Living the Daydream: Month 2
1 whole month of living in Korea — my mind is blown.
I won’t lie, this started off as one of the hardest months of my life. Last month, in my quarantine post and in my 1 month update, I talked about how afraid I was of getting out of quarantine and having to figure everything out by myself. I’ve studied abroad, gone 6 weeks without my phone in South America, and navigated through India, and I’ve been fine. While I was nervous, I thought that this would be no different.
As it turns out, life in Korea is IMMENSELY different. As a foreigner, you can barely do anything without an alien registration card, and with COVID, the immigration office is backed up until October, which means I will be scraping by until probably early November. Data plans require your foreign registration number, as do banks, food delivery apps, taxi services, online grocery shopping, and literally everything else, so I’m feeling pretty helpless, even now at the end of the month. Next month, I’m hoping to get all my crap together so that I can live a semi-organized, normal life. Once I get the key, the answer to all my dilemmas - my ARC - I think life will get so much easier.
Moving abroad is no easy feat. It was really tricky getting here in the first place, and I KNOW that it will be so rewarding and so worth it eventually, but the first month of buying everything you need to just live your life (a bathmat, a trashcan, sheet, a spoon - all the tiny things that you never really think about until you don’t have them), is so overwhelming. A lot of things are a one-time purchase, but when you’re buying everything all at once it can be scary to see your bank account diminish so quickly. My washing machine is a blur of Korean letters, you get fined for taking out the trash on the wrong days, and I can only buy from the grocery store what I can carry home with me. It’s just a lot. I’m only 21 and still feel like a little bit of a baby, so I’ve had a few breakdowns at the sheer amount of things that I’m still figuring out.
Although the last week and a half of this month have been a little smoother, the first few weeks were pretty hectic.
Where I’ve been
27 days in Busan, South Korea
3 days in Seoul, South Korea
And thats it! I haven’t really done anything crazy this month, as I’m still very much in the setting-up-my-life-here phase of this adventure, attempting to make friends, figure things out, get into a routine, etc. I wish I had more time to travel to other parts of Korea, but I’m hoping to do a lot of that next month. I did manage to take advantage of 3 days off of work for Chuseok (Korean thanksgiving) with a last-minute whirlwind trip to Seoul, and it definitely won’t be my last! Stay tuned for some blog posts about Seoul once I’ve made a few trips and am a little bit more familiar with the city and am more comfortable making recommendations to you all.
Mainly, this month has consisted of simply exploring my new home! My city, Busan, is enormous: home to 4 million people. It takes a few hours to get from one side of the city to the other, and because I work 9 hours a day, exploring is limited to the weekends. This month I’ve done pretty well at managing to see some of the beautiful things Busan has to offer - Gamcheon Culture Village, Haedong Yonggungsa temple, Igidae Coastal Trail, Haeundae and Gwangalli beaches, and Nampo-dong.
I’ve found a church that I’ve gotten connected with, made some friends, met up with old acquaintances, and really just made the most of the limited time I have outside of work!
Highlights
Bumble BFF. Surprisingly, Bumble bff has been my saving grace this month. I don’t live in the most central part of Busan, and because of COVID, bars, nightlife, or even walking tours are closed or not really running at all. There is a limited number of people in the area using the app (like 12) but So far I’ve met up with 4 girls I’ve “matched” with, and I’ve become fast friends with each of them. One girl has introduced me to her Korean friends, and together they’ve showed me all the best shopping, street food, places to go, and tips to make life in Korea a little bit easier. The world is so small, one of the girls even grew up 10 minutes from me back in Richmond! Life constantly surprises me like that. We had fun talking about mutual friends, our neighboring universities, and our shared desire to maybe one day work in foreign service. I can’t wait to meet even more people and really find my group of people here. One girl I met casually mentioned that she was going to be in Seoul for Chuseok, and when I made the last minute decision to do the same, I was able to message her and meet up with her and her friends there! Everything has started working out really well.
Gamcheon Culture Village. Sure, it was a gorgeous explosion of art and color and culture, but what I loved the most of all was that I finally gained the confidence to bring my tripod along with me - and not only bring it but actually set it up and use it to take pictures of myself. I know it might seem vain, but every single place I’ve ever traveled, I’ve regretted not taking more pictures/not having more pictures of myself exploring this beautiful planet. Pictures are so important to me, (I want my kids and grandkids to be able to not only hear my stories but see pictures and be inspired) and there have been so many times where I haven’t gone somewhere or waited and waited for someone to be available to go with me so that I would be able to have pictures. This excursion taught me that I am capable of solo travel, (LOL, as I say from my apartment I live in alone in South Korea) and I am capable of being everything I need. I don’t have too many friends just yet, and I didn’t want to wait until I had one who wanted to go with me - So I did it myself and it was so fun.
Haedong Yonggungsa Temple. It was my first time exploring an East Asian temple - and it definitely won’t be the last. It sits right on the sea, I had good company (thanks to Bumble BFF), good conversation, and good food. It was honestly gorgeous, and the weather was perfect.
Wearing traditional Korean Hanboks at Gyeongbokgung Palace over Chuseok! I met up with a fellow CNU alum for a day while I was in Seoul and we rented Hanboks to visit the palace in. They were masterpieces, and it was an honor to wear them. I wasn’t sure what I was going to do for Chuseok, (Korean Thanksgiving) but everywhere I looked online said that participating in the culture by visiting historical sites and wearing traditional clothes was the best thing to do to partake in the celebration - so we did just that. I chose a dark green, my favorite color, and Clara and I just had so much fun frolicking around!
Lowlights
The first few weeks of work. They were really, really, hard - way harder than I ever thought. I work at a Kindergarten Hagwon, and the hours are 9-6. 9 hours a day working with small children is truly draining, and I didn’t really get breaks throughout the day. The kids don’t quite respect me yet, and the behavior issues are APPALLING. I't’s not so much teaching English as telling kids not to bite each other and that you can’t punch someone in the nose when they say something mean. The good news is that we had another teacher start just last week, and with that comes at least one free period every day - and I’m no longer the newbie! So I think that it will definitely improve.
All the mundane, adulty things I’ve had to figure out (spoiler alert - I still haven’t figured them out because I don’t have an ARC, so thats a big rip). As I said earlier, the logistics side of living by yourself in a foreign country is really, really difficult. I’ve definitely had quite a few break downs when it comes to not having data when trying to find the grocery store - or running out of temporary data when I’m on a hike on the complete other side of town with no clue which bus to get on to get home. I keep having to remind myself that this is only temporary, and that once I’m all set up hopefully everything will be smooth sailing as far as logistics go.
Being lonely! I’ve only been out of quarantine for a few weeks, and I’ve met a few people who seem like they could be really good friends here, but they’re all individuals. I would love to find a solid group of friends that I can go out to dinner with, go on weekend trips with, or even text throughout the day. With the 13 hour time difference, it’s easy to feel isolated, but I’m hoping that as my time here progresses that I find my South Korea GANG. If you’re living in Busan hmu plz
Laughs
Some things the kids say literally make me WHEEZ with laughter. I was grading a diary the other day and someone said, “If I had $100 I would buy Emma teacher to be my mommy.” It came after a really rough day of teaching and just made me laugh! I definitely needed to hear that someone liked me that day. Todays quote was, “Emma teacher, I love you. I want to bake you into a pie and eat you.” Which is just hilarious. These kids really know how to express their feelings (obviously we need to work on it some more though LMAO).
Fitness
What I wasn’t expecting about South Korea was for the gyms to literally cost 100 dollars a month- something I can’t afford as I’m saving up for travel and paying off student loans! I managed to find a “gym” that was less than 30 dollars a month, but it really only has dumbbells, a treadmill, a squat rack, and a bench press. I figured it would be worth it for hitting legs twice a week, which has been going well. I have to ride the bus to this gym, which definitely isn’t ideal, so I haven’t been going for anything other than that. I snagged a yoga mat from Daiso and am doing home workouts on the days I don’t go!
Another thing I wasn’t expecting is the amount of SNACKING that happens when you live alone. It’s like i’m constantly lonely and bored when I get home so I grab a can of pringles to occupy my. It needs to stop LOL. Definitely not my best month but I’m still sorting out my routine and realizing that I need to stop buying cookies and pringles at the store.
Blog
Unfortunately, this wasn’t a great month for the blog! As people are heading into the fall and winter, not a lot of people are searching for any travel tips or city guides - not to mention we are still living in a world where travel is very limited and restricted. I’m hoping that as long as I continue to create content and pin to pinterest that eventually, when people can plan normal vacations and trips again, that all of my posts will be there waiting for them.
My traffic has significantly decreased, which is a bummer. I was hoping to get to 10k pageviews this month so I could be accepted into a smaller ad network so I could idk, pay for my tiny little gym with the money I make from the blog. My goal is to have some form of my blog monetized by next year! I know growing a profitable blog seems like a pipe dream, and it’s definitely way harder and more time consuming than I thought. Every bit of support/pageviews/clickthroughs you all gift me with truly makes my entire day. Everyone believes in me, which makes me cry if I think about it for too long. I want to make them proud!
Conclusion
Moral of the story: This month was a really hard month of growing pains and adjustment, but I’m slowly settling in and finding a groove! I’m hoping that I will be able to make some incredible memories here and figure out some hacks that make living in a different country just a little bit easier. I feel so grateful for this opportunity, travel is my love! BUT. I miss you all to DEATH, and just know that it’s not all sunshine and rainbows like social media sometimes makes it seem. I’m working more than I ever have, doing harder things than ever before, and am all alone (at least physically). I never wanted my social media to be a highlight real, so you guys will always get the truth no matter what.
I love you all!
xoxo,
