I made it! I’ve officially been in South Korea for 3 weeks now. My first week was spent in quarantine out in Incheon. We’re going to skip over that for now and jump to the 2 weeks I’ve spent in Seoul.
My first term of classes (10 weeks) I’m staying with a homestay family here in Seoul. There are a lot of housing options, but I thought a homestay would be a really unique opportunity. I was certainly nervous about it - meeting the family, not knowing what to expect, hoping we’d get a long well. I was hoping that it would provide me with a chance to learn more about Korean culture first hand, practice my Korean, and make some new friends. So far, my homestay has turned out better than I could have imagined! Especially considering I didn’t know my location until 2 days before I left quarantine!
My Korean parents are a bit older than my parents and live in the Gwanaksan region. They’re an amazing couple. They’ve travelled all over the world, hosted students in their home since 2014, and are currently preparing for a circumnavigation of 3 mountain peaks in the Himilayas later this year. In fact the first week I met them they left me home alone for a few days while they traveled to Jeju to hike Hallasan. So far they’ve taken me hiking, showed me around the area, cooked me some amazing Korean meals, practiced Korean with me (a lot!) checked my homework. My favorite story is when I went to get my T-Money card for the Seoul Transit System. The Kims know I’m ARMY (the BTS fandom) and so when we went out to the health center and Mr. Kim was giving me a tour, we stopped at the convenience store to get me a T-Money Card. He asked the employee for their BTS cards for me to pick from :) It was such a kind thing to do and just made my day. So that’s how I ended up with an RM T-Money Card!
Last week was the first week of school. It’s been so long since I’ve had a first day of school. 6 years this spring since I graduated college. And going to class when you only speak a tiny bit of the language… I was a bit nervous. So far so good though! I’m a little less nervous each time I go. I’m the only native english speaker in my class, which to me is great, because it forces me to practice my Korean even more to converse with my classmates.
The first couple days I didn’t talk to anyone much. But I’ve now made friends with some of the other students who have been very ffriendly and outgoing and it makes me so relieved and happy to go to class now, knowing I have friends to talk to between breaks or go hang out with after.
Friday night after class a few of us went out for Korean BBQ in Wangshimi and it was a blast! Our only common language (these students/friends are Japanese) is Korean so we got lots of extra practice in that night! We giggled as we kept using the terms or phrases or grammar points we’d learned in class that week :)
We even met up again last night to listen to the BTS concert outside Olympic Stadium and got chimek afterwards - beer and chicken.
For me, socially the last 6 years since college have really been a struggle. Particularly the last two during the pandemic. I had a hard time making friends in college already. I only have one friend from college I consistently keep in touch with. Moving to Detroit was hard after that. I kind of had a bit of community at a Krav Maga gym I went to but when I moved further away from the gym I lost those ties. Work was a hard place to make friends - not a lot of people my age to go socialize with outside of working hours. And then my one good friend moved to Texas during the pandemic. My saving grace during the pandemic - finding ARMY, specifically on the Bangtan Academy Discord Server. My friends there - I don’t know what I would have done with out them.
So being here in Seoul now, making new friends in class, connecting with other friends from work or friends of friends, making friends with my fellow homestay students and random people in dance class, I’m so so grateful. It’s making my start to tear up a bit. After being so lonely for quite a while, I’m so happy to be able to go out and experience things together, make memories together. That’s by far been the best thing about Seoul so far.
So here’s to many more adventures, many more memories!
