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K-POP, KIMCHI & ME
WELCOME
I’m Amy, a strategic communications consultant,  runner, baker, wife and mom from New Jersey. I'm spending a year in Seoul with my husband on a Fulbright. I’m documenting my adventures here. Please join me.
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It's a Wrap!
After 320 days—and a lifetime of new experiences-- we are on our way back to Radburn. To say that I am feeling bittersweet is an...
amyplotch
Dec 25, 20212 min read
4 comments
The Food Post!
If you know me, you have probably been wondering when a food post would come along. Honestly, when I arrived in Seoul I wasn’t a huge fan...
amyplotch
Dec 13, 20215 min read
5 comments
Korean History Comes to Life
I’ve written before about the extremes of ancient and modern in South Korea. Seoul is filled with uber-modern buildings and state of the...
amyplotch
Nov 9, 20212 min read
5 comments
Violent History Meets Beautiful Art
Gwangju Korea isn’t on the typical tourist trail. It is best known as the site of the infamous Gwangju massacre on May 18, 1980. At the...
amyplotch
Sep 25, 20213 min read
4 comments
Riding Subways in Seoul: A Word from Phil
When Amy and I decided to move out of Brooklyn in 1995, we only wanted to live in neighborhoods where we could walk to the train and...
amyplotch
Aug 23, 20212 min read
5 comments
Why Are Covid Cases So Much Lower In South Korea?
With Covid soaring again, I thought you would be interested in hearing a bit about South Korea’s approach. Very few people are fully...
amyplotch
Aug 3, 20213 min read
4 comments
Sexual Harassment Was Ignored, Until My Friend Aryong Fought Back
In this post, I would like to introduce you to my friend Aryong Choi-Hantke. Aryong is one of the first Korean women I met. She is smart,...
amyplotch
Jul 23, 20216 min read
6 comments
The Sea Women of Jeju
This is Ji-yun. She lives on Jeju, a South Korean island in the East China Sea. I met her after she dove into the ocean, stayed...
amyplotch
Jul 9, 20213 min read
16 comments
Buddha Just Had A Birthday. Who’s Next?
We just celebrated a big birthday. Not mine or Phil’s, but Buddha’s. Buddha’s birthday is a national holiday. Schools and offices are...
amyplotch
Jun 2, 20211 min read
3 comments
Eating and Exploring our Way Through Jeonju
After writing about all of the modern innovations in Seoul that make life comfortable, this post will take you back in time to a town...
amyplotch
May 17, 20211 min read
7 comments
Eight Things You Will Appreciate if You Visit Me in Seoul...and One You Won’t
Hopefully vaccine passports are on the way, and with it a flow of visitors to see us in Seoul. You can pick up any guidebook to learn...
amyplotch
May 10, 20212 min read
4 comments
Eight Surprising Things You Can Learn in a Palace
Raise your hand if you learned Korean history in school… Yeah, me neither. But what I’ve learned here is quite fascinating. This post is...
amyplotch
Apr 28, 20213 min read
13 comments
Why I'm Questioning the U.S. Approach to Freedom
I always try to make these blog posts interesting, entertaining and fun to read. Today is a little different. A Korean friend recently...
amyplotch
Apr 15, 20212 min read
4 comments
Close Encounter With K-Beauty
The call it Hallyu, which means ‘the Korean Wave’. It’s Korea’s global campaign to share their culture with the world. Did you see BTS on...
amyplotch
Apr 1, 20212 min read
8 comments
Greetings from Philip
Hello Friends & Family: Out of Quarantine All’s going great in Korea. I’m certainly delighted that our quarantine period is over. If it...
plotchnj
Mar 25, 20214 min read
8 comments
Ten Things That Surprised Me In South Korea
Hello from one of the zillions of cafes in Seoul. This city clearly runs on caffeine. There seem to be more places to get coffee than...
amyplotch
Mar 10, 20212 min read
27 comments
Our Adventure Begins
We are officially Seoulites. We moved into a spacious, empty apartment on the campus of Sogang University. By empty, I mean there are a...
amyplotch
Feb 26, 20213 min read
15 comments
Toto, I Have A Feeling We're Not In Kansas Anymore
My cell phone buzzed. The GPS tracker in my quarantine app had noticed that the phone hadn’t been moved for a few hours. The monitors...
amyplotch
Feb 15, 20212 min read
18 comments
We Made It To Korea! (sort of)
(a guest post from Phil) Well, traveling in 2021 is certainly an adventure. We woke up bright and early for our big trip on Super Bowl...
amyplotch
Feb 9, 20213 min read
18 comments
Visas have arrived!
On a dreary December day, we made a rare pandemic visit to Manhattan to apply for our visas at the Korean Consulate on Park Avenue. We...
amyplotch
Jan 9, 20211 min read
4 comments
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