Ten Things I Miss From Korea

10. The People

I am a people person. I enjoy talking to new people and making new friends. In Korea, it was difficult to have meaningful conversations as most people do not speak English well. Instead, I would laugh with people about random things. Some of my best memories involve Hajimas who speak no English but were very happy to interact with an English speaking foreigner. Of course, not every interaction was pleasant but I still felt that Korean people in general were very kind and respectful towards me as a foreigner. It was a rare experience to be turned down at a restaurant or to feel as though I was unwelcome. Having said that, I couldn't go anywhere without people looking at me. Being a relatively tall, white person in Korea means that you look different from just about everyone. Most of the time, I felt that these eyes were just curious and taking in all of my qualities. I obviously dressed and handled myself in a different way than they were used to. So the eyes really didn't bother me much.

9. KPOP

Where to begin with KPOP? I remember the first KPOP song I heard. It also was one of the first times I really felt that I was living in a different country. Our school would hold what was called "night activity." These night activities typically consisted of very large groups of students. This night activity filled an entire gym (definitely over 100 students) and a BTS song came on. BTS is the most popular boy band in the world. I had never heard any of their songs but when "Idol" came on over the speakers every single kid in the gym jumped to their feet and started dancing and singing along. It felt like a concert! Many of them were even doing a choreographed dance specific to the song as well. I didn't particularly enjoy the music at first. It sounds like American Pop but I didn't understand any of the things they were saying. Soon, I started to realize that many of the songs included a good amount of English in the lyrics. Then it suddenly clicked for me. I don't know every word to each of the American Pop songs that I listen to. Why would I need to know every word for these KPOP songs?

8. The Variety of Entertainment

Korea loves carnival rides! I don't know why they are so popular but they are EVERYWHERE! My personal favorite is a ship ride high up in a building in downtown Daegu. It is wickedly cool to be on a roller coaster high up in a building overlooking Daegu at night. There was also a fun Korean ride that would spin, bounce and jerk while you hang on to your seat. This is certainly not a ride if you had just eaten or if you have a weak stomach. Apart from carnival rides, there is also Noraebang (like karaoke but only with your friends). It is so much fun to jam out to your favorite songs! The English selection is not perfect but its not too bad either! There are also claw machine carnival games all over the place, indoor batting cages, bowling and etc. If you are a gamer there are also PC Bang's which are computers that are hooked up to super duper fast internet. If you are bored in Korea, you are not paying attention to your surroundings. There are things everywhere.

7. The Number of Festivals

The sheer number of festivals in Korea are astounding. Every festival has food and drinks and different things to celebrate. My favorite festival was a sea parting festival. You can read about the full experience in my blog posts. There were also pottery festivals and several more. The festivals were a great opportunity to get out and experience Korean culture.

6. The Money

The job market in Korea is thriving. The pay is pretty good and allowed me to live a very comfortable life there. I had enough money to do all the things I wanted to and still have some left over to cushion my savings. I was fortunate enough to have a school that payed for my housing and many of my meals. Without these huge expenses, it was pretty easy to make money. I didn't have to spend a single dime if I didn't want to. I could have just stayed home, eaten school food (which was pretty good in my opinion), and relaxed to keep my entire paycheck. I definitely recommend teaching in Korea if you have the chance and the desire!

5. The Speedy Trains

Travel within Korea is an absolute dream. You can choose to take a regular train or a bullet train for your travels. I was fortunate enough to live in Deagu which was more or less centrally located. So it was pretty quick for me to get to Seoul or Busan from where I was located. This made travel to other countries very easy because I could easily get to the two largest hubs in Korea.

4.Soju

It feels weird to put alcohol on this list. I enjoy a nice beer and occasionally will partake in wine as well. I typically try to avoid hard liquors. However, my tune swiftly changes when talking about soju. The plain soju is similar to a vodka. The flavored sojus were downright dangerous. They were so sweet and so so easy to drink. The other selling point is the price. In Korea, the price of soju is roughly equivalent to one dollar. The great taste and the cheap price made for a great evening drink and a good time.

3. Hiking Anywhere

I did quite a bit of hiking while living in Korea. The place I frequented the most was a little town called Gumi. One of my first blog posts in Korea was about climbing up the mountain near Gumi. We also did some hikes on the island at Jeju although, that hike was during a torrential downpour. So the views on that day weren't great but the climb was really nice and very pretty. If you enjoy hiking, Korea has hikes all over the place.

2. Food!

The food in Korea was phenomenal! I lived at an English village that cooked for us. I, personally, enjoyed the food quite a lot. I got to eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner at work and it was usually pretty tasty. They always served rice with every meal which can get old but I really, really enjoyed the rice at work. It was plain but it stuck together and was always well cooked. However, occasionally the food wouldn't be ideal for me. Sometimes it would be too spicy or just a food that I wasn't particularly fond of. On these days, we would venture out and try some local foods.

My favorite fast food place was called "Mom's Touch." It was a chicken sandwich place that made great spicy chicken sandwiches. We were also very fond of chicken and beer. It is a very popular thing in Korea to find lots of places that sold fried chicken and beer and you should not miss it! Fried chicken in Korea puts all other fried chickens to shame. They are on a whole other level! There was also a dessert called Bingsu. It is shaved ice with sweeten condensed milk. It is wickedly yummy and a nice little treat at the end of a date night or some other special occasion.

All of these foods are great but there is one food that tops them all... Korean BBQ. Oh man I loved Korean BBQ. At a Korean BBQ you order the meat and cook it yourself. They bring out leaves and a bunch of other toppings to put with your meat. My favorite times were going out for Korean BBQ with good friends and drinking soju and just having a great time.

1. Friends

Of course the thing I miss most are the friends we had. There are great people everywhere and there are terrible people everywhere. In Korea, we were blessed to live and work with a lot of fantastic people. When I think back on my memories in Korea, they all start with some person or friend and then it shifts into the activities or other things that we did. Noraebang, Korean BBQ, carnival rides, hiking and everything else would be way less fun if it weren't for the fantastic group of people that we were doing it with.