I am a nervous person. I worry a lot and get easily stressed out and anxious, especially on my own and in unfamiliar settings. Traveling alone for the first time internationally, to a completely different continent I had never been to before, and who’s language I am not fluent in, definitely exacerbated those tendencies. However, despite being in an almost constant state of anxiety the first week I arrived, I was still simultaneously excited as I fumbled around to familiarize myself with my route to school and its surroundings. It was on our first official day of class, as I was climbing the stairs out of the subway station after having timed my commute with ample time to spare, I noticed a little bakery just down the sidewalk. It looked cute but I wasn’t intending on paying it any mind until I noticed an advertisement for 딸기 우유. Strawberry milk. Fresh strawberry milk; not your artificial convenience store stocked strawberry milk. No, this was in-house made, real cut strawberries in the milk, packaged in a glass bottle kind of strawberry milk. So, I made an immediate detour and stepped in. The bakery was extremely small and completely empty. I walked up to the register, greeted the man running it, and managed to shyly order a bottle of strawberry milk in Korean. I thanked him and was on my way. Still with plenty of time to spare before my first class, I sat outside in the humid Korean heat, chilled fresh strawberry milk in hand. That strawberry milk made my morning. Despite how nervous I was about the first day of class, I had already stumbled across such an incredible find. It wasn’t cheap but it still became a part of my routine. I would allow myself to splurge on it twice a week and it never failed to pick me up. Especially on the days I was stressed out because I had a test, or a presentation, or was running on 4 hours of sleep – I made sure to pick up a bottle. To someone else, this bottled drink might seem insignificant but to me it became such a simple source of comfort and joy amidst this almost constant state of fluctuating anxiety, like many other small things. There was the strawberry milk, the campus kittens, Anam station exit 3, and many more. But even to this day, whenever I think of Korea one of the first things I remember is that 신선한 (fresh) 딸기 우유.
Nicolle is a senior majoring in Interdisciplinary Visual Arts and minoring in Korean, who is passionate about the arts, travel, language, and culture. She studied abroad to South Korea the summer of 2019.
nicollecollege@gmail.com
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