Neon Churches & 31 Flavors

Living in Seoulitude
One year Texas, the next South Korea. Unlikely as it may seem, my experience in Texas has truly prepared me for my new life in the Orient. It was just a stepping stone into an even more confusing world...that world being Namyangju, South Korea (45 minutes outside of Seoul). Though I knew that I would be living alone, I had no idea that I would be about an hour's bus ride from any other people in my program. I discovered this information while I was in a smokey PC Baang (similar to an internet cafe) when a chubby Korean boy took a break from playing StarCraft (Korean's new national sport) to show me on the map where I was located. He looked a bit terrified when the tears started rolling BUT! Things are on the up and up!


Mime Fest
There have been so many times during the past year when I have exclaimed to others that "I need to figure out my LIFE!" None of those instances compare to this experience. The biggest challenge is that people here really don't know any English. As an English teacher, I feel like my presence is desperately needed. I'm learning Korean as fast as possible which has been incentivised by the fact that anything I say to my Korean friends in Korean is greeted with clapping and cheers. I'm fairly certain that I am the only white person in my city, so when I am walking down the street, I am constantly greeted with "Hello!"s (the only word Koreans seem to know) followed by a barrel of giggles.

Neon Churches & 31 Flavors
Now that I am coming to figure out how to survive in this little land, I've started to appreciate how hilarious and jam packed full of intrigue Korea is. I was reminded of a time when I was standing in the city center of Stockholm when I could see five H&Ms from my vantage point. The same thing happened to me here except it was glowing red neon church steeples. There are big differences, like the food (bibimbap, raw cuttlefish, live octopus, kimchi, kimchi, kimchi), but the little differences are fun to pick out (there's shampoo that "prevents hair fall," the electric current is so powerful my phone charges in 10 minutes, they take your heart rate by putting clamps on your wrists and ankles and putting suction cups all over your breasts, school is delayed for a typhoon, you smile "kimchi" when you take a picture, all of the face wash has bleach in it, most kids are adorned with Mickey Mouse but not one of them can name a Disney movie, all Korean women are on diets, they think taking birth control makes you want to steal). There is one important thing that is the same as in the states and that's Baskin Robbins 31 Flavors...badda bing badda boom!