Monthly Updates

This blog is no stranger to long dead zones. The no-post periods. I am not a machine and I’m also lazy—so that has meant I haven’t posted in…ah geez, four months. Alright, let’s see. How much has changed in that time?

I am glad to be here in Spain—glad even for the moments of panic, when I wondered if I could even do this. Maybe glad is the wrong word. But I acknowledge them. I allow them space to exist within myself. Here’s my first month in Spain.

My time in South Korea has come to an end. If this were a video game, I’ve cleared the map. Saying goodbye was so much harder than I expected. I tried holding it together, I really did.

I love my monthly updates. Sometimes, I run out of stuff to say though. This is one of those times. So let’s spice it the format a little.

This month was sooo busy yet my 25th was probably the chillest day-of birthday I’ve had yet. Which is fine, cause I’m exhausted with my prep for leaving.

Gone are the days of freezing temps, come are the days of bad air. This month felt as transitory as spring itself.

Here’s another installment of my monthly updates. Vaccines are still a distant blip on the horizon, but at least cases here are low for now. It’s relieving to be able to make mac n cheese for friends.

I would do some sort of reflection on a year gone bad but I think 2020 has taken up too much headspace anyway. So, moving on!

The temperature’s dropped. The fall sweaters are pulled out. Roasted sweet potato carts line the streets. It’s all very dark academia.

This past month I combed through the 18,000 photos on my phone and delete the ones I don’t need. But wait, what counts as “need”?

What use is a travel blog when travel is all but dead in the water? Well, no excuses. I have stories I could tell. Here’s the past two months, broken down.

This entire month has been an exercise in grief—grief mingled with celebration, celebration mixed with anger and fear.

Birthdays are a particularly good instigator for quarter-life crises, wouldn’t you say? Do I go to Spain or not? Then, add a global pandemic. Throw them all together and, baby, you’ve got a stew going.

It’s time for another monthly update. Except, I haven’t really gone anywhere, and I haven’t been teaching at all this month.

Another monthly update: how have I been faring with the recent outbreak of COVID ‘19 in Korea? And how was my trip to Taiwan?

This past January, after 13 grueling hours of an exercise in stasis, I made it home. Er, one of my homes. Which way is home again?

I've been in Korea for six months and with that, I can say we've gotten out of the honeymoon period and the dust has settled.

I apologize for the long gap—I went to Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam for my winter trip a few weeks ago, and I'm still sleeping it off.

The past two months have been really quiet. You can tell it was slow because most of this video is just one weekend! It's just too cold to do anything.

I've overcome the culture shock, and it no longer feels like a vacation but just, you know, my life. The thing about routines is it provides both comfort and monotony.

This month was chock-full. We spent Chuseok in Seoul and begun to really adjust to our apartments and jobs.

How's it been, in my own words? Exciting, terrifying, so busy.

So much has happened in the past three weeks. Here are my first impressions of moving to and living in South Korea!