Wednesday, May 8, 2019
Tuesday, May 7, 2019
Life Post: Home From Korea
This is going to be an incredibly quick post as it's just turned midnight, and that means it's my bedtime. I did want to update the blog after my last post though. As I mentioned there, I went to Korea over Golden Week, and I had a rough first day because I was tired.
Well, it turned out that I wasn't just tired: I was getting sick. The next few days got steadily worse. It was just a cold, but between the travel and not sleeping well, it turned into a particularly terrible cold. I probably made it worse as I was determined not to miss out on being in Korea and kept going. That means I did the things I meant to do (most of them at least), but I nearly killed myself doing them.
There was one point where I nearly had a break down at the subway station because of how terrible I felt. Then a Korean woman stopped to help me and stayed with me for about fifteen minutes, which only made me want to cry more because of how thankful I was for her. (Honestly, the highlight of the Korea trip was how warm and helpful Korean people were. I wasn't expecting to get so much unsolicited help from people. I'm not sure it would have felt strange to me if I'd come from America, but after living in Japan as long as I have been, I'm very unused to strangers just coming up and talking to you. I forgot that it's a thing that happens.)
In the end, the trip left me feeling quite miserable, and that led to some disappointment over the whole thing, but I can't be upset with myself or anything else. I just got sick; there's nothing to blame for it. Because a lot of people in Japan were sick before I left and because I was already feeling so tired when I got to Korea, I'm also pretty sure I got the cold in Japan, not Korea.
Hopefully I can go back soon and not get sick. I went to Seoul this time, but I'd really like to visit Busan. I met a number of people from there in Seoul actually who stopped to talk and introduce themselves.
So, the biggest takeaway from the trip is that Koreans are great people and very welcoming, but my immune system failed me this time around.
The important thing is that I started feeling better yesterday, and today, on my first day back at work, I could make it through the day without feeling too bad. You can still tell I'm sick from my voice, so I was coughing some, and I can't hear well because of the congestion in my ears. Still, I feel amazing compared to just a few days ago, so here's hoping it's even better tomorrow.
Well, it turned out that I wasn't just tired: I was getting sick. The next few days got steadily worse. It was just a cold, but between the travel and not sleeping well, it turned into a particularly terrible cold. I probably made it worse as I was determined not to miss out on being in Korea and kept going. That means I did the things I meant to do (most of them at least), but I nearly killed myself doing them.
There was one point where I nearly had a break down at the subway station because of how terrible I felt. Then a Korean woman stopped to help me and stayed with me for about fifteen minutes, which only made me want to cry more because of how thankful I was for her. (Honestly, the highlight of the Korea trip was how warm and helpful Korean people were. I wasn't expecting to get so much unsolicited help from people. I'm not sure it would have felt strange to me if I'd come from America, but after living in Japan as long as I have been, I'm very unused to strangers just coming up and talking to you. I forgot that it's a thing that happens.)
In the end, the trip left me feeling quite miserable, and that led to some disappointment over the whole thing, but I can't be upset with myself or anything else. I just got sick; there's nothing to blame for it. Because a lot of people in Japan were sick before I left and because I was already feeling so tired when I got to Korea, I'm also pretty sure I got the cold in Japan, not Korea.
Hopefully I can go back soon and not get sick. I went to Seoul this time, but I'd really like to visit Busan. I met a number of people from there in Seoul actually who stopped to talk and introduce themselves.
So, the biggest takeaway from the trip is that Koreans are great people and very welcoming, but my immune system failed me this time around.
The important thing is that I started feeling better yesterday, and today, on my first day back at work, I could make it through the day without feeling too bad. You can still tell I'm sick from my voice, so I was coughing some, and I can't hear well because of the congestion in my ears. Still, I feel amazing compared to just a few days ago, so here's hoping it's even better tomorrow.
Wednesday, May 1, 2019
Life Post: Hello From Korea!
It's been ages since I wrote one of these, but like the title says, I'm currently in Korea, and I wanted to post something while I'm here just for nostalgia I guess. Visiting Korea has been something I wanted to do since I started thinking about going to Japan too. In fact, for a bit, I wasn't sure if I wanted to teach English in Korea or Japan, so visiting was a long time coming.
This is my second day here, and to be honest, it's been difficult. I wasn't sleeping well before the trip thanks to Druck (the German adaptation of Skam. If you don't know that show, the format is that the clips are posted in real time when that particular scene is happening in the day. When a show is taking place in Germany, and I'm in Japan... Well, you get the picture. I wasn't staying up for them, but it's been as if my brain was aware they might come, and I've been waking up throughout the night recently and been unable to fall back asleep.) With the trip and waking up early this morning for a DMZ tour, I'm utterly exhausted.
I came back to the hostel early today because I needed to be somewhere quiet and zone out for a while, if not sleep. That seems to be working. And I'm going to bed soon and plan to get a full eight hours, which will hopefully help.
There are two full days left of my trip and then the day I go home to Japan. I'm hoping that I'll feel my best and really be able to enjoy them. After the trip, when I'm better rested, I want to talk more about it. Then again, I'm behind on everything I want to talk about here, so we'll see how long that takes me...
This is my second day here, and to be honest, it's been difficult. I wasn't sleeping well before the trip thanks to Druck (the German adaptation of Skam. If you don't know that show, the format is that the clips are posted in real time when that particular scene is happening in the day. When a show is taking place in Germany, and I'm in Japan... Well, you get the picture. I wasn't staying up for them, but it's been as if my brain was aware they might come, and I've been waking up throughout the night recently and been unable to fall back asleep.) With the trip and waking up early this morning for a DMZ tour, I'm utterly exhausted.
I came back to the hostel early today because I needed to be somewhere quiet and zone out for a while, if not sleep. That seems to be working. And I'm going to bed soon and plan to get a full eight hours, which will hopefully help.
There are two full days left of my trip and then the day I go home to Japan. I'm hoping that I'll feel my best and really be able to enjoy them. After the trip, when I'm better rested, I want to talk more about it. Then again, I'm behind on everything I want to talk about here, so we'll see how long that takes me...
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