Why *NOT* to live in Seoul: Six reasons why I love living in Korea's most boring province

Inspired by a question asked by my recruiter recently, I would like to share a few reasons why I love living in not-Seoul.
As a resident of Cheongju, capital of chungcheongbuk-do (chungbuk, for short), likely Korea's most boring province, I can think of more than a few reasons not to live in Seoul. Here are a few:

1.Have a ready-made network of awesome people, always happy to befriend a newbie.
Although I did not see another foreigner for just over a week after I arrived, from the first night I stepped into a bar I've made amazing friends, and I make more weekly, even four months later. That is (obviously) not to say that there aren't some amazing people for you to befriend in Seoul, I'm sure there are, but they're a lot harder to find.
In addition, the relatively small size of Cheongju's foreigner community means that i would feel comfortable approaching any foreigner I see on the street, and we likely have friends in common.
2.Learn Korean (or don't)
Every time I've gone to Seoul, I am taken aback by the number of people who speak English.
Oggling a subway map one day, a random dude directed my friend and I in perfect English to the correct platform.
Buying beer from a corner store, I asked in Korean if they had any paper cups (generally at the counter and sold in singles for this purpose). The cashier ( an older guy) was visibly shocked by my words and could not stop praising my Korean. He even engaged me in a short conversation about where I live, etc. while this was nice, I remarked as soon as I left that i never would have learned Korean in Seoul. Or at least not as fast. There are no opportunities to practice, even the store clerk speaks English!
That being said, I do know people who have survived here for a year or two without any Korean, so if that's what you're afraid of and why you want to live in Seoul, you don't need to worry (and odds are that even if you're not in Seoul, you'll still be in a bigger city than Cheongju, where you can survive on English if that's what you want).
I'll probably write another post soon on my opinions about that, but that doesn't belong here.
3. Save BUCKETS of money.
Seriously. Without trying AT ALL, I have ~$2,000 in the bank in four months. This is after buying a new MacBook, plane tickets to Cambodia, and $400 worth of dental work.
4. Be centrally located.
I can be at Inchon airport in 2 hours ( it can take that long from some parts of Seoul), in Busan in 3 hours, in Boryeong for MudFest in 2 hours, in Daegu in under 2 hours, in Yeosu for the World Expo in 3 hours (with transfer in Daejeon). For those of you who aren't familiar with the geography of this country, all of those places are really far from each other. But not from me.
5. Be able to breathe.
I've heard a good bit from friends, forums, etc., that the pollution can get pretty nasty in and around Seoul. I've never been in the city for more than one night so I can't say I've noticed, but the air here is (hot and humid, but) not at all like what I've heard of Seoul.
6. Experience Korea.
This one kind of combines all of the previous reasons into one.
I know that Seoul has all the conveniences of Western life, but of you want those, then stay home. You are moving probably at least a third of the way around the globe, things will be different. You do not NEED Taco Bell (but believe me I do go every time I'm in Seoul), your favorite brand of candy bar, a shwarma stand to go to when you're drunk. I know they're nice to have, but that's not Korea.
I bet one of the most appealing things about getting a job in Korea is the ability to see the world and save money at the same time, right? I sure think so. But if you ask me, that's not seeing the rest of the world, that's seeing the parts of the world that are just like ours.

Work-ity work work

I'm going to try to make a point of talking a bit more about work, seeing as that is what I do with the majority of my time here.
My job is pretty great, but it is exhausting. I catch the bus every day at 8:40, have 1-2 before-school classes starting at 9:30, then regular classes from 10:50 to 12:05 and 1:00 to 2:15. Then and after school class on Monday and Wednesday.
Then I clean my room (sweep and wipe desks daily, mop twice a week), sharpen pencils, and/or laminate stuff or make worksheets/prepare for the next day's classes. Then I go home at 4:30.
It's about a 25 minute walk home, which wasn't so bad when the weather was nice but lately it's just too g**d*** hot. So when I can, I skip out 5 minutes early to catch the bus (which only runs once an hour) at 4:25. If I miss it (and sometimes when it's not too hot), it's a hot sticky walk home.
My regular classes are not much fun. It's generally me trying to get kids to recite sentences from a story that they pretty much have to memorize. They have five weeks to learn the story and complete three (small) textbooks, two based on the story and a third on phonics.
My special (before- and after-school) classes are the more interesting ones. Last month, we had a loose focus on the outdoors and spring and summer. We did a story on spring, a week where we learned about playground stuff and then went outside, a story on rain/playing in puddles, a day of review and then we went outside again (I was trying to get them outside before the weather gets too hot). This month there's kinda a hodgepodge of stuff. This week we're working on reading. Which kinda sucks for everyone involved but it's an important skill. Which reminds me I need to make the worksheet for the 5-year-olds. Grr. Next week we're doing verbs and playing a game with balls and learning verbs. Then we're gonna learn some vocabulary about snack time and make Chex mix. That should be a fun class.
I enjoy my special classes because they're the only thing I really get a say in, the regular classes I really just have to teach the book. Which is easy, but I don't feel like much of a teacher.
I also have to come up with activities for 'camp:' two days before summer vacation and two days after. It's really just supposed to be games and activities because it's off-book and 'camp'-y, but I have no idea what to do. it's just two days, 25 minutes each day. all the other subjects are doing cool stuff like making food and doing art stuff, so I want to make mine interesting.
Look at me! Keeping my blog updated! woo! Hopefully see y'all soon!

I'm going to Cambodia. No biggie.

For those who haven't heard yet: my summer plans are official. I'm going to be flying to Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) four weeks from today (woah!) and spending twelve days mostly in Cambodia before flying out of Bangkok.
Originally I was thinking I'd spend a fe days in Saigon and a couple in Bangkok, but I'm thinking now that I'll focus this trip on Cambodia, trying to get some tropical into my life.
It will be rainy season, which makes travel a bit tougher, but the jungle is supposed to be emerald green, the country's usual layer of dust traded for a lustrous shine and terrible mud pits for roads.
Eh, it happens. I think it'll be worth it. It's not like I had a choice for when my vacation time is.
In addition, monsoon season causes the Tonle Sap lake to flood a nearby forest, submerging the bottom chunks of trees, creating what is known as the flooded forest.

That'll be me in that canoe.
Photo Credit

Angkor Wat
Photo credit for Angkor Wat and Ta Prohm

Ta Prohm

And of course there's the largest religious building in the world - Angkor Wat, part of the complex of Angkor temples outside of Siem Reap,


which also contains Bayon, home of over 200 iconic giant carved smiling faces, as well as the where much of Lara Croft: Tomb Raider was filmed: tree-root covered Ta Prohm.



Planning has been crazy, as planning a huge, international trip is apt to be, but I love it. I pour over my (somewhat disappointing) Lonely Planet, scour internet forums, and spend far too much tome comparing tour companies for the few things I think would be easiest by tour (such as mt journey on the Mekong from Saigon to Phnom Penh).
I found a really excellent-looking tour agency that is doing a special at the moment for buy-one-get-one urban adventures- if you book by the 30th! They're half- and full-day tours of a city (or starting in a city and going somewhere nearby), and at buy-one-get-one, why not! I only have so much time, and so I know I will need to take a few tours to get the most out of my journey. I'll probably do one in Phnom Penh and another as a day-trip from Siem Reap. I was thinking of adding a second in either one of those cities and doing one in Bangkok, as well. When they'e two for $40-50, they're hard to resist.

As you can tell, I've gotten a bit obsessed with the whole planning thing, but that's half the fun (who am I kidding, hopefully only 1/100th of the fun)! 

So apparently my last post was in March... Say wha??

I haven't posted in quite a while, I know. I've mostly just been settling in to life here, so there's not much to talk about.

Recently, though, I've taken a couple trips: one to Seoul where I accidentally saw a lantern festival and one to the beach, where I stayed in a pimped out penthouse and plopped my ass in the sand.

The thing about living in another country is that everything is remarkable and everything is the same. To me, this is just my life now, but I'm trying to come up with something to say, because I know that even though it's just daily life to me, it's interesting because it takes place on the other side of the globe.

Lotus Lantern Festival

About a month ago now (maybe more??) I went to Seoul, simply because I hadn't really been yet. I informed my boyfriend that he would be joining me (as if he didn't want to see the capital of our current county of residence) and then he promptly forgot until I mentioned it the night before we left. Guess how much planning I had done at that point. Yeah... I find that's generally the best way for me, though. I booked a hostel while on the way to the bus station on Saturday and barely knew what I wanted to see. 

It's a good thing we didn't have much of a plan, because that left us googling at our hostel (The Kimchi Guesthouse in Hongdae, a pretty decent place, especially for the money), where we discovered a lantern festival was happening. Our friends wanted to meet up there, and we set off to find them.

We never did.

That's okay, it was awesome anyway.

On the Saturday night we stumbled upon a giant parade.

*This will be one of those times when I mention how odd it can be to be a foreigner here.*
As we were standing to the side of the road, taking pictures, a woman comes up to me... and puts a shirt on me. Not gives me the shirt, this woman puts it on me.

And then procedes to photograph me.

Photographing in my beautiful new shirt

This country can get on your nerves sometimes, but that was just hilarious.

Other than the parade, we saw some stereotypical tourist sites in Seoul, like the gyeongbok palace and then we (I) did some shopping. It was a nice weekend, but I definitely have more to see and will be going back.

Some more lanterns from the parade

Blub blub

The main lantern design, the lotus (it was the lotus lantern festival, after all).

These two ladies smiled nicely for me =)

The other trip I've been on so far was to the beach. A few weeks ago (the weekend before my birthday, Memorial Day weekend in the States) was a holiday here as well as back home. Generally, Memorial Day weekend maks the beginning of the summer season, and so what better place to go for the weekend than the beach!

I think I'm the person about a third in from the left, but I'm not sure, Ed took this...

Koreans don't really do the beach, they don't like the sun (hence the amazing skin), so the beach was pretty deserted, which worked for us. The sun was also pretty patchy, but I definitely got some color. Mostly it was just nice to have a wekend way from Cheongju to relax and drink with friends. Which brings me to another odd thing here: no open container laws. Run to the mini mart, buy some beer and/or soju, and go drink it on the beach. perfectly legal.

Then we went back to our PENTHOUSE (I did mention that, right?)

Super excited about our penthouse!

 that the eight of us kinda accidentally ended up in and had a jolly old time until the wee hours of the morning. Rinse and repeat the next day.

Growing a social life from scratch

The decision to uproot myself yet again and place myself in a totally different culture - this time one where I don't even speak the language - was a decision I made rather easily. When I made the decision, I thought "oh, people do this all the time. All the cities have at least hundreds if not thousands of foreigners, and I know they don't all speak Korean, nor do they sit in their apartments by themselves." Thus, I assumed, there must be some kind of built-in network of foreigners that makes themselves known to newbies.
This, of course, was a completely ridiculous assumption. Many schools do have multiple foreign teachers, and some have many. So far I am the only one I know who has no other foreigners at their school. (Update: EPIK teachers (public schools) are generally the only ones at their schools, but they have an orientation together so they know who's around, and I think there's one at each of the bajillion public schools, so they have a network going in.) Many of my friends find the thought of getting plopped here by myself kind of amazing.
But there I was. All by myself. And so I went out on a Saturday night. By myself. It was probably one of the scariest things I've done, and I've done some pretty scary things. Meeting people is not my forte. I went out on a Saturday night. By myself. And for the first while, I stood in a corner. It's not something I'm proud of, but I just can't do that first little bit of putting myself out there. but then I ran into the people from my plane. And then someone else recognized me from Facebook. And so I entered into the ridiculous network that is the Cheongju expat scene.

I did make friends my first night out.
Photo pilfered from: Vicky Franklin

I already have a good bit of thought on a follow-up to this, but I'll leave this here for now and end by saying that being the only foreigner at my school is difficult, and I think for some people it would make the first couple months difficult. I've somehow managed to not let that happen to me and have broken into the world on my own, but I certainly wouldn't recommend it for everyone, and I still think it would have been much easier to have some coworkers to hang out with. Who knows if easier is better, though, my life is pretty great right now, so despite the tough first couple weeks, I'm not complaining at all.

Twenty-odd days in: I can do this!

Last week I posted about my first week of teaching, and although I do not think this will be a weekly post, the second week was pretty dramatically different from the first, so I thought I'd write another.

I came down with some kind of miserable sickness last weekend. It involved three days of voicelessness and a whole lot of coughing and a very stuffy nose. I spent all day Sunday chilling in bed trying to heal before finally venturing out to find a pharmacist, realizing this was nothing rest could fix in the 18 before I had to be at work. Not having a voice is not OK when you're a language teacher.

Me. With sickness.

After a good bit of effort later I finally found an open pharmacy (most are closed Sunday). Then came the fun part: charades. my frog voice pretty quickly got across the throat problems, and some pointing later I got what I would call some pretty terrible dayquil/nyquil and some kind of thera-flu type drink mix. They helped (especially the drink), but I still chugged and entire big mug of hot tea between each class to get me through just 25 minutes of speaking. Tuesday was a bit better, but still involved lots of tea-chugging.

Wednesday was the first day of my Samul Nori (사물놀이) lesson. Samul Nori is a band made of four different types of percussion. The oe I'm playing is not pictured here, but it's called buk (북). It's probably the most familiar to Westerners as it is essentially a base drum.

These are some of my Samul Nori-learning classmates.
Not the best picture, but you can see some of the instruments.

The lesson was a lot of fun, and I got to meet some new people, something I've been working hard to do around here. I actually saw all three of the folks in the picture later in the week (I'll talk about that when I get to the weekend).

I also ventured out to another solo restaurant meal, something I have been hesitant to do since my first solo restaurant experience was super awkward. My second experience was significantly less awkward and equally delicious. The meal was similar to the previous one I had had solo, Samgyeopsal (삼겹살), it was prepared in the same way and served with essentially the same stuff, but t had a different meat.

Not really sure that this is called, but it was delicious.

Thursday I had my first actual Korean Bibimbap (비빔밥). Thos of you who keep up with me on Facebook will know that I had bibimbap on the plane, but I feel like anything you have on a plane can't be too official. Thursday's was definitely more delicious. After bibimbap and some exploring, we ended up at a cafe, which brings me to something I'd like to point out to those of you outside Korea. Coffee is really damned expensive here. It's always delicious, but compared to the price of a meal (and compared to how much you would pay back home, the price is crazy. I'm glad I'm not a huge fan, as this means I can just have the occasional sugared-down coffee drink as a treat and not break the bank.

I also want to mention my second week of work. My first week was, as expected, difficult. I wasn't really sure what I was doing, had very little information in terms of lesson planning, there were no books the first two days... It was hectic. Week two went much more smoothly. I seem to be understanding the flow of things, the Korean teachers are getting used to me. Many of the kids still call me 'Amy Teacher' thinking I am my predecessor - ironic stereotype reversal that all white people look alike =) I am very excited for week three (though I could do with out the kids who don't cover their mouths) and the rest of the year. I think this is something I can really enjoy doing, and coming to Korea has been an excellent decision for me so far.

About that whole 'learning Korean' thing.

I found a Korean class in downtown Cheongju, at the YMCA (I also discovered that Cheongju has a YMCA)! For me, this is rather exciting news, as learning a language generally works better when at least part of it involves actually listening to native speakers. I also learn best from listening. To celebrate, I thought I'd write a post about all the things I can do so far in Korean. It's not a particularly long list, but I figured it'd be good to write so I know where I'm starting from when I start this class.

*One reason I chose to teach in Korea is to learn Korean. It is considered a critical-need language by the US government, and is generally considered among the hardest to learn for native English speakers.*

I thought I'd just make a list of the exchanges I've had in Korean, because they are, after all, the whole point of learning a language. So far I have understood seven (that I can think of) different people asking me various questions specifically based off of what I have studied, and successfully responded in Korean when necessary. Plus one random Korean sentence prompted in English. As I said, not a very long list, but I'm proud of myself:

First, a little girl in my class asked where I was going as I rushed out of the room to grab something from across the hall. I responded in English, because they're not supposed to speak Korean in class.

Next, as I was leaving to walk home one day, another girl, leaving at the same time with her family made a big point of saying "Goodbye teacher!!" (in English), and I said goodbye back. I was headed off the property when I heard her grandmother ask where I was going. I was surprised by the question (and by understanding it), but I seem to have accurately portrayed where I was going, because they gave me a ride.

A couple days later, as I was walking down the side of the road a minute or two from school, a teacher at the school pulled up and asked the same thing. That communication was a bit more difficult, as she did not seem to know my destination (like a kilometer away), so she had to put it in to her GPS. I tried to tell her I could point and show her how to get there, but that point was not adequately portrayed.

I have also understood on two separate occasions when people (one grown woman, one student) have asked where I'm from, and have been able to respond appropriately.

One that is less useful but goes over well in the lunch room is understanding when people ask me if something is good/delicious. I, of course, always say it is delicious. *Note: I used this one again last night while out to eat :-)

Finally, my first somewhat un-prompted speaking of Korean happened this weekend, while out to dinner with some friends. One guy was talking to a random Korean dude whose English skills were rather lacking, and he was trying to say he had just gotten to Korea recently. I suddenly feel a twinge of  'oh, wait! I know that!' -When I first got to my school, it would be pretty much a daily occurrence that anyone who spoke enough English to do so would ask how long I'd been in Korea. After the third or fourth time, I learned the word 'came' in one of my lessons, and decided to make the sentence 'I/he/you came to Korea last week.' BINGO! I have a Korean sentence totally relevant in this random conversation with a random Korean.

I know these things are not huge conversations, but the fact that I am understanding native speakers (and they generally understand me in return) is very exciting to me.
My spelling still leaves a lot to be desired, maybe the class will help with that? And on the topic of the class: it's Saturday mornings from 10-12. I already missed the first two. I was told this is not a big deal, but I should really try to make it out this weekend. Which means I actually have to wake up on Saturday morning. Oh well, I think it's worth it.