Sometimes I Miss Korea: Reminiscing about my life In South Korea

There are days when I catch a glimpse of photos from Korea – my former students doing their kimchi smiles, lanterns dangling in the streets of Seoul in anticipation for the Lotus Lantern festival, or someone instagramming a bowl of sundubu jjigae – and it makes me miss Korea a little bit.

Korea will always be a special place for me. This is the country where I:

– moved overseas on my own for the first time
– got my own apartment
– met a special boy who is now my travel partner in crime
– was entrusted with a class full of students
– sang in front of people because noraebang makes you do strange things
– had to learn to read a new alphabet
– explored a mega-city on my own
– and ate strange creatures for the sake of trying new cuisine

In many ways, Korea feels like the country where I ‘grew up’, and I feel more attached to it than I anticipated.

I didn’t think I’d miss Korea very much once I left; at the time one year in the outskirts of Seoul seemed like enough, and it probably didn’t help that my last few months in the country were spent enduring the coldest winter of my entire life (yes, worse than Toronto and worse than Montreal!), however, now that I look back on my time there I can appreciate some of the smaller things that I took for granted.

Since I’m feeling kind of sentimental about Korea today, here are a few photos to reminisce:

{Figuring out the metro. One of these four does not belong.}

{A summer walk through the rice fields of Pyeongtaek.}

{Visiting the fish markets in Busan.}

{A traditional performance taking place in Suwon.}

{Noraebang: Korea’s infamous singing rooms. Tambourines included.}

{Strolling unfamiliar neighbourhoods in Seoul.}

{A meal for 3 people. This is how we do things.}

{Visiting a cat cafe in Seoul. Sam has very attentive pupils.}

{The land where dogs and ducks are best friends. Could be an isolated event…}

{Playing with puppies on a chilly autumn morning.}

{Eating jeon – a savoury Korean pancake – and you bet it was good.}

{N Seoul Tower seen from the base of Namsan.}

{Visiting the Korean Folk Village in autumn.}

{Showing us the proper way to eat Korean barbecue. Look like a caveman.}

{A giant bouncy bear in the department store. Where was this when I was a kid?}

{When winter arrived and Sam was happy but I wanted to cry…}

{A little soup with ox blood never hurt anyone.}

I can’t quite pinpoint what it is I miss about this country. Maybe it’s the tasty food served in hot pot dishes, the random cultural performances that would take place around the city every weekend, or the sound of Big Bang or PSY’s latest hit playing in the streets.

Or it could be the country’s strange quirks like robot mannequins bowing to customers in the shopping district of Myeongdong, the abundance of cat and dog cafes in Hongdae, or the men in business suits swaying down the streets after imbibing in a little too much soju.

For that brief year I was there, Korea felt like home.

I’m not saying I’m ready to move back to Korea quite yet. This current adventure around Malaysia, Cambodia, Vietnam and Thailand has been great so far, and I still have a whole lot of ground left to cover around Southeast Asia as well as over in the Indian subcontinent. However, a little trip to Korea to reminisce and see it with fresh eyes would certainly not be out of the question.

Have you ever lived abroad for a period of time?
Do you still miss the place?