I don’t feel belonged

Hi @rav3n so I messaged my mum about me solo travelling to Korea this morning and she asked me why I’m going on my own and how much I paid the tickets for. And yeah, she did give me a warning sign like “I’m worried about you. If you are a boy I wouldn’t be worried, but you’re a girl.” She also said that I need to spend money, which yea I know but I’ve already saved enough money especially before I moved out of home until I nowadays have to pay $1000 worth of rent per fortnight whilst being on the DSP..

She even said that I “don’t know everything” which actually I do, she just thinks that I don’t… 🤷‍♀️ I’ve been keeping up with stuff in relation to kpop and have been watching some videos and of some guides of what to do in Korea as well as looking up stuff on the internet too.

Tbh I’m pretty worried about what the air pollution/quality is gonna be like there in Korea during the winter season next month… and I’ve seen people saying that the water in there isn’t good & has ruined foreigners skins o_o

hey @Blackcloud

seems like your mum wasn't too mad about the solo travelling? seems like she's mainly concerned of your safety (which we expected anyways). since it is your first solo travel, your mum's probs going to warn you about a bunch of things - i'm guessing she's feeling underprepared to let you go off (can't really prepare a mum to let their kid alone into the world... guess that comes with experience which she'll get from this) plus it's really great that you've done all that research as well! do you think it'll help her feel less worried if you share your research with her?

ooo yikes! the water stuff does sound a bit risky... from my experience with travelling in areas with poor waters - i never drank tap water in those countries, and was cautious of street food stands... (some are okay but aren't too hygienic). buying bottled water was safer or if you have access to a kettle, boiling tap water (to kill all the bacteria) and waiting for it cool down before drinking is another option (i did this one majority of the time). and you probably already know this but take face masks if you're worried about air pollution!!

hi @rav3n

yeah I always use the kettle to boil the water first before I drink it as well, as that's always been a thing for my parents so I'm used to it 🙂 I plan on doing that too during my time there in Korea in the accomodation I'm gonna be at. I've also seen people (from my research on how peoples skin got worse when they got to Korea) saying to purchase a 'water filter' for the shower as well, which I didn't know what a water filter was or what it looked before I searched it up yesterday, and I didn't know that using that can help make the water get rid of the bacteria (at least that's what I'm getting). I mean I already have sensitive skin and have skin issues but damn.

Yeah I was also thinking of looking for the masks to buy as well, because so far they dont seem to be available in retail stores based from my internet searching and based from my browsing through some Asian retail stores too, but I did just come across one on a big w website, so I wonder if the big w that I live only 5 minutes away from actually have those KF94 masks...

also I'm not sure if you saw my other reply to your response from yesterday but I'll see If I can link it here

edit: here's the reply

thanks for the link, read up on those now @Blackcloud 2 weeks!! funnnn and what kpop concert is this?

oh you boil the water before drinking it too! whenever i've told people about this, they've been so confused hence my over explanation oops! i'm the same, my parents do it and now out of habit i do it most times too.

ahh interesting about the shower - so from what i've heard, there are certain elements in the water that can cause long-term impacts on skin/hair and using a filter helps get rid of some of those harmful elements. but at the same time, since you're going there for 2 weeks, and not actually living there for years, maybe the impacts won't be much. but there's no harm in getting a water filter if that's what you'd like. maybe research what the shower heads in korea look like? because some filters aren't compatible on certain shower heads due to differences in shape/size...

oh yeah those masks are good, and even the normal ones you can get from the chemist are pretty good too - might need to keep changing it more regularly though.

Hi @rav3n

oh like I’ve mentioned before it’s a fan concert of this kpop group that I’m and have been a huge fan of.

I’ve just had a look at the series of images of what the parts in the accomodation (the accomodation I’m gonna be at in Korea) look like via the booking.com they have included there, and seems like their showers in the rooms look like this one. So does that mean I’ll need to get a water filter in this case cause I can’t really tell from the looks of the shower thingy xD I know you can’t see the image clearly and I’m not sure why the image isn’t uploaded in the quality that I want it to be, but hopefully the quality of the image wouldn’t be much of an issue

oo yep got you! i don't know much about kpop stuff but my sister a massive kpop and kdrama fan so i know the fanbase is HUGE.

@Blackcloud yeah i can't see the picture clearly either 😂 but i did a quick google and they say that the water's actually pretty good in south korea? some say its better than US water - no idea what sources to believe but from what i gather, i think you'll be fine without a filter. totally up to you if you want to get one though!

@rav3n oh with the water part I actually was looking onto peoples reddit posts along with the comments in those posts too and a lot of them have pretty much mentioned about getting skin problems when they’re in Korea, whereas only at least one user in each of the reddit posts have mentioned that they actually got clear skin when they got to Korea compared to when they lived in their home country lol

@Blackcloud ohh yikes that's so confusing hearing the conflicting info 😅

did those people mention how long they spent in Korea? i wonder if those who complained of skin-related issues were perhaps living abroad for months/years?

Hi @rav3n @you’re right, I wonder that as well. I have seen a few of those users mentioned that they’ve been living in Korea for whatever amount of months, as well as one saying that they’ve been living in Korea for a year etc..

also, I went to my parents house today and my mum seemed very supportive of me going to Korea even when I’m solo travelling. She even told me to make sure I take lots of pictures & get souvenirs and stuff from Korea so yes i already plan on doing all of those! 🙂

also, I lied when I mentioned (I think yesterday?) that my mum bought her flight tickets for her/my dad/my sister’s last year’s trip via business class, it turned out she actually picked economy (not business) as well lol.

@Blackcloud ahh yep! hopefully you don't need to spend money on buying a filter for your trip then?

aww yay!! so glad you're mum was supportive of the solo trip, that's a big step for her!! 😊

oh and please do share some pics with us here when you're back too.

oh i see - sometimes economy can be really expensive too - if you have a bit of luck you can get nice deals & flight centre tends to have pretty good ones so its good that you're OT suggested that. are you finished with uni for this semester?