South Korea

I‘m back!

 In a couple of days, it will be exactly two months since I came to Korea. If you are wondering how I have been doing, I have been doing great! I feel at home here and I still don't miss Lithuania. However, there were up and down days, but it is a normal thing. Life cannot go perfectly fine no matter where you are, right? I thought about writing this blog post for over a month already, but I never had such a strong urge to do so, until just couple of seconds ago, when I saw a cute monk running pass me with a warmhearted smile, inspiration hit me. It sounds crazy I know, never said that I was normal to begin with.

 Over the past two months, I experienced several amazing things as well as just slept throughout sunny days, for which I resent myself but at the same time tried to comfort myself by telling myself ‘If not now then when?’. It’s true though, because once this end, I will go back to a place called reality.

 I came to Korea almost two weeks before my semester started, during those couple of weeks, I went around Seoul, met friends whom I met in VMU (I promised to mention one name, since he asked for it, and that is Jong Won a.k.a Jay) and haven’t seen for over a year or even more; Also met one friend for the first time in real life. While I was staying in my friend’s place, I experienced how Korean moms are around their children and I felt like I got Korean mom as well. One morning I woke up to an empty house, but I found breakfast with a cute note on the dining table. It’s hard to explain the over-warming feeling I felt. 

 Even up to this day I’m so grateful to have such amazing people around me. From the very first day in Korea, I had the best support and guides around me. I started my exchange life perfectly all thanks to them. Love you guys!

 During those couple of months, I visited mainstream streets in Seoul, like Hongdae, Gangnam and some traditional places. Had lots of fun in there. Ended up being on YouTube as well...  I loved the trip to Suwon, I slept only couple of hours the night before but I wasn’t tired at all! Weather was amazing, and company was just perfect! There was one street which was basically empty and for the first time in ages I was afraid to speak loudly on a street… That was funny… Of course, that day wouldn’t have been that amazing if not for one person who was a perfect guide!

 Fun fact: Although I have went to a fair shear of places, I still haven’t gone to Itaewon (I don’t count 1 hour spend in a club) the most popular street among foreigners. I will go there, don’t know when but I will. That’s right, after 4 days in Korea I already went to another side of Korea for a short trip, which was amazing. All thanks to my friends, once again! I went to Southeastern part of Korea, a second biggest city in Korea, called Busan. It’s not as crowded as Seoul, people are friendly, I love Busan dialect, really!! Planning to go back again, next month. I loved it there, so much, that in fact I didn’t want to go back to Seoul…

 However, I did come back, and I met my Italian roommate for the first time. She was worried as hell and when she saw my face for the first time, she looked like a lost deer, because I left for Busan after leaving my things in a room after checking in; She came the following day and I spend 3 days in Busan. So, you can imagine what one can think, when the person who left its things doesn’t show up for the night and entire following day. And Italians wouldn’t be Italians if they wouldn’t let their close ones know what is happening in their life’s. Apparently, her family, friends and everyone around her were worried about me. She’s awesome really, I love her even though she abuses my cheeks every moment she has, it’s fine, I’m totally cool with that, it’s not like I haven’t been through it before… Almost several years of experience I might say… (Thanks guys)

 Also, just last week I went hiking for the first time in my life it was a bit tiring but I enjoyed it a lot. I think I will do it again. The view is definitely worth all the struggle! I also went to amusement park and rode roller coasters for the first time in my life, it was super fun, Due to the lack of time, I couldn’t ride a lot of them but at least I took the, so called, scariest one… Not going to lie… Going on a wooden roller coaster it’s quite scary… I also visited protestant church several times and people over there are super sweet and nice!

 Ah right, I’m taking intensive Korean language class. I’m the only westerner among a class full of Vietnamese and Chinese. It’s pretty nice, I like them, we laugh a lot, like seriously a lot. Probably that's the fun part of learning new languages, you're not alone in this when you mess up. And if you tall nonsense there's a high possibility that someone will still understand you. They can’t speak English nor perfect Korean but that’s cool because we are learning Korean and it’s the only way we can communicate; It’s cute how they try to speak English with me just for fun and it’s funny how they say the F word even though they don’t know how to use it properly. I’m learning about Chinese and Vietnamese cultures and language, but what I like the most is that I don’t feel an outcast there, we talk in Korean majority of the time! So far so good. I like my classmates but I do hate waking up five days a week at 8 AM.. and doing homework every single day… It’s my fault anyways... I’m still enjoying it. Also, I have noticed that nowadays I’m using a mix of English and Korean… Is it a good sign, who knows?

 So, how is South Korea? I think this question should be asked to someone who doesn’t know much about Korea. Or didn’t know much about Korea before coming here. But there is one thing that I noticed on my first day in here was, the lack of trash cans/bins on the streets; You have to either go to a street food stall to ask someone to take your trash or just find a random spot filled with trashes; And when I said random, that means random; They make trash cans out of nothing…That’s me ranting about the lack of trash cans in public places, way to go Ema… Nothing too interesting right? It’s because I don’t know what to tell you guys… I can tell you a general information about a country I am in, but that’s about it.. Unless you have specific things, you want to know… Oh, and if you’re still wondering what I am doing here, let me tell you; I’m an exchange student in here. Studying in Dongguk University which is Buddhist University located in the center of Seoul. I see monks every day, that should explain why I saw that monk, who gave me inspiration, earlier today, I also have a temple in my campus, pretty dope, right?

 Okay, general information: South Korea, it is a small country (peninsula) located in East Asia and is surrounded by China, Japan and North Korea. It has been under Japanese occupation for decades like Lithuania under Russian. After Korean War, which ended up dividing Korea into two, South and North; Korea was left with basically nothing and in less than half a century, South Korea is now a place which is well known for its strong economy and never-ending growth. Interesting fact: Korea is 30% bigger than Lithuania but 70% of the land is covered by mountains. So, if you have seen couple of my photos, you can see that it’s a tight place filled with huge buildings and not a lot of free land. (P.S. SAMSUNG and LG are S. Korean brands.)

 What about culture and people? I don’t know what to say about it…

• People are people, same as You and Me.
• Culture… Well… They are crazy drivers, so you must watch your back everywhere you go and if you’re travelling to another city, seat-belt is a must, really!
• They have super cute mini wan's.
• Their delivery culture is the best! You can see them every minute and traffic lights doesn’t exist to them. Watch your back, you might get killed by them as well.
• It’s a hassle finding an ATM for foreigners, if you want to windrow cash, but it’s nice that you can pay by card almost everywhere.
• Metro is easy to use and it’s very fast.
• Bus is a pain in the ass to take.
• The most common and annoying thing that I get asked by Lithuanians and not only them, is, ‘Isn’t Korean difficult to learn? / Doesn’t it sound weird to you?’ So, to make things clear. It sounds normal to me since I’m accustomed to it. Is it difficult to learn it? All languages are difficult to learn, duhhh!
• Guys self-care it’s a huge thing here. 
• Guys wearing make up is not something abnormal. It is also a common thing to see guys faces on commercials, promoting cosmetic brands. No joke, guys look better than girls most of the time, I also mean their fashion sense is much better, usually.
• Koreans are all about food, their food is amazing, shame on you if you can’t eat spicy food or meat, you miss out a lot. And if you’re meeting Korean friends, make a list of foods that you want to eat, they will ask you, “What do you want to eat?” and they will keep on asking you that… FOOD IS IMPORTANT TO THEM, OKAY?
• The way they count age is also different, I’m 23 in Korea. Oh, and the question “How old are you? /What is your age?” will be the first thing you will be asked off, I’m 99% sure of that. Only then it will follow “Where are you from?”, “What is your name?” and so on.
• They don’t have salty food… It’s either spicy or sweet, there’s no in between.
• Friend chicken is the best!!!
• Grocery shopping is expensive… Especially fruits and vegetables…

 I think this will be it from me… I’m currently facing midterm season so, not going to go anywhere even though I might have time... I will just sleep throughout couple of days so that my midterms would come and pass quickly, after all, sleep is the best medicine, right?

 In the mean time if you have some questions about Korea or something else that you might want to know, do tell me! I will answer them, I can even do a separate blog about it. So feel free to leave comments.