Happy 2024, everyone! January 1st is over in Korea, so I hope everyone enjoyed (or is still enjoying) their New Year’s holiday. I was looking through my posts, and I realized that the last time I wrote anything was just under a year ago. Back then, I was thinking about what I wanted to do with the blog and what direction I wanted to go in. Unfortunately, a LOT happened in 2023 that completely derailed those plans. With 2024, I’m hoping to break my somewhat yearly streak of hiatus explanations and long life updates. Let this one be the last for a good long while!
Read more: Happy New Year!There are two main reasons why I had to extend my blog hiatus through the past year. The first one was a drastic change at work. I went from a fair and balanced schedule to one with more classes and fewer breaks. Any free time I have during the workday is often filled up with some type of lesson prep or grading. As a result, I’m absolute exhausted when I get home. I barely have enough energy or brain capacity to pay attention to an episode of light television like The Simpsons, let alone craft a carefully thought out blog post. (BUT I will have a new schedule when the school year starts again in March, so I’m hoping things will change for the better.)
The other major factor behind my hiatus is that I literally was sick for half of the year. Before (and I guess during) the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, I had a really strong immune system. That being said… if I got sick, I would get REALLY sick. Like taken out, bed-ridden, down for the count sick. When everyone finally stopped wearing masks here in Korea, I foolishly thought I could be one of those people. NOPE. Seasonal allergies, bad reactions to air pollution, losing my voice, catching every flu and virus that my students had – you name it, I had it. Add that to general exhaustion and burnout from work, and the recovery periods became extra long. I feel like from April to December, I went through regular three week cycles of getting sick, recovering, and then getting sick again.
Due to these circumstances, my blog sadly became the last thing on my mind. K-pop also became much less of a priority. But after having a less than stellar 2023, I have decided that 2024 absolutely has to be better. New years mean new starts, and I’m absolutely determined to rejuvenate this blog. For the past few weeks, I’ve been thinking a lot about the kind of posts I can make that are interesting but not as time consuming as the ones I used to write.
For now, I’m going to start by sharing my Top 50 songs for 2023. These posts are currently about halfway completed, and I’m aiming to get them out in the next week. I also have some other things I’d like to write about, such as the numerous concerts I’ve attended over the years here since moving to Korea. (During the brief periods of time that I WASN’T sick, I managed to attend ten concerts, two fan meetings, and a few performances of the Street Man Fighter and Street Woman Fighter 2 tours.) I was also thinking of making posts about K-pop in Korea, like how to buy concert tickets or what happens when you use SM Global Package. Aside from that, I have a few other things in the works that I’m still working out.
I’m really looking forward to sharing more of my thoughts and opinions with you all. Like I said before, I can’t promise that I’ll be here regularly – but I will try my best to be consistent. As always, thanks for coming along on the journey.
Lots of love,
Katherine
NOTE: The featured image is of my beloved D&E, which they posted for New Year’s Day on X (Twitter). You can find the original post here.
Katherine Does K-POP 