Korea Year 2 Month 3
It’s that time again.
The weather isn’t as hot. That’s a great development. It only recently became like this. Downside is that there’s been a bunch of rainy days lately. It’s probably cool enough to walk comfortably now. I’ve been slow on writing this monthly reflection. An extra week has passed already. The weather could be considered even a bit chilly at night now.

This past month has been full of hospital visits. The sad kitten story turns into a cautionary tale. It had ringworm (which is a fungal infection and has nothing to do with worms in case you’re confused) and I caught it. My coworker and his girlfriend who watched it for me also got ringworm. I had the bumps on my legs for a while but I wasn’t entirely sure what they were until I cross referenced with the two of them. One of our coworkers freaked out and told the front office that it was super contagious, so we were forced to leave work that early and then to go to the hospital. I was also told to stay home for one more day — no complaints on missing a Saturday. I have also become quite an expert at going to the dermatology department at the hospital. That’s a plus. Navigating things in a foreign country always seems so overwhelming.

One of the teachers I’ve known since I started and who was a good friend left during this past month. I missed the new teacher starting on that Saturday I was forced to take off. It hasn’t been too strange not having this friend around. The office dynamic is different because I don’t know the new teacher as well as the other teachers. She’s becoming friends with the other girls quite nicely, but I haven’t been really there for some reason. The transient nature of friends in this life continues to be a sad point.
The company sent another 6-month self evaluation form for me to fill it. It has been like 9 months actually. I hate evaluating myself. How good am I? How can I know? I did finally sign a contract as well in this past month. It feels nice to know that I do get a raise. I feel awkward about trying to ask for it, but I will check on it again on the next paycheck if they paid it and the raise for the past three months that I’ve missed.
Happily the schedule shifted back to normal hours and I got pretty much the same schedule I had before summer intensives. Some of the kids were happy to see me and there are so many new faces to learn. It’s weird because the classes have mostly the same kids as before, but some of them leveled up and aren’t with me anymore and a third of them are new. New students have been trickling in the past few classes as well.
In personal news, I haven’t been drawing much. I did maybe three things this time. I did purchase calligraphy practice sheets and practiced some of the brush pen version one. I was waiting for my actual dip pen calligraphy stuff to arrive. They have all since arrived, but I haven’t tried it out yet. I ordered everything off of Amazon because I wasn’t sure how to navigate finding calligraphy supplies in Korea. I am sure they have pen nibs and holders somewhere, but that’s the thing; I don’t know how to tackle finding such things. Korean classes started back up on September 3, but unfortunately I think I’m going to sit this one out. It feels weird not going after being the only one who went consistently with perfect attendance for two terms.



As a fun thing, I finally tried out Whisk: Brunch and Cake. It’s a restaurant that I noticed when I first moved to Pyeongchon, but never went to until this month. I’ve gone a few times now. It’s a little pricey and the food isn’t bad, but I don’t know if it’s worth the price. I haven’t tried their cakes yet though. They serve nice western food and they have all day breakfast.
