One thing Koreans love to do is play golf, but it’s not the golf you might be thinking of. It’s screen golf.

Screen golf is popular for several reasons. First of all, Korea is a very mountainous country. Screen golf allows everyone to play golf regularly and pretty inexpensively.

Screens can be found all over any city. There are a handful within walking distance of my house and one close by we really like. With so much competition, the costs is relatively low. Nine holes can usually be played for 10-12,000 won. You can play 18 holes for anywhere from 15,000 to 20,000 won.

Don’t have clubs? Don’t worry. Included in the costs are clubs, gloves, and sometimes they will even have shoes to use as well. In addition to the free club rentals, most will provide you with free snacks (candies, crackers, cookies) and sometimes even food like mandu.

The bang for the buck is one of the best in Korea. It’s easy to grab a few co-workers (no experience required) and head on over to the nearest place.

Want to play St. Andrews? You can through Golfzon screen golf. There are countless famous courses from around the world to play that will keep you busy for days. Add all the real courses from Korea that you can play, and you could fill your weekends with  a new course each time.

Here is a short video I made of me and a few friends playing screen golf here in Korea. It’s not a great film, but it will show you what it’s like to play. I hope you enjoy it.

I am new at making videos, so they might not be the best but I am learning. I hope to bring you more videos in the future to show what life is like here in South Korea.

Activities in Korea – Screen Golf is a post from: Teaching Expat

Living in South Korea allows me to have more than I ever did back home in the States. It’s one of the huge benefits of living here. I make good money, my apartment is paid for (I only pay utilities), so I am able to not only save money but spend money as well.

The best thing I have gotten in my 2+ years here in Korea is an iPhone. This is simply the greatest invention. I can’t believe how much I use it.

Right now as I type this, I am sitting in a laundromat with my laptop with my iPhone hooked up to it using it as my internet source.

Through the iPhone’s personal hotspot, I can hook it up to my laptop and use its 3G service for my internet. It’s not the fastest internet ever, but it works well as long as you aren’t trying to stream movies.

I use my iPhone for countless devices. It is my alarm clock. I check the weather daily on it. I also get most of my news from it.

Living in a foreign country, I can’t just turn on the local news and understand everything. I do have CNN, MSNBC, and a Bloomberg channel on my digital cable that is all in English, but most of the news I get from back home is from my iPhone. I have several apps that allow me to check the news whether it is financial news (yes I was curious at how the Facebook IPO would go), weather, political (although admittedly I try to stay away more than not), and sports.

I even watch baseball on my iPhone. I have the MLB.com At Bat app which allows me to watch live baseball on my phone on 3G in connection with my MLB.tv subscription. It’s great. I love to watch baseball and when my favorite teams travel out west the games can creep into my work time here in Korea. Luckily I go to lunch straight away when I go to work. So some days you can catch me watching a game on my iPhone as I am at lunch.

At work I like to keep up to date with how other games are going. Most days it is the KBO schedule (Korean baseball), or even how a NBA playoff game might be going.

I can even check my bank balances, see where buses are here in Daegu, or use the subway map to figure out where to get off or on. I have navigation apps, Google maps which I can use to send where I am to friends. There is just so much stuff I can do with my phone.

I also listen to a lot of music and podcasts. Right now I am listening to my favorite sports stations podcast from this week as I type this blog post (1310 the Ticket in Dallas).

I can Tweet, post to Facebook, and use an amazing phone. Check out this post on the laundromat. Each photo there is from my iPhone. They aren’t bad. The phone and video on the phone is quite good.

It’s simply one of the greatest devices I’ve ever owned or seen. Some days I wonder how I lived without one before.

Heuksando, South Korea (Taken with iPhone)

The Greatest Device….Ever? is a post from: Teaching Expat

One thing you don’t find often in South Korea are laundromats. Coin washers and especially dryers aren’t common here. They do exist, but you have to look hard for them.

Growing up in the States I am used to using a dryer to dry my clothes. I know a lot of people still hang dry their clothes, but I wasn’t used to that before coming to Korea. However, once in awhile I’d like to dry my clothes in a dryer.

Most of my clothes are fine to hang dry. It usually doesn’t take that long now that the weather is getting warmer. But some of the t-shirts I wear often get a little stretched out in the collar from being worn and washed but never dried in a dryer. Lucky for me there is a laundromat near the local Home Plus which is a short bus ride from home.

It’s Sunday afternoon here, so I decided to take some of my shirts to the laundromat. It’s not something I would do on a weekly basis for two reasons. First, it’s not cheap. To wash one load of laundry it costs 3500 won. To dry a load it is 4000 won. That is about $7 per load. I used to take a lot more clothes to a local place in Texas and they would wash, dry, and fold a large load for just over $10.

I am hopeful it will help the collars of my shirts. I should know here in about 20 minutes as my clothes are in the dryer now.

I brought my laptop with me to keep me busy since there isn’t much here. They do have a TV, but of course most of the channels are in Korean. There is an outlet I can plug in my laptop, and then I can use my iPhone’s 3G service for internet by connecting it to my laptop. It’s not the fastest internet, but it does the job.

Blogging at laundromat in South Korea

Washing Clothes in South Korea is a post from: Teaching Expat

Living overseas is a lot of fun and it can be an exciting experience. However, at times it can be difficult.

No matter who you are at some point you will miss home. Homesickness is something we all have to deal with. Some people are hit harder than others. It’s how we deal with it that is important.

Being connected with home is a lot easier now than it was say 10 years ago. There is always email, but programs like Skype are making home seem a lot closer than ever before. But even with these programs it’s not always like being home.

My first year here was a whirlwind and it was exciting, but I knew after a year I would be home to see my family and friends. This year I decided to resign, so I will be away for at least 2 years. That may not seem like a long time in the grand scheme of things, but in the short haul it does.

I have struggled with it like never before lately, and I haven’t dealt with it well. It’s not easy. It’s basically taken a lot of mental will power to become busy in different things to take my mind off of it.

One thing I am trying to do to help is to plan what I will do after this contract is up. I still have 10 months but it will be here before you know it. I want to travel, but I don’t know where yet. If it will be a short trip around Asia or Europe or somewhere back home in the States.

Part of my problem was I was being very stagnant. I wasn’t getting out on a daily basis. I wasn’t getting the exercise I need. With that I have put on weight, which only worsens the condition.

For me it has seemed to be more than just homesick but maybe even a little depressed. The weight gain, the lack of motivation, increased irritability, and missing home has snowballed into making me a miserable person of late. I recognize I haven’t been myself and I am trying to make things right. But it isn’t easy to shake it sometimes.

People deal with it in different ways. I’m trying to write more because that has always helped me. You’ll see more writing more often here, but I also will be writing more in my journal.

Have you ever been homesick? I’d like to know how you dealt with it.

‘Till next time

Dealing with Homesickness is a post from: Teaching Expat

So today I was searching for some crazy or funny pictures to use during one of my classes when I came across a place I have to go to photograph.

Google Images

What does that look like?

Yep, it’s a toilet house, and it’s right here in South Korea.

It was built by the chairman of the organizing committee of the Inaugural General Assembly of the World Toilet Association.

The 4,508 sq ft house has been turned into a toilet museum in the city of Suwon which is south of Seoul.

A Place I Really Want to Photograph is a post from: Teaching Expat

One of the things I love about being in another country is what you will hear on a daily basis. Someone who is not a native speaker can come up with some interesting things.

Today myself and two other co-workers were at a local park playing basketball when a Korean guy came up to the court. He didn’t say hi. He didn’t try to speak to us in Korean. He simply said, “Michael Jordon the HIV.” The funny part wasn’t that he got the name wrong. It was that he said HIV like it was the word hiv instead of saying H, I, V all separately.

I was in stunned shock at first  not knowing how to respond. Then he said it again. We quickly corrected him saying that it was Magic Johnson not Michael Jordan.

A day doesn’t go by here that you don’t see or hear something that is pretty funny. But you gotta give the guy credit for trying.

Koreans Say the Darndest Things….In English is a post from: Teaching Expat

There are different types of ESL teaching jobs in South Korea. They each have pros and cons, so let’s take a look at each of them.

Private Academies (Hagwons)

Private English academies are everywhere in South Korea. This is easily the most common job on the peninsula for expats. There are many different types of jobs however. Students range from kindergarten, to elementary, to middle, to high school, and even adults.

Depending on the age of the students will determine the time of day you will be working. Kindergarten’s are usually in the morning and early afternoon. However, elementary, middle, and high school jobs are after normal school hours and can go to as late as 10pm. Adults will also vary. Sometimes you will teach split shifts working in the morning before they go to work and again in the evening after they are off.

Pay is typically pretty decent with salaries starting out around 2 million won a month with no experience. Vacation time is usually limited to 10 days a year, but this can vary like so many other things.

Hagwons are viewed as a little riskier by many people since there have been many fly by night academies. There are a lot of well established chains as well as independents. Do your due diligence and you should be okay.

Public Schools

Public school jobs are very popular for a few reasons. First, you work typical school hours and not nights like most hagwons. Secondly, there is usually more vacation time. Some schools give up to 8 weeks of vacation compared to the 10 days which is normal for a hagwon.

However, not everything is equal. Pay generally starts off lower at public schools where you can find starting salaries in the 1.8 million won a month range for those with no experience. There will also be a Korean co-teacher in the class with you most of the time which can be viewed as a good or bad thing depending on who the person is.

Universities

These are the hardest jobs to come by for first timers. The universities will usually look for someone with either experience or good credentials (master’s degree in ESL or something similar) before hiring someone with no experience. The jobs are usually the ones sought after by those who have been in country for some time and plan on staying.

While the pay isn’t necessarily the best, the vacation time can be better than the other jobs. The teaching time generally is lower as well. While hagwon teachers might teach up to 30 hours a week and public school teachers up to 22, university teachers might teach anywhere from 12-16 hours.

With each of these jobs there are pros and cons. You first need to figure out what you value most (time or money). Then you can better proceed with what type of job to pursue if you decide to come to South Korea to teach.

Teaching in South Korea: Job Types is a post from: Teaching Expat

Living in South Korea it can be difficult to find certain things in English. One thing we had a lot of trouble with was finding photography lessons done in English.

I have had a Canon DSLR for awhile now, but I still don’t full understand how to properly use it. So after months of searching, I finally found someone to teach me how to use it.

A small group of us found a fellow English teacher who has a lot of experience in photography and he agreed to give us some lessons. We meet once a week and learn something new. So far we have had two meetings and it has gone incredibly well.

We are learning a lot about the basics right now because we are beginners but it has been great. There are so many things that a camera can do, and our cameras are just entry level DSLRs as well. This week we met to talk about some of the basic things such as focal length. Then we headed out to a local market to practice what we have learned.

I had no idea how wrong I was going about taking photos. I knew I didn’t know what I was doing, but I didn’t realize how far off I was.  Just learning how the different focal lengths can play with the photo was incredible. I’m very excited to be taking the lessons, and I can’t wait for next week.

This week we went to Seomun Market here in Daegu to practice taking some shots. It was a raining day so we stayed in the market, but we were able to get a lot of great shots. Here are just a few of mine.

Photography Lessons at Seomun Market in Daegu, South Korea is a post from: Teaching Expat

Spring is a beautiful time in South Korea. The weather turns and so do the flowers. Each year when the cherry blossoms come out might be the prettiest time of year on the peninsula. So last weekend, a friend and I took a walk down to Suseong Lake which is nearby.

The lake area is very popular in Daegu. Families, couples, and just about everyone else come out to enjoy the nice weather and the great atmosphere. There is a walking track around the lake, duck boats to take a ride on the lake, a park next to the lake where there are basketball courts, tennis courts, and grassy areas where families can come and enjoy a picnic.

As we strolled around the lake, the blossoms were falling from the trees giving the area a winter like feel as if snow was softly falling on your face. We noticed old and young out enjoying the weather, and a lot of cotton candy.

Some were just sitting enjoying a picnic in the park. Others were out with friend socializing, while some were just strolling around taking in the beautiful views in the middle of the city.

One interesting person I came across was break dancing. He had music going and had claimed a small area near the walking track to perform his new moves. As people moved by they would stop for a minute or two to check out the entertainment. In addition there were fathers and sons playing catch, boys playing basketball, and even a kite or two being flown.

Here are a few pictures from my walk to the lake. It’s a beautiful spot in a city that can seem bland and all too ordinary at times.

Enjoy…

Cherry Blossoms at Suseong Lake in Daegu, South Korea

Flowers at Suseong Lake in Daegu, South Korea

Break Dancing at Suseong Lake in Daegu, South Korea

Daegu behind Suseong Lake

Duck Boats on Suseong Lake in Daegu, South Korea

A Walk Around Suseong Lake in Daegu, South Korea is a post from: Teaching Expat

Spring has arrived in Korea, and it’s been a nice change. The winter here can be a little dreary. All the trees and plants die. It’s cold outside, and it can be fairly depressing especially if you have just arrived.

Thankfully, spring is a wonderful time of year here. The trees are starting to show some color. The weather has started to warm up. I even thought about putting on shorts the other day. In a short few weeks, things will be in full blossom here.

When spring comes it brings some of the wonderful things about Korea. Soon the cherry blossoms will be blooming. The hills will turn back to their familiar green as life returns to the trees. All in all spring is quite beautiful here.

Which means it’s a great time to break out the camera, which is what I plan on doing next weekend. Spring makes me want to write and share what is going on. Whereas winter just makes me want to hide away in my apartment and count the days till it’s over.

Korea loves festivals. Big and small, they are everywhere here. They have festivals for different fruits, to lanterns, to flowers, and so much more. Spring is a great time to get out and see some of the festivals, and that is exactly what I plan on doing.

I felt I didn’t get out enough last year, but this year I plan to change that. Several of us have already planned a few trips that will kick off with a trip to the coast next weekend. We will be off to explore and experience the Jindo Mysterious Sea Route, better known as “The Moses Miracle”.

So stay tuned for pictures, and now video from my adventures.

Till next time,

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Spring is Finally Arriving is a post from: Teaching Expat