Cummings and Goings

I’ve been trying to do a better job of documenting our actual day-to-day life in South Korea—not just the beautiful views, Korean BBQ, cute coffee shops, and meals that somehow make it onto my camera roll before I’ve even taken a bite.

Because as amazing as this experience has been, there is also a whole lot of “Okay…how exactly do we do this?”happening behind the scenes.

We’re learning how to navigate life here largely on our own. We figure things out as we go, Google probably knows more about our lives than it should, and there have been plenty of moments where we’ve looked at each other and said, “Well…this is going to be interesting.”

Thankfully, we also have some support.

The company my husband works for provides resources to help families navigate some of the more complicated parts of settling into a new country. And let me tell you, we have been VERY grateful for that help.

For example, they helped us open a Korean bank account and even went to the bank with us.

And thank goodness they did.

I’m not going to lie—the process of opening a bank account here was a total pain in the butt. There were forms, questions, paperwork, and approximately 47 moments where I had absolutely no idea what was happening.

And one of those little details I never would have thought about beforehand? You have to write your name exactly as it appears on your Alien Registration Card (ARC). And for us, that means writing our names in the opposite order from how we normally would in the U.S.

And then there’s Lee, who is a Jr. Apparently, suffixes like “Jr.” aren’t really a thing here, which made the whole process even more confusing. At one point, they thought “Jr.” was his last name. So we were standing there trying to explain that, no, it is definitely not his last name… it’s just part of his name in the very American way we do things.

Another tiny detail we never would have thought about until we were standing there trying to fill out a form—and one more reminder that moving to another country comes with approximately 7,000 things nobody thinks to warn you about. 

Of course, this is one of those things that seems incredibly simple…until you’re sitting at a bank trying to fill out paperwork in another country and suddenly questioning how you’ve written your own name your entire life.

Having someone there who knew what they were doing made a huge difference.

They’ve also helped me get a Korean phone, which sounds like a simple thing until you’re standing in a phone store trying to navigate a completely different system and realizing that knowing how to use Google Translate does not necessarily mean you know how to set up a phone plan in another country. 😂

One of the resources I’m especially grateful for is the nurse who helps us navigate medical care.

Before we moved, we shared our medical history, medications, and healthcare needs with her. She worked with us ahead of time to determine what medical support and medications would be available here and helped us figure out where we would need to go for different types of care.

Some appointments are local, while others are in Busan, about 45 minutes away.

She can help schedule appointments, attend them with us, and translate when needed.

That is a HUGE relief.

Healthcare can be intimidating enough when you’re in your own country and speak the language. Doing it in a completely new country, with a different healthcare system and a language barrier, is a whole different level of adventure.

And honestly, this is the part of moving overseas that I don’t think you see enough of.

You see the gorgeous Korean mountains.

You see the ocean views from our house.

You see the Korean BBQ.

You see us exploring and having fun.

And we ARE doing all of those things—and we are incredibly grateful that we get to.

But there’s also the bank paperwork.

The phone plans.

The appointments.

The translations.

The figuring out where to buy things.

The learning how trash works.

The never-ending “How do we do this here?” questions.

It’s not always glamorous, but it’s part of our life now.

And I actually want to document more of it.

Because someday when our 18 months in South Korea are over, I don’t want to look back and only remember the pretty pictures.

I want to remember what it actually felt like to build a life in a completely different country.

The frustrating stuff.

The funny stuff.

The things we figured out.

The things we definitely did NOT figure out.

And, of course, all the Korean BBQ in between. 🇰🇷❤️

So welcome to the less glamorous side of Cummings & Goings.

There are mountains. There are beaches. There are delicious meals.

And apparently…there is also a LOT of paperwork.