There has been more upheaval with my work documents that left me hanging worriedly on tenterhooks all day and I could do nothing but check my email with a growing sense of dread. The day was cold and rainy but I needed a walk to clear my head. Down by the beach I drank peppermint tea and finished notes for Korean class. My intention was to also complete the writing assignment but the mental block of possibly not having a job after a year of effort prevented any more than rewriting vocabulary. In Korea, rainy days are meant for pajeon and rice wine. Next best is Busan’s famous dish 돼지국밥.…

Today marked the second in-class tutoring session with my new teacher. She’s from Seoul, so I won’t be picking up any Busan accent, and speaks a mile a minute. Her class is like a tidal wave of information and I love it. Today she told me, “your intonation is really natural, I’m not trying to flatter you. Even advanced learners struggle with this.” I took a moment to be proud until she continued, “but you have a lot of holes in your vocabulary”. Yes, this too. “How do you know the word for ‘refund’ but not ‘human’?” She has since started to smother me in vocabulary which is the best…

Busan expats are lovely and I joined an English woman on an adventure to the art museum. We spent hours lost in the mirrored lights. A man with his son started a conversation in English with us. “This place is beautiful, isn’t it?” He said with a Korean accent. We agreed and dad tried to get his little puffer vested son to say hello to us in English. “This is Johnny. Johnny, say hi!” Johnny did not say hi and instead hid against his dad’s knees. I love dad leading his son by example: a second language is nothing to fear. The day concluded at the same food court where…

While I was in the US, my roommate House Owner reached out to me to help translate an English brochure for her sister’s drone company. She did the first pass into English and I cleaned up the language and sharpened it into business terms. She had also left a paragraph in Korean she had difficulty translating. It was, in fact, a mess of a paragraph but I had fun decoding it. Her sister’s company paid her for her effort and she promised to reward me with a solid meal when I returned. Last night I cashed that check and requested that she, Freshman, and I go to eat 대창, large…

I spy with my little eye…

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…

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.

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…