Busan: The "Miami of Korea"

A couple weeks ago I traveled to Busan, Korea's second largest city which is located on the country's southern tip.  I would describe Busan as the "Miami" of Korea because of its infamous beaches, coastline, warm weather, and skyscrapers.  Until then, I hadn't seen the south of Korea at all, so it was a nice change of scenery.  Korea's southern regions are supposed to be very beautiful, and Busan did not disappoint.

My friend Cara and I took the 6:30am bus from Jecheon and arrived in Busan around 11am.  We took the subway (which is a much, much smaller version compared to Seoul's system) to the Haeundae area. We stayed in a really fancy high-rise-apartment-turned-hostel with an awesome view overlooking a pier.  After checking into our accommodation, we wasted no time and headed to the beach.  Unfortunately, it was still a bit chilly to swim, but it was nice to walk on the beach nonetheless.  My beach experience in Korea was definitely different than any beach experience I've ever had in the U.S.  Koreans are very conscious of the sun and don't tan if they can help it; so instead of seeing people scantily clad in an assortment of bikinis and swim trunks, people were much more covered up (I'm talking long-sleeve shirts and pants).  To be honest, I maybe saw one person in a swimsuit (and it was a foreigner)!  Maybe that's because of the fact that many Koreans can't actually swim either.  As we were walking along the beach, we stumbled upon a sand-castle competition.  These weren't your average sand-castles either.  They were giant piles of sand with elaborate carvings in them.  Most had some sort of animal/jungle theme going on.

At Haeundae Beach

Sandcastle at Haeundae Beach

Haeundae Beach

Beautiful view from the hotel

Because of it's coastal location, Busan is very famous for seafood and it's fish markets.  We decided to walk through a fish market, and were astounded by the variety of fish/sea creatures we saw...and to think that they are all edible!  We went in looking for a specific type of fish, and we most definitely found it.  I'm not sure the scientific name for it, but it's nickname is the "Penis" fish.  I'll let the picture do the explaining...I'm sure it's not hard to guess why it's called that.

Penis Fish...yes, it's edible..but no I didn't try it.

Fish market findings

After we found THE penis fish we had heard so much about, we headed towards Busan's Cultural Village.  The cultural village is sometimes called the "Santorini" [as in Santorini, Greece] of Korea.  While Santorini's building are all white, the cultural village's building are a rainbow of various colors.  There wasn't really anything to do at the cultural village besides snap a few pictures, but it was still a great sight to see.      

Culture Village

Also while in Busan we decided to go see a temple, because honestly, what is a Korean trip without seeing a temple?  Haedong Yonggungsa Temple was built in 1376, and it was different than the dozen others I've seen because it overlooked the water--most temples are in the mountains.  It was a royal pain in the ass to get there (a 25 minute ride on an overly-crowded city bus, standing room only), but again, I guess it was worth it because the weather was absolutely perfect and the place was very picturesque.  It seemed that everyone had the same idea as us that day, because the temple was quite crowded with other tourists.  We took a quick selfie by the giant, gold Buddha statue (when in Korea, do as the Korean's do..), threw a penny in a well for good luck, and walked around the temple grounds.

Oh hey, Buddha!

Unfortunately the only thing I found lacking about Busan was the nightlife.  While the streetside adult slushies and cocktails were amazing, Seoul still takes the cake in the nightlife category.  I guess it's a good thing Seoul is closer to me then!    

One last stop before we headed back to Jecheon was Shinsegae Department Store.  It also happens to be the largest department store in the world!  It was filled with high-end stores like Gucci, Armani, Prada, Burberry, and Hermes.  Needless to say, I didn't buy anything...haha.

Dating and Couple Culture

This week I thought I would address a topic that I haven't really talked about at all in my blog: Korean dating and couple culture.  To foreigners, Korean couple culture may seem strange and vastly different than western dating, but after ten months here, I've come to find it really cute and charming.

In my opinion, couple culture is a topic that is brought up a lot because Koreans love to pry into everyone's love life.  They are obsessed with asking, "Do you have a boyfriend/girlfriend?" and if you say "no", they want to know why.  But, if you say "yes" you do have a significant other, there's a very good chance you were set up through family members or mutual friends on a blind date.  Koreans absolutely love to play matchmaker!  In the U.S., many single people meet potential dates randomly at bars, at work, through friends..basically anywhere; in Korea it's very different.  Koreans don't typically strike up conversations with strangers and ask for their phone number.  I've heard that their usually too shy to do such a bold gesture, so they rely on people they trust (aka friends and family) to set them up on a blind date.  Korean singles also like to date a person around their own age, plus or minus a couple years.  I believe it is pretty rare to date someone significantly older or younger than yourself here.

Once you have established an actual relationship with someone, the exciting "couple" things begin.  Once the relationship is official, couples will begin to document their time together by counting days.  While western couples will say they've been together for "X" amount of months, Korean couples will tell you they've been a couple for "X" amount of days.  It's very common for someone to say, "We've been dating for 62 days".  Reaching the 100-day mark is a very special occurrence for couples, and they usually celebrate this milestone anniversary by giving one another gifts.  Every 100 days after this is also a reason to celebrate (i.e. 200 days, 300 days, etc.)  Think it might be hard to keep up with the exact number of days?  Don't worry, there's a phone app to keep track for you!

Another way couples show their love for one another is by wearing couple clothes/outfits.  It is very common to see couples walking down the street wearing matching shirts, shoes, pants, hats, and even socks.  Sometimes they just might wear a matching shirt, or a matching shirt and hat, but other times, they wear the exact same outfit head-to-toe.  I am very curious as to how they coordinate this; do they text each other before going out and say, "Hey, wear your striped shoes and black button-up shirt today"?  I may never know.  I used to find these matching clothes a little ridiculous, but the more I see it, the more I think it's quite cute.  Another "couple" signature staple is the couple rings.  Not sure if someone has a girlfriend or boyfriend?  Look at their hands.  If they are in a relationship, they will most likely be wearing a couple ring.  Once couples are married though, you would think they would continue wearing rings, right?  Well think again.  Most married Korean couples don't wear wedding bands or any type of ring to signify that they are married.  I'm not really sure why couples wear rings, but after marriage you take them off.  So how do you know who is married or not?  I guess you don't really know, but kind of just assume.  If a Korean is over 30 and not married yet, they usually get a lot of pressure put on them by family members to find a spouse.  So I think most people assume that once you're over a certain age, you're most likely married.  Also, the couple clothes stop at marriage as well.

Two different couples wearing matching "couple" shirts

Couple Shoes

I observe a lot of this couple culture on the street just by walking around in town.  Things like couple clothes are very obvious symbols of a relationship.  Other things I notice are how doting the Korean guys are on their girlfriends.  I often see the men carrying their girlfriend's purse...and with no shame! (not that there should be any shame in carrying a women's purse, but I definitely don't see this being done in the U.S.)  And if it happens to be raining outside, you best believe that the woman is not holding the umbrella, because that is left up to the boyfriend to do. Little gestures like this are things I notice a lot just because it's different than what I would see at home.  

One thing I found very interesting is that families play a limited role in Korean couples' dating process.  Korea is a very family-oriented society, so I expected parents to be somewhat involved with their son or daughter's relationship; but actually, I've found that almost the exact opposite is true.  Many times, parents don't meet their kid's boyfriend/girlfriend until they're getting engaged.  Meeting the parents here is a pretty big deal because it means the relationship is very serious, like on a marriage level.  Of course not every Korean relationship is like this, but from what I've heard from both Koreans and non-Koreans, meeting the parents usually occurs very late into a relationship.  I find this odd for for various reasons, but one reason especially being that the majority of Koreans live with their parents until they get married, and only then do they move out.  It's very common to be in your late 20s or even into your 30s and still living in your parents' house because you're not married yet.  Korean couples almost always hang out outside of the house (i.e. coffee shops, movie theaters, doing outdoor activities, etc) because going to one another's house would mean having to meet the other's parents...and what Korean wants to face that, especially after only 200 days of dating.

Well, I hope you enjoyed reading about Korean couple culture.  It has definitely been one of the more interesting topics I've learned about in my time here.  Remember that this is all generalizations too.  Obviously not every Korean couple follows these traditions/rules.  And I don't have any first-hand experience, but I have learned a lot about couple culture through my Korean friends.  It's always fun to hear about differences from one culture to the next, especially about a topic like dating.