Top Five Reasons to Live in Korea

After a year of living in the Sunae-dong and teaching at Korea International School, these are my personal observations in no certain order. Shopping is the national pastime and this place is a shopper's mecca, but I did not include it in my top five list because the goods are really geared toward the Chinese and Hong Kong tourists. They come to purchase American and European brands at more expensive prices than we pay back home. All imported goods have a tariff added that can be up to 40%. Safety and cleanliness are two great reasons to live here and they go side by side with all of the following choices and make life very pleasant. I never worry about theft or weirdos. Never an issue here. These are the things that I will remember fondly.

Urban Green Spaces
To balance the concrete and steel metropolis of Seoul, the government has incorporated streams, rivers, parks, forests and community gardens. The Han River divides the city and the Cheonggyecheon River runs through the downtown area. The Tancheon Stream runs for 35K through my province all the way to Seoul. It has biking/walking paths and in between about every 100 meters you'll find a dog park or a golfing space or a volleyball court or exercise machines. These spaces are not only aesthetically pleasing, but they improve the air quality and provide social hubs for recreation and relaxation. Koreans are very active people who keep in shape and these places allow residents to step minutes from their homes and enjoy nature. It's like having a Greenlake in every community. Everyday I look forward to a long walk outdoors for balance and connection.

 Even cute, clean restrooms along the way.

Subways, Trains, Busses
I haven't missed car payments, insurance, looking for parking or washing my car and fueling it up! I'm two blocks from a subway station and all I have to do is swipe my debit card to ride. It's cheap, easy, fast, and always on time. Almost every person, even the elderly, are wearing their earbuds and tuning into the web, so the subways are silent. The bullet trains are super clean, quiet and totally relaxing.

 Of course they can get very busy! This was a packed car on the ride to the International Fireworks Festival.

                                           

                     Chilling out on the train to Busan.

Food Courts and Street Food
Unlike in the States where you can find outstanding ethnic food, most of the restaurants serve only Korean chow here and it's difficult to find authentic foods from other parts of the world. People search high and low for a good American cheeseburger or real Italian cuisine. I'm a big fan of the small bites and it's totally safe and fun to eat street food here. My favorite has to be the mashed sweet potato rolled up into a ball, battered lightly and deep fried. The ultimate comfort food. The food court displays look like a cover for Martha Stewart's magazine.

Convenience. 
There are challenges for a foreigner living in Korea, but it's also an easy place to live in a lot of ways. Want to shop all night? There's a huge market that opens at 10PM -5AM. Want to see a movie at 2AM in a 4D theatre or sitting in a recliner chair with food/beverage service? Need a massage or a jacuzzi or body scrub at 4AM? The spas are 24/7. There at least four coffee shops and fast food places and a bakery on every block. Mini-marts are practically side by side. Food and drinks are available at every station. Subways don't run all night, but cabs are easily accessible and fairly cheap. You'll never see a Korean carry groceries or large shopping bags home. Everywhere delivers everything within a day to your apt.You can get food delivery 24/7. Almost everyday a business card is put at my door for another delivery service. And if I could speak Korea I'd call and order! The lobby in my building has at least a hundred packages delivered everyday. When you go to the local grocery store you give them your address and your goods are at your door within an hour. Dry cleaners are in the apartment building as well as a small convenience store and a hair salon. This is probably what I will miss the most, especially the spas!

                   The lobby in my building.



Medical Services
I didn't know Korea was famous for medical tourism. Not just for plastic surgery, but for transplants and other things. Right after I arrived I had to test the medical/dental services in Korea and I am so very impressed. After breaking a tooth I saw a dentist within two days who graduated from Columbia, speaks perfect English and works Saturdays! Yup, office hours are generally until 7PM weekdays and a few hours on the weekends. Prices are considerably lower and it's all high tech. Medical clinics are everywhere and you generally do not need an appointment. Seeing the doctor is $10. If he prescribes X-rays or an MRI or PT or blood work it is all done then and there in the same building and results are immediate. Pharmacies are in the clinics. The international clinics are more costly, but amazing. I had a wellness visit paid for by my insurance that included blood work, mammogram, bone density test, hearing, vision, chest X-rays and it was all completed on two floors of the same building in less than two hours. People here are healthy and the national insurance provides for everyone. The US could learn a lot from the efficient, cost effective services here. And if you're looking for plastic surgery you've come to the right place. I went with a teacher to get her eyes done and it was unbelievable. Brief consultation with the surgeon in a gorgeous street -front office with several floors of services including a hotel. Totally sterile and serene spaces. A few days later she had the work done for a third of the US price and she healed within two weeks. Perfect job. There are over 3000 of these facilities in Gangnam alone catering to both locals and international clients. Before and after shots are advertised everywhere. Surgery is very common to create a double eyelid fold, noses, chins and even shaving bone to change the shape of the face. Women have beautiful skin here and the dermatologists' offices have many beds side by side and a revolving door. Men frequent these places as much as women! Appearance is everything here. Everyone wants to look like a K-pop star or a Korean drama celebrity.

Same but Different. Fast Food in Seoul

If you must have the American style fast food, it is everywhere in Korea. However, you will notice that things taste a bit different and the menus are not quite the same. Griffin was furious when he couldn't find a dollar menu at the Burger King! And there is no such thing as Super Size me or large or extra large or gallon size drinks. There's a reason why people are thin and svelte and healthy here. The portion sizes are much smaller, their food is mostly vegetables with protein and I have never been offered a dessert menu at a Korean restaurant, no such thing! They have lots of bakeries, but the cakes and treats are much lighter and not near as rich or decadent or buttery or chocolaty as at home! You do not see people drinking pop and the frozen sections in the markets are very small. People shop every day or other day, they do not stockpile pantries with processed food. Even the aisles in the grocery store with boxed and canned food are labeled Processed Food as if to say, BEWARE!!! Add to that an active lifestyle walking with lots of stairs, small living spaces that make you want to go outside and the cultural expectation of being thin and you get a height/weight proportionate society! There's plenty of crappy delivery food to be had in between the veggies and rice:

 

Nobody sits down and eats at the fast food pizza places. The scooters will have it to your door in minutes. And look, the delivery box has shelves! The All In One includes: pizza, chicken tenders, fries, pasta, assorted dips, pickles, a giant cookie, and plastic utensils. Oh, and there's a 2015 calendar on top, just in case you want to plot out which single day per week you need to order food.

 You will find some interesting ingredients on your pie like sweet potatoes, squid, octopus, blood         sausage, radish, bulgogi and not much cheese! For the pizza lover who also craves shrimp and cheese wrapped in dough, Pizza Hut has created the Whole Shrimp Cheese Bite. Because nothing gets the stomach juices flowing quite as well as a ring of shrimp with tails dangling in the air and heads swaddled in tubes of cheese-stuffed dough.

 You don't know this pizza. It's made with cookies, blueberries and shrimp! Sweet and savory madness. The shrimp sits on the flat, cheesy expanse on the pie along with raisins, potatoes and pumpkin seeds, while the blueberry comes in the form of a dipping sauce. If you haven't figured it out yet, you treat the shrimp as your entree then tear off the cookie crust and dip it into the blueberry for your desert. It's available in outlets across South Korea if you want a slice of the action.

 Many of the donuts are the same, but they also have green tea flavor, red bean and purple sweet potato. Below are glutinous rice donuts in chocolate, strawberry, sour green apple and banana.

All the pastries and cookies and sweets in korea are adorable! Everything here is about appearance.

Burger King has about half the items on the menu than you would see at home. A bulgogi burger is always popular. It's meat in a sweet marinade. Corn salad is also a favorite.

Yes, the guys really do look like this this!! The men here are very effeminate. It's normal to see guys wearing a starched shirt, khakis, a blazer, matching shoes and perfectly coiffed hair for a stroll in the neighborhood. They dress like they've popped out of print ads in magazines! They're also willing to wear matching outfits with their girlfriends and carry the purse!

 How about a shrimp burger with a green tea McFlurry?

The ice cream cakes are so small and 

                                                                                 beautifully decorated.