Saturday night marked the completion of a recently discovered Korea bucket list item: 소개팅. Korean style blind dating. C had suddenly proposed the idea to me Thursday afternoon and by Friday evening the man of interest had already set up Saturday’s dinner plans. I have to say, initiative felt nice. The night of, I texted my friend J in a panic: what does one wear to this kind of thing? In classic Korean style, five minutes before I was meant to meet him at the restaurant I received a text that not only had he arrived but had already secured a table. “Take your time” he texted graciously. The walk…

I dropped by S’s classroom to confirm our birthday lunch plans and she invited me to sit down and chat. She was happy to show off her class decorations, even though they used her entire school-allotted $47. S tried to convince me that Seoul is the only city in South Korea worth living in and if I move people might not be familiar with foreigners and might not be friendly. I just laughed at her, have you ever heard of Korean country folk being mean? And I’m the only foreigner I see on this side of town. “Well there are many Chinese here.” I laughed again; as we saw with…

To be honest with you, the last few days have been tough. The pollution suddenly picked up, I’ve had a lingering cold, and the plans I had for Busan Boy’s and my future came sputtering to an end. But today was a new day and even though I need a solid nap, I’m back on my game. Barista Violet couldn’t hear me over the blenders making frappuccinos behind her this morning so I repeated my order several times, finally realizing part of her confusion stemmed from me saying “iced coffee” instead of “ice Americano”. (There is no such thing as “iced coffee” in South Korea.) Regardless, we survived that interaction…

To the people who are my paperweights when I feel like floating away.

My Korean has improved to the point where I can argue with the 7-11 cashier about 1+1 sales. (It was not actually an argument. I grabbed two granola bars in a 1+1 deal and they didn’t ring up that way so she came out from behind the counter to investigate and it turns out the sign was in the wrong spot.) And yet my Korean is still bad enough to make crucial mistakes like accidentally convincing the barista I’m a stalker. This morning the local barista and I were happy to see each other again and she asked if I lived around here. I told her no, I live in…

When the security guards came to my literal rescue.

With the Costco surplus of candy my mom sent for my birthday, Easter, and Valentine’s Day, I once again made goodie bags so that I alone won’t be tempted to consume it all in one sitting. In the morning I interrupted stern security guard watering the plants to give him the first hand out of the day. “Thank you thank you,” he said in English. He added in Korean, “happy birthday!”. The next bag went to C and the third to S. There was a woman with a bob typing away in 3-2 home room but when I knocked and she turned slightly, I realized it was not S at…

Yesterday morning was quickly efficient. I followed up with the eye doctor who said, “your dry eye is all gone” which was a far cry from earlier in the week when he scared me with words like “corneal erosion” and “forever”. I wanted to make sure absolutely sure I understood. “다 났어요.” He told me. I had learned the verb earlier that day from my tutor to mean “happen/occur” but from context I assume it meant “all gone”. So I threw up two thumbs up and asked him, “all good?” “Yes, 다 났어요.” He repeated as if I learned vocabulary through osmosis. Okay! I assume I’m fine now. To reward…

Yesterday started with a morning of feeling defeated and ended with a comforting dinner of hot wings with Busan Boy. But bear with me for today was wonderful. Yesterday the ENT explained my allergy tests perfectly clearly but told me “I can’t explain it well in English. Maybe next time you can come with a Korean friend.” He spoke English just fine but I suppose English is stressful for him. I wanted to cry in frustration, though: don’t you think me bumbling my way through every day interactions in Korean is stressful? He also said “I am yellow and you are white. The things we are allergic to may differ.”…

The nice woman who works at the 7-11 by the school recognizes me at this point. When I checked out with my usual triangle kimbap and juice, she darted out from behind the counter to grab and scan a grape soda which apparently came as a freebie. I usually don’t pay attention to the deals so I appreciate her caring. After an extremely uneventful day at school, I stopped by the local pharmacy to pick up my mask since it’s my dedicated day. After procuring the masks, the pharmacist asked me where I was from and after I said America, he switched to English and asked me what state. It…