Where in the world am I?

I will be living and working in the port city if Incheon. Incheon is a neighbouring city of the capital Seoul, and is the third largest city in South Korea in its own right. From what I’ve heard, Incheon isn’t the most exciting place on Earth, but one of the most vibrant and dynamic cities in the world is only a 30 minute bus ride away . I have always wanted to see Seoul and now I will be spending most of my weekends there! Having spent my past four years of university in the tiny albeit awesome “city” of Grahamstown, Seoul (the second biggest city in the world) will be both a pleasant and drastic change . South Korea’s public transport is top notch, with the whole country being accessible via high speed trains. Busan is another place that I would like to visit, a coastal city with nice beaches and lots happening – that is on the other side of the country but only a 3 hour train ride away.

Perhaps most interesting (or disturbing) is that I will be living very, very close to North Korea... as I told someone the other day North Korea will be only a drunken misunderstanding away for me. If I learn to recognise anything in Korean it should probably be the phrase “border – do not cross!”. Speaking of which I should definitely get down to learning some key Korean phrases before they ship me off. Any suggestions on phrases you think I should learn are welcome.

I will be working at a place called Incheon English Village, or ICEV for short on a 12 month contract. When doing research on the school before accepting the position I emailed a bunch of people who work or have worked there before and the general consensus is that it is a pretty relaxed, fun working environment. I will be paid pretty decently and have free accommodation to boot (this is standard for all English teachers over there). There are lots of Westerners who work there which will definitely make settling in easier at first. Here is a promotional video for the school: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-MvgrU91MKs

16 days to go now.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Welcome to my blog!

Well hello... I didn't see you there. Thanks for stopping by here for the first posting on my brand spanking new blog, 'My Change in Korea Path'. Terrible pun I know, but it will have to do. As I write this I am not yet in Korea, but almost. Today I booked my flight to Seoul and 2 days ago, after many months of seemingly endless documentation and generally nonsensical bureacracy I collected my work visa which entitles me to hang out in their country for a year.

At this point I should probably state why I am writing this blog. Well for one, moving to South Korea for a year is unlike anything I have undertaken before. If anything I would like to document these new experiences for my own benefit... looking back at this blog years from now will make entertaining reading, if just for me. Secondly, by writing this blog I can keep those of you who already know me up to date with my Asian adventure. Having hung out with many of you at university for the past four years I think that this is a great way for me to let you know how I’m doing and hopefully show you that I have not sobered up yet. I hope you enjoy reading this... and implore you to come visit me if you get a chance. For those of you who don’t know me... hello. If you are a fellow English teacher in Korea or plan on becoming one in the future I would love to hear from you. If you’'re not quite sure how you got here you'’re free to leave. If you'’re Korean, hello to you to. I look forward to calling your country home for the next year.