We are here and officially in “Spring Semester 2021”. The Busan interlude has concluded. The ride to Changwon for training was the easiest travel I’ve had by far. I took the subway for forty minutes to the Busan bus terminal and then rode an intercity bus for forty minutes. I snagged a taxi at the bus stop. “Please go here,” I said and handed the old cabbie a slip of paper where I had written the hotel address in lopsided hangul. “Who wrote this?” He demanded. “….I did.” I admitted. “It’s so small…” Note to self: taxi drivers are usually older men, write address in bigger font. We chatted for…

Yesterday after a day of packing, I asked Freshman to accompany me to the burger joint that I had watched come to life. There used to be a cafe in its place a few months ago that I vowed to try but Korea time runs faster than my Western clock and before I knew it three young men had gutted the place and established a hamburger restaurant. Well, the spirit’s the same? The napkin holders were shaped like old Coke vending machines and the young man in front of the open kitchen pointed us to a table then came by a moment later. “Here is our menu, and here is…

I woke up on the wrong side of the bed in the sense that I turned my head to look at the clock, heard a loud crack, and essentially incapicated myself with a neck tweak. Regardless of mangled necks, I had various appointments to attend to starting with my usual eyelash perm so the pain had to be ignored. I experienced a “no glue” eyelash perm which had minimal poking and prodding and exchanged glue for delicate medical tape, the kind I imagine a plastic surgeon uses. The technician mentioned the price would be 40,000 won but 32,000 with their season discount. I was confused since the website listed eyelash…

I greeted the receptionist at the skin clinic in Korean and she went through the forms slowly with me. She asked if I can speak Korean. “A little.” This was a mistake. If you give a mouse a cookie, or a Korean “한국어를 좀 할 수 있어요”… After waiting on a lime green couch, I was called into an office to review the procedures and prices. The woman did not speak English to me at all and I wondered if I had gotten myself into another eye doctor situation. The main issue was the price I found online for underarm Botox was 90,000 won, the price quoted to me from…

My mom sent me a lovely Valentine’s package with chocolate for me and the roommates as well. Freshman was delighted and touched to see her name written in English on her goody bag. The three of us also ate Twinkie’s to commemorate my long running gag that the corgi and the hostess cake look exactly the same. My mom had also included some of the 50+ prints she had made for New Year’s cards (Costco Photo Center has good and bad points) and I reached out to my previous co-teachers for their addresses. C was first to respond, followed by S and then G. H texted me back a bit…

Unsurprisingly, I got a last minute message asking if I could get a medical check before my contract starts. Health checks are usually required not by immigration but by individual offices of education so I calmly called a local hospital and set up an appointment with the international center. If you think I have enough command of Korean to navigate a hospital on my own, you are wrong. Although, I appreciate your confidence in me. I asked the nervous woman who had taken my temperature by the hospital doors where the international center was. She looked at me in confusion so I switched it to “foreigner center”. She answered hesitantly…

I’m writing this from a cafe where I had another Korean-English misunderstanding. “Do you want me to put on pipping cream?” The barista asked, more than once. When in doubt, I simply say “yes”. A few moments later I realized he asked if I wanted whipped cream. I confirmed with him then told him I couldn’t hear well so my bad. I’ve had the same hearing problem with other Korean English words at a cafe like “cinnamon” and I can’t be mad at either of us. In class today, my teacher reviewed five grammar points that all translate to “look like” in English. I’ve learned some of these albeit extremely…

Happy late Valentine’s Day! I spent Galentine’s Day with an expat friend I’ve met a few other times these last two weeks. The other two ladies who originally planned to come to the museum with us dropped out so the two of us wandered the near empty Busan Museum. I learned a bit more about Busan– did you know it became the temporary capital when Seoul was overtaken during the Korean War? People have also lived on this part of the peninsula since the Neolithic Age, which is where the idea of Korean people originates from. There was a line about the Bronze Age that went something like, “During the…

I was walking back from a quick grocery run in the evening when I saw a young girl balancing one soccer ball atop another. I was mesmerized, how was she doing that? The street wasn’t flat or forgiving either so what magic was this? The top ball turned out to be slightly deflated and as we passed each other on the street, I looked at her. She looked at me looking at her. The top ball started to slip sideways without her noticing and I couldn’t look away. She dropped both balls in the road and only then broke eye contact, almost confused about how they fell. I’m thankful my…

The Not Rock roommate may join the ranks of strange male roommates after all. In hushed urgency House Owner called me into the hallway with Japan Aunt who reported to us that even though she told The Not Rock good morning in English and Korean, he hadn’t even made eye contact with her. “Maybe he had in earphones?” I suggested but Japan Aunt shook her head. House Owner looked forlorn and asked me to keep an eye on things while she’s gone since Freshman is out of town and therefore she’s down one confidant. House Owner added he seems serious and I noted he doesn’t have much of a sense…