Guest post: Recycling, apartments, and furnishing my pad with your old pad
1CISK note: this guest post is brought to you by Dave – he’s lived in Korea for a total of 12 years now. He has been married to his Korean wife for 20 years, and they have one son. His family lives in Uijeongbu, where he is semi-retired and addicted to X-box golf. He recently wrote a guest post on traveling Europe with a Korean tour group and Korea being a driver’s paradise – hope you enjoy!
I’m doing my part, I truly am. It’s not just a passing fad, it’s a lifestyle. And the best part is, my partner is all the motivation I need. Of course, we are not just recycling furniture. We separate just More >
Poll results: Knowing what you know now about Korea…
0Knowing what you know now about Korea, what would you tell your past self? (pick one answer)
- You’ve gotta go – quit that lame job and look for a teaching gig in Korea now! (39%, 23 Votes)
- You’re doing fine in your home country – but you’ll do even better in Korea (22%, 13 Votes)
- It’s about the same, really – there’s still some fun stuff to see and do in Korea (22%, 13 Votes)
- Korea? No way. Avoid it like the plague. (10%, 6 Votes)
- You’re doing better where you are now, past self.(7%, 4 Votes)
Total Voters: 59
Some interesting numbers here…
Let’s call this next poll an ongoing More >
Question from a reader: what do things cost in Korea?
0UPDATED to include information about goshiwons.
A quick update to readers here in Chris in South Korea: in case you hadn’t heard, Chris is no longer in South Korea. He’s in Thailand now, exploring strange new worlds and seeking out new street foods. Check out the new blog at Chris in Thailand – www.chrisinthailand.com.
OK, so the question was asked on Ask a Korean first, which I’ll quote here:
Dear Korean,
I’m seriously thinking of moving to Seoul. Do you have an idea of what the budget listing would be for about a 15 week stay in Seoul, a detailed tally of expenses? Are there any other More >
Guest post: Driver’s Paradise
0CISK note: this guest post is brought to you by Dave – he’s lived in Korea for a total of 12 years now. He has been married to his Korean wife for 20 years, and they have one son. His family lives in Uijeongbu, where he is semi-retired and addicted to X-box golf. He recently wrote a guest post on traveling Europe with a Korean tour group – if you enjoyed that one, you’ll enjoy this one as well!
It sounded daunting, it would surely be complicated, and it most definitely had all the indications of being another exasperating exercise in why-in-the-hell-did-I-decide-to-do-this. But those are More >
Revisited: Oedo (Geoje-do, Gyeongsangnam-do)
0Author’s note: ‘Revisited’ posts are intended to be a fresh look at a place I’ve visited before. In many cases, it will have been years between visits, and offers a chance to see a place with a fresh set of eyes (and more than likely, a much better camera than I had before!). While they won’t replace the old post, directions and information for visitors will always be included.
Despite a rather curious acronym, the island of Oedo (pronounced ‘weh-do’) remains gorgeous year-round. It certainly wasn’t warm enough to ditch the jacket, but the sizable percentage of evergreen plants or trees More >
Destination: Woori Bank Museum (central Seoul)
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Having recently re-visited the Bank Museum in downtown Seoul, I was happy to see it hadn’t changed before making my way to Myeongdong and otherwise enjoying the area.
It was a couple weeks later when I was walking through that same pedestrian overpass and realized that Woori Bank had their own museum to take in. It’s in the building’s basement, and went unnoticed for far too long. To be fair, of course, being in the basement and having little in the way of outside advertisement means it’s bound to feel a little… lonely…
Entering the museum is simple enough, but curious – you’ll be directed More >
Thailand – the first week
2In case you haven’t heard, Chris isn’t in South Korea any more. Yes, the blog is staying up, and yes, I’ll be blogging about the adventures through Thailand. Go to http://www.chrisinthailand.com and be patient – there’s a lot of stuff coming soon I’ve every reason to stay in contact with wonderful friends and folks in Korea – the internet may be a bit slower here, but some very cool stuff is coming soon.
Suffice it to say that Thailand is more different than I expected it to be. Reading the cultural notes in Culture Shock! Thailand may help you understand the mindsets some locals have – More >
Konglish – because it’s just hilarious sometimes
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English – they’re doing it wrong. When it’s hilarious, it’s Konglish (or a number of region-specific terms)…
From the facemask:
Especially the skin activation ingredient abundantly
make the neat and clear skin. “하루수분 (Daily Moisturizing)”
removes effectively waste matter from the skin pores.
Also, it gives your skin moist and silky.
Moist and silky WHAT?!
Seen at a Lotteria in the Gangnam area – it’s like they took lyrics from the Western world, spliced them up, and tried to make something out of it.
Sweet Recipe
Dear
My Jelly Lips-talk
Baby
Choux Base
It’s entirely possible one of More >
Guest post: Europe… via Korea
1CISK note: a version of this story was received too late for the recent travel story contest, but was a great read. Go watch the stories of the three finalists and vote for the winner on Travel Pants Korea’s Facebook page.
Of course…it all sounds so wonderful, so complete, so carefully planned. It’s just a matter of get on and go! Well, it did go rather smoothly, except for one night in Rome…
Photo credit: Dave’s wife.
Your narrator is a former U.S. Servicemember who was serving a tour of duty in the ROK. It was a planned two week vacation from duty, and the ‘family’ would all enjoy a More >
Moving to Thailand: things to know and resources you’ll need
1As previously mentioned, it’s time to move on. Thailand is the next step, although all the Chris in South Korea posts will remain online indefinitely.
Coming to Korea was already a big step, and to be frank I did very little research ahead of time. Late 2007 wasn’t exactly the dark ages of internet civilization, but to be sure a LOT more sites have become much more helpful in recent years. I’m not yet in Thailand, but there are several places that will be giving me a head start:
Learning the language: http://www.learningthai.com. Thai has a lot more consonants and vowels than Korean, so More >
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