The Last Sprint

Time really flies! I’ve only got one more sprint left in Seoul before I leave — six more days of work, and then two and a half weeks of travel. I’ve had some trouble focusing over the past week, so it’s time to lock in for these last few days. There’s still plenty of work to finish, a lot of planning to do, and, of course, a bit of adventuring too.

I got myself out of my room and headed up to the lounge to get some focused work done. I hadn’t been there for over a week, working from my room instead. But I quickly remembered the downsides of the lounge: the many windows let in a lot of glare, the coffee free gets pretty loud. When setting up I realized I’d forgotten a cable — so I took the elevator down, grabbed it, came back up… only to notice I’d left my water bottle behind. Still, despite all that, just working somewhere other than where I sleep made a huge difference.

I got some review work in, filled out my hours for the past month, and finally managed to get the Docker image I’d been struggling with for the last two weeks up and running! That was a nice confidence boost. I took that energy straight to the gym for another great workout (they switched back to the EDM playlist, sadly).

After my workout, I had a surprisingly productive block of meetings. One was about my workload for next quarter, and another dove deep into the remaining issues with our authentication implementation. Normally three hours of meetings would leave me drained, but I still had enough energy afterward to write up notes, update a second merge request, and handle some more communication. I wrapped up right on time (19:00), closed my laptop, and went out for food.

Looks like we made it!

I went back to a small restaurant I’d visited before, greeted the staff, and took a seat. The menu was all in Korean, but I order some ramyeon and kimbap without issue. Then I went over to the self-service counter, grabbed my complimentary 반찬 (side dishes) and soup, and sat down. I scrolled on my phone while waiting for my food, listening to the K-pop playlist humming in the background.

Once my order arrived, I took a few bites and looked around. I realized I was the only foreigner in the restaurant. The guy next to me had ordered the exact same thing and was doing the exact same thing I was. After a month here, I’d gotten so used to the customs that I was following them naturally, without even thinking about it.

Last week, I felt like the novelty of this whole trip had worn off. But now I realized it wasn’t that — it was just that the culture shock had faded, and I was finally starting to feel like part of it all, even if only in a small way. I couldn’t wipe the smile off my face for the rest of the meal.

When I got back to the hotel, I did a bit more planning before going to bed early. My gut feeling was right again — this trip is still amazing. I just wasn’t getting enough sleep.