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Hate is a Virus: A Foreigner’s Perspective on the Pandemic in South Korea
Although the one-year anniversary of the global pandemic declaration has passed, this week marked one year of COVID-19 impact for our household. One year ago this week, the “distant” pandemic became real, as Peter’s university quickly made the decision to go on-line and the hospital where I worked began scrambling for PPE and isolation rooms for patients we knew would present with the novel coronavirus. My gym closed, our church stopped all in-person meetings, and our plans with friends were canceled. It all got very real, and that was before we witnessed the overwhelming loss of human life that was to come. Experiencing the effects of a pandemic first in…
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What’s happening with COVID-19 in South Korea? The December Edition.
Around the world, an estimated 71,536,243 people now have been diagnosed with COVID-19. More than 1,603,500 have died. These are the reported numbers and are believed to be an underestimate. Sadly, the United States continues to have a very high proportion of the world’s cases. We last posted about the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on South Korea at the end of August. At that time, we reported that when we arrived in South Korea (ROK) on July 31, the count of new COVID cases for the day was 36. On August 14, our first day out of quarantine, that number was 103. On August 27, it was 441, the…
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Top 10 Most Surprising Things About South Korea
Just as with any major life event, we approached our Seoul adventure with a certain set of expectations. Because we are planners, we did a lot of research about what to expect and how to acclimate to life here. We are also seasoned travelers and were prepared to experience those things you can’t plan for. We learned when we lived in Canada that even moving to a neighboring country comes with its share of complications. Indeed, every time we have traveled overseas something unexpected has happened. Plan as much as you like, but there will always be surprises! Here are some of the things – both pleasant and unpleasant –…
