Still on Empty

I was fighting my alarm clock again this morning. I pressed snooze a couple of times, but even once I was “awake” and sitting behind my desk, I still had trouble focusing. My mind kept wandering.

I’ve been having some conflicting feelings these past few days. This trip is almost halfway over. It feels like time is moving too fast — I’m not ready to leave Seoul yet, because there’s still so much I want to do. But at the same time, some of the small novelties of being here have started to feel ordinary, making me more ready to move on.
It’s a strange in-between feeling, and it’s been taking up some real estate in my head, making it harder to concentrate. I’ll chalk it up to a lack of sleep and overworking my social muscles.

Still, I put in my hours at the office — doing some code reviews, working on MR feedback, and preparing for my upcoming meetings.

A Long Lunch Break

To recover some energy, I took a longer lunch break than usual. I grabbed some fast food, then spent a bit of time doing some relaxed planning. I wrote down my thoughts, checked my commute options for upcoming events, and bought some second-hand tickets for MAMA — fingers crossed they get delivered on time!

Meetings

The second part of my workday was mostly filled with meetings. But instead of draining me, they actually revitalized me. Getting to talk about new concepts and seeing some familiar, friendly faces lifted my spirits.

I closed my laptop at 19:00 and met Katherine downstairs for another friendly encounter. We went to a 족발 (jokbal) restaurant — braised pig’s trotters — and talked about our upcoming plans in Seoul. Her hotel reservation ends next week, so I gave her a few recommendations for things to do with her remaining time. In return, she shared some tips for my stays in Taiwan and Hong Kong.

I closed the day off by watching the final Dutch election debate and tucked myself in for an early night.

These conflicting feelings were expected, but the lack of sleep definitely isn’t helping. Luckily I found some ways of dealing with it and talking things through with Katherine made me feel much better about the days to come.