January 2021: Hopeful-Desperate
Well, I guess I should belatedly wish you all a happy new year!
This is my very first post of 2021, and, er, sorry for not doing a monthly update/closing to 2020 last month. I don’t overly subscribe to the whole “this year sucks” meme-joke thing cause people have said that every year since 2015 (which is probably where we diverged from some better, saner timeline). 2020, though, was genuinely shit in a way none of us could expect.
I’d have done some sort of reflections on a year gone bad but, well, I didn’t and I think 2020 has taken up too much headspace anyway. So, moving on!
There’s a lot of hope—perhaps desperation is a better word?—that this year will be better than last. I’m hopeful-desperate too. Korea’s being real slow on vaccine distribution, but I think most of us will get it here by summer-ish.
In the meantime, it’s my vacation so I’ve been sitting at home, trying to stay out of the freezing temps and rising cases.
As my friend puts it, I’m good at staying home.
I spent my two weeks off working out, making sooooo much art, reading lots, cooking lots, and playing my favorite new video game, Cyberpunk 2077 (yes it’s buggy but oh my god, the story).
Why is it so hard to simply rest? To not do anything, not even creative pursuits. It feels unproductive, wasteful, even. I think we’ve been conditioned to feel this way, and I spent some of this time trying to just…be, without creating or talking to someone. It still feels like…odd. Itchy. I’m a little stir-crazy, I won’t lie.
Life slowing to a snail’s pace is old news for parts of Europe and the US, but Korea’s avoided heavy lockdowns until lately. Four-person limit to gatherings, cafes take-out only, 9pm curfew, etc. We had more restrictions in the past two months than before, mostly to stave off any holiday upticks.
It’s been an adjustment, but I’m not complaining either. Just hopeful-desperate that we can get past this soon. As you can see, I still got brunch in the books.
February for teachers is always a strange time, because we have Seollal (New Years), Spring Break, graduation, and loads of class cancellations as we prepare for the end of the school year.
I’m also losing my classroom next year to accommodate more students. Saying goodbye to my sixth graders and my beloved English room will be hard, definitely, but the rest of my life for the next month will be mostly the same—double-masked, caffeinated, mostly peaceful, if a little boring.
There are several major things I’m very excited about coming up this year. Warmer weather. Going for walks and bike rides again. Maybe a trip to Jeju if things open up? And, of course, the remastered Mass Effect trilogy.
my friend, abbie, vibing during a podcast recording
I have so many plans for myself and this blog! This blog, its original purpose, was to be some tips and tricks to life abroad and fun photos of my trips. It’s now more filled with my personal reflections, but I’m hoping we can get back to some travel content much later this year. However, I’ve learned from the chaos of 2020, and don’t want to count my unhatched eggs just yet. So stay tuned.
I’ll leave you with some pictures of the snow we’ve had so much of lately.
Thanks for reading!