June 2024 in review

Somehow it’s the last day in June and officially half the year has gone by. A mid-year check in would be appropriate, but feels too daunting a task. So here are some snaps from June, a la the days of Changing Seasons posts. Here’s throwbacks to reviews from June 2019 and June 2020.

I noticed these purple flowers on one of my walks this month. They are Hydrangea serrata, or Mountain Hydrangeas, and they’re native to Korea and Japan. In looking up what these were, I fell down a small rabbit hole of reading about hydrangea flower forms. I can now confidently inform you these are lacecap hydrangeas, which means they bloom with a tiny cluster of fertile flowers surrounded by a ring of showy, but sterile flowers. The latter attract the pollinators to the inner fertile florets, and there’s only a few of them on the flower (technically the inflorescence, or collection of flowers) since the sterile florets take more energy to produce. Also, a floret is a small flower that is part of a larger flower.

Jin is back! For those not in the know, all the members of BTS were in mandatory military service. In June, we welcomed back Jin, the oldest and first member to go into service. There was an in-person fan meeting to celebrate FESTA, the anniversary of BTS’s debut, and I won the raffle to attend! Session 1 was a hug event for 1000 fans, and Session 2, which I won, was the larger fan meeting for another 3000 fans. It was delightful and emotional to see Jin in person again, and just so wonderful to just be in a concert-like environment with fellow fans. I missed this so much. Of course, I shared a short vlog on my YouTube.

Summer is the season for noodles in Korea (actually so is winter) and I had my first kong-guksu, or chilled soy milk noodles, of the year. I think Kong-guksu is my favorite of the summer noodles, although I probably have neng-myeon, another cold noodle dish, more often as it’s more common. The place I went to is apparently famous for kong-guksu, and it was quite busy at lunch time. As you can see, they only served noodles and kimchi. No frills, no fuss, just a bowl of delicious, creamy, chewy nutty noodles. I’ve never made kong-guksu for myself, but maybe I’ll try my hand at it this summer.

It started raining last night, marking the beginning of the rainy season. Monsoon season lasts for about a month, and the forecast shows rain every day this week. Am preparing myself for wet, humid days ahead. Wishing you a peaceful July, wherever you are!