South Korea: Seoul Searching

Accommodation

The students will stay at a quaint guest house throughout their program:

Guest House in Seoul

The students will stay at the Naru Guest House near the Hapjeong Station in Seoul. It includes a kitchen and cozy living room, a balcony, and large bathrooms.

The students will be split by gender in the dorm rooms and bedrooms. The home has plenty of cozy gathering spaces where the students can engage in program discussions and get to know their newfound friends.

“I was kind of shaking because of excitement, and I was very overwhelmed… The group of students was amazing though, and we were given the most delicious dinner the first night.”

-Moldovan student Anghelina Severin talking about the first night of her Seoul Searching Program

Food

The students will eat a large variety of food while they’re on the program. Breakfast will be offered at the accommodations. Lunch and dinner will be eaten at various restaurants.

Restaurant Expectations

In restaurants, Koreans use a call button to fetch the waitstaff. If there’s no button, it’s common to yell out to the waitstaff. In old-style restaurants, people often sit on the floor shoeless when eating.

Meals may have a few rounds or courses. The last round is often fried/scorched rice or in the summer cold noodles.

While eating, audible sounds are acceptable. For example, slurping noodles is not rude. Koreans also may wear aprons to protect their clothing while dining.

At restaurants, it’s important not to be wasteful. In Korea, you have to pay to throw away trash and food waste. Korea is a world leader in food waste recycling. 95% of Korean food waste is composted.

Popular Food & Drink Choices

Coffee culture is very important in the nation. Plus, flavored milk like banana milk is quite popular.

People like eating extremely spicy food as they believe it relieves stress. Fried chicken is the #1 delivery item in Korea. You’ll see fried chicken shops everywhere you go.

Food Options During the Program

During the program, we’ll mix it up when it comes to food options. For breakfast, choices will include American breakfast items such as cereal, toast, and eggs. Popular Korean breakfast items may include various types of breakfast sandwiches with ingredients ranging from beef and shrimp to sweet potatoes and cheese. These ingredients are often topped with a sauce, such as pickle or aioli sauce.

For lunch and dinner, the students will have the chance to try a variety of traditional Korean meals. These often will include rice and vegetable side dishes called banchan.

Main courses may include the popular Korean stew jjigae, mung bean pancakes called bindae-tteok, or a dish called gimbap, which has ingredients such as vegetables and meat rolled in seaweed.

Midnight snacks called yashik are common in Korea. These often include chicken, tteokbokki (simmered rice cake), ramen, bossam (thinly sliced pork shoulder boiled in spices), and pizza.

In the country, anything can be used as pizza toppings. This may include sweet potatoes, shrimp, sweet marinated beef, corn, peppers, french fries, and hot dogs. Also, Koreans prefer a sweetened pizza dough.