Some things change, some things stay the same

Most of the people here are Korean, they speak Korean, and they write using Hangul (the Korean alphabet.) You probably could have guessed those things, but I can now verify them based on personal experience. You might also be able to guess that those would be the biggest differences between living in America and Korea.

I'm aware that this isn't exactly a groundbreaking revelation. My point is that life in Korea isn't really all that different from life in any other "civilized" area. The biggest differences for me actually have nothing to do with being in a foreign country on the opposite side of the planet, but are instead due to the fact that I moved from a suburb to a city. I walk a few miles a day now, which isn't much, but is far more then I or most Americans are accustomed to. Public transportation is ubiquitous and cheap. The Seoul subway system is a bit of a snafu, but it works.

Many of the things people traditionally think of as exotic or foreign or weird turn out to not be. Example: Those restaurants where you sit on the floor. Yes, there are a lot of them here. They are quite commonplace. As it turns out, where you park your ass while you eat doesn't really have a whole lot of cultural significance. Same thing with chopsticks. People here use little utensils to shove food in their mouths, just like we do. These are the kinds of things that seem special when you do them once, but quickly become unremarkable. The point I'm getting at here is pretty simple. People are people. They sleep, they eat, they work, they have families. Even if you look at some tribal culture that has been untouched by civilization for 5000 years, you will see all the same things. I haven't experienced any culture shock yet, and I don't expect to.

So, on to the random details. I'm not sure of the population of Suji, but it seems to be at least 300,000 and growing very quickly. The area I live in is pretty densely populated. There's a grid of at least 6x6 blocks that is full of buildings like these. Notice the Subway nestled right on the front corner: (NOTE - These pictures, as well as any future pictures you see on this blog, can be clicked for larger versions)
Most are between 5-10 stories, which are full of restaurants, bars, PC rooms, English schools, and some other assorted offices. This is the building I work in:

There are at least 3 seperate English schools in this building alone.

There seems to be more apartment buildings than anything else. I live in a complex of about 50 4-story buildings. The buildings in the background of the following picture are 20 story apartment buildings, and these are all over the place. There's several dozen within a 5 minute walk from my place, and there are many more a few miles away.
So, that's it for now. For future updates: I do intend to post on a regular schedule, but I haven't yet decided when I'm going to have the time. It will likely be once a week. I also intend to get some pictures of more interesting things than buildings. For those of you that have asked me questions not answered here, rest assured, there will be plenty of time. My next two posts will probably consist mainly of details and pictures of my apartment and the school/kids.

It's all about the Won

I went to the bank yesterday to exchange some money. I foolishly assumed that they would provide me with any relevant information pertaining to the currency exchange process, and also that their bank policies would be in keeping with basic mathematical principles, like multiplication. Wrong on both counts.

The exchange rate is roughly .001, which means that one US Dollar equals approximately one thousand Korean Won. I was a bit surprised to see the exchange rate on my receipt, exactly .001. This isn't impossible, of course, but rather unlikely. Especially when the 2 Million Korean Won I asked for was costing me $2,195.14. Turns out their "policy" is to only write the first four digits of the exchange rate on currency exchange slips. This is my favorite kind of corporate policy, the kind that saves about 1 second of work, and guarantees customer confusion. As I'm on the phone later that day, I decide to look up the actual exchange rate, .000987167, which means I should be paying $1974.33.

Several phone calls later, I find out that the official exchange rates posted everywhere only apply to very large transfers, and that the bank pretty much makes up their own rate for small exchanges. I also find out that using my credit card overseas will only result in a 3% charge on top of the transfer, using the official exchange rate. The bank exchange was costing me about 10%.

I canceled the order, after several minutes spent explaining to the bank that simply exchanging back after the fact was not going to make me happy, as that would screw me out of twice as much money.

Moral of the story: Don't exchange currency unless it's absolutely necessary. I was planning to buy some fancy electronic toys when I got there (I don't get paid until after a month of work) but now I'm just going to bring enough money to eat and get around for a month. Also, upon further research, it turns out the exchanging money in banks in foreign countries generally gets you better rates anyway.

Because

Assuming everything goes according to plan, I should be in South Korea in less then a month. I'll be there for a year, teaching English to elementary school students, and living in Yongin, a satellite city near Seoul. The main question people have is "Why?" and the truth is I don't have a particularly good reason. It's a lot of little reasons, which in my mind sum up to the simple answer, "Because."

I decided I wanted to go somewhere else. Not just as a vacation, to take pictures of all the famous buildings and then leave, but to actually live there. I want to be alone in a foreign country, forced to learn a new language and make new friends, to live there, work there, and play there. That sounds interesting and fun to me.

People often seem to intimate that I'll be "missing out" on everything I'm leaving behind. I can't argue with that, but it does seem rather narrow minded. Wherever you are, whatever you're doing, you are missing out on everything else. It's up to you to decide what you're going to miss, and whatever you do with your life, you'll end up missing a whole lot.

The purpose of this blog will be to give as honest an account as possible of my experience in Korea. I'll gloat about the good things, whine about the bad things, and take pictures of the funny things.