Moving to Seoul: Travel Days and First Impressions

It’s been a week since we arrived in Seoul, we finally have wifi in our apartment and a little bit of time under our belts to get rid of the jet lag. Enough to say, we have some first impressions on moving to Seoul. Our travel days were better than expected. We had our pets in tow, which complicates things, but we were able to keep everyone happy for most of the flights.

We had a 3.5 hour layover in Seattle and it ended up being a good amount of time to let the pets relax a bit (see Pip’s extendo carrier which opens to the front and sides) and walk around quite a bit for Remi. Here is a separate post on flying/relocating with pets, it was a whole process that took quite a bit of my brainpower to put together.

When we arrived, we were able to move straight into our apartment, much different than our lengthy hotel stays of the past. While this is wonderful in some ways, you are instantly thrown into your life without the slow transition of a hotel.

It is also easy to try and get a head of yourself. As a wise woman once said, “this is a marathon, not a sprint.” So first things first, get food and unpack your bags. Follow that with a slow discovery of your neighborhood. As much as you want to hit the ground running, it really serves you to ease in. Learn the aisles of your grocery store, find a local take out place and then plan in some touristy fun for everyone to ease the stress and start creating positive memories. This palace night tour looks really great as well, I’m putting it on my list.

We have tried lots of restaurants and cafes, including our local Starbucks, and Shake Shack at the mall, because sometimes, you’re homesick. Moving to Seoul has quickly resurfaced the all too familiar feelings of being foreign. You are not only navigating a new physical city, but you are very aware that you have no idea what the cultural norms are as well.

Lack of language skills means your observation skills show up big time and you are watching what everyone else is consistently doing. We have found many people speak English, but there is still a lot of google translating that is happening. It can feel like you are in a bit of slow motion, really observing before acting in many scenarios. For the most part, all your senses team up to fill in the gaps, but it can feel very mentally exhausting in the first few weeks. I will say that we give our kids lots of “yes’s” in the beginning. Call it some parenting guilt or giving them some easy wins, but we try lots of treats and pick up fun toys or things we find on our explorative outings. Sometimes, easy dopamine hits are just what everyone needs.

On the flip side, you can’t really trust your feelings in the first few weeks. You must commit to letting the days happen without any definitive judgements. You will miss all kinds of things right away, until your brain gets used to the constant newness. There is no comfort yet, there is no feeling of home yet. Your own apartment betrays you in the middle of the night when you play light switch roulette in the hallway. But that is all part of it, and I’m grateful to have been through this before, because it brings me peace this time around.

So here we are, after all the countless preparations, we made it.