A list of things rare, hard to find or just too darned expensive in Korea.
1. Regular American Style Pizza
While pizza is commonplace in Korea, it's just not the same. The under the top layer of what they call "cheese" hides a plethora of surprise goodies. Corn, potato, slices of pumpkin and something they call "fondue" are normal Korean pizza toppings. But hey, at least they've figured out stuffed crust!
2. Cheese, sour cream and cream cheese
I made an amazing chicken chowder soup yesterday but I couldn't find the two main (and best!) ingredients- cheese and sour cream. They do have cream cheese for about 7 bucks but no bagels to put it on! Luckily, the closest store that sells real cheese is only an hour bus ride away.
3. Tortillas
Seems ironic that my blog is called Korea Tourtilla, yet it's slim-pickins when it comes to Mexican food. Any time we go to Seoul, we eat at Chic-Tom in Hongdae (a pretty good texmex restaurant) but that is not as often as I'd like. Though I suppose even if I found tortillas, I wouldn't have cheese, sour cream, pico or refried beans anyway!
4. Deodorant
I never even wore deodorant in the States. I kind of have a phobia of things reported to cause cancer but in Korea, it's as hot and humid as a jungle and I smell as bad as if I were living in one. Luckily, my friend Jen sent me a coveted stick of the stuff that came all the way from California. When I opened her little care package for me, I laughed and giggled and hugged the little bar of goodness, giving my Korean coteachers yet another reason to find me strange.
5. Hipsters
I live in a pretty tiny town with few foreigners. Seoul, only 2.5 hours away, has more foreigners than I could ask for but it's so massive that it's hard to meet people. I do miss my little Denton-town and my thrifting trips with my best friend Melissa, looking for sweaters with giraffes on them and the next outfit for a wacky-themed-party. Which leads to number 6...
6. Thrift stores
Hands down, this is high on the list of things I will do as soon as I get back. They don't sell much second-hand here it seems and would probably find it odd if I went looking to buy someone's old mustard-colored seventies decor.
7. Blonde hair color
If I have searched far and wide for anything, it's been blonde hair color. It's impossible I tell you! It's really expensive to get it done in a salon and even more so if they speak English. The Koreans love my blonde hair but they don't make it any easier on me by not carrying my color anywhere. Everytime someone asks what I want in my care package, the first thing I say is hair dye!
8. Friends and family
Even if I had a mile-high mountain of cheesy quesadilla and pizza sandwiches and a thrift store on every corner, none of it would matter without my friends and family. My niece is growing older everyday (she's 5 now) and my sister just graduated high school. My best friend found the love of her life and another got engaged, my brother is getting married too and has a baby on the way! While I am learning a lot about myself and gaining tons of xp points, I miss my FaF a bunch.
