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: 

 

Julia's Buyeo Birthday

Yesterday was Julia's 29th birthday. We spent it right here in Buyeo. It seems like every few years she has a special birthday abroad. In 2009 we were in Australia and she turned 23, watching the sun rise over the ocean, hanging out on the beach and enjoying a special dinner that I made for her, inspired by Masterchef Australia. In 2012 we were in the High Sierras of California, hiking the PCT, the entire day was somewhat typical for that adventure,  but the beauty of our surroundings made it epic. What lacked in the area of dining was more than made up for with ambiance. This year, again three years later, she turned 29 here in South Korea.

First thing this morning I went and picked up Korean rice cakes. Julia's favourite dessert here. You can find them pretty much anywhere (market and grocery stores) and Julia's favourites are the big white ones. So rice cakes for breakfast it was! The forecast called for rain all day, but we made the best of it before it started. We went out for a bit of a workout on the mountain, running around and ding bodyweight exercises.

After a quick clean-up, we hit up the grocery store and picked up some essentials. Not exactly an exciting birthday excursion, but important nonetheless. After lunch we headed out for a walk and ended up at Gungnamji. It's a giant pond / maze that's jam packed with Lotus plants. They bloom in the summer and in about a months time there will be a big festival with many, many tourists coming to our little town. Today was also busy, and for good reason, it's absolutely beautiful! The plants have grown immensely and the flowers are starting to bloom. We wandered around and took photos, but it started to rain heavier so we had to run and find shelter. We decided that it was a good time to go eat dinner, as it was now 4:45 and we were both a bit peckish. There's a place right near the pond that specializes in Lotus Leaf Rice. They cook rice and wrap it in the lotus leaf and add some beans and a couple other vegetables. It's pretty delicious and one of Julia's favourites! The owner of the restaurant speaks almost fluent English, which was a bit of a shocker the first time we went there!



















After dinner we were standing out front of the restaurant and trying to get a taxi home ($3) as it was raining pretty hard and we didn't have an umbrella. We tried to hail a few, but with no luck. Eventually, one of the employees of the restaurant came out and handed us an umbrella! So generous. It was a tad small, but we were more than happy to accept and walk home with it. We still got a bit wet on the walk home, but were able to duck into the market and walk through under some cover... and also pick up some more rice cakes.

The rain continued for the rest of the evening, so we stayed in and milled around. I got myself ready for this morning's bike ride (90 - 100k) and Julia tidied some things up and Skyped with her mom. A great little finish to her 29th birthday.

Today we're planning to head to Boryeong and go zip lining. We'll catch the 11:25 express bus, which should get us there shortly after noon.

Teaching In Korea - Economics

I thought I'd write a short post to outline one of the major deciding factors for many people, as to whether or not coming to Korea to teach English is a viable option - Money.

This information is as it stands now (the landscape of teaching in Korea is changing) in 2015, specifically for Canadians and with some added information for couples in particular.I'll use bullet points for the most part, to keep it as simple as possible.

Our situation:

Base Salary
Despite a Graduate Diploma in Education, I'm (Brian) starting at the 'bottom' of the pay scale (level 2) as jobs are so competitive that EPIK is not hiring what they consider to be a level 3 (only a bachelor's degree in any discipline). You need some sort of accredited ESL teaching certification (TEFL, TESOL etc). Because of where we are located (Chungnam Province) this puts us both at a base salary of 2.2KRW.

Extras
Add to this a rural bonus of 100,000KRW per month for not having the same conveniences as if we were in a big city. Our town is Buyeo, and has pretty much everything we need, but we do go to a neighboring city every 3 - 4 weeks to do a big shop at a major department store.

Finally, because we both teach at multiple school, we get another bonus. I (Brian) teach at 4 school, while Julia teaches at 3. Each additional school is 50,000KRW extra. This puts us at 2,450,000 and 2,400,000 respectively.

As of today, 2,450,000KRW = $2,700CAD.

We also each received a 300,000KRW settling allowance to help us get set-up in our apartment (buy new linens, toilet paper, kitchenware etc).

Bonus / Exit Allowance / Severance / Pension
After our year contract, should we renew, we get a bonus of 2,000,0000KRW. If we leave and go home, it's $1,300,000 (Exit Allowance, to cover flights). When we complete our final contract we get a severance bonus equal to one month's salary. We also get back our national pension contributions (9 % of our pay) which we contribute half and our school matches the other half. So upon completion of the final contract, that's a sweet little chunk of change to put in the bank when going home!

Expenses / Saving
When our salaries are added together, we're still not making quite what we were back home, but there is one major difference, we aren't paying rent / mortgage. Well, we do pay a mortgage back in Canada, but we have a renter that is more or less covering that. 

Bills - Monthly
Rent = $0
Heat = 50,000KRW (average, we had two high months around 75,000KRW - 80,000KRW as it was still cold, but we rarely use the heat now other than for showers and dishes, so this most recent month was 35,000KRW)
Electricity = 10,000KRW (yeah, roughly $10)
Cell Phones = (58,500KRW - but we have pretty much unlimited everything, you can certainly go cheap here)
Home = $800CAD (accelerated mortgage payments, car payments, storage unit)

Other Expenses
Transportation - it's $1.25 for a one way trip on a bus.  We can get pretty much anywhere in our town for less than 8,000KRW by taxi.

Eating in restaurants is CHEAP. A basic meal is about 5,000 - 7,000KRW for bibimbap or ssambap.

Groceries (especially produce) is much pricier than in Canada. Many things are close to double, which makes eating out even more attractive. We try to eat as much as possible at home, simply because we like to know exactly what we're eating, but you could get away with eating most meals out and not pay much more.

A (express bus) trip to Seoul (2 hour bus ride) is ~12,000KRW one way and Nonsan (department store) is ~2,500 one way.

All this said, we've been able to save ~$1500 - $2000CAD monthly, with little to no effort. We've taken weekend trips to Seoul, a 5 day trip to Jirisan and Busan, and have spent a good chunk of change to get set-up here.

Now that we're a few months in and expenses have dropped, if we can save $2,000 per month (which should easily be doable, even with travel) we'd save around $22,000 after the first year (with slower first couple of months). If we leave after one year (not likely), that swells to over $35,000 with severance, exit allowance and pension repayment.

So there you have it, our economics in a nutshell. If you're thinking about going down the ESL path and are doing your due diligence with research, you'll have most likely heard that in Korea 'it varies'. Every situation is different, and you need to be prepared for something completely different than what you envisioned. When we applied, we pictured ourselves teaching in a single elementary school in Busan, the second biggest city in South Korea. The reality? Teaching middle school in rural South Korea at a combined 7 schools. As it turns out, we absolutely love our situation, but that isn't the case for everyone. Many people struggle to deal with their placement and are unhappy for a year, if they last that long. We're lucky to have each other, which certainly makes things easier, but it's important to be ready for ANYTHING in Korea.

Last Day of May

 

Holy smokes it's May 31st. We can't believe that we've already been here 3 months. We've been in Korea for about 3.5 months, but we've been in Buyeo for over 3 months now. The time has flown by and it's already June! I guess we're settled in now, and planning future travel within Korea and neighboring countries (though not to the North). Japan in August and Thailand in the winter. That said, we're loving life in Buyeo right now!

 

I've finally been getting out on my bike here in Korea and it's been absolutely incredible. The paths here are great, and today I did a 76km ride, mostly on roads and the roads are just as awesome. I was worried about riding in Korea, as I've heard that it's not great to ride on the roads, but from my experience today, I think that only applies to the cities. Out here in rural South Korea, the roads are great quality, the traffic is minimal and the drivers have been extremely courteous. Today’s ride was an adventure. I set out with the intention of riding all along the path towards Nonsan and then crossing the river at Nonsan as I did last week and then make my way home along the other side of the river. The only issue with this was that about 8 or 9k in, the path (a boardwalk section) was closed and I had to turn back. Instead of riding all the way back to Buyeo, I cut into a little neighborhood and rode along the main road past the rice fields and little homes. The road was better than I expected and the traffic was virtually non-existent. I check Google maps on my phone and found a route that would allow me to bypass the closed section and eventually make my way back to the river. It was a big loop around, but
I was excited to ride around and see some new sights. I rode through some small villages and even past one of Julia’s schools. It was absolutely gorgeous. I even managed to draft behind a tractor for 5 minutes or so, as he was going at a perfect speed. Once I got back on the path I was only about 5k from Nonsan. The path at this point is great, smooth riding. I crossed the bridge where I had intended to, but instead of getting on the path and coming back along the river I decided to follow the road I was on and see where it took me. It was a perfect little route. It took me past a middle school in Sedo, where I will likely teach next semester, and through Imcheon, where I visited with some other teachers. Did I mention that the roads were great and the traffic was light? I had a blast. There were a few long climbs that put a wee sting in the legs, but the descent on the other side was well worth it! Once back on familiar roads / paths, I calculated how much further I had to ride to hit my 75km goal for the day and just got it done. It was a glorious day for riding.

 While I was out riding, Julia went for a walk on Busosaeng Mountain. IT was a perfect morning for it, cool but sunny. Apparently there were many others out this morning as well! We both have some seasonal allergies that are making us seriously congested. I’m more or less over it, but she’s still feeling it big time. The yellow dust from China doesn’t help either. The air on the mountain is considerably better and so it was a nice reprieve for her.




After we both got home and cleaned up, we went out to get a cushion for our couch. We went to Jin’s (my main co-teacher at my main school, whom I don’t actually teach with, but that’s another story) mom’s store in downtown Buyeo to pick one up. We looked around and settled on one that looks like a hippo. Everything was going perfectly, until she wouldn’t let us pay! We were more than happy to pay, but she refused to accept our money. So kind! We will be giving her a small gift with a thank you card. J

 
 The rest of today will be laid back (totally counter intuitive) so that we’re ready and rockin’ for the week. No more holidays between now and the end of the school semester (7 weeks away) so it’s pretty full on from here on out! That said, classes are often cancelled and this week I don’t have any classes on Wednesday (I’m normally at my school in Oesan) and no teachers class (2 periods) on Friday! So 5 of my 22 classes this week were cancelled! This means more prep time for all of the others!
 

Lastly, while walking around town yesterday, some of Julia's students spotted us and ran up to say hi (and give out hugs). We snapped this photo with them.

 

Jirisan National Park and Hwaeomsa Temple

I'm writing this while sitting on an express bus from Gurye to Busan. It's Sunday morning (May 3rd) and we've just don't two days in Jirisan National Park. We weren't really sure what to expect from this place, other than it's popular for hiking and is the biggest and oldest national park in Korea. It lived up to every expectation.

After researching our options for getting from Buyeo to Gurye, we decided to take a taxi. A very expensive taxi. It ended up being about 200,000 WON ($210 CAD) and was about 1:45 in duration. If we bussed or took a combination of buses and taxis, it would have easily taken 6 hours or so and would have been pretty pricey also. In hindsight we should have fired out how to rent a car. Our current commute is not too bad though. It was an $8 taxi ride to the bus terminal and then $16 each for the bus. 

As soon as we got to our motel (it's called a pension, but I don't quite understand it, so I'll just call it a motel) we dropped our stuff off and headed for the national park and the mountains. We were situated quite close, only about a 5 minute walk to get to the National Park, which had an entrance fee of 3500 won. We walked up along a River and past a resort and eventually hit the temple. It's a pretty big temple with many building and is actually quite touristy, but monks still live there and go about their business. After some time wandering around we found the trail that led up the mountain. We took this for about an hour. It's quite steep hiking and the trail is mostly made up of rocks and boulders that you scramble along. We eventually came across a random cafe and stopped for iced Americanos, as you do. Leaving the cafe, the trail gets quite steep and it's 5km to the top. We made it a little over half way and decided to turn back. It was just taking too long and we had started too late in the day to make it worthwhile. We hung out beside the River for a short snack break and to cool down and then started making our way down. We were in shorts and t-shirts and sweating like mad, while Korean hikers were ALL wearing long sleeved shirts and pants, so had gloves and some had warm hats. It just doesn't add up!!

We made our way back to the temple and then down and out of the park to some nearby restaurants. We had a meal at a restaurant and went back to our motel to clean up. We decided to head into Gurye and check it out. We caught a cab along the road while walking as we wouldn't be able to walk on some of the roads that take you into town. The kind taxi driver dropped us off in the middle of the town and refused to take our money! He called it 'service'. We wandered around the town, looking for another restaurant to eventually have dinner at. While walking, we saw a couple foreigners step out of a building and so we approached them. Turns out she lives in Gurye and was able to make some suggestions. We eventually found a good little place and had yet another bibimbap dinner (I also had kimbap). After dinner we caught a taxi back to our motel and passed out pretty easily!

Yesterday was a much more relaxing day. We got up and made our way back up to the national park and back to the cafe along the trail. Again we had Americanos and enjoyed the views. After this we wandered all along a dirt road back down (3.5k) to the temple where we hung out and watched the goings on. We eventually went to the resort that is in the national park and got some traditional Korean adult beverages that we enjoyed outside. While in the resort, we noticed some massage chairs. They looked good so we went back to test them out. $1 got us 10 minutes of glorious deep tissue massage, just what we needed to stay relaxed. The rest of the day was pretty laid back, another meal and then eventually back to our motel around 7:30 where we hung out outside until 9:00 or so and then off to bed...

And so now we are on our way to Busan and the second leg of this trip!

A week ago...

I wrote it... but forgot to post it!

Wow! Do these weeks ever fly by!

I’m still a little behind in getting blog posts up, and I know at least my mom is interested, so here goes.

My last post was the 22^nd of March, about a week and a half ago. Since then:

We got paid on the 25^th! We get paid on the 25^th of each month. Between us it’s decent. We get more than others because of where we are and how many schools we teach at. So in total, we get an extra ~$500 per month for being rural and teaching at multiple schools. Neither of us are complaining! We don’t make what we did at home, surely, but we also don’t have the same bills that we did at home! And living rural means it’s easier to save as there aren’t as many expensive things (entertainment, retail etc) to spend our money on. We’ve literally JUST sent the first chunk of money home (to cover the bit of the mortgage that our rent checks don’t and to cover things like insurance and car payments). Banking here is a challenge (well EVERYTHING here is a challenge really). It’s tricky to get things set up and their online banking is ultra-secure. When you sign up, you get a special card that has a bunch of random codes associated with a number (1 through 20 or something) and each time you log on, it will ask you for another random one. We’re also still learning the ATMs, because even though we’ve only been to ones from our own bank, they’re still sometimes a bit different.

Teaching is going fine so far. No huge issues there and still enjoying it! It’s a pretty straight forward gig at the end of the day (except for the unexpected surprises). I typically teach here at Yongkang Middle School for periods 4, 6 and 7, plus one in the morning at Buyeo. Well my Buyeo class was cancelled today because the students are on a field trip, so I came here early. I was here about 10 minutes before the first class. My co-teacher asked if I could teach the first period instead of the fourth. Same grade, so I said yes (really what other option do I have?). Just little things like that that add a bit of stress every now and again. This wasn’t a big deal though. I also found out on Tuesday that I’ll be teaching Korean Teachers on Fridays for 2 hours (after my 5 classes) and that I need to produce topics for 15 lessons immediately. That was a bit stressful, and I’m still confused as to exactly what I need to do.

Julia’s teaching is quite similar. She teaches almost exclusively from the textbook, so she can prepare 3 (maybe 4) lesson plans per week, whereas mine are sort of all over the place. Her classes though are much larger than the majority of mine. I have 6 classes that are 30 – 35 students, but the rest are anywhere from 7 – 17, which makes classroom management a breeze, especially when some of your co-teachers are barely in the room. 

That reminds me. 

Anyone that is applying to teach in Korea with the EPIK program MUST be open to absolutely anything. The thing you keep hearing is that it varies, and boy does it ever!

When we first applied, and before getting place and getting here and everything, we pictured ourselves teaching at one elementary school, with one co-teacher, in Busan. Then we found out we weren’t in Busan, we were somewhere in Chungnam. Then on the last day of orientation, we found out we were in Buyeo (in Chungnam province) and were teaching middle school, and at multiple schools (Julia: 3, Brian: 4). I (Brian) have 7 co-teachers including one school where I actually don’t have a co-teacher at all. At one school, I teach from the textbook, at another I teach from two storybooks, at another I teach from one of the same storybooks plus a different one, and at the fourth school I teach whatever I want, to the same 11 students for 3 periods in a row. How’s that for variety?! What I’m trying to say is, be ready for anything, and expect the unexpected, and just roll with it.

I must say though, living in Buyeo is awesome. After a recent trip to Seoul, I’m glad we weren’t placed in Busan (maybe I’d have a different opinion if we went to Busan). The city is massive. There’s lots to see and do, but almost TOO much. Too many people for our liking. We’re settled in here in Buyeo and have found some incredible recreational paths and lots of hiking trails. The town has just about everything we really need.

I have class in 5 minutes so I’m going to have to cut this short… but hopefully post something again on the weekend!