a hiatus

The title refers not only to the considerable space of time between this post and its predecessor, but also to the pause to my time in Korea. Yes, you read that correctly. Despite my intentions not to return to Europe before the end of August, this post is currently being written from home – that is to say, from Paris. In an unforeseen turn of events, I am to be stationed here for a provisional two weeks, due to the escalating coronavirus situation in Korea and the appeals of my mother to return home in the meantime. 

It goes without saying that I was initially much dismayed at the thought of returning home. I had already made up my mind before departing for Korea that I was going to stay out in Asia for the entire 9 months: it would be my first experience of truly living in a different place, without my parents, for an interrupted body of time, and I was excited to really make Korea my base and home for that period. When you’re really set on doing something one way, it can be really disappointing when circumstances conspire so that things don’t turn out the way you expect them to. But in the end I agreed to come back home for a while, since the atmosphere in Korea had deteriorated to such an extent as to prevent me from enjoying life there as I had done so before.

I’d been aware of the virus for the past few months – we’d been wearing masks during class time since the outbreak of the first case of Korea – but it didn’t seem too real or dangerous to me until the spike in cases only a couple of weeks ago. South Korea is taking the situation very seriously; faces are sheathed in masks, public billboards flash ‘cough etiquette’ and other hygiene guidelines regularly across their screens, hand sanitisers stand sentry inside the entrances of most buildings, all handphones are without exception updated to the latest confirmations of cases in your vicinity. The atmosphere in Seoul seems heavier and subdued, almost oppressive.  The streets that were once so bustling and busy with people are now sparsely populated; restaurants are hardly ever full, the crowds on the subway system are ghosts of their former selves and the city seems much, much quieter. Everything seems to breathe apprehension, and fear. In fact I think the atmosphere itself fosters fear: whether it does so rightly or not, I can’t say. My view of the coronavirus changes constantly. Some days I feel sure that Covid-19 will have dissipated by summer, just as past coronaviruses have done; other days I wonder whether it’s an apocalyptic disease that’ll be the end of us all. (It goes without saying that I sincerely hope it’s the former.) I think this dichotomy of opinion is a result of the media, and more specifically, the difference in tone between East and West. I think it’s the access to both that confuses me, for while Korean media adopts a very sombre and dire approach, Western discourse seems to be much calmer and cool-headed. But that’s probably because it’s far removed from the epicentre of the worst – or at least it was, before the spike in cases in Italy (which now has more deaths, despite less cases, than Korea, which houses the largest number of cases outside China). 

In any case, there is very little that I can do – or any of us, really – about the situation at large, apart from keep ourselves as healthy and clean as possible. The next term of my language course has been delayed by at two weeks, provisionally, and it looks as if classes will be conducted online until the end of March. If I’ve learnt anything from these past few weeks, it’s that you can’t expect anything, or that you should expect the unexpected (to prevent it from happening. But more on this in a post to come.)

I’ve really been very awful at keeping up to date on the blog and writing about my or daily life closely, as was my original intention. It’s somewhat ironic that I’m only writing about it once I’ve left, though I’m not sure if this strictly counts as so far I’ve only painted a rough picture of a Seoul under the shadow of Covid-19. Having been in Korea for three months and barely writing about it is actually quite a considerable achievement. Perhaps I just need some time for it all to settle. I needed the opportunity to live it, too, which I shall maintain as my excuse for not writing whilst there. Now that I am home, at unemployed for the next week and a half, I am out of excuses for not writing – but I’m sure I’ll manage to find some anyways. Stay tuned in the hopes of eventually reading about my adventures in Korea!!