When I last wrote a ‘day in the life’ post I was taking half day Korean language classes and working a part-time job that carried over from my life in America. Since November, a lot has changed. During the eight months since that post I switched to a more intensive language school and completed level one by the skin of my teeth. I advanced to level two where I decidedly did not thrive. After a lot of tears and a lot of verbal processing (sorry, Jaywon), I decided to become a Korean school drop out. So what do I do now, you ask? Great question.
After setting aside my language books (it took major willpower not to burn them) I made the transition to helping out at J’s Dad’s work.
So without further ado, here is what a typical week in my life looks like:
Monday, Wednesday, Friday
6 AM- force eyes open. Must get out of bed.
6:30 AM- walk Charlotte. Our neighbor has a dog that gets walked right around 7, so if I don’t get out the door and back inside with the beast before she does we will have quite the kerfuffle. It is worth noting that this neighbor dog is about the size of charlotte’s head, but you can count on her to be threatened by anything that breathes…
7 AM- Get ready and down coffee.
7:25 AM- Frantically make second coffee.
7:30 AM- Head out the door with J and begin the drive to work. The office is in a beautiful, mountainous city outside of Seoul, about 35kms from our house. Don’t ask me how many miles that is, I don’t know. What I do know, is it takes about an hour and 15 minutes to get there. Hence the need for that second coffee.
8:45 AM- Arrive at work.
9 AM - 12 PM- Work. More details soon- promise.
12 PM- lunchtime. We have a few options while at the office. In Korea, it is common for employers to provide lunch for their employees, so one option is to eat a traditional Korean lunch on site. Other times, we pack leftovers from home or head to one of two local restaurants for a quick meal. If we go out, we either eat 김밥 or Chinese food. This particular Chinese restaurant is Korean Chinese food, which specializes in Jajangmyeon- a thick sauce over hand pulled noodles. I opt for the fried rice with some of the same sauce. It is delish.
12:45 PM- Once the weather reached peak steamy here, we started getting a little afternoon ice cream to beat the heat. In Korea, you can find these unmanned ice cream shops with relative ease, and there is one right by our office. My favorite is the nougat bar (basically vanilla ice cream with a chocolate shell) while J opts for the famed melona bars. At less than $2 USD for the both, it’s a delicious and dangerously easy sugar rush to push us through the afternoon.
1 - 6 PM- Work.
6-7:30 PM- Drive home.
7:30-9:30 PM- Walk Charlotte, make dinner (not me), eat dinner (definitely me) and turn into zombies in front of the TV.
Tuesday + Thursday
I don’t go to the office on Tuesday or Thursday. J works for his Mom on those days, and I use them for studying Korea, doing chores and catching up on my 436345 hours of reality TV just begging to be watched.
6:30 AM- Wake up. Do not walk Charlotte. She will wait until after the humans around us go to work.
7:30 AM- Head to the gym. I joined a gym that is about a 10 minute walk from our house, and I try to make it there four times a week. I’ve been doing some light weight lifting, and it’s felt really good!
8:30 AM- head home- bright red and sweaty, getting stared at by everyone commuting to work. Cute!
8:30-9:30 AM- Walk Charlotte. Drink coffee. Try to be less red.
11 AM - 12 PM - if it is a Thursday, I have Korean tutoring via zoom. If it is a Tuesday, I have many important TV shows to watch.
Afternoon- Various chores. Possibly (probably) a small snooze. If it is a Tuesday, I have to do about two hours of Korean homework to prep for my evening tutoring session.
Evening- If it is a Tuesday, I have tutoring from 8:30-10 PM (home by 11 since the commute is a bit far). Yes, that is too late for me. No, my tutor does not have any earlier slots available. If it is Thursday, I patiently wait for the chef (aka J) to come home and we eat dinner together and repeat watching TV like zombies.
Weekend
We don’t have much of a set rhythm to our weekends, unless you count laundry and meal prepping as a rhythm. I still take ceramics on Saturday nights, but other than that we go with the flow. For J, that means watching as much TV as possible until I drag him, kicking and screaming, outside to do something (anything!) fun. Sometimes I win, sometimes the TV does. That’s life!
Until next time, friends.