Affording Food in Korea

Coming from Canada, we knew it would be a bit tricky finding the particular health foods that we were used to buying at home. We eat a lot of organic, and fresh produce and it's everywhere. In coming to Korea, we expected it to be a little more difficult to find the stuff, and variety that we're used to, at the prices we're accustomed to paying. We knew it would be difficult, but because we're in a rural town, it's even more difficult. Frozen blueberries cannot be found, avocados are $3+ each, apples are $1.50 - $2.00 each... Produce (unless locally grown) is expensive here, if available at all. We're slowly developing a strategy for food and supplements that allows us to get what we need / want.

Our current strategy is 4 fold.

1 - Hwarang Mart - Our local grocery store. We get basics there like lettuce, seaweed, eggs and a few others.

2 - The local market - we get some produce here also, but still not a 'write home about it' value. Every 5 days there is an extra big market day with a TON of vendors selling pretty much the same stuff. We get fresh fruit and vegetables there often also.

3 - iHerb has been a lifesaver. The prices are pretty good. We make at least a 4 or 5 purchases a month through iHerb for everything from vitamins and fish oil to protein powder, flours, nuts and seeds. Here's a short list of what we buy fairly regularly.

Greens – http://bit.ly/1SNOwrO
       Great ingredient profile and I trust the brand. Taste is mediocre, but it's greens. 

Omega 3 – http://bit.ly/1OPKy1u
       Can't go wrong with NOW foods brand. They source the oil from small, cold water fish and it's molecularly distilled, so we like. 

Vit D – http://bit.ly/1DaCBCS
        NOW Vit D. For the winter mainly, but still good to take here and there throughout the summer. 

Chia – http://bit.ly/1Mx6al5
        An absolute staple in our diet. We go through a lot of this so we always buy in bulk for extra savings. 

Probiotic – http://bit.ly/1glb9s8
         Mercola brand is top notch. These probiotics are not cheap, but they are incredibly good quality. Neither of us have gotten sick while here (first 5.5 months) and I attribute that in large part to these beauties. 

Pea Protein – http://bit.ly/1U86CaO
        Julia's plant protein. Good value and she loves the taste.

Enzymes – http://bit.ly/1LYQC9N
          We use some digestive enzymes on occasion if we're going out for dinner or eating something out of the ordinary. 

Stevia – http://bit.ly/1DQuQwM
           I prefer stevia to sugar. :

Whey – http://bit.ly/1DaDfR5
            Brian's protein. No bells and whistles, just the basics.

Cocoa – http://bit.ly/1DaDivW
             Straight cocoa. No sugar, but nice to add to chia or smoothies. 

Coconut Oil - http://bit.ly/1LSfDSs
             If you don't fry your food with coconut oil, check yourself. 

B Complex - http://bit.ly/1IrsHIM
           B Vitamins - energy, stress etc... Good stuff. 

If interested in any of these products (or anything else on iHerb) and you're a new customer, go here:

iHerb New Customer

and use coupon code JKM400 at checkout to save $10!

4 -  GMarket. GMarket is like amazon / ebay. You can buy just about anything. We've been finding more and more stuff on GMarket that we're going to start buying. Frozen blueberries and avocados are a couple of examples. Avocados are 11 for $22, so a definite savings there! We can save by buying some things in bulk. 

Below are some random photos of the products we've bought through iHerb and GMarket as well as our local market / street vendors: 

 

Loose Ends

In my last post, many details of our upcoming Korean adventure were still up in the air, but it's all coming together now. We've had some important questions answered, flight are booked, loose ends here at home are being tied up and we're even starting some exciting new methods of 'saving' for travel.

At the time of my last post, our biggest concern with everything was that we weren't positive where we would end up, and there was no guarantee that we'd be in the same city within Chungnam province, as our applications had to proceed as individuals, as opposed to 'couple'. Chungnam is triple the size of Ottawa and somewhat rural, so it could have been a serious issue. What made it worse was that you find out exactly where you're placed on literally the very last day of orientation, only a few days before you start teaching! I emailed our EPIK coordinator to see if they could make an exception and let us know which city(ies) we were in so that we could plan. While he couldn't provide us this information he did let me know that we 'would be sharing accommodations'. That is absolutely plenty! We really don't care where we're placed within Chungnam, as long as we're together we're more than happy. He said that they are currently looking for a place for us, and that it may be small. That's fine, we're into the whole 'tiny house living' concept anyhow. Also, they have to spend a minimum of $400 per person on accommodation, so if they find a place for us that is less than $800 per month, we get the balance as a housing allowance. Can you say 'massive sigh of relief'?

Secondly, we booked our flights. We officially leave Canada on February 18th. Ottawa to Vancouver and Vancouver to Seoul. A total of nearly 19 hours of travel time. The flight from Vancouver to Seoul is eleven and a half hours and so we splurged and got the $120 upgrade for the extra leg room in economy. I was lucky enough to win an internal work competition that ended in December and my prize was a $1500 Air Canada travel voucher, so we used that, and after everything was said and done we paid $860 for everything. These are one-way tickets, keep in mind. Also, after the first month in Korea we get a $1300 bonus that is meant to cover the travel expense, so that will be nice, as we only spend $860 total and will get $2600 in return!

With regards to taking caring of loose ends here at home, we've made lots of headway there and (fingers crossed) we tie up a MASSIVE one today. We met with our financial adviser and took care of some banking / mortgage stuff, notified our internet service provider, hydro, gas etc of our departure and are starting to get many more prospective tenants wanting to see our place. A couple came yesterday to see it and we have three more showings today. It would be awesome if one of these materializes into a tenant and ideally a long term one, as we hope to not have to move back into this house on our return but rather keep it as an investment and purchase another, smaller home. It would also be nice if one of these viewings results in a tenant, as it would allow us to just focus on organizing everything in the house and not have to worry about keeping it 'show ready'. Either way, things are starting to come together and when people ask us if we're excited, we finally feel like we can maybe, possibly say yes.

What we are excited about is travel hacking. It's a concept I've been learning lots about through podcasts and blogs. It's a pretty massive sub-culture of sorts, where you use programs, promotions and offers from credit card and travel companies to your benefit, accumulating travel rewards points for free / cheap flights, hotel stays, car rentals and more. I've already put some of these practices to use and by the time we're ready for our first 'out of Korea' adventure (likely summer time) we'll have enough Aeroplan points to fly to New Zealand or Australia return, or anywhere within Asia (multiple times) FREE! With one month to go, everything is coming together and we're feeling more and more confident about this new adventure!