Living in Korea, I have realized there is one major downside. What do you think? Being away for the holidays. I'm going on 2 years of being away from home, which isn't a problem for me. I've gotten used to it. My college was a few hours away, I studied abroad in Japan, and I temporarily lived down south. That's no biggie. I'm pretty lucky as far as being away from home is concerned. I get to talk to my family on skype quite a bit, especially my dad.
When the holidays roll around, I find myself homesick. Any other time, I’m surprisingly not. I've become really comfortable living in Korea. To me, this is home. Sure, there are obviously things I miss back home that I can’t get here. For example, I miss Primanti Bros., Sarris Candies (let’s face it, chocolate just isn’t the same here), and I even miss driving a car sometimes. I don’t even know if I even remember how to drive at this point. When I come home, pedestrians beware! I’m might forget that you can’t drive on sidewalks in America.
Holidays like Thanksgiving, Halloween, and Christmas are such a big deal in America. The most noticeable difference is Christmas time. We have our own Thanksgiving here in September, which is a big holiday to celebrate. But Christmas time just feels empty. You can hear Christmas music in the stores and occasionally you find a mini tree here and there. But there’s no spirit in the holiday season. It’s almost as if they know it’s a big deal in other places so they jump on the Christmas bandwagon, but so many people don’t really celebrate it. So if you take away the music and the trees, it’s just another normal day. You won’t see Santa anywhere or stockings hanging.
As my brother said, it’s become normal for one of us to miss a holiday or 2. But missing every holiday for 2 years is down right weird. I miss the food. This Thanksgiving, trying to find pumpkin pie, let alone turkey was like trying to find a needle in a haystack. My Thanksgiving was spent eating Korean food that I eat on a daily basis. It didn’t feel like a holiday.
Hopefully this Christmas, there’ll be a little more cheer! Stay tuned to find out...
Peace & Love,
Elissa Rae
Elissa Rae
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