Week 8 in Korea - Familiarity and Routine in Seoul
South Korea ·Hi! Week 8 was what I would consider a pretty routine week in Korea, where I just stayed in Seoul. Like some other weeks, not too much happened this week, which was pretty nice after all the traveling I did last week. Monday, Wednesday, and Friday were pretty much the standard school days where I just went to classes and also went to jiu jitsu if I felt like it.
So on Tuesday, one of my free days, I decided to go to the nearby jjimjilbang and just recharge my energy there. I forget if I mentioned this before, but I really like jjiljilbangs. I always lose track of time there, soaking in the baths as well and sweating in the saunas– it’s incredibly relaxing. This time, while sitting in the charcoal sauna, I finally met Nyangnyang, the cat that always visits(or maybe even lives in?) the sauna. I gave him many many pets, and I stayed in the sauna until I wanted to go home.
Wednesday night was actually pretty fun. At around 11pm, I went for a walk, which I do quite often, but Yonsei University was particularly pretty during this evening, so I stopped to take some photos.
If you asked me to compare if Yonsei University has a prettier campus or Berkeley, I would say Berkeley wins slightly. Berkeley generally has better looking buildings and architecture (maybe because they’re so old), but what really sets it apart is the frequent, very beautiful sunsets where the sky turns all sorts of colors. Thinking about it now, I don’t think I’ve seen a pretty sunset in Korea just yet, but I will keep waiting for it to happen :). After walking around the Yonsei campus for a bit longer, I just kept walking randomly until I arrived at a viewpoint in Sinchon, where I paused to stare into the night and also the many cars that were still zooming around at midnight. This reminded me of the one time in Berkeley where I went up to Grizzly Peak at 3am, which made me feel a bit nostalgic for home🥹.
On Thursday, I went to Gyeongbokgung Palace for the first time. Finally. It wasn’t crowded, which made it easy to wander around and appreciate the colorful architecture of the palace grounds. Gyeongbokgung is such an important part of Korea’s cultural history, and seeing it in person helped me understand why.
After briefly checking out the National Folk Museum right next to Gyeongbokgung, I took the bus to Gyeonghuigung Palace, which was smaller than I thought, and very quickly finished looking at it. This means I’ve now completed visits to all five royal palaces in Seoul, which feels like a pretty cool milestone.
My final stop that day was the Cheonggyecheon stream, a long stream that runs through downtown Seoul. I strolled alongside the stream for a bit until it became nighttime, and then I returned home.
On Sunday, I went to Starfield Mall in Hanam. I don’t know why, but this specific shopping mall very much reminded me of Valley Fair in San Jose, with a more open layout and not just the usual packed, vertical malls in Korea that are so common. There was a big Apple store in this mall and what was surprising to me was that there were no cables securing the iPhone’s on display, something unimaginable in America.
I wasn’t really planning on buying anything, but I ended up stumbling across a sports shop that sold skiing clothes. Since I didn’t bring my ski clothes from America and I am hoping to go skiing in Korea sometime during this winter, I ended up buying a ski jacket, pants, gloves, and other skiing gear. I can’t wait for the ski season in Korea to start. I don’t expect the slopes here to be even comparable with Tahoe’s, but I think it’ll be an interesting experience nonetheless.
Reflecting on my week, I realize just how much familiarity and newness blend together in my life here in Korea. Maybe I should first define what I mean when I talk about familiarity in a new environment. I feel like there are two types, the first being feeling familiar to the life I lived before coming to Korea. An example of this is when I wandered around campus at night, something I would frequently do at Berkeley as well, I would be hit with a sense of familiarity. For me, finding familiarity in this way gives me a sense of comfort, rooted in past experiences and memories. Shopping at Starfield Hanam brought back memories of Valley Fair, filling me with an unexpected calm. Or maybe when I had pasta this week, a dish I would often crave in the States as well. Even looking forward to future familiarity, such as waiting for the ski season to officially begin, is both exciting and comforting. Even though I know the location and ski culture might be different from what I am accustomed to, I can still rally around the fact that skiing as a sport won’t change a lot, bringing me a sense of ease.
The second kind of familiarity I feel is by finding a routine in Seoul, where I try to feel at home in a country that is still new to me. For me, familiarity brings comfort, so it’s something I am always searching for in Korea, even unconsciously. Even though it still feels strange to call something in Korea familiar or to even feel grounded, I am slowly starting to more fully understand what I can expect from Korea. Going to classes the same three days every week helps me have a consistent pattern. So does routinely going to the jjimjilbang to relax and turning off my brain. Routine and places I return often to find comfort give me familiarity in a foreign setting – helping me connect closer to Korean culture, and making Korea feel more like a second home instead of just one big hotel.
One thing I discovered is that the new and the familiar are not mutually exclusive. It was new and exciting to see Nyangnyang for the first time at the jjimjilbang. And it did feel strangely familiar when I was exploring Gyeongbokgung Palace and Gyeonghuigung Palace for the first time, when I had already visited the three other royal palaces. Korea still feels a lot like a foreign land I just stepped foot in, but I have slowly started crafting my own comforts and routines in Korea that fit me the best. Whether it was soaking in the jjimjilbang or exploring new palaces, I found that creating a blend of familiar and new experiences works best for me, helping me find my sense of belonging in Korea and making my time here all the more meaningful. I had many small moments to connect with Korea in a different but sincere way, and they all go into a melting pot which is my whole experience in Korea. There is so much comfort to find a routine and return to my favorite spots, even in the midst of trying to find new ones. The best part is I still have time to keep exploring, find hidden gems, and create memories that will stay with me long after I leave Korea.
I ended up writing more than I thought I would for my reflection on familiarity. I feel like I wrote the same thing for 500 words, but I hope it makes at least a little bit of sense since it wasn’t too easy writing this reflection. Maybe some other week I will explore how I handle discomfort and uncertainty in Korea, something I feel like would juxtapose this topic well. If there is anything that wasn’t clear, feel free to message me, and thanks for keeping up with my blog even though I am so late writing these.
