August & Saying Goodbye to Korea

It has been a whirlwind 12 months for us living here in Korea. We have had some amazing, unforgettable experiences.

Seoul - our second summer break

We decided to return to Seoul with our surprise second summer break. Two nights and three days of shopping and exploring this city that we have really loved getting to know. 

We hit up neighborhoods like Myeongdong, known for its cosmetics, and we went back to Itaewon, which is known as the foreigner district. Our main goal for the trip was to purchase the rest of the souvenirs we wanted to buy and spend time sight-seeing in a Hanok village (traditional building neighborhood) next to one of the larger palaces in Seoul. We had great weather and some great experiences. We hope you enjoy the pictures:

"Corn" bread at a subway station stall

Hotel room with Itaewon views

On the mountain in the back: Namsan tower, where we celebrated our two-year dating anniversary

Day one: Myeongdong, Insadong, Itaewon, and the souvenir shopping adventure

Nothing like Seoul cafes

PC rooms and over-the-top hotdogs

Myeongdong shopping

"Meerkat" cafe: we decided to pass on this

Back to Itaewon for the evening. 

We wanted to stop at the Line Friends character shop to check out their BT21 collection. BT21 is a collaboration between Line Friends and the KPop group BTS. Each member (there are 7) helped to design a different character and each character has a line of products from hats to water bottles to plushies and hairties and slippers. Seriously there are way too many products haha. 

I really wanted to go and buy products of the character created by my favorite BTS member, J-Hope. He's my favorite member because he is the group's lead dancer and he is very goofy. I thought the products were reasonably priced and we will be going back this weekend to buy a big cushion for the plane ride ☺

Me and Mang, J-Hope's character ☺

For dinner we went back to Linus' BBQ to try their rack of ribs. We were not disappointed.

Haha

♥

Day 2: Bukchon Hanok Village

Before we found the village we were in this area that felt reminiscent of Sun Valley

Just like small cafes and quaint streets with mountains in the backdrop

Signs everywhere explaining this is still a residential area and to be very quiet

On a wall inside the courtyard of one of the homes

They also had this ^ in the courtyard..

One of the home is an open house filled with art, like a museum art gallery

Seoul fashions ♥

Namsan tower views ♥




Tried out some more local brews

Bluebird skies

On the right: shssssssssss for silence please!

More cute boutique shops and cafes

Green tea ice cream to cool us down

Overall successful trip, we had some fun shopping and viewing some of the cultural treasures in Seoul.

Preparing to Come Home

As you can imagine, these last couple of weeks here have been a scramble of tying up loose ends of our lives here, reflecting on our experiences, and planning for the next steps.

Last weekend we went to Daejeon for the last time, got some shopping done and tried some new food.

"Spoon Pizza" mostly just cheese in there haha

The phone case game in Korea is insane

Our last week

It has been stressful at times, bittersweet, and exciting. We've made a full circle in a lot of ways, we can feel it.

Packing up

Last time going to CraftBros

Saying goodbye to coworkers

When we think about what we will miss the most, I think the biggest thing is that every day is an adventure here. We don't really know what will happen if we go right instead of left, or take the bike path by the river instead of the side streets. We don't know what we'll find, even in our own city that we've been living in for the last year. Just this week, in our last week, we discovered there's one of our favorite chicken restaurant chains and a great coffee shop right by our work. And we had no idea.

Of course, that feeling of adventure is also something that makes life here quite challenging, and we really won't miss the added stress of doing activities that should be normal/everyday (like grocery shopping).

We wanted to end the post with a fun list we have been making for the last couple of weeks. It's not complete but it's just a little sample of some of the things we will miss about Korea.. versus some things we won't.

• Things we will miss
• Students
• Elevators and bus stops that talk to you/make announcements
• Mom's Touch chicken restaurant chain
• Walking around the huge apartment buildings in Sejong
• Inexpensive stationary, food, clothing
• "Cute" products everywhere like rabbit ear pencils and carrot-shaped bags
• No tipping @ restaurants 
• Big fish tanks at grocery stores
• Snacks: honey butter nuts, crunky bars, orange vitamin C shots
• Lots of awesome insects and spiders, like golden orb weavers and praying mantids with their big, triangle faces ♥
• Fashion
• Seoul weekend trips
• Friends we've made, Korean and Foreign
• Cost of living 
• Funny "Konglish" sayings on t-shirts and bags
• Couple culture (matching t-shirts, etc)
• Public transportation is clean, inexpensive, and easy to use
• KTX bullet train trips

• Things we won't miss
• Students
• Drying clothes on a drying rack
• Our 3-burner electric cook top
• Smelling cigarette smoke through the bathroom ventilation (courtesy of neighbors)
• Expensive imported beer 
• People staring at you in the ______ (bank, grocery store, bus stop, etc.)
• Waiting 10-21 days for packages to arrive from USA
• Stressful trips to the bank for wire transfers
• Eating rice
• Eating dumplings
• Eating ramen
• Drinking soju
• Extreme temps in winter/summer
• Lack of: craft brews, Mexican food, half & half, burgers, and cheeses
• Traffic lights in Sejong, on strange and inefficient timers
• 10-ish hour time difference making it difficult to talk with family/friends and watch American TV shows

Thank you for reading. We are so, so excited to be home! Our flight is on Monday, September 3. See you guys soon!