Happy Friday, friends! I haven’t really done my Wins for the Week lately, but I’m feeling grateful for a lot lately, and I want to focus on the good. The past few months have been so hard. SO hard. But we have a home now, and we have our little creature comforts, our furniture, and our own space, which has been helping a lot. The routine…well, it’s coming along, but we’re getting there. So, I want to focus on the good today – even in the midst of ongoing change. And, you’re welcome; you get to see some snippets of our trip to the Seoul cat café in Myeongdong a couple weeks ago!
Wins for the Week
1 // We found a tutor for Spencer
Oh, Spencer. Our little dreamer. He absolutely loves math, science, music, and everything outside of reading and writing. The latter, unfortunately, has been diminishing his confidence, and he’s been really struggling to want to try. Rather than watch our big guy continue to struggle and fall behind, we found an English tutor here in South Korea, and he’ll have his first session with her next week. I’m honestly beyond excited because, as an avid reader, it’s so important to me that my boy learns to love the written word, too!
2 // I had lunch with my Korean neighbor (and it was amazing!)
I haven’t gone out to eat much, in large part because Pyeongtaek is still in a red zone. My sweet neighbor with whom we went to the Valley last week went to lunch with me, and it was amazing! I can’t tell you enough how kind Celly’s family has been to mine, and having a friend here makes the homesickness a little less, well, all-consuming. We plan to do it again soon!
3 // Korea announced plans for a shift in COVID response
Earlier this week, South Korea announced that it should reach herd immunity by the end of next month, at which point they hope to change to a “living with COVID” lifestyle in which life as we know it will (hopefully) resume. Because the virus won’t really go away soon, the hope is that we can resume life while putting general preventative measures in place. My hope is this means travel and borders may reopen again soon!
4 // I had my first hair appointment in Korea
I know this doesn’t sound like much, but I was honestly pretty worried about finding a hairdresser here in Korea. I worried about the language barrier, and I also sort of worried about the fact that my hair may be just a little too foreign here. I shouldn’t have worried because Hera at Color Pop Salon was incredible, and I’m so grateful for the experience! Needless to say, Mieke will have her first hair trim there.
5 // The weather is cooling down
After the heat of this summer, we’re insanely grateful for cool(er) evenings. It’s been around 60 degrees each morning, and I’m looking forward to the point in late summer/early fall that we can throw open our windows and let some fresh air in. Plus, this hopefully means that more hiking is in the books for us soon!
Honestly, of all my wins for the week, I have to say that my biggest win is that I’m shouldering a level of homesickness and not letting it become all consuming. It’s been a little hard, in all honesty, to miss the familiarity of life in the states. We’re so blessed to meet so many incredible people though, and the level of kindness people have shown has been helpful through it all. Above all else, that’s what we’re grateful for in this ongoing season of change.
