Living the Daydream: Months 11, 12, and 13
And just like that, I’ve completed my teaching contract in South Korea! The time really has flown; this summer feels like it never even happened. This summer has been hard and stressful, fun and full of adventure, and very sad as well. Let’s just jump right into it.
Where I’ve been:
3 months in Busan: more hard work and sad goodbyes, but also good days on the beach and lots of boat parties
3 days in Namhae and Boseong: an unfortunate rainy weekend, but redeemed thanks to some LUSH green tea fields
1 day in Gyeongju: a spontaneous road trip to a secluded mountain temple
2 days in Daegu: a fabulous coincidental meetup of all my friends from all over Korea
2 days in Pohang: a horrific hotel stay with amazing friends
9 days in Vietnam: a whirlwhind that consisted of:
3 days in Hoi An
2 days in Da Nang
2 days in Hanoi
2 days in Ha long bay
This is a considerable step up from what I’ve been doing, My school finally gave me 5 days of summer break so I took full advantage of it, bookended it with weekends, planned it around a public holiday that fell on a Friday and took off to Vietnam for a little break from Korea. I’m hoping to do monthly recaps each month instead of quarterly for the next three months as I’ll be starting my Southeast Asia backpacking trip on September 2nd! I’m super excited and can’t wait, but definitely wanted to crank out one final monthly recap while I’m still in Korea (!!!) This very well might be the last post I file under “Korea” in my blog categories, which is an insane thought to have.
Highlights
Boseong Green Tea Fields
I swear - every single month in South Korea has something new to offer, and in June, we made the trek over to Boseong to see the iconic green tea fields that are in season every summer. We’ve all seen the iconic rice fields in Bali, but Boseong was definitely giving off those vibes as well. I went with my three best friends - it was the last trip that we were all able to take together - and it was so much fun! The rest of the trip got rained out, but we had gorgeous weather for Boseong and we made the most of it traipsing through all the different terraces.
We feasted on green tea churros, green tea ice cream, matcha espressos, and bought way too many souvenirs. Green is also my favorite color, so I just couldn’t shut up about how beautiful everything was!
My first hotel collaboration!
This was such an exciting moment for me! I reached out to Hotel 1 in Busan on a whim, and they actually responded! My best friend Victoria and I were able to spend a night in the corner penthouse, and it was one of the most incredible hotel experiences I’ve ever had. We had so much fun taking photos all over the property, watching the Gwangalli Beach drone show out of the incredible floor to ceiling windows, and watching the sun rise from our bed.
It was a really valuable experience for Emma’s Daydream as well, as now I have examples of past work to show other brands that could potentially want to work together in the future. I’ve actually used the statistics from this collaboration to pitch a few more experiences, and I’m so happy to say that I’ve had some success with those companies as well! Stay tuned for some very cool experiences during my upcoming travels that will actually be sponsored/collaborations:) I can’t wait, and hopefully this is the first of many.
Lots of yacht parties
All through the winter, my entire mantra was: “This summer we’re gonna be on a boat” - and I really think I manifested it LOL. We went on loads of yacht parties in Busan, but also a night cruise in Pohang! We spent our Saturdays dancing on boats in Gwangalli Bay, swimming in the pacific, and going for barbecue afterwards; it could not have been a better use of our weekends. I made so many friends, and it was definitely a highlight of the summer!
When I go back home, I won’t have super easy access to the beach, so I really wanted to make sure that I made the most of this summer while I still was living a 15 minute walk from one of the best beaches Korea has to offer.
My sweetie-pie kiddos
Even though work has been rough these last few weeks (see the lowlights for more tea), my kids at work have genuinely become the lights of my life. Knowing that I was leaving at the end of august, I’ve just been showered in the cutest little cards, tiny gifts, and hugs. They keep asking me to stay, and it really breaks my heart to leave the kids that I’ve spent literally 45 hours a week for the last year with.
They’ve made this experience so worth it though, and I don’t think I’ll ever forget any one of them. As my time in Korea came to a close, I really treasured every little hand-hold, every time they would grab my legs and not let go, and every hand kiss they would give me (bc that was what was at mouth level for them haha)! Never again will an entire group of 48 kids all call me mom, and that’s a type of love I’ll remember forever.
Halong Bay with the Italians
When I was in Vietnam, I had the absolute PLEASURE of being on a Halong Bay overnight cruise with 16 Italians. It was just my Victoria and I - the two little American girls - and 16 loud, boisterous Italians and it was the highlight of the entire trip. They made such an effort to include us in their group, even splitting up the group so that we could each double kayak with one of them instead of each other to help us make friends. We kayaked, swam, and hiked together, but when we got back to the boat was when the real fun started.
We had a cooking class and dinner, and watched the most incredible sunset. We had a hilarious time failing at squid fishing, and then the party showed up when we got ahold of a microphone, a speaker, and a disco ball, as we proceeded to dance and sing (Italian) karaoke until the other boats were flashing morse code at us asking us to respectfully please cut it out.
At one point I was being thrown up in the air, Victoria and I learned how to bachata, the disco ball was going, I have an entire Italian playlist on my phone courtesy of Stefano and Marco, and we couldn’t stop laughing and looking at each other and saying “How is this day even real??”
It’s hard to explain just how fun and memorable this weekend was; I guess it’s just a “you had to be there” kind of moment. But when I go back and try to think of the best days of my life, this one is definitely top 5. It was perfect in every way.
Getting out of South Korea for a week
As much as I love South Korea as a country, sometimes you just need a breath of air. Initially, I came to Korea for the opportunity to explore more of Asia, and while I’ve been able to do just about everything Korea has to offer, because of COVID I haven’t been able to travel out of the country until now. Also, it can be really easy to focus on the negative aspects of a country when it’s become your every day life, so it’s important to leave so that you can renew your energy and remember all the things you love about it.
Sidebar - I feel the same way about America! After living in South Korea for over a year, I genuinely cannot wait to get back to America, which isn’t how I thought I’d feel! There are so many amazing things about life there that it took moving to Korea to realize, so this isn’t me being overly negative, just honest!
Anyways, the 10 days we spent in Vietnam were amazing. The first thing we noticed was how nice the people there are. In Korea, everyone keeps to themselves, but we were having conversations with our waiters, people were very kind in helping us with directions, and people actually smiled at you on the street! It was such a nice switch up.
We ate our weight in pho, dumplings, coconut coffee, banana pancakes, and spring rolls, and we made some really amazing friends in the hostels we were staying in. It was the first Sunday in a long time where I didn’t feel the dread of an impending 45 hour work week looming over me, and it was so much fun experiencing travel again.
And it reminded me of all the things I love about South Korea! We came back to the airport and had no trouble finding a convenience store (something that proved quite difficult in Vietnam), everywhere had air conditioning, and cards as a form of payment is widely accepted. Little things we sometimes take for granted, but that’s the thing I love about travel - the perspective that it offers.
Lowlights
Saying goodbye to Joy
Obviously anytime a friend moves, you treat it like a tragedy. But when you live in Korea and have been lucky enough to find 2 true and amazing incredible soulmates that you believe was the entire reason for you coming to South Korea - and one of them leaves - it’s just devastating. The three of us, Joy, Victoria, and I, have been through an insane amount of trials together, and the only way we’ve made it out alive is by being there for one another. This past year in Korea has been super hard on all three of us, with lots of obstacles we’ve had to overcome that will never be written on the internet, but we made it through!
To celebrate, we threw her an early birthday party, got all dressed up, and spent the entire weekend with her, up until she got in a taxi to the airport. Can’t wait to see you soon Joy, I miss you so much!
Stressful situations in Vietnam
Vietnam, while it was amazing and so so much fun, was a little bit of a disaster. Most of it was super comical, which you can read about down below in the LOL section of this post, but some of it was legitimately so frustrating. Not a lot of ATMs worked with my credit card, and our Korean bank cards weren’t working whatsoever. Vietnam is a very cash-centered country, so I had to keep taking cash advances out on my credit card, and Victoria at one point at 14 cents to her name with no way of getting more cash.
Thankfully, the money-exchange-jewelry ladies came in clutch with the charge-your-card-give-you-cash scheme, but having absolutely no money or way of paying at restaurants we thought would accept card was definitely a theme of our trip.
Additionally, I got really shaken up at train street, where I was sitting well within the boundaries of the tile of the cafe porch (and therefore safe from the train when it came by), but an old woman literally picked up a stone (not a little rock, like a pretty hefty stone) and launched it at me??? It hit me in the leg and although she was just trying to make sure that I was out of the way of the train, it really freaked me out.
Moving out of a country
Moving anywhere PERIOD is horrific, but try moving out of a country. Moving from the United States to South Korea was difficult, but because I was just packing clothes, it wasn’t as big of a deal.
Well, figuring out banking and paying bills and grocery shopping and learning to read hangul and finding a gym and navigating the bus system and things like that are difficult as well, but we’re talking about the physical act of MOVING.
Moving to Korea, I just left all my belongings in my childhood bedroom, brought my two suitcases on the plane with me, and that was that. Moving OUT of Korea, however, while planning a three month backpacking trip, while working 45 hours a week, was like me throwing away everything I’ve accumulated over the last 365 days (spoiler alert: it was a lot), packing my backpacks for SE Asia, packing my luggage and trying to figure out how to ship it home when the Korean postal service refuses to ship luggage and other services charge $300 for one suitcase, making 4 hour round trips to ship my luggage with the help of my friends on the military bases (the cheapest option), moving out of my apartment three days before my contract ended and essentially being homeless for my last three days of work, going to the pension office, transferring all my money to America and closing out my bank account, and a slightly traumatic exit from work due to an insane boss.
It was horrific, but today is my last day here and I can finally focus on what comes next!!
Work
I want to be super clear here: my job was fine. Although the hours were long, my classes were all pretty touch and go, and the days went by pretty fast. I absolutely adored my little kiddos, and everything in that aspect was totally fine.
My boss, however, made leaving this country so freaking difficult. She took everything personally, and it was really hard to communicate with her. For instance, I asked to be paid my severance and salary before I left the country, which worked out to 7 days early. She said that she would, if I moved out of my apartment three days early, even though the new teacher wasn’t coming until the day before my contract ended.
I didn’t want to risk it, so I packed up shop and lived with my friends for those last two days, but just imagine coming into work and hearing that you’re unexpectedly homeless for three days?? Things like that where although she gained nothing from me moving out, she had to have it be “even” for her to even consider doing me a favor.
Never again will I work somewhere that controls my housing! Way too stressful.
LOLs
We found a cat?
One gorgeous summer beach day, Joy, Victoria and I had just finished getting tacos at the best restaurant in Busan (Pendejos) when we hear what sounded like a baby crying in an alley. Naturally, we went to see what was going on, and we found the TINIEST CAT I think I’ve ever seen in my life. It was crawling on its belly underneath a car, as it was unable to stand, and it was just crying and crying. We looked all around for other kittens, waited a while for the mom to come back, and ultimately decided to take it and go get help.
When we picked it up in with our beach towels, we noticed that it still had its umbilical cord! With cats, they normally fall off naturally at 2 or 3 days, meaning that this cat was probably 1 or 2 days old.
Being in a foreign country, we obviously didn’t know what the freak to do with this baby cat so we went back to the taco place (LOL) and they directed us to a police station close by.
Obviously the police officers didn’t speak English, but Papago came to the rescue (also a tiny grimy cat kind of speaks for itself) and we were able to get on the phone with the animal shelter. They sent someone over to pick him up, and we waited for an hour in that police station with our sweet little kitty, who fell asleep instantly after we wrapped him up in our towels.
It was a hard goodbye, but he’s in much better hands now!!
Pohang Hotel Situation
If you remember me mentioning previously, my friends and I traveled up the coast to Pohang for a little night cruise with some friends of friends, and we wanted to do it on the cheap. We took the bus to Pohang and arrived at our hotel for the night - and we gasped when we walked into our rooms.
The smell of stale cigarettes hit us like a ton of bricks, and the ancient wallpaper was just peeling right off the walls. There was a massive crack in the bathtub, no toilet paper, a used bar of soap (with a sprinkle of suspicious hair on it), and the sheets looked dirty.
Immediately, my eyes gravitated towards the aerosol can on the desk that I thought was Lysol to diminish the smell of the cigarettes, but no. It was ROACH SPRAY. Our hotel didn’t give us toilet paper, but they did give us roach spray.
This was coming the weekend after I stayed at Hotel 1, so it was definitely a shock to the system. No worries, we just stayed out all night to avoid sleeping in those beds, and everything worked out okay. Still hilarious though!
Vietnam Shambles
Besides the money woes that really had us nervous for a second, the rest of our Vietnam trip was absolutely hilarious. We had forgot to let our banks know that we were traveling internationally, and we were leaving during Korea’s bank holidays, so we had no way to call them and get them to unlock our credit cards. We hoped that places would accept card, but that simply was not the case.
It started with the airlines. We both got Iced Americanos after passing through security, (like normal?) but they made us throw them away before we boarded, and they charged you for WATER during the flight, and obviously they only took cash. The moral of this whole story is that we don’t have cash.
So we arrive to the Da Nang airport, thirsty AF and starving, and as I’m waiting for Victoria on the other side of immigration, I notice that the immigration official stand up and walk around the partition to talk to her about her paperwork, which is never a good thing.
Turns out, American’s write their dates different than the rest of the world, and her Visa was for December 8th, and not August 12th, so she had technically entered the country illegally. So they told us we could buy an emergency visa for 160 USD, and when she handed her credit card over, they refused and said they only accepted cash. GO FIGURE. So I ignored every credit card lesson my parents ever taught me and took a cash advance out on my credit card … and two hours later, she made it into Vietnam - with one exception:
She was banned from Vietnam for LIFE after this trip. Red stamp in her passport and all, it was genuinely hilarious.
Victoria unfortunately got food poisoning while we were there, which took her out for a solid 48 hours, and our shambles just kept on going in the same direction. But, it made for a really funny trip! So I guess theres that.
Basket boats in Hoi An
So when researching all the best things to do in Hoi An, we came across these basket boat experiences, where you float through a local village in a boat that literally looks like a basket. We paid some people advertising it on the side of the street, which was our first mistake — we should’ve booked something through Viator! It was just us two, and it was the weirdest experience ever.
We took a 45 minute boat ride up the river, hopped in a random mans basket boat (he spoke absolutely no English) and he paddled us around, taught us how to crab fish (Victoria accidentally let the crabs loose in the bottom of the boat), spun us around in the basket, and put us back on the boat to Hoi An. Definitely not worth the money we spent on it, but it was definitely an experience that we will never forget!
That’s a wrap on Korea!!
What’s Next
Up next is three months in Southeast Asia! As I write this conclusion, I’m already in Bali, and I’m having the time of my life. Hoepfully I’ll be able to keep up with blogging as I go, but chances are I’ll only be able to get fully caught up when I’m home! If anyone has any recommendations for Indonesia, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, or Cambodia, I would be so happy if you dropped them in the comments below!
Love you all, Can’t wait to be home and see you <3
