know why. I guess because you have arm hair and I don’t.” The last person who did that was a nine-year-old Korean. I had higher hopes for a twenty-seven-year-old man. I would also expect a psychologist to have a little more situational awareness…
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January 13, Freedom
Today was my release date from quarantine and my goodness, what a way to be re-introduced into society with a knock on my door 8:30 AM. Luckily, I had slept in clothes from the day before and peeked my head out the door. It was the courier who had come three hours early to pick up my scheduled delivery. If you think I was planning on dragging two 50 pound suitcases to Busan by myself, again, you’re crazy. I will give this man credit: he’s probably one of the two people who simplified his Korean to a level that I could understand. We worked out that he would come back…
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Pandemic Realities
Do you remember the scene from The Princess Bride in which Inigo Montoya hears the agonized screams of Westley and says “My heart made that sound when the six-fingered man killed my father”? I have certainly never grieved to that extent but there is something in recognizing someone’s sounds of suffering as your own. Mr. Whitchard is a choir teacher who caught COVID-19, recovered, and then got pneumonia. (Damn.) Thankfully, he’s back at home recovering with his family. His video appeared in a recent news stream, a river that I dived into in November and from which I have not resurfaced due to ceaseless torrents of *sweeps hands at America* everything. In…
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“You speak Korean so well!”
I stumbled upon the famous Talk To Me In Korean channel many years ago but just found this video today and genuinely laughed out loud. Three Korean teachers reviewed Korean-learning memes and this was the meme in question that struck me as a particular, lived experience: To explain: A intruder, labeled as non-Korean, is looking for a Korean stranger. In order to find the person in hiding, the intruder calls out “hello?” in Korean and the Korean says, “You speak Korean really well!” and we assume, meets an untimely demise. It’s analogous to the “shave and a haircut, two bits” scene from Who Framed Roger Rabbit. It simply can’t be…
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January 6, Snow day