Night Owls

Night Owls

 A night owl, which is also called an evening person, is a term for a person who generally stays up late at night.  There are lots of night owls in Korea, and no one thinks they are unusual. People often think if someone goes to bed before 11:00, he or she is probably an elderly person. I was also a night owl like my friends in Korea. However, I cannot be a night owl in the US because my habits have been changed. I miss my night life in Korea, especially, the shopping, delivery, and security.

First , around evening time, most stores such as grocery stores, restaurants and shopping malls in America are closed. On the other hand, at night, Korean cities are even more vibrant, fancier and busier than during the day. The biggest reason is that stores in Korea are usually open until midnight. Because of that, If someone asks me what I can do at night, “shopping” would be my first answer. The best place for night shopping is called Dong-Dae-Mun which has one of biggest shopping malls and tourist attractions. The stores in Dong-Dae-Mun usually open between 8-9pm, the same time when American shopping malls are closing, and close in the early morning. Of course, Dong-Dae-Mun is not the only late night mall in Seoul. There are more places that people can go to shopping such as Gang-nam, Hong-Dae, or Shin-chon.

Furthermore, I prefer Korean delivery systems rather than the American one's, and most Koreans would probably agree with me. The reasons are easy. Korean delivery is obviously faster and the fee is cheaper because Korea is much smaller than the U.S. and people don’t have to tip the delivery man. Despite these three reasons, there is a main reason why I prefer the Korean system. It is food delivery and it’s late! There are probably many Americans who don’t understand why a food delivery system is needed so late at night. However, it is quite useful to night owls. Because they stay up late at night, they start to be hungry little bit, but they don’t want to clean up after eating or cooking. At this point, Koreans have a lot of choice for food delivery. They can order Korean food, Chinese food, Japanese food, Pizza or Korean style fried chicken. Moreover, eating delivered chicken while watching TV shows at night is a typical part of the day for Koreans.

Additionally, when it starts to get dark, I am afraid of going outside and feel unsafe even though I live in downtown Chicago, which is safer than any where else such as southern or western areas. Moreover, there is nothing to make me want to go out in Chicago. Like Chicago, some cities in the US become calm, silent and dark when the sun goes down and the moon rises. It seems that it is not odd at all to find a zombie or a ghost. There are not many people on the street or cars on the roads, too. This makes me feel unsafe at night because when a person tries to commit a crime, there are no people around who can help me immediately or no place that I can get in and ask for help. Unlike the US, there are still many people walking around and driving cars in the evening and even at midnight in Korea. Also, the streets are as bright as the daytime because of streetlamps and signs of restaurants and stores, so I never felt that I was in danger or scared in Korea. Actually, I enjoyed taking a walk alone or with my mom late at night to got some snack or an ice cream.

It is sometimes true that American night is uncomfortable to Koreans. When my parents, who wanted to live in the US in their old age, visited me last summer, they were surprised and little disappointed because of the night life. They didn’t understand American night time, so living in the USA is no longer their dream although they really loved daytime in the US. Even though I am not a night owl anymore, sometimes I still have dissatisfaction still when suddenly need to go out for something unexpected.