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Hey Youtube World - it's me, Evelyn. I'm going to be talking about two things. Number one
- my experience in South Korea, answering some of the frequently asked questions from
my South Korea travel vlogs which I will link right now in the atmosphere of this video
and I will put the links in the video description box for those of you who are watching my face
through mobile voodoo technologies.
Let's get the basic frequently asked questions out of the way. Hi my name is Evelyn. I am
23 years old, and I went to South Korea for two weeks in October to visit my best friend
whose name is Doyin. She is a teacher in South Korea and it was my personal vacation time.
Yes.
This is the camera I used for my vlogging travels and then Instagram on my phone of
course. It is a Canon SX160IS.
I edited my videos in iMovie like I'm editing this one in iMovie.
Someone also asked for a tip on how to edit videos. This is the biggest tip I can give
anybody: linger on the subject longer than you think you need to linger on the subject.
Too many people are out here operating their camera like it is an eye ball.
PEW PEW PEW PEW -- our eyeballs are moving so fast and we don't even notice how fast
our eyeballs are moving. Don't move your camera like you move your eyeball, son. Don't be
like PEWWWWW! SEEEEEWWWWN -- DON'T DO THAT! Just --
Let's answer some questions about Doyin!
How did we become friends? Freshman year of college, younawwwmsayin she saw me across
the room and she was like "ohh! I gotta get to know her!" and I was like "Shawty swing
my way! Sure look good to me!"
She is in the TaLK program, which is a public program, which means it's through the South
Korean government. And she teaches English. That's pretty much all I know about her program.
If you would like more information I can put a link in the video description box, but I
can't really tell you about the quality. But she look like she doin' real good for herself!
How does she take care of her natural hair in South Korea? She takes care of it the as
she would here. The process doesn't really change, it's more of the access to products,
and I feel like she stocked up before she left about a year ago. She has come back to
the U.S. once maybe? twice? i don't know - and has undoubtedly taken products with her. I
did bring like a pack of shower caps and like, some conditioner she needed.
I will say this though: I never did my hair when I was in South Korea because it was too
dang humid! My hair was perpetually damp. Perpetually wet! It's like a pongee. The atmosphere
was all inside. And then it gets trapped, like the heat gets trapped in my hair, and
then I'll have like, a stroke -- it was mmm. I had bantu knots for 72 hours at one point.
They were just not drying!
Someone asked if Doyin speaks fluent Korean. No she do not. Now you might be wondering
how you teach a class for a couple of hours and you don' speak the same language -- listen
it could happen! I've seent it with mine own eyes.
I mean she knows words. She can get around. Order food, say "thank you". She make a way
where there seems to be no way and really that's all that matters.
If you've ever been to a country where most of the peolpe aren't going to speak the same
language as you, a lot of it is just inferring and using your common sense. If you're at
a restaurant, the waiter only gon' be saying like a handful of phrases. He's not gon' be
over here asking about politics, he's gonna be asking you "what do you want", "do you
need more water" younawwwmasayin, so you can infer what he's saying. A lot of pointing,
a lot of nodding, a lot of smiling. No, yes.
Someone asked about k-pop. I don't know anything about k-pop that is all Doyin. Even before
she went to South Korea, she was into the k dramas and the k pops. My only connection
is that web series K-Town. The reality show on Youtube. RATCH. ASIAN RATCH. And I love
it. I love it.
Someone asked: as a person who only speaks English, would be it easy or hard for you
to use public transportation? Well,
I'll tell you right now that I'm not going to pronounce this correctly. The Korean alphabet
is called Hangul. In public transportation and really most signs on the highways, anywhere
in important, really, is going to have the Hangul characters but also the same words
spelled out in the letters we know. So you can always at least read where you're going.
How did the locals react to me? Me, as in a melaninly blessed human being. Let's start
off by my plane ride. Sat by a little grandma and her husband. My first experience of "oh
I'm going to Korea!" was my Korean grandma forcing me to eat her food.
Maybe she felt sorry that I was eating the American version of the airplane food. She
kept telling me the names of the food. Of course I didn't know what she was saying,
but I would repeat after her. And then in exchange, I showed her how to use the remote.
That's what life is about. An exchange of cultures and experiences. I know how to use
the remote and she wants me to eat her bibimbap.
There were a couple times when moms would push their children toward us and force their
kids to say English phrases. THEY'RE AMERICAN, PRACTICE ON THEM!
But overall YES, people stared at my brown face. Doyin prepared me for that. She told
me people would stare. Just the amount of staring that will happen. It's the stare that's
like break yo neck to turn around stare. Tap your neighbor on the shoulder say "look over
there" type of stare. It is the "mommy! mommy! look! look!" stare. Follow you with my eyes
down the street stare.
But -- it is just a stare. It's not like a "ooooo black people" they're more just clocking
it in their minds. Like this is happening right now, a black person is walking down
the street. That's really all it is. It is uncomfortable -- yes. It is awkward -- yes.
Do I have the right to lash out -- YES. If I feel like it.
But at the end of the day, in my two weeks in South Korea, I knew the majority of it
was just the novelty of my brownness. What are you gonna do? Not be brown anymore? Not
an option.
If you watch the vlog where I went to Doyin's school and sat in on a couple of her classes.
I mean the kids just go crazy. "Oh my god your eyes are so massive" and first of all,
they said we smell like chocolate or coffee knowing good and well my body that day was
mango -- how I smell like chocolate? Are you kidding me?
Chocolate though? Knowing not one of us has chocolate fragranced anything on our persons.
But it happens though. You know, it's just discovery. But like I said, you reserve the
right to not let people discover you. It's your right to not be in the mood on any particular
day.
There was one time we were on the beach and this guy was taking a picture of us with his
cell phone. I am not a mountain lion that is on the highway!
You know when someone stares at you, and you make the decision ima stare back? And they're
like "oh oh sorry" -- there was NEVER that "oh oh sorry"! It was just a *turns away*
Like, I caught you! Are you not ashamed, embarrassed, nothing?
Then the next question was, if I would have gone if I was by myself and I didn't have
a friend there to greet me. Yes I would have survived because I would have prepared myself.
I dumped all of my brain power onto Doyin. I learned how to say "thank you" and that's
it. I didn't know how to read anything in the characters. I didn't know anything because
she got me, right?!
Unlike, for example, Brazil where I was tryna learn Portuguese, tryna learn Portuguese because
in Brazil I blend in. Until I open my mouth to speak no one's gonna be like UNITED STATES!
UNITED STATES! UNITED STATES!
In South Korea, I'm obviously not South Korean, so I feel like I don't have to learn anything.
You already peep me from a mile away. You already see me coming. I feel like I would
have made it by myself because I would have actually prepared in terms of language and
you know the little phrases you gotta learn how to say.
I did always ask how to say the main phrases like "GET AWAY FROM ME!"
Interesting things about South Korea: apparently it's cool for couples to dress identically.
There's a lot of couple outfits. Like, identically. The same clothes.
So in one of my vlogs I went to a dog cafe. A place where you go get something to drink
and pet dogs. That's really all you do. It is a cafe in which dogs live, younawwmsayin,
and you pet them. I don't know what it is. You have to experience it within your soul
to truly understand. WHY DON'T THOSE EXIST IN THE U.S.?!? Because regulations. We got
doggy daycares, we got doggy spas, why can't I enjoy a nice pumpkin spice latte and pet
a beagle? That's really all I wanna do -- that's how I wanna unwind.
I went to the best -- first of all I live in Austin, Texas. Disclaimer. The best hip
hop club that I been to in a while was in South Korea. They was getting it! So if you're
in -what's that town- Itaewon? If you're in Itaewon, go to Cakeshop. Is it cakeshop? cake
pop? Go to Cakeshop. You gon' have fun cuz they do the hippity hops with reckless abandon
and it's so much fun. I was getting my life.
Really surreal moment when we was in a clerrrb, and -what's the song?- Gangnam Style? Everybody
was singing it. Like I was IN South Korea...
I just thought they would be like, annoyed by that song, but they was getting it. They
was really going for the gold when that song came on.
The subway system: so fresh and so cleant. Like you can't actually see the tracks or
get to the tracks. From ceiling to the floor, it's sealed off so the subway comes, subway's
doors open and then these doors open, and you walk through. Golden. New York -- get
on it. I understand New York is a huge place and it is OLD. But y'all got to get it together.
So yeah, overall that was my experience. Would I go again? Yes, I probably would go again.
Maybe swing through. I mean, it's Asia. It begat this side of the world -- well-- as
we know it.
They got empires and stuff, we aint got empires. What I'm trying to say is that I really enjoyed
going to South Korea and I would go somewhere else's on the content of Asia. We basically
just ate and partied and ate.
[YOU HAVE MADE IT TO THE SECOND PART OF THIS VIDEO, WHICH IS GONNA BE QUICK TIPS ON HOW
TO FINANCES AN INTERNATIONAL TRIP. ]