I can hardly believe it's true!

My two friends (K & P) and I will be flying to South Korea this October and will be staying the entire month! We will be based in Seoul and will be making excursions to Busan and Gyeongju! If you are from or have traveled to Korea, I would love to hear about some "secret" or lesser known about attractions we can visit!

We made the decision on a whim back in January. At first, it was just a somewhat joking suggestion. However, as we were looking at Airbnbs in Seoul "for fun", we came across one that looked very promising! In the moment, we made the big decision to actually book the place for our dates, and WOW did it feel very real at that point...there was no turning back.

So, a couple months later, we booked our tickets, and soon after, booked an Airbnb in Busan so that we could visit a mutual friend. We also wanted to make one more excursion but were deliberating where. I have some close friends and old roommates in Japan from when they studied abroad, so Osaka was an option. We considered Jeju Island as well, since it looked so beautiful...none of us are millionaires, however. Financing the trip is certainly taking huge chunks of my savings, but this is a grand opportunity! Flying to Osaka wouldn't be exceptionally expensive from Korea, but my friends weren't able to host us unfortunately... Jeju looked promising, but transportation looked to be difficult. So, we ultimately decided to stay on the mainland. After looking at different cities and options, we decided on Gyeongju.

I believe that liking kpop is more than just the music and the members. Sure, it's easy to say that you like EXO or BTS, and that so-and-so is your bias and that you would love to go to Korea...but I think it's important to understand where kpop came from - Korea's history, its culture, its people, its customs. I think you need to be able to see the good and the bad, since not everything is sparkles and rainbows. I admit, when I first got into kpop, I was a little blindsighted - everything looked so glamorous and perfect. However, as I got to know more Korean people and researched more about the kpop industry, Korean culture & society, and Korean history, I feel as though I have a better understanding of how kpop came to be, what kind of impact it's had on society (for the better and the worse), and I have a better appreciation for the nation's history/culture/people since I've educated myself. I've learned to read and write Hangul, and have learned a decent amount of the language.

TL;DR - if you're a fan of kpop, please try to appreciate more than just the members/music. Kpop is "Korean pop", so educate yourself to the best of your ability about the people/culture/history/language/etc.

Sorry about the tangent...I'm just super excited! I want to be able to give back to my subscribers, since being on AFF has helped me meet amazing people, write interesting fics, and keep kpop in my heart. Maybe I'll hold some kind of event with a random winner I can send something from Korea to...would anyone be interested???

Peace and love my dudes,

starlight-turtle