New traditions for a new place
walking, looking at flowers, and eating soup dumplings
Hello?
Ahem.
Okay. I’m sorry I didn’t send out a newsletter last week. You probably didn’t even notice but I melted into anxious oblivion for about 30 minutes last Sunday when my weekly reminder went off and I was struck with the shock, again, that just the day before my son used my laptop as a bridge in his fantastical fort and I was now mourning its death. (The computer, not the fort.) RIP my Microsoft Surface.
So now I’m writing to you from my new computer in the same place as always (the bed) after three hours at the playground while my husband does our taxes (yay). Even though I only missed a week of the newsletter I did miss it. I missed connecting with you all.
Let’s do an old-fashioned Living in Korea Life Update like I used to, shall we?
Korea Update
Five months. We moved from Utah to South Korea 5 months ago. It feels so much longer.
No car. Early May?
Settled into our apartment. Love our neighborhood.
90% of our new furniture has arrived. We sold or stored most of our belongings in the States and then needed to buy a couch, dining room table, bar stools, rugs, benches, etc. We bought most everything from Etsy, local boutiques, (felt plants), furniture shops, or Korean brands like Essa (couch) and an area rug from Japan. Our house feels super homey now and I couldn’t be happier with it. There’s more I want to do but for now it’s perfect.
School is mostly 100% in-person. We have one child that’s home one day a week.
Excellent part-time childcare that opens up a world of personal and professional time for me as the stay at home parent. Quality childcare is the greatest gift in the world.
Can speak no more Korean than when we first arrived.
Have eaten a maybe gross amount of soup dumplings but I don’t care. They’re my favorite.
Made friends. <heart eyes>
A couple more things I can’t mention yet but will talk about later!!
New Traditions
One thing I love about moving to a new place is the chance to set new traditions. Routines at home, places to go, new ways of interacting, whatever. But I just love that when you physically move, it heightens the sense of possibility and opens you up to change.
There are a few things I’m doing differently than I was before and I want to talk about them here:
1) Separating myself from American politics. I don’t read much news from home and instead focus on local politics here in Korea and learning about where I live now OR scan world news.
2) Separating myself from localized cultural and religious pressures. I’ve found that living abroad has given me some welcome breathing room in all areas of my life. Although the process of relocating was stressful, the overall move and settling is infinitely more invigorating than my daily life before (cue Covid). I want to take full advantage of all this new vigor and vim and channel it how I want to; not how I assume or believe others expect me to. I’m still figuring out what that looks like but I’m confident I’ll choose the right path for me.
3) Trying new foods.
4) Talking to people.
5) Doing stuff. Literally went from doing just about nothing to doing so many new things each week I can’t keep track. It’s…so fun. And I don’t want that fun to stop.
6) Walking. A LOT.
7) Trusting my gut.
8) Watching little TV. (Not, watching TV on a little TV, unfortunately. Just watching less tv.)
9) Bi-weekly family video calls with my six siblings and parents. Always a good time.
10) Listening to more music. On the Sonos, in my Airpods. Just because I like it. I forget how easily music can lift the mood.
11) Gel manicures in bright colors that match the flowers outside my building.
12) Go to the flower market every Friday morning.
13) Combine 6 and 12 and go on lots of walks to look at flowers and trees. I will make an excellent older woman.
14) Weekly dates with Keenan.
There’s a good mix of doing the same things I’ve always done and trying new ways of doing things with a healthy side of I’m figuring this out because I have no idea how to do it. It’s a good jam to be in.
Goals
I mentioned this in a recent newsletter but this Spring feels more like the New Year. You too? It was too hard to set resolutions in January 2021 but April/May 2021? Sure, yeah, I could do that. Here are a few I’m mulling over.
1) Finish first draft of novel by end of the year. I’m working on a YA novel based in Korea. I started it March 2020 at my writing group retreat in Northern California. I told myself that if I wrote 20,000 words a week, I could probably finish by the end of the summer. Like, what?!?! What an amateur. Also, global pandemic stuff. I didn’t TOUCH IT until Jun 2020 and then not again until October 2020. To say I’ve made little progress is an understatement. To say I’ve stressed about it is a greater understatement. It consumes me. When you’ve read 42,000 young adult novels and are an English major are tired of client work and feel you have had a mediocre book boiling just under the surface for 7 years, IT’S GO TIME. Let’s go average-author-me. Can’t wait to what kind of basic b YA novel comes out of this that I still love but doesn’t go anywhere.
2) Tell my family I love them more.
3) Reach out to people I don’t know more.
4) Be okay with more confrontation if it means sharing my voice and standing up for the little guy.
5) Turn off my freaking phone more.
I have more personal goals, too, but I want to hear yours. What are your hopes and plans for 2021? Did you set them in January or wait a little while like I did?
This was a long windy one. Thanks for reading and hope you have an A+ week. Means a lot to have you here.
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