Thoughts I had and Things I did in December, 2019

This December was one of the most eventful months of this year.

 

In terms of work, I'm working on the contract renewal of as many as 16 accounts, and not even a single account is easy to deal with. There is a substantial gap between our perspective and their stances, and neither of the parties is willing to make concessions to wrap things up even though everything has to be done by 31 December 2019. The clock is ticking towards the end of the year, but most of them have already started their Christmas holidays. I'm afraid some of the renewals won't be finished by the deadline.

 

We also had a major change in organization in the company I'm working for. The department I'm in has lost as many as three employees and we haven't got new people instead, which is a huge loss from our side because we originally suffered from the lack of people. This recent change has obviously taken away most employees' motivation to work hard. The tremendous amount of workload with no motivation at all - what a happy ending!

 

Another tragic event I went through was my college friend's funeral. A friend of mine who I knew from the first year of college took away his own like at the beginning of December. On hearing the news, I went to his funeral right after work. We were in the same group of friends, but other than taking the same class at the first semester, we didn't really share much and stay close. Still, it was very shocking and sad to hear the news. What made him so depressed? Was it the only choice he could make? All kinds of questions in my head but the conclusion was that he didn't exist in this world anymore. Someone I know, who is very young and has a promising future ahead, committing a suicide is a situation I have never ever experienced before and sadly the only thing I could do, after everything had already been done, was to wish his good luck in the heaven and to move on.

 

Moving on to good news - I met up with a good friend of mine from the exchange student program! She's from Taiwan but currently works in a Korean global company in California. She visited Seoul to attend her friend's wedding ceremony, so we met up in Gwanghwamun after I got off from work. She was still very skinny as before but energetic. We had dinner at a seaweed soup place and walked along Cheonggye stream. It was the foggiest day in December but we had no choice. We shared a lot of stories to catch up - she was actually not that satisfied with her current job and was still looking for what she loves. I also talked about my concerns about my future life plans. I guess this is the most important topic among young people across the world. Maybe I can also fly to California and see her someday!

 

On the third week of December, I took two days off and went travelling with my boyfriend. The main purpose was to go skiing in Gangwondo but we also did some other activities. On the first day we went to a ski resort, called Welli Hilli Park, and skied all day - 4 hours straight and then another one hour after having a nice dinner. Actually I'm not a good skier at all. This was just my third time to ski and I was still scared to move on to the intermediate-level slope. Still, the beginner and the beginner-interemediate slopes in Welli Hilli are pretty steep and I really enjoyed every moment. It was also the first time I've skied at night - I thought it might be dangerous to do it at night, but luckily it was very bright and almost no one was there, which makes it much safer to ski! I'm not sure if I can make it to the intermediate slope next time, but I will try to go for it.

 

On the second day, we went to a beautiful lake and a Catholic church built in 1888. It was really nice to enjoy peaceful scenery with no other people. On the third day, we went to a sledding slope in Yangpyeong. It was not as exciding and speedy as ski but I liked it anyway. This was the last trip in 2019 and I hope I can have more opportunities like this next year.

 

Today I finished watching the series Designated Survivor. I didn't know the last season only had 10 episodes, so only when I turned on the 10th episode did I realize it was the last one. The final one was actually disappointing because I expected it to explain more about how things will work out after Tom Kirkman is re-elected as president. (For example, Isabelle found out that she was pregnant after she broke up with Aaron, Lorain got arrested by FBI, the relationship between Seth and Stephani's mom, Moss's request for apology and Kirkman's reaction to it, etc.) However, I know how it will be difficult to explain everything in the next few episodes. Sometimes, it's better to leave everything as it is than to explain. I really enjoyed watching the series and I will probably watch it again soon.