Being in Korea as a Writer, 3 Month Stay

I was in Korea for 3 months and like I said in previous posts, it was my first time overseas, third plane trip in my life and first time in a country where English is not the primary language. I can speak and understand Korean to an upper-intermediate level (I can shop in HMart just fine by myself and read the original labels without a problem, for example). I was there to write my book series Soaring, which I got 570 handwritten pages done … and still have not finished (more on that later).

My fields are in libraries, music industry and archives but I was in Korea for writing (and health reasons pertaining to my disorders but that’s not what this post is about) because that’s exact what I thought would assist my work. I am not a fan of distractions.

I’m still very much new to flying, I even lost my poor 20+ year old Linkin Park wallet chain when I came back because everything was so hectic. Being in Korea wasn’t too bad for me, I stayed in Seodaemun district in Seoul but I went to Paju and Gwangju as well. When I went through customs, it was super hot to me. I was asked why I was staying for so long and I said that I’m a writer in extremely exhausted English and Korean. (I left during the US govt shutdown. The airport computers failed on the morning I left. Noice. Two layovers instead of one.) I already have a body of work so I was ready to showcase that in case it sounded like a “Sasaeng with a threadbare excuse”. I expected ICE-level customs behavior – because I’m American and this is the first time out of the country, I have zero idea what to expect and I have a tendency to ride on the “the worst is the best you can expect” school of thought. It was a bit harrowing for me because of the repeated questions of “why are you here for so long?” I guess they’re used to foreigners staying here for a week or so and leaving. Or international sasaengs (stalker fans). Or sex/bridal tourism (think, “My Korean Boyfriend” show). I knew that was an issue but it really seemed to be a bigger issue than I originally thought. There *was* a lot of bright-haired girls and kpop shirts or gear in the customs line. My hair was cotton candy pink and blue twists. I probably was fitting a type, ah jeez. That’s why I was ready to show my body of literary works to prove, yes, I am there for what I say I am. I didn’t have to show it but the questioning was a bit harrowing. They were nice but hella persistent.

Let’s get some bits out the way first: If you’re there for Super Happy Kpop Time, just watch Kpop Demon Hunters with some overpriced Shin shrimp chips and call it a day. It’s a country. Filled with people. That have lives and histories of their own. Please don’t go there so the poor kiddos working at Olive Young wonder why they let you in their country. If you can’t speak/read Korean and it’s too big a hurdle for you, don’t go. They don’t speak English there widespread, they don’t speak your language there widespread. They speak Korean in Korea. Even if you can just parse a bit of it past “hello/thank you”, it makes them breathe easier. I used the app Korean English Dictionary by Bravolol when I needed a new vocabulary word or to make my sentence more clear but I didn’t lean on it for communication.

I’m coming from the USA but I’m also not a White person so I don’t have some innate feeling to show all the worst parts of my personality as loud and brashly as possible in a foreign country, which I did indeed see. Some had sense but quite a few did not. Yeah, international PoC can also act up (See: Johnny Somali) but White folks really kick it up a notch (See: Logan Paul). When you’re White, they assume you’re from the West but being Black, it seemed no one really could guess my nationality (Lordt.) I could be American, British, Senegalese, Caribbean, etc etc. So they didn’t know if I would start speaking English, French, Spanish, Somali, etc. I regularly had to say that I was an American in Korean. Didn’t bother me too much but I did see a marked difference in tone and behavior before and after the fact was known.

Same with White folks who thought they were acting up in front of a non-Western Black foreigner when they were doing it to another American. Or to an American, period. The look on their faces when they discover, no, they don’t have a “no one knows who I am” invisibility blanket. American privilege is very real and I already knew I had that because that’s how intersections of privilege and marginalization works, I have privilege in some spots, marginalizations in others and they don’t count each other out, each has their own lane. Even people from Europe, regardless of race, treated me different. Or would try to say a blithe joke about Trump that would work well angering a White American but doesn’t bother me really. I mean, I can always bring the full American douchebag out and bring up their history and America’s interaction with it and it ends the conversation.

Korean natives were also surprised to see an American that knew so much about their nation and history … and language. They’re basically expecting MAGA Kpop Fan Jerkoff – geez, I wonder why? There’s a reason why the Olive Youngs in the tourist areas don’t have a lot of samples on display but in non-tourist areas, almost everything has a sample on it. Just speaking the language and being basic human level nice got me free pizza and snacks without me asking, they appreciate it that much. Otherwise, they have the “please help me, god, a foreigner walked in” look on their face.

For money, I recommend getting WowPass simply so you can control your spending. I wasn’t sure of it at first but it really did work. They do take American cards but I liked the ease of WowPass. I’m there to write so I didn’t have a lot of needs – though I did spend a lot of time in Olive Young. When I was there Oct 2025 – Jan 2026 (yep, I just got back), $1.00 USD = ₩ 1,400.00(ish). An American dollar goes further in Korea than you think but definitely don’t blow it all at once at the first tourist trap that successfully lured you in. And don’t haggle, it’s rude. If you don’t want to pay an over-inflated price (aka, spending in Hongdae, Myeongdong, Gangnam or Itaewon), then you’re going to have to learn Korean, find some manners and go to where the locals shop. You don’t have to be Victorian etiquette level perfect but don’t act like an attention-starved live streamer. It’s ok to have flubs and wtf moments (I had many of those) but still, try not to ruin everyone’s day simply because your parents didn’t opt for an abortion. They do see how Westerners act via online and it isn’t great. They don’t know if you’re going to be a regular person, Johnny Somali, or, super worse, one of the Paul Brothers. Money doesn’t make you king there, even if it seems some folks in Korea could do with that reminder as well.

WowPass also works as a TMoney card, so you can also take public transportation there, just make sure you boop your card as soon as you get on and when you get off. Driving in Seoul is utter madness, they treat lane markings as street art and ignore just about all of it. Just take public transport, it’s cleaner than what we have in America but there will be times it is crowded and you don’t always know when. They have several kinds of buses, all color coded. From the green pillbug village buses to the large, red rapid buses. Naver is the app you want to download to get around Korea, it’s like Google Maps but if it merged with Facebook but not suck. Naver has a way better feature to get you around the country, even tell you how much fare will be per transfer. There is an English version but you have to type your destinations in Korean – because it’s a Korean app and you’re in Korea.

For insoles, because Seoul is hilly and my legs were dying, get any insole with “EVA” written on it. I found a pair in Emart in the Daiso section. Yes, you will have to learn what “insole” is in Korean (깔창).

I stayed at an AirBnB because I despise hotels, I can speak the language and I wanted to be left alone. I stayed in the Seodaemun district. The most frustrating part for me was the recycling because of how minute it was. You have to break it down by:

Metal
Plastic
Vinyl
Paper
Cardboard
Glass
Food

And there’s little rules and exceptions attached to those as well – as well as their own district-mandated bags. In my city of Baltimore, you just put recycling in the yellow recycling bin or you put it all in a cardboard box so it all can be carried away. You also can get a bunch of clear vinyl bags but still, sorting all that was a pain in the neck. And there are almost no trash cans or recycle bins in Seoul. If you buy a bottle of soda at a convenience store like CU or GS25, either you chug it right there so you can chuck it there or, congrats, you’re stuck with it for the entire day, it seemed.

I was able to get the correct bags by asking for it at stores, you ask for 봉투 (which confused me because it means, “envelope” not “bag” so I had to search a bit to find a couple guides to help me, here) and there you go. I don’t need to be babied because that’s not what I am going on the other side of the planet for so I could manage fairly well myself.

Since I didn’t have major agoraphobia like I do in the US so I could go to the store normally and I didn’t order food much. I used Shuttle since I didn’t have a Korean phone number. The selection is small and they assume you’re a dimwitted foreigner so sometimes that would be grating. The prices are sometimes jacked up and they don’t tell you they’re sold out of something until you find out too late so there’s that. Delivery in Korea is very rapid, well under an hour and usually under 30 min. They will deliver straight to your door (or attempt to put it inside your apt, which happened to me 🥴 It was a surprise for me). I wrote in Korean my floor and door number so usually the delivery guy is shocked to see a Korean speaking foreigner there but it happens occasionally.

Due to the fact that it’s Korea, I didn’t bother getting an eSim. Seoul has free wi-fi throughout the city (which American cities don’t do, and other Korean cities but still, pretty innovative) and on the public transport (which American cities also don’t do). KakaoTalk is a primary app there, which I already had for years. From Olive Young coupons to store sale papers, Kakao is used a lot. It also does phone and video calls for free so I could keep in contact fairly easily without paying money. I may consider a Korean phone number since I am planning to go back but it’s not at the top of Things You Must Have. Granted, I know the language fairly well to not panic, I don’t know for someone who knows nada. There will be times the wi-fi is le crap and you will cycle through several wi-fi’s, however, from time to time, so get ready for that.

If it isn’t obvious here, I did a lot of research and saving so that I could go on my trip, not bother anyone living there and not be bothered by anyone being there. I didn’t want things to go horribly wrong because I somehow confused a New Jeans music video or random KDrama for real life. I also wanted to keep things very affordable because I would have to ration my money. I stayed away from tourist traps and things like that. That doesn’t mean I didn’t splurge from time to time but since I spent almost everyday in my apartment writing my book, it was pretty easy to save – because I’m doing literally nothing but staying in my apartment, writing my book. I handwrite my novels with a fountain pen so I brought 50ml of ink (that writes almost 600 pages) so there essentially isn’t much reason to spend like mad. I still did from time to time because it’s my first time outside my home country and I found great stuff, like a book holder for my novel journals so I can transcribe them easier, a nice pair of earrings, and cleansers that actually work on my face. If you can understand the language kinda well, you can save quite a lot.

For those who want to buy from Olive Young, get both the domestic and global apps. The domestic so you can find what product is in which store (click on the little bar with the green and white awning on the smol store). You sometimes have to type in Korean – and the app is Korean only, by the way. Global so you can check the ingredients in your home language (mine is English). I want to avoid anything with Niacinamide, Madecassoside and Glutathione because those are usually for skin lightening. It’s damaging to skin, especially melaninated skin and nothing is wrong with darker skin. They sell products that handle dark spots that do not involve destroying your skin over colorist bs. I already know what my skin prefers and its trouble spots so I already came to Korea with a shopping list sitting in my Kakao.

And don’t give the store workers grief. If you can’t speak Korean, stick to struggling with the two Olive Young apps until you figure things out. It’s ok to ask “Do you speak English/[Language You Speak]” in Korean (notice how I keep saying that part?) when its time to check out but keep the English simple if they reply “A little” or “yes”. You don’t need to recite James Baldwin at them, just the basics of shopping. (“Where is…”, “What is the price of…”). Test samples using the back of your hand, don’t have a meltdown you can’t restrain to yourself, don’t assume everyone can speak English, etc. The workers don’t harass you as you shop, they leave you alone, which I like. They bustle pretty hard so please don’t make their day harder. Crappy customers exist in Korean, too. I’ve seen local folks bug the workers the same way us Americans stress store workers here in the USA, try to be nice.

For Black folks who want to get hair care in Korea, they have lots of affordable options. My hair really loves argan oil and I was able to get giant tubs of shampoo and conditioner (also called “treatment” there) for less than $10USD a pop. 40+oz of shampoo and conditioner. That’s unheard of in the USA. It’s about ₩12,000 – ₩13,500 there per bottle. They have afro picks but they’re sold as art brushes and such lol. Bring your own combs and brushes with you. Or get a protective style like I did. But Korea has tons of stuff you can glorp on your hair with.

Get a EU to USA power strip, it’s amazing. You can still plug up things like your laptop, hair dryer, phone, etc etc. Don’t get one of those blocks they sell on Amazon, mine fritzed out the second I plugged it in. Korea is 220 volts, USA is 110 volts. You will need a power strip with a built in voltage converter. And perhaps invest in a travel wi-fi router, it makes surfing the web more secure. I used one during my stay. It had hiccups but when it worked, it worked great.

Some places in Korea have unmanned stores, stores where there is no human, just products and a big computer screen to check things out with. It is only in Korean. They usually are ice cream stores but they sell all sorts of things, like snacks, soft drinks, candy, etc. They even have unmanned stores for clothes – including haute couture/expensive brands -, for stationery, all kinds of stuff. We don’t have that in America. It works like a self-checkout counter. Don’t scam it, don’t pickpocket everything you see out of the store, put back what you don’t get exactly where you saw it. These things don’t exist much in tourist areas for a reason and it’s because of not-great behavior from the international crowd. It isn’t the place to live your best KPop/KDrama life.

I stayed in Seodaemun district, which is quiet. Mapu district (where Hongdae is) and Yongsan district (where Itaewon is) are a bit more bustling. Korea basically closes at 10 PM but those spots have a few late night places. There are so many crowds in Hongdae, Myeongdong, Itaewon and Gangnam but I remember being around way too many people in Hongdae. It wasn’t crowd crushing, it’s just I have trauma-induced agoraphobia and thus, crowds aren’t my thing. If you buy anything in those many, many stalls in Hongdae, don’t get it the second you see it, just take a picture of the item and the location of the stall. You might find a better version of it just a few stalls down or something like that. Things also go a lot smoother if you speak in Korean. They don’t have elevators in some of their apartment buildings, even if it is taller than 4 stories.

For queer people, Korea is pretty plain a country. They don’t know much about the different queer flags so they won’t really bother you. My hand-knitted cardigan is the ace flag on one side and the nonbinary flag on the other side. No one, except for other queer folks there, had a clue what they were looking at. Some probably think queerness is for White folks (because that’s what happens when you run into colonialization and White supremacy painted as global policy a lot) and foreigners in general so they don’t care much. How queerness expresses itself all around the world is pretty different, remember that. Americans are over-obsessed with “not appearing gay” to the point they’ll live hella miserable and remarkably lonely lives with very little emotional depth, especially the guys – American men rather kill themselves and other people than simply be ok with the fact they have human emotions. However, though Korea has a lot of gender problems – there’s a reason why the 4B movement exists – but as long as you don’t live life like an obnoxious youtuber streamer, you’ll be fine. It’s insanely hetero in Korea but also there are queer-friendly clubs you can visit, like Rabbithole or Living Room in Itaewon. I was told there are some queer spots in Gwangju but I couldn’t get around to them. There’s the Seoul Rainbow Foundation in Mapu, they’re super nice people and run QPlanet but it’s not a one-stop-shop location the way some Queer support places are in some parts of the USA. However! They have nifty stuff you can buy, like little pins and bags. Buy ’em. One person speaks English but the rest are fairly Korean only. They’re hardworking! I like them. If you are trans or anyone else that needs estro or testero shots, you should be able to bring them to the country just fine, just bring the right supply you’d need for the length of your stay.

I had glow in the dark hair in Korea; glowed at night, was cotton candy pink and blue in the day.

I got stares sometimes but also I’m Black and not at all Korean so that was going to happen anyways. Some actually liked my hair and told me so (in Korean, esp when they found out I could understand them). Some told me I was pretty so that was very nice. Usually, I get agitated by those comments because I’m not big on commenting on appearance, I rather focus on skill, etc, but didn’t mind this time – especially since I heard so much “They’re anti-Black!” before I left so it was nice to encounter the opposite. I didn’t experience any major, omega racism and I’m a Black American, I come from a country that has a history of slavery, lynching and messed up laws laser designed to target me, that’s the bar you have to hit before I go “wow, they’re super messed up there”. Since I wasn’t in Europe, I wasn’t really dealing with that bar even being closed to reached.¹

It’s just a lot of passive anti-Blackness cooked into the culture in Korea that can be easily missed at first, and then it grates on you. The obsession with Whiteness, paleness, the colorism, etc. Even being in a Olive Young getting products mean you have to become an investigative scientist just to make sure you’re not getting something that will destroy your skintone because someone else hated theirs. The Kpop there was constantly an extremely bad mimic of Black created sounds from Gospel to Rock to Hip Hop and with zero care or concern of where it came from and why it even existed in the first place. So, zero respect for the arts and people that came before them in the creative worlds – in a culture where showing deference to the people who came before you is supposed to be a big deal. They’ll wave it off as “oh, I didn’t know” but will float to Whiteness like a moth to a flame. It sucked when I was on transportation and people wouldn’t sit next to me sometimes but also I’m an American, I just started to use that to take up space in a way Americans are extremely good at. It’s not great to be a jerk but sometimes it is a valuable tool sometimes when dealing with jerks. Koreans are not children, they’re extremely capable of thinking and learning outside of their own sphere. If I can figure out their culture and language almost from scratch, they can do the same with mine. Period.

However, Korea also is not a great country to visit if you are the follower/conformist type. There’s a reason they’re number one in suicide in the world, if not top five. It’s very easy to get caught up in caring about what people who are essentially nobodies (might) think about you and internalizing that to death. People who might not even know that you exist because they have their own problems. People who like to pressure or press on others because they think its the right and lemming thing to do. The list goes on and on. I do try to be polite and courteous because that’s the right thing to do but I didn’t go there to be liked, make friends or to conform – I went there to write a book and be left alone. I knew I would get avoided for the most part because difference makes them shy and thus, I could use that to my advantage. Not all of them are shy however. Korean older women do not care at all about anyone’s feelings, they will do whatever sails through their heads, say whatever sails through their heads. But remember, most of the nation is fairly unhappy, 95% of the nation is stressed. I’m not going to put in a lot of overtime in trying to get people to like me when those same people don’t even like themselves, statistically. Mental health is a major issue there socially and it’s very easy to emotionally fall apart there. They’ll say they are a collectivist culture but it’s really just a big conformist culture because watch how fast the collective falls apart when a bunch of people collectively die from preventable circumstances, from being on a subway train, on a ferry or simply in a alleyway on Halloween. Then it’s “oh, that’s a you problem, and you better keep it to yourself – for the collective”. If you are the type that super cares about what other people think, including people who probably don’t know you exist, perhaps pick a different country to visit. Don’t wreck your mental health because you want to be Rumi from Kpop Demon Hunters in the worst way.

Kennie JD, puts it best:

And now, the weather:

Weather in Seoul is a bit hot to me but I am from the mid-Atlantic region. I was sweating in October, well into late November. Snow is pretty there but for the love of the gods don’t make snow creme – the air quality there is so awful.

Also, they don’t get a lot of snow in Seoul. Or rain (I stayed Oct-Jan). Any weather event I experienced is fairly short lived. They consider heavy snow 3 or 4 inches. In Maryland, that’s just regular snow. It’s very pretty tho. The younger folks love playing in it and snow abatement is very WE’RE ALL GOING TO DIE, HERE IS YOUR EMERGENCY ALL CALL. EXPECT THREE INCHES OF SNOW AND COLD AIR emergency phone warnings. Granted, people drive in Seoul as if they’re skating their car on ice when its bright, warm and sunny outside so perhaps that’s a reason. I’m very used to the American “It’s gonna snow. Feel free to die in it. Maybe have some water in your bathtub, idk” style of weather forecasting. Baltimore just got dumped with a bunch of snow and a lot of it still hasn’t cleared up or been cleaned off. It’s snowcrete, now. Outside my apartment in Seoul, there was a small river and when it froze – not even all the way – kids would play on it. I’m used to cold weather horseplay but these kids were being ultra risky because there were still weak parts of ice atop a running river. None fell in but there were a lot of slips and slides.

The weather doesn’t start to get biting cold (to me) until December-ish. Bring electric, self heating gloves. I already own some so I can write in the cold but it worked great when I was outside. I didn’t have to use the little handwarmers you can buy there even once. They also have some super warm blankets you can buy. ₩10,000 – ₩12,000 is the range around where I lived.

If there is OSHA in Korea, that person is tied up in a closet somewhere, holy crap can some parts be so mobility unfriendly. I fell so many times, even cracked my phone screen, because of how uneven the ground is. And sloped. Like hills in San Francisco. There will be teeny doors, like Alice-in-Wonderland level small. There will be narrow doors, you can barely fit through without going sideways, even for average Korean bodies. The busses are not designed for mobility struggles or rider capacity, there will be random steps in random places, there will be uber narrow sidewalks that are basically small minecraft blocks haphazardly laid about – assuming there’s any sidewalks at all. Being in a wheelchair would be a chore in Seoul. There’s no way to even get into places like Olive Young, GS25 or CU, nor navigate their super narrow aisles if you can get past the steps. If you’re thin enough to look like you crawled out of a gulag, you might be fine but the average body is not considered in Seoul or Korea, especially if that body is in a wheelchair or has any other mobility restrictions. Elevators are hard to traverse to and they’re very slow sometimes.

One Shot Hansol, a blind Korean youtuber I follow put it best (with English subtitles):

Visiting a business is tough:

Trying to ride public transport while disabled (be it sight or mobility) is tough:

Even going into the subway, you have a little curb to step up upon. How these places do not claim drunk people in a country that has soju in it surprises me because I genuinely would expect to see people rolling and falling about like it’s the folks in a Black Pink “Jump” music video

Stationery stores are very plentiful in Korea, no matter where you go. Look for “문구” and you’re there. Granted, I write my books with a fountain pen so I mainly prefer stores that has fountain pen supplies. The really good stationery store I found was Homi in Hongdae, Mapu, but that’s an art store. They carry Wearingeul inks, a Korean brand. An even better one (for my needs) is the Hangaram Stationery branch in Hongdae/Hongik University. It’s inside a bigger building and is over by Issac Toast. Don’t make the same mistake I did and get stranded on a steep hill in icy sleet, use Naver’s walking guide. If you don’t see an Issac Toast, keep walking until you do. Hangaram does have ink but they’re Japanese inks, I didn’t see any Korean ones. I already have several Japanese inks and I’m in Korea so I wanted Korean inks. BUT! They have amazing stuff for writers, artists, knitters (circular needles are ₩1,000, which is a little under $1USD). I got a folding book stand that makes it easy for me to prop up my journals and transcribe them. I love it so much and have been looking for one for a while ;_; It’s perfect for me. They have all sorts of fun stickers, doo-dads, knick-knacks and more! Even earrings and snacks.

Korea has a few ink makers, such as Colorverse, Dominant Industry, 3Oysters and Wearingeul. If you write with a fountain pen, you will spend money somehow on their ink or their supplies. They have in-store exclusives. I only visited Dominant Industry and Wearingeul. I couldn’t get around to Colorverse, I ran out of time. Dominant Industry is in Paju and you need to reserve a time to make custom ink, which is ₩40,000 (about $27 USD). Wearingeul believes in Pop Ups Only and you need to scour their Instagram to know where the next one is. I have a write up in the works for my visit to Dominant Industry, it was very nice to go and I even got to make custom ink from scratch. I got free pen refills at the Wearingeul pop ups, even of their store exclusive color, “Still, In This Barren World”. (It’s actually “Central” by Yi Sang, sometimes also called “In a World that Doesn’t Understand”, the Korean title is more accurate.)

If you prefer to type, they have unmanned cafes for you to sit in and type, open 24/7. Korea is very good at third spaces, which America could use a lot of. They’re clean and serene. Super warm in the winter time as well. But it can also be very easy to isolate yourself from other humans in public in Korea, just you and your screen.

If you are thinking of driving in Seoul – DON’T. It’s like Twisted Metal and Burnout Paradise over there. GTA level driving on the regular, oh my gods. Lane markings are treated like street art that everyone ignores. Delivery motorcycles drive on any surface available, in any space available, even if it is cramp and potentially very deadly. Seoul driving makes New York City driving seem calm and peaceful.

Even getting on public transportation is wild. Some buses are really wonderful and others will throw you – depends on the driver and their day. The MTA in Baltimore has their NASCAR drivers, but these folks in Seoul are built almost the same, if not a little worse. I almost won’t trash talk the MTA anymore due to Seoul bus drivers. Getting on the little green pillbug bus in Itaewon is a practice of applied physics: horror edition. Cramped streets and high speeds don’t mix but to these drivers, that’s a Tuesday night here in Itaewon. Getting on the Seodaemun 11 or 13 would be hectic and cramped at times. I remember taking the bus back from Gwangju to Seoul in the evening and I saw several short stops, brake checks, high speed tailgates and other risky maneuvers. We have the same kind of driving in the US – but usually there’s a fleet of police cars behind said car and a news helicopter over top. I shouldn’t be so close to the next car in the next lane that I could roll down my window and place my palm on their window and still have a bent elbow.

I have been in several near bus-car collisions when I rode public transport in Seoul. Paju isn’t that bad but will still have Need For Speed behavior even if there is only two cars on the road. Gwangju is calmer, especially when their clock chimes at 5:18 PM. But Seoul? I had to ask friends several times “Do y’all have traffic laws?” because I would see risky behavior pulled even in front of a cop car. Stuff that would be an instant “bwooOOp” heard behind you if pulled in the US. I’ve seen so many near misses and almost-collisions from the street and the bus. It explains why my friend said I was a good driver when she was in America and I would take her to the market 🥴 And why she thought an American driver’s license was hard to get.

Americans are not perfect drivers, we have cities where driving is a deathsport and I wouldn’t drive in them unless I have to – like New York City and Philly – but Seoul takes the cake.

The subway can be really confusing at times for me but that’s because Baltimore has a vastly underdeveloped subway line that’s been there for over 40 years thanks to red lining (I live in the city that was the testing lab for it). But navigating DC metro and NYC subways have made me a bit more comfortable with dealing with Seoul’s sprawling subway systems. And I still suffered a bit because wow, are some of the stations like little cities. The one at SM Entertainment is a bit unique, Hongje will remind you a bit of New York (in terms of design, not dear-god-yuck-what-is-that). It’s easy to get lost, get a bite to eat and boop out in spots you don’t need to because you got confused. And the trains will throw you so hold on to something. Korean people will try to avoid sitting next to you. Well, some will. Others won’t. It’s quiet and there’s screens telling you to not be obnoxious in cute Korean animations. Yellow seats are for the elderly and disabled, pink seats are for the pregnant, on both busses and railways.

Korea has issues with Christian cults and of them approaching you on the street – Seoul has a surprising amount of churches. Megachurches, especially. And those churches are usually cults. They mainly approach in tourist areas, where they think you are a stupid foreigner that can only speak English. So, in Hongdae, for example. Usually speaking Korean catches them off guard. Because I learned from the stories of Kennie J.D. (awesome channel, love her), I never really spoke to a cultist for longer than two minutes and I only was approached twice. I dealt with them the way I deal with Christians that bother me in general here in the US – talk comfortably about my faith, Paganism. Scares them off basically every time. Want a Christian to leave you alone? Introduce them to a different faith and talk about it in a normal way, terrifies them 8 times out of 10. The remaining two are worth making friends.

I don’t have a nervousness about Christian cults because they don’t act a whole lot different from regular Christians when it comes to being a different faith, in my experience. I’ve had to deal with aggressive Christians since I was a teenager. I detail that on my other blog, Black Witch. Engage them in warm, normal conversation and watch them dart off in less than five minutes.

The supermarket isn’t that spellbinding an experience, no matter where you are in the world, people need to get their groceries from somewhere. There’s EMart, Lotte and various mom & pop markets. You really needed to look around for the best prices because sometimes prices truly do bounce around. And so will you, different stores would carry different things. I’m used to American markets where things make some relational sense, like you would have spaghetti near the spaghetti sauce. In Korean markets, sometimes it’s not so cut and dry. I have been in markets where there aren’t prices on most of what I saw, you just get a surprise at the cash register. I don’t drink alcohol at all and I have super negative interest in doing so, so I have zero clue about getting booze in Korea. They will sell you fireworks, however but turns out, you can’t set them off in residential areas … but they will sell fireworks in those residential areas? I have an HMart card (there’s no HMart in Korea, only EMart) and I think I might have a Lotte card but all the points you wrack up here do not transfer over there. That makes me blue.

I didn’t use a tour guide or anything when I was in Korea (what for?) but since I also knew the history of Korea before I went there, I’m pretty ok. I do have local friends but they weren’t tour guides, they were friends. I’m there to work, not to do “Eat. Pray. Love.” nonsense.

However, I did do some karaoke because I love to sing and I love music. Rabbithole Arcade Pub has live karaoke every Thursday night. I also did coin karaoke, which is a small booth that you stick in your money and out comes your ability (hopefully) to sing songs. Some are unmanned, others are not. I have a very strong singing voice so I can fill an auditorium with my voice, so I probably bugged someone by mistake when I used a Coin Karaoke booth. They do have music from the West but it is not the greatest quality and sometimes even the lyrics are wrong. They have heavy music books that contain songs from Korea, Japan and the West, usually. I prefer live karaoke but that’s also because I’m fairly used to being on a stage thanks to my music background.

The heating system in your apartment is through the floor, not through vents. Remember that if you put a bag of shopping on the ground and wonder why your stuff is bubbling now. Especially ice cream you forget. Look up the brand of your thermometer and there will be a translated guide for you to use. Same for the laundry machine. I just needed a quick guide to remind me which words mean what things but there are dedicated guides online you can look at. It can heat a room fairly quickly but not as quick as a vent blowing in hot air.

The bathroom is small for Western bodies. I had a shower head laid about but they also had the tradition pail and buckets in my apartment – layered with a slick coating of wet crud so yeah, not using that. You might not get a traditional tub or shower section like you do in the USA so try to mentally adjust for that. Or look for accommodations that are more Western-like, bathroom-wise. Get shower slippers of your own, you can buy those almost anywhere. Mine are from Daiso. Make sure you know your shoe size in Asian sizes, which is in millimeters, so you can get the right ones. They’re pretty affordable, about ₩3,000 – ₩5,000. Plus, you can keep them.

They’re serious about noise there, try to buy slippers that have at least one inch thick sole if you live above others. I knew that before going to the country so I got a pair at Daiso, I think it was about ₩5,000, if even that much.

Mosquitos. They will show up if the temperature goes even a glance above 40 degrees F. I regularly found mosquitos in my rooftop apartment, at least two a day. They have things like Raid in Korea (their version and Raid itself, which is a different name, Killer, I think) but what worked best for me was the electronic mat heater. Only ₩5,500 (where I found it) and the refill mats are very affordable, ₩3,000 for a box of about 40 or so. They last 12 hours-ish and work better than the coils. Get it.

I also used a VPN when I was there because I regularly use it, no matter what country I’m in. Get a dedicated VPN, it helps with sites that are a bit more rigorous with usual VPNs. I have Surfshark. Worked fine for me.

Since I’m a writer, I don’t have a lot of needs since the primary things I need are quiet, to be left alone, my bottle of ink and my pen and the journals I stitched for this story. Everything else is just to maintain comfort and work on my disorders. When it came time to mail things back to America, I learned that EMS will not take boxes that has writing on the side. Either it’s a blank brown box or an EMS box you buy. Different from the USA, where we go by the rules of “if it fits and doesn’t tick, it ships”. Shipping really is pricy in S. Korea so try to shove it in your luggage the best you can.

This is about the most I can think of. I’m sure I probably missed something but I think I covered the basics.