I have gotten so much from Korea. There is so much I am thankful for, and what better way to give back than to do volunteer activities, right? This time I bring to you my experience volunteering at the yearly European Christmas Market organized by Seongbuk Global Village Center.

I saw a story on Instagram advertising the event as an opportunity for foreigners living in Seoul to get volunteering hours, and it immediately called by attention because they were looking for people who could speak both Korean and English (since lots of foreigners attend this event). I signed up right away via the 1365 Volunteer website.

1365 Volunteer

1365 Volunteer is a website managed by the Ministry of the Interior and Safety where you can find tons of opportunities to do volunteer service. When you sign up, you get the option to choose specific areas or types of activities you would be interesting in, such as assisting/organizing events, security, etc. Once you complete the activities, the service hours get logged into your page and you can even print certificates of completion in case you need to turn them in somewhere.

Venue Time and Activities

The event was done on December 7-8 (11 A.M. to 7 P.M.), but I attended only on the 7th because of final exams🥲. We could choose to help part-time (4 hours) or full time (8 hours), so there were four time slots to choose from. I ended up doing full time on Saturday 7th. It was super cold and I made the grave mistake of not taking a scarf, but I survived (with a very red and cold nose like Rudolph🦌🔴).