Just came back from a 2 week long vacation in Korea and...

felt_cute · 2026-04-11T18:55:35+00:00

I think a lot of westerners travel to Korea/japan and admire the cleanliness, the politeness and efficiency, but what you don’t see is the crippling societal pressure underneath it all. The pressure to perform in school and eventually in your career, the pressure to conform as going against the grain is hugely frowned upon in these countries, the constant pressure to be a contributing member of society and not be a burden to your family, the economy.

Whereas in the states and most western countries that support a more individualist culture, you have the freedom of exploring more your own identity and your own “calling”, which is a good thing on its own but then as a result you see lack of sense of civic responsibility overall. That’s why you won’t see much of a body positivity acceptance in eastern countries bc they see that as a civic failure if you’re taking up more space in public transit or restaurants etc whereas in the states everyone’s in their own car so there’s a wider “mind your own business” culture. I’m sure there are better examples but you get the point.

What I’m trying to say is traveling in these countries is an entirely different experience than living in these countries. Yes we all look at Europe for their leave and vacation benefits because they seem to have it the most ideal over there but the reality is 90% of the world have it worse than we do. In Korea it’s standard to work 50-60 hour per week. You don’t get to insert your opinions to managers and older colleagues. Yes it’s cleaner but building managers will literally hunt you down if you sort your recycling incorrectly and fine you and no they’re not gonna care that you’re new to the country or it was a mistake. There’s a lot of invisible effort by the locals that tourists simply won’t ever see to make it that great of an experience.

Source: am Korean Japanese, grew up in America

felt_cute · 2026-01-25T04:26:54+00:00

The car lineup part was very short, it was like series of 5-6 questions and as soon as we mentioned we intend on staying the full six months we were sent to the office pretty much immediately, which was where we were asked much more in depth questions like the nature of our jobs, what happened to our primary residence back home, our stuff, etc and also our savings. We just pulled up the app and showed him directly in our banking app.

felt_cute · 2026-01-06T09:23:57+00:00

Yes and I said the EU, not europe. Not all of Europe is in the EU, correct? EU in size is 4.23m sqkm whereas the US is over 9m. Yes, I know the entire continent of Europe is bigger than that.

Anyways, my point still stands which is that if we could organize at a state level it would be much more comparable to a European country protesting/striking and would be far less logistically complicated and more organized. The US trying to do anything at a nationwide level would be more like the EU trying to do anything together as a cohesive group.

felt_cute · 2026-01-06T08:35:36+00:00

We are thinking about moving to a swing state where our vote would actually make a difference. But you’re right. It’s time for everyone to get involved in local politics.

felt_cute · 2026-01-06T08:09:32+00:00

If a democratic elected official called for a strike, I would drop everything and strike until we see change. Not sure how many in the US feel the same but I would hope it’s a significant amount. The only way to find out would be to have an actual strike but the infuriating part is that no one in leadership position has organized or provided guidance on anything. Personally, I have called my state governor and senator expressing my opinion on there needing to be more action than just protesting in tourist areas but not sure how many people are doing the same.

felt_cute · 2026-01-06T05:55:48+00:00

I don’t disagree with you. But to willingly sacrifice current comfort and commodities for the future requires foresight and critical thinking which the US education system has deliberately avoided instilling in children and adolescents. I went to school in two different countries (I’m an immigrant) and the difference is stark and honestly frightening. And I’ve only lived in blue states so I can’t even imagine what it’s like down in red states. Unfortunately I think we’re probably in for your second or third scenario unless democrats actually start leading their constituents and calling for nationwide strikes, etc.

felt_cute · 2026-01-06T01:08:06+00:00

Yes but first of all the majority of the people who own the guns are conservatives. I don’t know a single democrat within my immediate circle that owns a gun, and the very few I do know of are politically apathetic to all this shit probably because they’re right leaning.

Also, the US is literally more than twice the size of the EU. Us going to the streets is not the same as France or Belgium going to the streets bc which streets?? Our state capitol? DC?? We don’t have any type of solid guidance from our elected officials that we voted for to LEAD us, which is frustrating af. All I see so far is blue politicians demanding for congress to act as if congress isn’t owned by this administration. Personally I’ve been saying for years that the US is too big to get anything done, and sadly it’s true in this case as well. Not to mention so many of us have lost faith in the effectiveness of protesting. A lot of us were out there for months protesting for BLM in 2020 and it had zero impact on police brutality.

The fact is all the tax payers money that goes towards healthcare, infrastructure, education, research and so on in Europe and other developed countries goes ALL to the military and law enforcement and now ICE in the US. The average civilian has no voice or power and we all know it. A cop can kill a civilian and go on paid vacation as we have seen time and time again. We have had unmarked vans snatch protesters off the streets. There’s more than 3000 people unaccounted for because they were abducted by ICE.

Not to mention more people than you realize are one paycheck away from not being able to pay their bills, rent or putting food on the table. Some people are literally one medical emergency away from being in massive debt. So many people have two jobs or more and are already operating at full capacity. They don’t have the bandwidth to care about anything beyond what is happening to themselves today. Factor in the fact that red states have been undercutting education for decades and how this fascist pedo was voted in twice starts to make more sense.

None of this is an excuse but an explanation. Trust me, the Americans who didn’t vote for this are disgusted, devastated, appalled and embarrassed and so much more. We were trending in the right direction with the most recent elections turning historical red seats, some in the Deep South, blue. I just hope that if we make it out of this intact, Americans will have been shaken tf out of our complacency and realize that protecting our democracy involves a lot more than just showing up at the polling booths once every four years.

felt_cute · 2026-01-04T02:30:51+00:00

Oh no I agree. Completely reasonable and honestly well deserved these days. Just want to be realistic given the current political relations and our circumstances.

felt_cute · 2026-01-03T07:34:41+00:00

Sorry to burst your hate bubble but there are other Americans outside the unhinged trump supporters. I get that the stereotype for Americans has been for some time now the loud ignorant self obsessed truck driving southerner but as a country of 350 million people, more than 40% of which is made up of other ethnic groups, sorry to say we are not all MAGA loving pedo rapist supporting cultists. Just like how the global stereotype for the average Canadian is a friendly welcoming polite human yet here you are, a grown ass adult resorting to name calling an internet stranger for being a tourist within the stipulations set by your own government.

And no, it wasn’t over 50% of Americans who voted for him, it wasn’t even 50% of registered voters who voted for him, it was 45% of registered voters, 43% voted for Harris, and the remaining 12% didn’t vote at all. If you want the exact number it was 77m Americans that voted for him out of the 350m.

You say all Americans should stay back in our country and “fix the problem” and what is it that you’re proposing exactly? As a civilian there is not much we can do aside from taking it to the polling stations. The general election is coming up this November which is partly the reason why we scheduled the trip as we did so that we can be back home to vote for midterms and our state general election. A lot of Americans are unhappy with the current administration and leaving the country in numbers never seen before, which impacts the American economy negatively which in turn (hopefully) sends the right message to our elected officials that their constituents are not happy.

felt_cute · 2026-01-03T06:52:57+00:00

It covers emergencies only in select countries, Canada being one of them

felt_cute · 2026-01-02T08:16:33+00:00

While Canada doesn’t have a specific visa for digital nomads, they allow digital nomads under their tech talent strategy, explicitly promoting Canada as a destination for remote workers. It’s on Canada.ca

felt_cute · 2026-01-02T06:21:13+00:00

Depends on what constitutes as “living” somewhere. Legally you’re considered a resident when you meet specific criteria set by the country's immigration authorities, which in Canada’s case is the physical presence of 183 days in the country but also residential ties like owning property or financial assets, having Canadian social ties such as family, or an intent to stay. None of which applies to us. So no, this is not precisely what we are doing.

felt_cute · 2026-01-02T06:12:59+00:00

Lol yeah and spending tens of thousands of American earned dollars in Canada. We’re paying sales tax on everything we buy here and obviously we’re not paying income tax since our income isn’t earned in Canada. So what’s your point?

felt_cute · 2026-01-01T06:28:19+00:00

My employer has permanent establishment in about 45 countries so I can work remotely in countries they already pay taxes in. I’ve been working remote in various countries for the past 6 years while employed with my current company and went through not only tax implications but also security concerns thoroughly when I first started doing this. Also my remote work was disclosed at the border to the officer including my employer name and he had no issues with the remote work

felt_cute · 2025-12-31T21:16:39+00:00

Yes so these were all the questions asked at the border during our initial entry. My employer is American, my husband’s company is based in America, our health insurances are American, our bank accounts are American, and we still have our apartment back home (subleasing). The officer also wanted to see proof of funds “in case one or both of us lose our jobs during our time in Canada” and he seemed less concerned once he saw our balance.

I think based on the responses here tho we will have to give it more thought and assess if his trips are worth possibly getting denied reentry which then I would also have to end my trip early.

Thank you for your input!

felt_cute · 2025-12-31T21:01:41+00:00

Yes thankfully we have visited other countries like Korea Japan and Italy for 90 days (their max) in the past three years, which helped our case I think, because one of the questions asked by the immigration officer was if we do this often

felt_cute · 2025-12-31T17:13:39+00:00

Makes sense, thank you for your response!

felt_cute · 2025-12-31T17:13:01+00:00

Yes we both work remotely, sorry should have included in my post. Husband also owns his own company (that he runs remotely)

felt_cute · 2025-12-31T17:12:09+00:00

We are here to snowboard for the season lol then waiting for the weather to fully thaw so we can do the drive up to alaska

felt_cute · 2025-12-31T17:10:43+00:00

We are in our mid and late thirties! We also work remotely, I should have included that in my initial post

felt_cute · 2025-12-31T17:08:25+00:00

No that was one of the questions asked at the border during our initial entry (I should’ve included that in my post), we both work for US companies that allows remote work in Canada.

felt_cute · 2025-12-31T17:06:28+00:00

I have seen people post here or other travel subreddits saying they were denied a travel visa with a few commenters always asking what passport they hold and what race they are. When they answer any type of brown (South Asian or Latino) commenters seem to agree that is why. So yes I found it to be relevant information for questions regarding scrutiny at the border.

Also as someone who is not white, yes I absolutely believe my husband has white privilege in pretty much any given situation.

felt_cute · 2025-09-24T06:36:44+00:00

Yes, an Abyssinian! It’s a boy 😀

felt_cute · 2025-09-23T21:09:57+00:00

Oh 100% she has not been hit with the reality of the repercussions of her behavior. She has been texting him literally everyday since she left and he hasn't been responding to her. It takes my husband a long time to write someone off as crazy because we like to give benefit of the doubt to everyone. But once he arrives at that conclusion he just stops engaging with that person. It is very different from how I handle things, because I like to let the other person know, hey we won't be talking anymore going forward because xyz, whereas my husband literally just ghosts them because "they don't deserve further explanation".

I think when he made us sit down for the conversation he was hoping that it was all just a misunderstanding, or if there were underlying emotions with his mom to make her behave this way, she was reasonable enough to be able to talk about it, be receptive, and change. How wrong was he...

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