Destination: Yonggungsa – the seaside temple (Busan)
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CISK note: I’m slowly working my way through old drafts still looking for the light of day. This one’s been on the backburner for awhile, but remains a wonderful place to see the next time you’re in Busan.
With thousands of temples across the peninsula, you’d be forgiven if they all started to look similar. While they’re all unique, you’d need to have a pretty educated background and finely tuned eye to tell them apart.
Enter Yonggungsa, AKA Haedong Yonggungsa, AKA 해동 용궁사. Legend holds that the Great Goddess Buddha of mercy in the sea lives a solitary live, and can appear on the back of a More >
Guest post: finding pizza by the slice
1- As purveyors of authenticity, The Kitchen Salvatore Cuomo, Pizza Peel, Brick Oven, and D’Buzza Pizzeria reign Korea’s pizza world from their brick-laid, 500° Fahrenheit hearths.
- Then there’s the brand name, weirdly expensive franchises like Mr. Pizza and Papa More >
On zoning, why “My rooftop smells like pizza” – and the compromises we sometimes make
0CISK note: this piece is inspired by and a direct response to a Joongang Daily piece published on May 14, 2013. Go read that first, otherwise most of this may not make much sense.
Imagine living a few doors down from a major supermarket or department store. You expect your apartment to cost a bit more, maybe, but think of the convenience of walking to the store instead of trudge across town. You may also expect there to be more traffic in the early morning or late night, owing to the legions of folks coming to get their shopping done. It may not be completely ideal, but then most people try More >
What comes after Korea? 5 expats (and me!) tell their post-Korea tales
1CISK note: this post holds the record for being one of the longest in development – started in July or August 2012 for a possible future article with the Groove. That never happened, so here it is for the world to enjoy. I’ve also added my own perspective since I’m now an ex-expat of Korea.
What comes after Korea? It’s rather hard to ask that of the folks at the bar – they’re still here – and I’ve yet to hear of an online group where former Korean expats go to remember the good old times. I made contact with five folks that have called Korea home, and have since moved on to something else. I More >
Coming to Korea: where to live? About the neighborhoods in Seoul and Gyeonggi-do
2Author’s note: Coming to Korea posts are written with the newer expats in mind. If you have a more experienced perspective to offer, please share in the comments!
EDIT 9 May 2013 to add some more information.
As I’ve been making the transition to Thailand and the next chapter in life, some of the more basic questions began to crop up: where are some good neighborhoods to live? Which foods are worth trying? Where are the best places to get a drink? Sure, some of this can be done through the internet, but the best source of information remains the person on the street that knows the area. If More >
Question from a reader: getting private tutoring jobs?
1A reader (who for obvious reasons will stay anonymous) has asked the following question:
It took a while to get here, but so far so good. I was actually curious about tutoring.. Not really sure how to approach that though. I’m getting mixed input on the legalities of it and people willing to chat about it. I’ve tried to be accessible. From going to coffee shops, to taking taekwondo, but nothing yet.Image credit: karindalziel Let me start with the standard disclaimer: if you are teaching in Korea on an E-2 visa, you need permission from both your employer and Korean Immigration to More >
48 hours in Seoul – or, a walk on Seoul’s wild side (find it in the Busan Haps, or read it below)
1CISK note: a version of this piece is published in the May issue of Busan Haps.
Spending two days in Seoul is a bit like spending a half-hour inside a three-story museum – you’ll enjoy it, but you’ll quickly realize how little time that really is. Lonely Planet’s own guide to the city of over ten million requires 208 pages to cover thoroughly, so understand coming in that ‘seeing it all’ isn’t an option. With that said, two days will fly by with a mixture of old and new.
Day 1
10am: History being controversial shouldn’t surprise anyone, especially in a country that has so much of it to More >
Konglish and random pictures: the special ‘Icheon’ edition
1While in town for the Icheon Pig Museum, we came across enough ‘special English’ in one night to make an entire post of Konglish. All of these were taken in Icheon, Gyeonggi-do, within a couple blocks from the bus terminal or our hotel for the evening:
This machine is for a person
who wish to watch, to reduce
teenswatching and damage
on thoughless watching
Found inside the hotel room – apparently it cost 500 won and had the sticker for use by people 19 years or older. I’ll let you guess what this is used for…
I could see a few cases in which the words “center of wedding” might appear in More >
From Korea to Thailand – 8 things to expect
1After a month-plus on in Thailand, I’ve settled into a routine not too unlike the one I had in Korea in the months before I left. To be clear, I’m neither teaching English, nor am I looking for English-teaching jobs (thanks, but I had enough of that in Korea). Instead, I’m taking on some gigs as a WordPress developer (the e-mail remains chrisinsouthkorea AT gmail DOT com if you’d like some help developing your site), and I’m involved in a couple of startup ideas – more on those as they develop.
What I’m here to talk about now, though, is what to expect in Thailand. As an expat in Korea, More >
Book review: Happy time go fast (Wes Weston)
0For anyone new to Korea, you may be unfamiliar with the long list of literature previous expats have left behind. While I’ve yet to see a definitive list (and probably never will), let’s simply say the story of the English teacher that comes to Korea has been written about in many different ways. This blog has reviewed a few different versions of the story – from Chris Tharp’s excellent and informative Dispatches from the Peninsula to a gonzo-inspired “The Dog Farm” by David Wills. There’s been a few others along the way, some more memorable than others. The story can be told in many ways, More >
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