I Met Them in Korea!
As you all know, I’m a HUGE K-Drama fan. You can read all about how I was introduced to them, and my journey to fandom HERE. The Momster was my K-Drama buddy, and when she passed, I had no one to engage with. So imagine my glee when the opportunity to go on a K-Drama tour in South Korea presented itself! That tour truly was the highlight of my 2024, and I had the time of my life!
First things first. A couple years ago I came across an Instagram post/story by @noonasnoonchi aka Jeanie Chang.
In this post, she was addressing exactly what I was feeling in that moment; why you get such good vibes from watching K-Dramas, why you miss the characters when it’s over, and why they’re so easy to binge-watch. I was talking to the screen saying: “Yes! Right?! So true!!!” So she had my full attention. And then I proceeded to stalk her Instagram feed and stories, lol, because I was like, “tell me more please!” When I saw in 2023 that she was doing tours, I didn’t even have to think about it. Once I sorted out finances and which season would be best for me to carve out so much time from my regular life, I signed up. And because I’d be traveling across the globe by myself, knowing that I’d be part of a small tour group just solidified my decision, and I began happily counting down the months to September 2024. I was so excited to join 19 other K-Drama fans on an 8-day trek across South Korea, visiting all the popular filming sites, having meaningful conversations about the positive vibes and mental health benefits associated with watching these dramas, and building new connections based on our shared love of them.
Ready to Go!
Me and Travel Aren't the Best of Friends
The last time I flew out of the country was a little over 3 decades ago. Having done it last September, I now know for sure, that I DO NOT like to travel. If I could Samantha-Bewitched-nose-wiggle my way somewhere via teleport, great! But the 5am flight to Seattle, the 3 and half hour layover, the sitting-on-the-plane-for-almost-3-hours-AT-THE-GATE before finally taking off for the 10-hour flight, was difficult at best. But I was able to finish up the last 6 episodes of a kdrama I’d started watching earlier in the week, and the guy seated next to me was great and even shared some of his candy with me.
Me and another tour attendee, Jeanie Barry from Atlanta, Georgia, connected via the pre-tour Instagram group chat and decided we’d share a taxi to the hotel since we were both traveling solo. That relieved some of my anxiety for sure. It took about an hour, but I got through the “foreigner line” to officially “check-in” in South Korea, and then I was on my way to meet my taxi buddy. We even hung out the next day, taking in the area around the hotel, and picking up gifts for friends and family back home, until time to change and get ready for our first official “meet and greet” for Day One of the tour.
The next 8 days were absolutely wonderful. Everyone had a story on the tour and it was just so nice to get to know each person. I even gained 4 sisters, all traveling together, who adopted me and gave me their last name 😉 I’m sister number 6, (I think) and I’m now Ingrid April Bohannon Valentin, lol, I love it!
Traveling in the most luxurious tour bus I’ve ever been on, affectionately called “Kiwi”, over 8 days, we ventured to and spent time in Seoul, Suwon, Nonsan, Jeonju, Namwon, Pohang, Busan and Gyeongju, and checked-in and out 4 times, at 3 different hotels. The coordination of our comings and goings, to and from, were perfection. Even when things had to change from the itinerary, everything ran so smoothly. Our tour guide, Sophie, who knew EVERYTHING, was just fantastic! And she kept us all in line holding that flag up so when we veered off (like we weren’t supposed to do) we could look up and catch up.
As far as the culture there, I will say that for the most part, everyone was fairly nice. The older women were by far the nicest, and the younger people were most times, to me, just plain rude. You know, like New York rude, so it was perfectly fine, lol! Downtown Seoul was like being at Times Square in terms of the hustle and bustle and amount of people. I found out that, for the most part, saying “excuse me” isn’t really a thing in terms of formal etiquette, or moving aside for people when you’re walking down the street like it is here in the states. I can’t tell you how many times in the beginning of the tour my shoulder was clipped, thinking we’d both move a bit to the side to let each other pass… but no. It happened so much that one of my tour buddies said “you’re gonna need physical therapy by the time you get back”. Also, no one holds doors open for you. One guy looked directly at me, knew I was coming in behind him, and he let the door close in my face. But it didn’t take long for me to get over this part of my experience of the culture there. And although I hate to say it, I instinctively knew when some instances were because I was of a certain race, having done a deep-dive into all things Korean culture for months prior to leaving. Still… all good!
And can we talk about the weather? I stalked their forecast for an entire month prior to deciding what to pack. Initially I thought it was going to be a little cool, you know, transitioning from summer to fall. However, it was full on HOT, every day, except for that one day at the end when it rained. And every day was at least 80% humidity, with one day being 96% humidity. All I could think of was, “how are my sinuses going to fair on this trip. Let’s take lots of headache pills.” I typically get atmospheric headaches when there’s excessive humidity. Amazingly I had almost zero issues. Just the one time I woke up with a headache, but it quickly went away. My skin though… yeah, just perfect and glowing the whole time!
Then there was the food. All of the food was just simply delicious. We had three meals a day for the entire 8 days, and as someone who doesn’t eat beef or pork, let me just say, ummm… I had more beef and pork in those 8 days than I’ve had in the last 20 years, lol! And it was all so good! I stopped eating pork and beef in 2000 because of sinus and gut issues. However, I decided on this trip that I would try all the things. But just in case “all the things” didn’t sit well with me, I brought all my “remedy things”, really believing that as per my normal, at some point I’d probably eat something my digestive system didn’t agree with. But imagine my total surprise when I never had to take any of it. I had no upset stomach, no bloating, no indigestion, no nothing that made me sick. And I’m usually sick from something I ate here at home maybe 2-3 times a month. Once I got back, I was reminded by a friend of mine, that it’s because food is processed quite differently there than here in the US. The food is fresher in South Korea because they don’t put the chemicals and pesticides in the ground where produce is grown, where animals graze, and they don’t inject their chickens with growth hormones. Ok, that’s a whole other blog post in and of itself, lol!
So the point is, I didn’t get sick from food one time while I was there. All of it was so, so good, AND… I actually lost 5 pounds. But that’s probably because we did so much walking and climbing stairs. South Korea is quite hill-y, and steep too. I mean, everywhere we went there were steps and more steps!
My Favorite Parts of the Tour
One of my fave parts of the tour was playing dress up. And those of you who know me are saying: “Of course it was!!!” Because you all know I love to dress up, do hair and make up, and all the things. So this was just a magical part of the tour for me; to be dressed in the cultural attire I’ve seen in so many historical K-Dramas.
A few of us (clears throat) got into a bit of trouble because we were playing a bit too much, doing “The Can Can”, while NOT remembering we were in an ACTUAL shrine, yikes! As soon as we were reprimanded by the nearby Halmeoni’s (Korean female elders), we bowed and asked for forgiveness. And afterwards they were so very nice and sweet to us!
The other fave part of the tour was visiting the Sunshine Studio Lot. If you read my initial post on K-Dramas (again, HERE) you’ll know “Mr. Sunshine” was the first K-Drama I ever watched. This lot was nothing short of fantastical! Here are a few pics of some of the iconic sets where scenes were shot. #IYKYK 🙂
"I'm So Glad We Had This Time Together"
I’m dating myself here but… do you all remember the Carol Burnett Show sign-off song that went like this… uh uh hem (clearing my throat for my best singing voice)…”I’m so glad we had this time together, just to have a laugh or sing a song. Seems we just get started and before you know it, comes the time we have to say ‘so long’.” Well that’s how I felt leaving this tour, headed back home. It was all smiles and rainbows the entire time. Just like with the K-Dramas, I couldn’t get enough of these humans, and I’m so glad I got the chance to share time and space with them. As you can imagine, I have hundreds of photos and videos, so I’ve hand-picked these to share with you here. This was an unforgettable trip for all the right reasons, with so many wonderful, insightful, and just good vibe moments for 8 days straight.
P.S. As you can imagine, I have soooo many pictures and videos. Here’s a slideshow of just some random shots from each day. Enjoy, and ask me anything :)xo