Liminal Space

Fairport, NY

I have long held a fascination with liminal spaces. I know it was a trending thing online with clipping videos and creepy pictures of empty offices, but my interest goes far back to my childhood, probably fueled by The Twilight Zone's "The After Hours" episode. 

The mall at closing when there are hardly any shoppers, the gates are down on many stores, and the music echoes in empty spaces. Or train tracks at night with ghostly lights waiting for the next train. Storage facilities with security lights showing you the place you aren't allowed to enter. School hallways during summer vacation. 

You know, that kind of thing.

Temporary digs 

However, living in a liminal space isn't as cool, nor does it promote some vague, quasi-nostalgic, pleasant-yet-edgy response. 

Such is my current living situation, albeit temporarily. "But Elena, you're in Korea!" Yes, I'm in Korea, but I'm also staying in a hotel for another week until the apartment I'll inhabit is ready for me. 

Don't get me wrong -- this hotel was my choice because I stayed here in 2024, and I know it to be clean, convenient, and with at least one staff person who speaks some English. But it's not my home, you know? It's a place I'm making work for a couple of weeks in a neighborhood different from where I'll be living.

But it's not just about the physical space.

Purpose and Routine

Liminality, for me, includes not having a routine or purposeful activity each day. I'm more or less creating a loose routine in the mornings here by having breakfast at the same time, walking to a coffee shop, and then checking out a store or other place in the area. But after that, it's back to the hotel for lunch and then the wide-open afternoon and evening. So I write, I blog, I check Facebook and Instagram, I play games on my phone, maybe go for an evening walk, and I try to resist the urge to go to bed at 6 p.m. 

I'm still trying to get through jet lag - another manifestation of liminality. My body is literally between time zones, trying to adapt to day being night and night being day. Each day gets a little easier, though, and today is the first day I've felt more or less like myself. 

In Korea but not of it 

The liminal experience goes even deeper, though. I'm here in Korea, but I'm outside the culture. For example, Seollal, the lunar new year 3-day holiday, begins on Monday. Everyone is running around preparing for this family-based holiday with its rituals, meals and travel. Think the day before Thanksgiving or Christmas Eve. 

I know that's all going on around me, but I'm not experiencing it. I'm not even tangentially a part of it. I'm in my hotel room blogging and then trying to get an eSim for my phone in a little while. So there's that feeling again of being here but not here.

I hope and pray (and expect) that as I move into my own place, start my job and make it my own, meet more new friends, and study the language intentionally, this cultural liminality will slowly fade. It will never go away completely, but I know that in time, it will recede into the background of my new life in Korea.