South Korea has been really good to me so far. But nobody and nowhere is perfect so there has to be a few things that I wish could change about here!

The weather. There are basically only 2 seasons in Seoul: winter and summer. It’s also very dry and windy here. I mean, a breeze is good, but not when it hits you full force and almost knocks you off your feet… and it doesn’t help that I’m only 156cm tall either.

The sewers. As I mentioned before, South Korea’s sewage system is not that great – you can’t flush toilet paper down the toilet. There are also a lot of open sewers around the street and once you walk past/over them.. you will smell it for sure. The worst part is that for whatever reason, our bathroom in our room will occasionally smell like sewer. Especially when it rains!

The assumptions. Yeah, I get that I’m not Korean and I speak English when I’m out. But is it really necessary to immediately assume that I’m Chinese when I’m walking around? I mean yeah I am Chinese but doesn’t mean you have to immediately speak Mandarin to me right away. My first language is English, my second is Cantonese, and my third is Mandarin! And yeah, I get that a lot of Chinese tourists come to Seoul to shop and they speak the language so that they can get their promotions across… but it still kind of sucks.

Groceries are expensive. Need I say anything more? I want fruit but the fruit is expensive. Not because I’m a university student on a budget, but because the prices are so much higher than the ones I’m used to back at home. So I have to selectively buy what’s on sale. And I almost never buy fruits in supermarkets – only veggies, protein, and seasoning. Fruits come from street vendors since I actually know how to choose them!

Lack of ‘things to do’ . Because I don’t speak the language well, I don’t know about the really fun things to do here. I get that you can shop, go to tourist destinations, eat, and shop some more, but I wish it was like back at home where there would be random (free) events that I could go to. Like Hats Off Day, in Burnaby.

Other than that Seoul is great and I really like it here. It might not seem like it after I just listed the things that I don’t like about it, but trust me, I really do like living here and it’s a really great experience seeing culture on the other side of the world!

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