2019 was the year I stumbled across Korean dramas, and that opened up the love of South Korea for me. Few months down the line I joined the Kpop world as well and I am now associated with those annoying fans that posts fan-cams on non related topics. Trust me I’m not annoying with it, I’m just crazy obsessive.

I have become in love with their style, fashion, skincare, language and mannerisms. However one thing I do not think It likely I will love any time soon is their food. Besides the yummy looking street food often shown in their dramas, I’m not so impressed with their traditional meals.

What I love about South Korea

• Korean fashion – As someone who doesn’t have any personal style, I am easily swayed on what looks good and I’m not too certain on what’s best suits me. The fashion shown through Korean idols often range from super cute to super edgy wanna be me type styles. The general fashion in korean stores are extremely trendy. The country is known to be focused on appearance and this includes fashion which of course reflects on the trendy fashion.
• Korean Skincare – Again this is my weak spot and I am easily fooled by the models used in adverts. The ideas put forward as models who already have perfectly clear skin pushing that a product is the result of their beautiful skin. My view on this is the skin care is beautiful and has great reviews so I’ve gone on a major haul.
• Entertaining idols – I definitely don’t intend to shade western entertainers but do they create full hardcore dance routines to ALL their songs, and sometimes sing live whilst doing this? (FYI that was a shade to some lack of live singing because quite frankly it would be too difficult to expect that. I can barely do half the routine alone without almost passing out. They are such beautiful people and granted their societal beauty standards are a bit special but that’s for another day.
• Their conservativeness – I can’t think of anyone who hates hugging as much as me and to think this is a norm in this country is just the best thing to hear. I am not alluding to the fact that the country hates hugging, it just seems as though they reserve skin ship to mean a certain closeness or reserved for family members.
• Korean dramas – I cannot express my love enough for this and it is taking over my life. The fact that I know that half of it is so cringe yet I’m so hooked is crazy. Some are executed so well they could definitely battle America. They bring me joy and they have super handsome and super cute actors.

South Korea is an exciting place that I hope to explore one day. It’s progressive with its technology, behind on the way they care for their stars, stiff with its beauty standard as many can tell with them holding the title of no.1 on plastic surgery. They have great fashion and great music. It’s a beautiful country with flaws that I will explore on a different day.

With the black lives matter movement, I think it’s very important to mention that I am very much aware of the racial tendencies that is perceived to be present in South Korea, I say perceived due to the fact that I have not personally witnessed it and it will be unfair to base this off others opinion and while I am madly crazy about the entertainment from South Korea, I very much am proud of where I am from, my colour and what black people represent. Being black is awesome and no one can tell me different. I am black and beautiful and we deserve to be respected just as much as any other race.