Ohhh, readers! I’m so sad to have been away from this blog — and youuu — for so damn long! There’s a reason, and I’ll get into it in another post soon (hint: I relocated within Korea!), but I really wanted to share something with you before I look up one day and realize, damn, this year is half over, and I haven’t blogged!
Trust, this something that I’m sharing isn’t the most valuable thing I’ve ever unleashed here, buuuut, I know it’ll be a help to a lot of you nonetheless, and it was a great, quick-and-dirty way to bang out an easy post! Killin’ a couple birds with one stone, y’all.
Anyway, the two random problems this story is addressing — they’re hella unrelated — involve food delivery and noraebang/karaoke-ing, easily two of my favorite things here. Read on!
Help Me Emo Ordering Service
You ever get those catalogs in your mailbox or on your doorstep, filled with restaurant ads and menus, tempting you with all manner of Korean delicacies awaiting your palate? Do you ever drool over all the photos of donkase (fried pork cutlet), kimbap, soups galore, fried chicken and pizza and wish you could pick up your phone and order ASAP? Do you then remember, “Hot damn, I don’t have enough Korean language for that endeavor”? Do you then cry in front of your microwave, inadvertently adding salty tears to the 22nd cup of ramen you’ve had this month? (No? Just me?)
Well, Help Me Emo is here to assist, and I’m continually surprised by how many foreigners I run into who don’t know about it! The service will call up restaurants that deliver and place a food order for you, having it arrive right to your door. Not sure if there’s even pizza or kimbap in your neighborhood? You can even ask Help Me Emo to look around for a certain type of food for you! It’s perfect for those of us who don’t live in or close to Seoul, where delivery services like Shuttle do brisk business, and Western favorites like Burger King and McDonald’s have their own delivery and even apps. Help Me Emo will assist you wherever you are in Korea!
When I lived in a small-ish town in Paju City, Help Me Emo was a godsend! And now that I’ve moved to an even tinier town, it’s proved to be a huge help in finding the eats I crave. Why, just tonight, I scarfed down a legit-delish pepperoni pizza from a spot just up the road that I wouldn’t have had the courage to order from myself.
If you’re wondering what the cost is for using this amaaaazing service, it’s a meager 2,500 won per order, and you can pay by bank transfer or via a Google Form. Wanna start ordering tonight? Just find Help Me Emo on KakaoTalk, add them as a contact and tell the service you’d like to join. You’ll be sent an order form for you to fill in your address and phone number to facilitate those yummy deliveries. From there, you just tell the service what you want, and they’ll do their darnedest to get it for you. Try it — you’ll love it!
Noraebang Songs on Naver
OK, this help is hella random, but if you’re a noraebang fan like me, you’ll find it super-handy. Honestly, unlike the Help Me Emo tip, I’m shocked that it took ME so long to learn about this lifesaver. Because when you’re in a song room ready to sing your little heart out, and you have one song in mind and then can’t find said song in the song book that’s, of course, mostly filled with Korean tunes, you’re ready to lose it, amirite??
Praises be to Naver for allowing us to find pretty much any song under the sun. All you do is navigate to Naver.com (or open the browser app if you have it) and type 노래방, and once another search bar appears, enter your song title or artist name, and, VOILA — the karaoke machine code you need should appear. And singing at the top of your lungs can proceed as planned. Hooray!
Got any other uber-rando but hella helpful tips to level up life in Korea? Share in the comments!
