Cummings and Goings

We’ve officially been in Okpo for 3 weeks—or 21 sleeps, which is a completely legitimate unit of measurement in the Cummings household. The boys and I have decided it should probably be recognized internationally.

Anyway, I digress.

It was a busy weekend in our little corner of Okpo. We finally managed to convert some of our U.S. dollars into Korean won. Getting cash from the ATMs has been a little more challenging than we expected, so we made it to the bank on Friday and figured it out.

Since we don’t have our Alien Resident Cards yet, they limited how much we could convert. They also wanted to know which company/shipyard Lee is working for, including his office number. And apparently American money has an expiration date here because they wouldn’t accept any bills dated before 2021.

But at least we have won. Cash is used frequently here, so we are thankful to have some.

We’re also about five minutes from the beach, so we spent some time exploring the beach near us. The boys played in the sand, we watched the fishermen and, of course, built some sand castles.

Which is ironic because we probably could have built an entire sand castle in our car with the amount of sand the boys have managed to drag into it.

But again, I digress.

Sunday brought another very important Cummings tradition: bagels or donuts.

The problem is that a lot of places are closed on Sundays, and the places that are open don’t open until 10.

Don’t they know I don’t sleep? I need coffee and donuts first thing in the morning. This feels like a fairly reasonable expectation.

Thankfully, Lee and Beckett went for a morning hike and found a Dunkin’ Donuts on the way back.

Jackpot.

Yes, there is Dunkin’ in Korea. And yes, I got my Munchkins, coffee and pumpkin crème donut. Apparently pumpkin season is a thing here too, so at least some things about this move make perfect sense.

The ordering process at Dunkin’ is a little different here. You’re supposed to put the donuts on a tray and take them to the counter for the employee to box and ring up.

There were no instructions in English, so Lee and Beckett decided to go rogue.

They picked out their donuts, boxed them themselves and proceeded to give the employee a pretty entertaining start to her morning.

Lee and the employee communicated through Google Translate, and I was fully expecting her to translate something along the lines of “Bless your heart.”

Instead, she was incredibly nice.

Lee, however, is determined to make “Bless your heart,” or “아이고, 참…” a thing here, much like I’m trying to make Maroon Fridays a thing.

And honestly, this weekend reminded me of something important about this adventure: you have to learn to laugh at yourself.

There isn’t a lot of project work happening in Okpo right now, so there aren’t a ton of expats around. Every once in a while, we’ll walk into a place and people will stop and stare.

Especially the younger kids.

They haven’t seen a lot of Westerners, and they seem particularly fascinated by Westerners with blonde hair. The boys absolutely love it. They walk into a place, people look at them, and suddenly they think they’re celebrities.

But it has also been a good reminder that we’re the outsiders here.

We’re going to get things wrong. We’re going to misunderstand how things work. We’re going to accidentally box our own donuts at Dunkin’. We’re going to stand out.

And that’s okay.

This weekend taught us a little more about humility, not taking ourselves too seriously and being willing to laugh when we’re the ones who look a little ridiculous.

It also reminded me of one of my favorite Ted Lasso lessons: “Be a goldfish.”

The idea is simple: goldfish supposedly have very short memories, so when you mess up, get embarrassed or find yourself in an awkward situation, let it go. Learn from it, laugh about it and move on.

Because if we’re going to spend the next 18 months figuring out life on the other side of the world, we’re going to need to be goldfish.

So here’s to 21 sleeps, Korean won, sandy cars, beach days, rogue donut ordering, Maroon Fridays and Bless Your Heart Korea.

We’re figuring it out one adventure—and apparently one donut—at a time.

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