SOUTH KOREA
These accounts are works in progress and subject to change as new memories come to the forefront. Check back for updates as you please. Last updated March 5, 2024.Imagine it’s your Junior year of college and one of your best friends is off to South Korea for the semester. The only obvious decision is to go visit. In retrospect it’s astonishing, yes astonishing, that my mother allowed me to go quite literally across the world with my other best friend, Caitlin, who had never traveled alone. It’s funny how naive you are in college, but swear you know everything. It’s been eight years since our trip as I write this in 2024, so forgive me if the details are a little blurry.
What I do remember so vividly is sitting in the kitchen of Caitlin’s college apartment in Gainesville. “Omg, are we seriously going to do this?!”, we stared at the $1,300ish price tag of our roundtrip ticket to Seoul, South Korea. I called my mom no less than four times to confirm I had the credit card and code numbers right since she was helping pay for some of this as a “gift”. My mom is and has always been so generous to me, for no reason other than being my mom. Memories like this only confirm I want to be more and more like her when I grow up. So, the time came. We clicked confirm and officially booked our roundtrip flight. A few months later we found ourselves in Miami International Airport, a place I don’t wish upon anyone, and we were off. We flew the airline Finnair which is its own unique memory in and of itself. The whole flight crew was tall, blonde hair, and blue eyes and our first stop was Helsinki. Yes, we flew the less efficient route but we didn’t care. Cait and I were no doubt the giddiest people on the plane. Every time they fed us a meal or snack, which felt like every hour on the hour, our eyes widened and we couldn’t contain our excitement and curiosity of what the next treat would be. To this day nothing has changed.
I’ll admit, when it comes to logistics and planning I tend to take a backseat. I’ve gotten way better, but in college? If Caitlin was involved I knew I’d be okay because she knew everything that needed to be done (and still does). I couldn’t tell you how we we managed to get from the airport to our AirBnB but because I was with Caitlin, I just knew it would get figured out. Thank you, Cait, for carrying me on your back, always. So, a critical detail to consider is that for some reason I was convinced everyone in Seoul spoke English. Talk about a jump scare when we get into a taxi and genuinely could not communicate with the driver, in a huge city, across the world, and every street just happens to look the same. Truly by the grace of God we made it our AirBnB. At $26 a night for our room, we were not expecting much. And it met our exact expectations. For about two weeks we were to sleep on the type of mat they give you in kindergarten for your daily 30-minute nap. Thankfully one of my strong suits is being the heaviest sleeper across any and all environments, so I gave Cait the mat with an extra two centimeters of thickness.
After about 24 hours of travel, we really had delusional confidence that we would make it out after a quick nap to meet up with Morae. We slept somewhere between 3-4 hours and totally missed the plans. Instead we awoke to the exciting news that I had lost my passport. I can clearly recall looking in the front pocket of my NorthFace backpack to find an empty said pocket. My stomach still drops when I think about it. I had two options, text my mom immediately…or text my mom immediately. She of course thought I was kidding, but as soon as she realized this was no joke my passport was reported stolen and I had an appointment with the Embassy in Seoul a couple of days before heading back to the US. Amidst the chaos, I had let the AirBnB host know the situation. She was so kind to contact every train station, police station, and public institution she could think of to see if they had come across it. Nine days later, and the day before my 21st birthday, our host received a call that the passport had been located and could be picked up that afternoon. I truly cannot make this up. At the determined time Caitlin and I set off to the Hongdae Tourist Police Unit. When I walked in, no questions were asked and I was handed back my Catcher in the Rye book which held my passport as its bookmark. Right where I left it. Let me be the example and demonstrate the tough way to learn that important documents are not good bookmarks.
Thankfully this crisis didn’t take away from the adventures we filled our days with in between getting my passport back and going to the embassy. I have so many takeaways from the trip and South Korean culture, but the ones that stick out are:
South Korea is incredibly clean and incredible safe - If you have trash, you’re going to have to wait a while to find a trash and when you do, there will be five different types of trash cans for any type of trash. Also, don’t even think of throwing it on the perfectly swept floor. On one of the few nights we got home in the early morning, we literally saw old ladies sweeping the floor. Imagine if we cared that much in the US. If I run for office we are mandating communal road sweeps. And for that reason,I’ll never win.
South Koreans are the most loyal people - I believe my passport story says it all
Their walking culture is unparalleled - I remember one of our day trips was to N Seoul Tower. Cait and I took the long way up only to realize we were being out walked by several groups of elderly people. And I mean this was the original 12-3-30. Straight incline, no breaks, and they were booking it. I don’t know if this trip is where I caught walking-itis but in my book, any distance is walking distance.
Matching is cool - Matching outfits, t-shirts, hairstyles, etc. Matching is a mindset.
Churros and Baskin Robins are on every street corner. I don’t know what this says about them as a society, but this has stuck with me.
Must Do’s
To be expanded onKorean Spa
Restaurants
Busan
Karaoke
Street Food
