Gifts from the Land of Morning Calm

If you've read my blog for a while you will know that I have spent a year living and teaching in South Korea. It was an amazing experience and I still miss life in Korea a lot.

Recently my friend Dani sent me a package from Korea, Dani is from Florida but we met in Korea (obviously) and we have become pen friends (as well as just general friends) in recent months.

The package Dani send me reminded me of a lot of things I miss about Korea, so I thought I'd share what I'd recieved with you all and also what I miss about Korea.
1) I recieved this pot scrubber which reminded me that in Korea EVERYTHING is cute and I mean everything - from road signs to restaurant signs. I am a sucker for kawaii and I miss the cuteness of Korea a lot. Things in New Zealand just don't reach this level of cute.


2) I recieved these "couple set" hangers which reminded me how Koreans are a little bit obssessed with the idea of "couples" and "couple sets". It was really common in Korea to see couples dressed in the same hoodie, tee shirt or shoes. Sometimes they would be dressed in completely matching outfits. In some of the underwear stores you would even see displays with "couple set" underwear. It made me giggle so much. I can't imgine the couple set concept ever catching on in New Zealand.


3) Dani also sent me this Hello Kitty stamp and another thing I miss about Korea is Hello Kitty is everywhere! In New Zealand its pretty hard to come across Hello Kitty things, you can really only get Hello Kitty stuff in asian import stores. In Korea I could buy Hello Kitty stuff everywhere from the chemist to the supermarket to the bookstore. I even went to a Hello Kitty Cafe in Hongdae once. I feel there is now a lack of Hello Kitty in my life - although I think Rich would say there is still WAY too much Kitty for his liking. 4) I also recieved some make-up from "Skin Food" - I really miss Skin Food store, they have such great beauty products for such cheap prices compared to New Zealand but they are good quality too. There were a few other chains like Skin Food in Korea which had really good quality beauty products at a really minimal price compared the New Zealand prices. I miss that a lot. 5) I also got these completely random lollies and I'm not sure quite what to make of them - but that's ok - because that pretty much sums up my time in Korea, I didn't really understand what was happening a lot of the time, but that didn't really matter as I still had a fabulous time.