After being back in the U.S. for almost a month I decided to write a reflection post on my time in Korea. My grandpa was a huge help to me when writing this post as he encouraged me to write it when I wasn't really feeling like it, but after doing so I'm glad I did. This post is a bit different than my others as my grandpa provided me with questions he had about my time in Korea and I answered them. Thank you Grandpa for all your help!!
Also just a heads up: it's a very long post--sorry!
1. What Korean foods did you really like? Did you buy American food often? What were the costs of food? What foods were expensive? inexpensive? Not available? Available? What foods did you miss?
At first, I was really nervous about the food. I’m not that picky of an eater so I was excited to try new things and experience a huge part of the Korean culture. However, during the two week quarantine I was in when I first arrived in Korea we were served three meals a day and the food they gave us wasn’t my favorite. I immediately started second guessing my decision; how was I going to survive a year here if I didn’t like the food? Thankfully, the food outside of quarantine was 100 times better! I love Korean food and I really miss the intense flavors now that I’m back in the States.
Here are some of my favorite foods:
Bibimbap: rice dish with various meats and veggies
Kimbap: rice, veggies, and meat wrapped in seaweed
Samgyupsal: Korean bbq!
Gukbap: a soup sometimes with beef and either bean sprouts or intestines… I preferred the bean sprouts. “Guk” means soup and “bap” means rice so you added rice to make it more filling
Chicken: I don't know what secret ingredient they use in Korean friend chicken, but it is the best chicken I've ever tasted. Absolutely amazing.
Bingsu: the best Korean dessert! It has a similar texture to shaved ice, but tastes more like ice cream and has fruits like melon, strawberries, and blueberries or chocolate toppings. 맛있어요! Delicious!
If I went out to eat with my friends we typically ate Korean food, but occasionally ate Western food. Western food was a bit more expensive than Korean food, especially Mexican food. Unfortunately, they did not have the unlimited chips and salsa that we’re used to in the U.S. American breakfast food was also pretty expensive. I think I only had pancakes twice in the whole year and it was the most I’d ever spent on pancakes before. I’m pretty sure a breakfast platter, eggs, bacon, and pancakes, was around $20. So, I probably missed Mexican food and breakfast food the most.
Another food that was expensive was fruit. The only fruit that was relatively cheap were bananas and they still cost $3-4 a bunch. Watermelons were the most pricey; at certain times of the year they were around $35-40. I splurged once and bought one for $13. Just yesterday, I was in Walmart and saw a watermelon for $5… I was shocked and relieved to see a watermelon that was inexpensive after so long.
2. How were friends addressed? Their status and protocol?
An interesting part of Korean culture is in regards to age. When speaking Korean you use formal and informal language. Formal language for those older than you and informal for those younger. So the first question many Koreans will ask you is “How old are you?” in order to determine what language to use. My Korean friends told me this greatly impacted their friendships since they could really only speak casually/informally to those who were the same age. This meant they really were only close friends with people born in the same year.
Age also played a role when eating. The youngest person at the table was also in charge of handing out the silverware and drinks and grilling the meat. This all goes to show the importance age plays in Korean culture.
3. What was the advice you received during orientation that was most beneficial? Why?
Some of the advice I remember from my orientation when I arrived in Korea went something like this: “Live like you’re only staying a year, but act as if you’re staying for many years.” What I got from this was to live as if this was the only time I’d be in Korea–travel as much as possible, try all the food, experience new things–while at the same time act as if I were going to stay in Korea for a long time–learn Korean, get involved in the community, make Korean friends. This advice encouraged me to make the most of my time in Korea. I tried to say yes to any opportunity offered to me and build relationships in the Gwangju community. Since I knew I was only going to be there for a year, this advice was the best guide for me on how to live during that year. I truly got the most out of my time there. Really this advice is good for everyone, no matter where you’re living.
4. What were your duties as an English teacher?
As the Guest English Teacher, GET, my duties were much more simpler than my Korean co-teachers’. I was tasked with teaching the speaking section of the English textbook and was able to create a lesson based on the key phrase in that section. Since the goal of the speaking section is to get students talking, I usually played a fun game of some sort with them where each student had to speak. Usually, the students had a lot of fun with these. I didn’t have to grade any papers, but I did have to administer a speaking test at one of my schools.
One of my favorite activities I did with my class was a cultural exchange between my class and my mom's middle school class in the U.S.A. Each class made a video and PowerPoint about school life in their country. My students enjoyed doing this and I'm proud of how hard they worked!
During the spring semester, I also taught an after-school club. This club was unique because I didn’t have a Korean co-teacher. It was just me and five students. We had a lot of fun in this class because I was able to create lessons that were more based on the students’ interests. For instance, we did units on travel, detectives, and games. My favorite part of the after-school club was the scavenger hunt I made. The students had a blast!
My other duties as a GET was to conduct a summer and winter camp during the break. In the past, these camps were held in-person, but COVID made that impossible so we did a Zoom camp. I spoke individually with each student every day of the camp and we talked about a different topic each day. I enjoyed these Zooms because it gave me a chance to get to know more of my students.
In addition to teaching the students I also started a few conversation clubs with some of the teachers at my schools who were interested in practicing their English. I made some of my best memories with these clubs! We’d meet once a week and talk about a different topic. We ended up learning a lot from each other about the other’s culture and it was nice to have friends in the school. All the teachers were so nice and welcoming to me and I’m so grateful to have had such great colleagues.
5. Safety in Korea?
Korea was the safest place I’ve ever traveled to. I never felt unsafe in Korea, which is unusual given it was a different country, I didn’t speak the language, and wasn’t aware of many of the cultural norms. There wasn’t a lot to worry about in Korea; there are no drugs, no guns, and rarely any theft. You could leave your belongings on a table in a crowded cafe and not have to worry about them being stolen. Two of my friends lost their phones and both had them returned to them within a few hours. It’s amazing. You also didn’t have to worry about your safety while walking around at night. As a girl, I always worry about walking alone at night and in Korea that wasn’t as big of an issue. The amount of girls I saw walking around at night on the phones (!?!?) reassured me that I was probably going to be okay. It was also safe enough for kids around five years old to walk by themselves. There were so many little kids just running around on the streets alone and it wasn’t a big deal at all. Everyone was safe.
6. Public transportation in Korea—what was it like? Was it reliable? Did you miss having a car there? Was it expensive? How much did it cost to travel by bus? What were their buses like? Do they have trains?
Public transportation in Korea is amazing! It was incredibly reliable, efficient, and cost-effective. Within Gwangju, I used the buses to get around. I had a bus pass that I could top off whenever it got low. Each bus ride cost around $1 and you could go anywhere in the city. The buses were very clean and safe, although the bus drivers did not mess around. They were pretty crazy drivers.
When I traveled on the weekends I also used buses. These buses took me to different cities and were also reasonably priced. There were different levels of comfort on these buses. The really cheap buses didn’t have as much leg room and the seats weren’t that comfy. The medium buses had comfier seats and much more leg room. And the premium buses…. Wow! They were awesome! You had recliner seats and a curtain so you could have some privacy from your neighbor. You also had a little TV in the seat in front of you and charging stations. It was so nice. The most I ever spent on a bus was around $30-35 on a 3-4 hour bus ride to Seoul on a premium bus. That’s not a bad deal at all.
There is also a good train system in Korea. I didn’t take the trains as much, but each time I did I was impressed. There were basically two types: the bullet train or the slow trains. The bullet train turned that 3-4 hour bus ride to Seoul into a two hour journey. It was a bit more expensive, around $50 maybe, but sometimes it was worth it. The slow train was much slower, but extremely cheap. It was still clean and well-maintained though.
I didn’t really miss having a car that much since I had so many great options for transportation, and I was a bit scared to drive in Korea because everyone always seemed to be going fast. That’s the 빨리 빨리(hurry hurry) culture for you. However, a car would have been really nice to have when I was trying to get to some hiking trails way out of the city. It would’ve saved on a lot of travel time and opened up more hiking options for me.
7. What about teaching during a pandemic (Covid)? What rules, precautions did they have? Did you get Covid? How was it? Did you have to quarantine? How long? How did the rules, precautions change during the year? Did you teach via Zoom?
When I went to Korea in August of 2021, Covid in the U.S. was not as serious as it had been, or at least that’s what it felt like. At that point I think you had to wear a mask in schools and hospitals and maybe a few other places, but other than that it seemed people were starting to live their lives normally again. It was the complete opposite in Korea. When you entered the country you had to take a Covid test before leaving, one on arrival and on before you left quarantine. I went through a two week quarantine in Seoul before being allowed to go to Gwangju.
For the majority of the year we had to wear masks everywhere, even outdoors. It wasn’t until the end of May when they lifted the outdoor mask mandate, but even then most Koreans still wore their masks. When I arrived, there were different levels of Covid rules depending on the city you were in and how many people had Covid. The different levels dictated the curfew and what businesses were open. At first, in Gwangju the curfew was around 11 p.m. so that’s when all the bars and restaurants closed. However, at one point in the year towards February when the Covid numbers greatly increased the curfew was lowered to 9 p.m.
You also had to sign in to each place you went to by writing your name and phone number or by scanning a QR code. This was to help with contact tracing. If you didn’t have a QR code you were turned away from some places.
In school, we wore masks all year and had plastic dividers at lunch. Schools had more Covid rules during the first half of the year. The students had to sit apart from each other rather than in groups and if enough students in one class had Covid at the same time, the entire class had to quarantine. I had to teach a few classes via Zoom and it wasn’t fun, especially when I was teaching my really shy classes. They weren’t eager to speak up in class, so on Zoom they were practically silent.
I ended up getting Covid during the second semester and luckily at that time the quarantine was only a week. Easy compared to that first two week quarantine in Seoul.
8. Who found your apartment? Did you have a choice? How big was it? Was there a tub or shower? Was it all together? How was the apartment heated? Cooled? Did you have to pay for utilities?
The great thing about the English Program in Korea (EPIK) is that they find and pay for your accommodations. After your first year of teaching you can decide to stay in the same apartment or take the housing allowance they offer (around $350) and find your own.
I lucked out on my apartment. Instead of the one room apartments that are common in Korea, I got a two room apartment! This meant that I had a separate room for the bedroom and a whole room for the kitchen. Most studio/one-person apartments in Korea are only one room that serves as the bedroom/living room/dining room and then a teeny tiny kitchen area.
EPIK also provides minimal furniture along with whatever the last teacher left behind. Aside from the bed, table, chair, wardrobe, and TV that EPIK provided, the previous teacher left me a couch, footrest, nightstand, clothing rack, and most importantly, a microwave! These made it so much easier to get adjusted to my new apartment and saved me a lot of money.
One of the interesting things about my apartment was the bathroom. In Korea it’s common for the bathroom to be a wet room which means there is no divider for the shower and everything, towels, toilet paper, clothes, gets wet. The shower head was hooked up to the wall next to or above the sink in some cases and you turned the nozzle on the sink to switch the water flow from the shower and the sink. This caused some funny incidents involving accidentally spraying yourself in the face when you forgot to flip it back to the sink after you showered.
Although the rent was paid by EPIK, I had to pay for utilities. Fortunately, utilities are very cheap in Korea. I think the highest bill I paid for heating in the winter was around $30. The heating and cooling systems were also unique. I only had one air conditioning unit in my bedroom, but luckily my room had two big windows which helped cool the apartment down a lot. The heating system was called ondol heating and it would heat the floors throughout the whole apartment. It would get toasty very quickly and I never left it on throughout the whole night because it would get too hot.
9. What was the weather like?
The weather was almost the same as it is in Missouri, although when I compared the two it seemed as if Missouri was always a little hotter or colder. The humidity was about the same though so I was prepared for the hot, humid Korean summers. My co-teachers were worried about my dad and sister not enjoying their trip to Korea at the end of July because it would be too hot, but I told them they loved it because it was actually a bit cooler than in Missouri.
In the summer there is monsoon season where it’s a bit more rainy. I remember it rained a lot during that first August I was there, but actually didn’t rain too much during the summer of 2022. My co-teachers mentioned how this was a concern for the farmers since they needed the rain for their crops.
In the spring Korea has a fine dust season where the pollution gets extremely bad and the air quality is poor. Some days I couldn’t even make out buildings in the distance because the air was so bad. I always wore my masks these days because without it would hurt your lungs and throat. It was also rare to see an extremely blue sky because the pollution was bad. Now every time I see a blue sky in the States, I feel more grateful; I’d been taking our blue skies for granted before.
10. You attended a Korean wedding ceremony. What was it like? What struck you about the venue? The ceremony?
I was fortunate enough to attend the wedding of one of my colleagues in my English conversation club. She invited me and the rest of the conversation club to come to her wedding and she was especially excited for me to see a Korean wedding. Most Korean weddings are held at wedding halls. These halls probably host around 20-50, if not more, weddings a day. Not only do they have the actual wedding space, they also have the wedding dresses, decorations, and buffet all there too! It’s like a one stop wedding shop.
I arrived at the wedding hall with the other conversation club teacher and thankfully she knew exactly where to go, because that place was huge! We looked at the board to see which room the wedding would be held in. We got there about an hour early so when we entered the lobby area of that room, another wedding was going on. We even walked into that wedding and stood in the back for a while to watch.
Basically, the room layout was like this: you entered a lobby area where there were pictures of the bride and groom whose wedding would take place next and an area where you gave your money gift to the couple. Once you gave your gift, you received a buffet ticket so you could eat before or after the wedding. There were two other rooms past the lobby. One was the photo room. The bride and groom took pictures with each other as well as their guests there. The second room was where the wedding ceremony took place. It had a long aisle that led to a stage and there were tables and chairs on either side of it for people to sit. There were chandeliers and gorgeous flowers around the stage. It was the most elegant, beautifully decorated wedding I’ve ever seen. It looked like something straight from a fairy tale.
We took pictures with our friend, the bride, and then headed downstairs with some other teachers to get some food before the wedding. At this point, it was only twenty minutes before the ceremony so I was a bit worried about making it in time, but no one else seemed concerned. The buffet was extremely good and had every food imaginable. But after one plate, I looked at my watch and saw that the wedding was already starting! My friend and I went back upstairs to watch the wedding, but the other teachers stayed and ate. I don’t think they even saw the wedding at all. Afterwards they told me that the bride and groom want their guests to enjoy the food so it’s important for them to eat well.
We were about ten minutes late to the ceremony and it probably only lasted 15-20 minutes longer so I’m glad we got there when we did. The only people on the altar were the bride, groom, and both of their parents. They took turns bowing to each set of parents and then they sang a song together. My friend is a music teacher so her voice is stunning and her husband’s wasn’t bad either. In Korean weddings it’s common for the bride and groom or a friend to do a performance of some sort. Although I missed half of it, the ceremony was beautiful. Afterwards, everyone gathered for pictures with the newlyweds and then that was it. The whole thing, including driving there and back, lasted maybe two hours. The fastest wedding I’ve ever been to.
11.Summary of last month in Korea and her trip back to the U.S.
My last month in Korea was filled with fun and bittersweet moments. I went on a solo week trip along the east coast of Korea where I went to Wonju, Donghae, Gangneung and finally met up with some friends in Yangyang. Traveling alone up the east coast was a cool full circle moment for me that showed me just how much confidence I’d gained in the past year. It was also filled with some truly beautiful places that I’m thankful to have explored.
Some other highlights included a taking a ferry to Oedo Botanical Garden, my last KIA baseball game (and the first time I saw them win), karaoke nights, and a great surprise goodbye picnic with all my friends. I’m so thankful to all my friends, co-workers, and everyone I met in Korea; they made my year one of the best ones yet.
On my way home from Korea I decided to stopover in Europe since it was halfway to the U.S. I spent two weeks in Europe. The first week I visited Hungary, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic and then visited my sister in Spain during the second week. I’d never been to Hungary, Slovakia, or the Czech Republic and had heard good things about each. I’d been to Barcelona, but had always wanted to return to Spain since it seemed to have so many amazing places to visit.
I took two flights to get to Budapest and my total travel time was about 25 hours due to layovers. When I arrived I was exhausted, but excited to be in a new country and pleasantly surprised/shocked when I realized no one was wearing a mask. After a year spent constantly wearing masks, it was weird to see people’s faces again. That night I made myself stay up until 8 p.m. to watch the lights go on in the Parliament building before going to bed early. Some of the highlights of Budapest included the Parliament building, Fisherman’s Bastion, Matthias Church , and Széchenyi Thermal Baths. I went on a few walking tours and met a group of really cool travelers from all over the world. I ended up sightseeing with them for the rest of my time there and it was fun to travel with people.
In Slovakia I stayed in Bratislava. Bratislava was very small compared to Budapest, but it was a good change of pace. It had a really cute city center and there was a traditional arts festival the weekend I was there so I enjoyed wandering around that. The highlights of Bratislava were the Bratislava castle, the historic center, and St. Martin’s Cathedral. I also met a nice group of Danish and Dutch travelers to get dinner and drinks with. It was funny because traveling solo wasn’t as lonely as I thought it would be.
Prague was one of my favorite European cities because it was so beautiful! It looked like a fairy tale village, especially the side of the river with the castle. It was stunning. I went on a few tours and learned a lot about the history of Czech Republic. Some of the stories that stood out to me from the tours involved people being thrown out of windows…apparently this happened a lot in the Czech Republic. An unexpected highlight I had in Prague was stumbling upon a pottery festival that had live music. I stayed and watched this band play for an hour. I kept telling myself I’d leave after the next song, but then couldn’t pull myself away. It was so fun!
My next week was spent in Spain. I took a flight from Prague to Madrid and met Sarah at the airport. To get to the other European countries, I’d taken buses so a plane was a good change. Sarah was an excellent tour guide around Madrid even though she’d only been there about a week before I arrived. We visited all the sites around the center of Madrid and then she showed me the area where she was living. I liked that area a bit better because it was a little quieter than the center, but all of Madrid was beautiful.
The second Spanish city we traveled to was Seville. We went by bullet train and it took about 2.5 hours. This was the most beautiful city I’ve seen in Spain so far. It was a much smaller city than Madrid, but its buildings were more elegant and beautiful, especially the Plaza de España and the Catedral de Seville. We spent two nights here and enjoyed exploring the city.
On my last full day in Spain, we took a three hour bus from Seville to Granada. There we went to the Alhambra, one of the most well-preserved Islamic palace complexes in the world. It was first mentioned in historical documents in the 9th century which goes to show how amazingly well-maintained this site is. It was a huge complex and we were able to see most of it, but I would love to go back one day and get a tour to better understand the history of it. It was one of the most stunning places I’ve ever been; the incredible detail on the buildings was amazing. It was my favorite place to visit in Spain.
Although I was sad to leave Europe and end my travels, I was happy to be going home. Traveling without a home base is exhausting and I missed my family, boyfriend, and friends. It was great to see them again when I finally came back to the States.
Overall, my year in Korea was a great one. I met so many amazing people who will be a part of my life forever and had so many great experiences I’ll never forget. I also enjoyed my solo trip in Europe and proved to myself that I can go on adventures alone which gave me a lot of confidence. I feel lucky and grateful to have had these opportunities and thank you to everyone who's helped me along the way.
And special thanks to my grandpa for encouraging me to write this final reflection post. I needed to do this to wrap up my blog and you made it easy by providing questions I could answer. Thank you:)
And thank you to everyone for following along with my journey! I enjoyed writing it and hope you enjoyed reading!
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