Part 1:
Like I told in my introduce, if you already read that...
In 2015 my best friend asked me if I wanted to go to South Korea with her and do voluntary work. Of course I said yes, because I wanted some chance in my life and we went to a meeting with a company called ICYE (International cultural youth exchange), who offer us many different programs depending on where we wanted to go and how long we wanted to stay there. My friend and I of course chose South Korea for 6 month and actually we got many times the same question. "Why Korea?"
And I think my friend and I chose Korea, for many of the same reasons. But my reasons was that I have always been interested in Asian, as far back as I can remember and just at that time, it was South Korea that interested me the most. Now probably many people would think it because of K-POP, like BTS, Big Bang or EXO, if any of you know them or probably mostly people have heard of them.
But it was actually because I was really interested in the culture, the food, the people, the history and so much more. But my point is, the answer I gave to all the other people who asked me was. "Why not Korea, why did it had to be a country that was right beside my own and was so close to having the same culture anyway... Instead of a complete different one, with completely new things... That you maybe never seen before or tried in your life".
So after fill out all the papers and get all the right things ready. I went to South Korea with my best friend from August 2015-Marts 2016, working nearly 6 month and 1 month traveling around with my friend. I also just want to tell you, if you don't know it by now. Korea is really warm from June and until August, so even though we arrived in the night. It was still unbelievable warm and we had to walk up "the hill of dead"(As we name it later), with 30 kg suitcase and a package.
Me, my friend and another girl from USA, were picked up in the airport by our contact helper and she helped us with many things. Like getting us to the apartment, get a card for the bus and subway, get a phone and if we had to go to the hospital, she would also help us with that.
Before I came to Korea, I could chose if I wanted to live in a apartment or together with a Korean family. But because they have so long working hours, it's really hard to find families who can take somebody in for longer time. So we where 6 girl total, but it was only 2 girls who could live with a Korean family and one of them, could only stay with them for half of the time, that she stayed in Korea. 2 of the girls chose to stay 1 year and the rest of us for 6 month. Before we started working in the different places of Seoul, we were on a team building camp. Where we got to know either other more and try different Korean food, while they told us want to do and want not to do.
I have so much more to tell about it, but I thought it would be too long. So I have decided to divide it into parts, so I hope you will stay with me and keep read about my amazing journey and if you have any questions. Please feel free to ask, I'm open to any questions.
Thank you for reading!