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“When you eat something tasty it has zero calories” - Neon Sign in a Restaurant in 강남 (Gangnam)

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What you should bring to Korea

여러분, 안녕~

Everyone, no matter where you go, no matter how long you stay, you gonna ask yourself, what do I have to bring with me. Depending on where you go it's different what you need.

Here's some stuff that you get easy and way cheaper in Germany than in Korea.

So you should bring this with you:

• Tampons, you get Tampons but usually only online and only the American ones. If you don't like them (as me) bring enough with you. Also, they are compared to Germany really expensive.

• Deodorant. You can buy Nivea deodorant in Korea, but mostly only the spray one's. Also, you don't have lot of variety and it's pretty expensive as well.

• Shoes. If you're a woman and your feet are bigger than a UK 5.5 (EU 39/US 8) you're not gonna find a lot of shoes (at least not in non-international stores).

• Adapter. If you're from Germany you won't need an adapter for charging your phone etc. But people for example from the UK or the US need an adapter.

• Meds. Yes you're gonna get meds here too. But if you know which one's help you just bring them with you, especially if you don't speak Korean. Also, a friend of mine had to go the hospital because she got sick in the end it was way worse because they prescribed her to many meds.

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Girls in Hanboks (September 2018)

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경복궁 (Gyeongbokgung) in April (2019)

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비빔밥 (Bibimbap) in a restaurant in 명동 (Myeongdong) in May (2019)

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Ice cream at the 한강 (Han River) in May (2019)

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Flowers in April (2019)

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Glücksgefühle

여러분, 안녕~

When learning a language, you will have good times and bad times. Sometimes you will understand everything, it's easy, it's fun. On another day, it's tiring, no fun and you just want to give up. If you get to that point you should ask yourself "Why did I decide to learn this language at all?". Well for me I wanted to learn Korean for more than one reason. At first, it was just because I really wanted to be able to watch K-Dramas without the subtitles. But after a while I got really interested in the language, I thought it sounds beautiful, maybe also because of K-Pop. A lot of people say German sounds always so strong and mean, well Korean is the opposite. Another reason for me to learn Korean was, I kinda need that for university (since my French sucks). So here I am learning Korean. So in the beginning I thought, oh Korean is not 'that' different from German since at least they also have a formal way of saying something and an informal way. But ㅋㅋㅋ it's not that easy. They have so many ways to say basically the same thing, just in different formal and informal ways. Also, the grammar is sometimes kinda confusing, because sometimes the grammar looks the same but does have a completely different meaning. So why would you still want to learn that language? First of all for me personally, I live in Korea, so I need the language (because you can't expect them to speak English). But also because sometimes you have this enlightening moment for which it's totally worth to keep going. I had one of these moments a short while ago, I was already lying in bed, perfectly tucked in my planked. And (off course) my brain didn't want to sleep, so I was thinking about what the teacher told me that day about my homework. Then I started a theory about a grammar rule that I didn't understand since day one. But I couldn't just get one of my arms out of my planked and search on my phone, because I didn't have Wi-Fi in my homestay at that time. So I got up into the cold outside of my bed, got my first book we got in school and started looking for that grammar. And I was right, I found the grammar rule in the book (back when we first got the book, I didn't know that the grammar is in the back of the book with English explanation). I was so happy, because after all these months of just using what I thought was right, I actually got it. Well I still make mistakes using it, BUT I got it theoretically and it's a beautiful feeling. I did sleep like a baby after that experience. So for this sense of pleasure is definitely the reason to keep going and studying. Also, Korean is compared to some other languages still waaay easier.

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Rainy day in October (2018)

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Flowers in April (2019)

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경복궁 (Gyeongbokgung Palace) in September (2018)

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Street Performances

여러분, 안녕~ If people ask me what I like about being in Korea, my answer is mostly first of all the food. I really like Korean food. But one of the other things I really like about Korea are the Street performances. In Germany, you mostly only see Street performances only in summer and also not as many at one place as here. Even though there are obviously more performances when the weather is nice, there are still quite a lot in winter (and the Korean Winter is cold). Here in Hongdae, there is the 홍대 걷고싶은거리 (Hongdae Geotgo Sipeun Street), it's practically where the 'wannabe' artists live. From about 4pm to 11pm there is one performance next to the other. They are divided by the crowd. A lot of them have fans who come to watch them every day and stay the whole time. One of the reasons that they have so many fans is because they have their regular gigs and also because they have their official Instagram sites. Some of them also have YouTube channels so their fans and also people all around the world can watch their performances when ever they want. Some of them stream their performances even live. I could seriously spend days there. It's so much fun to watch those performances.

Sometimes even already well-known artists come to perform to promote their new album for example. Like 'The Rose' in October with more than a hundred fans. And some others get from being a street artist to a TV survival show like Kim Young Won (Under19). But no matter if already famous or not, there are a lot of talented people and it's definitely worth going there. Especially for people who like music, dance and Kpop.

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Sunset on the 한강 (Han River) in October (2018)

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딸기 빙수 (Strawberry Bingsu) with 떡 (Rice cake) with Red Bean filling on top at 설빙 (Sulbing) in 강남 (Gangnam)

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Buildings from above in 신사 (Sinsa)

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Door in 경복궁 (Gyeongbokgung Palace) in April (2019)