2025-08-25, Restless Furlough Days: Home-Cooked Meals, Fish Tank Cleaning, Pregnant Wife, Plus Books and English Conversation

 

Today, I finally took a picture of my breakfast.

If I keep building this habit, taking photos will soon become second nature.

Once that happens, I’ll probably be uploading a lot more photos than I do now.

This morning’s meal was a bowl of instant brown rice.

I bought it for health reasons, but it was so dry and tasteless.

Next time, I think I’ll try adding a little water.

Beside it, there was some leftover potato doenjang soup from yesterday.

Since I made such a big batch, I ate it more to “clear it out” than to truly enjoy it.

Still, even the next day, it was pretty decent soup.

It felt good to enjoy a slow and easy breakfast on a Monday morning while everyone else was rushing off to work.

 

After breakfast, I finally got around to doing 

the fish tank water change I had been putting off.

I had set up an automatic water change system using a water purifier hose, but it can’t suck up large debris, so I still need to use a siphon from time to time.

Today was one of those days.

  

The main debris I had to siphon out was fish poop stuck 

between the roots of the aquatic plants.

There was so much of it; every cluster of roots seemed to have some.

I thought the plants would take care of it, 

but the mess kept building up, so I had to clean it out myself.

  

Lunch was, again, potato doenjang soup.

But this time, I couldn’t handle any more rice, so I just ate the soup.

Eating the same thing two meals in a row was just too much, 

and I ended up throwing the rest away.

The reason I had lunch at home was 

because my company assigned me to a rotational furlough.

For the next six months, I’ll work two weeks, then be on leave for two weeks.

But the problem is, I can’t fully rest even during the leave weeks.

Sometimes I get called in unexpectedly, and work calls often come through.

Other than physically being at home, there’s no real advantage.

On top of that, during the leave weeks, I only receive 70% of my pay, so my total monthly paycheck is 85% of what I used to make.

(2 weeks at 100% + 2 weeks at 70% = 4 weeks at 85%)

Honestly, I wouldn’t mind the pay cut if they would just stop contacting me during leave.

  

After that same soup, I wanted something refreshing, so I grabbed a Capri-Sun.

I had bought it for my wife’s morning sickness, but I seem to be the one drinking it all.

As soon as I finished, my aunt called.

It was another insurance sales pitch.

Last time, I had already signed my wife up for a policy, but now she was pushing prenatal insurance for our baby, who isn’t even born yet.

It felt like she didn’t know when to stop.

I cut her off, telling her I couldn’t take on any more fixed expenses.

Right after that, my senior from work called.

A bad sign.

Sure enough, he told me to go on a business trip to Sejong.

Since the equipment for Malaysia had been ordered, 

I supposedly couldn’t avoid the trip.

Because our company is so small, 

it’s impossible to truly rest, and to make things worse, 

they were dumping tasks on me 

that should have been handled by an external contractor.

I couldn’t understand why we had to clean up after the work they missed.

In the end, I’ll probably have to go to the office for four days during this furlough.

If things go well tomorrow, maybe I won’t need to come in again, but realistically, 

I might end up working the whole week.

After the call, I went to the subcontractor to pick up the materials I’ll need for tomorrow.

Honestly, I feel like today should already count as a workday.

  

When I finally got home, I planned to read the books I had borrowed over the weekend.

But just as I opened the first page, my wife called.

She wanted me to prepare dinner.

My free time just kept slipping away.

She requested gamja-jorim (braised potatoes).

The recipe uses gochujang and doenjang as its base, 

along with cooking wine, sugar, soy sauce, sesame oil, and a bit of olive oil.

I had the dish ready before she got home.

Freshly made, the aroma filled the house.

I also brought out yesterday’s stir-fried shishito peppers, which had a spicy kick, and some overly sweet burdock root side dish that I just wanted to finish up.

When she walked in, she looked exhausted.

Working while pregnant is no easy thing.

I wish she could go on maternity leave soon.

Thankfully, she enjoyed the gamja-jorim.

But soon, she said her stomach felt unsettled and asked for orange juice.

I rushed to the store nearby and bought both orange juice and tangerine juice.

After drinking some, she looked a little better but couldn’t eat any more food.

She even said the stir-fried kimchi she used to love now made her feel nauseous just from the smell.

It’s really not easy to adjust to a pregnant woman’s changing appetite.

So in the end, I ate dinner alone and cleaned up afterward.

Only then did I get a bit of free time.

 

I picked up my book again.

But as soon as I started reading, 

my wife tried to chat and even pulled up some YouTube videos, distracting me.

I told her I needed to concentrate, but it still took me a while to get back into the flow.

Eventually, though, I was able to fully focus on my reading.

I had borrowed three books.

The first one was a collection of unrelated episodes—I read two of them before stopping.

The second book, which looked like it was about developing a writing habit, 

turned out to be more of a self-promotion piece about the author’s business success, 

so I gave up on it.

The third book was on English conversation, which matches my current interests.

Whenever I travel abroad, 

I regret only being able to communicate in broken vocabulary, so I want to improve.

What I read today discussed why Koreans struggle with spoken 

English despite studying it so much.

The main point was that Koreans focus heavily on reading and writing, 

but neglect speaking.

Also, Koreans tend to overthink and hesitate before speaking, 

while foreigners just blurt things out and think as they go.

That difference is why English conversation is so tough for Koreans.

The content was good, so I’ve decided to focus primarily on this book.

I hope to see some real progress, 

as I wrap up yet another “rest day” where I didn’t actually get any rest.