Seoul Long, You Good Seouls [#72]
Annyeonghaseyo,
This is my last newsletter from Seoul as NPR's Seoul Bureau Chief. My three-year stint is up and my employer is cool with me repatriating to sunny LA instead of our HQ in DC. I needed a soft re-entry point from Asia, so what better place to land than a place with lots of Asians, yknow? A fuller announcement is on my blog. (The above image is from NPR headquarters, naturally.)
My heart is full as we leave this special part of the world. More of my children were born in South Korea than were born in America. All three of them know of no other place as home. I will miss the view from my 35th floor condo on an unpolluted day. I will miss my go-to local bars, especially the one called HappySexyEnjoy. I will miss my pilates teacher Soomi and how she is 43 but looks 28 and says things to me like, "Your condition is not good today." I will miss hopping on a plane to go to Japan for dinner.
I'm drowning this week, but I'll reflect more deeply (read: less about bars) when I come up for air.
Reading
Japanese moais add healthy years to your life. The art world's most "extraordinary, ongoing collaboration" unites North and South Korea. Team NPR wins a pie eating contest in Iowa. An ex-cop rigged the McDonald's Monopoly game FOR YEARS. This is what white nationalist rule looks like. During these Trumpian times, hold on to realism and optimism. The controversy over this travel story from LA. Why NPR says we're in "Culver City" and not "Los Angeles." LA is the least affordable metro area in America, by this metric. There's no good measure of sexual well-being, and society's worse off without it. How to have sex in a canoe is a thing that ran in the Times Magazine. Recycling won't solve plastic pollution, change your habits instead. A NYT Obituaries writer signs off.
Watching/Listening
This BBC interview of Sean Spicer is how it should be done. Roy Moore sits calmly as Sacha Baron Cohen runs a pedophile detector over his suit. This TED talk on making tough decisions.
Recommendations
I'll keep this on theme and recommend South Korean products I won't live without, with links you to some examples:
Sleeping packs, a gel-like substance you put on your face so you wake up moisturized and refreshed in the morning.
Lightly salted dry seaweed snacks
Here are the best Korean dupes for expensive skincare products (the Missha essence I love makes the list).
But really, try not to buy more stuff, period. Every time I move, the amount of crap I've purchased/piled up dismays me. So my latest obsession is being a more conscious consumer and stopping myself from buying nonsense and avoiding plastic products and packaging as much as possible.
OK that's it for now. Next time I will write you from ... America.
Ever forward,
Elise
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