Nottanya
Diamant Joined: March 25th 2007
Logged in: February 12th 2012
Logged in: February 12th 2012
From 2007 to 2009 I moved to Seoul, Korea from Austin, Texas to teach in Korean schools. I needed a change in my life and this certainly fit the bill. Life was good... free apartment in a great part of Seoul, and I was able save money while living in the city. I traveled around on weekends and holidays to see the country when I could and find out what's there.
Travel Blog Posts
I don't travel light...
When I found out that I would have a flight connection in Vienna on my way to Moldova for my new job, I was thrilled. I had lived here in 1981- 82 and had worked here as an au pair girl. I had a pretty good life here and had left with so many good memories. I started making plans to stay a few days and renew good memories. A short history I worked with a family doing housework, taking care of the kids, and being an English speaking influence in the family in exchange for room and board and pocket money. In my free time, I took German lessons at a Volksschule (school) and put a lot of effort into enjoying my life as a young woman here. I met other au pair girls and ... read more
Me in a suit
This is a blog I should have written in January, but sometimes I’m slow, but here it is now… The Job Fair A little over a year ago, a co-teacher told me about job fairs for teaching in international schools. She asked me why was I wasting my time teaching in a school in Korea where you don’t even need a teaching certificate when I could be teaching in a professional environment working with international students in interesting places all over the world. She had a point. It took me a little while to figure it all out and by the time I got my act together it was too late to go to the job fair in Bangkok. I signed up with a recruiting agency and applied and applied for jobs, but in the ... read more
Yes, I was there...
I got up at 5 AM on New Year’s Day to go on a tour to see the Great Wall of China. I can’t say that I jumped out of bed ready to go, but I was excited. I decided to take the tour because I had been having trouble getting moving in the morning and I was afraid that I would miss my opportunity to see the wall if I tried to get out there on my own steam. When I booked the tour the agent said with a concerned, pitying look in her eye that, because I wanted to go on New Year’s, I would be alone on the tour. I was wondering “… And that’s a bad thing?” I chose the Simitai section, which is three hours away but less visited by tourists ... read more
Forbidden City
I flew into Beijing because I didn’t want to spend 18 hours on the train. The 2-hour flight only cost about $75 and I got to see the Yellow River basin and landscape below me. I got settled into my hostel in the evening and went down to the hotel café. I was grumbling to the waitress about how the menu said they could make vegetarian food, but they wouldn’t make it. Another guest at the hostel overheard me and said that someone in her group was vegetarian and they were getting ready to go out to a veg restaurant. Everyone in the café started talking with each other and it was such a fun atmosphere. I went out with these girls but we never found the restaurant. We did have a fun small adventure with ... read more
Don't know what this was
It’s pronounced “she an” with a lightly pronounced n, but don’t ask me where the accent or tone goes… Day one Anyway, Xi'an is wonderful. With a history that dates back 1000 years B.C., it looks just like what I always imagined China to look like. It is a walled city with pagoda-like roofs on larger buildings and smaller buildings have curved roofs. In Korea, the ornate colorful architecture and traditional style buildings are reserved for temples, palaces, and other special places, but here in Xi’an, this is the look on shopping malls, hotels, and other ordinary buildings. It gives the city a wonderfully splendid, exotic feel. You could take pictures here all day, because at every turn there is something interesting to see. The prosperity that tourism has brought to this town shows in ... read more
Knealing Archer
I flew to Xi’an from Qingdao and arrived at my hotel in late evening. All the city lights were on and once we got into the city, I looked around in wonder at the sights of the buildings. What a wonderful looking place. I was so excited and I couldn’t wait to get started. I immediately booked a tour to see the Terracotta Warriors for the next day. I’ll tell more about Xi’an later, but this blog entry is mostly about the trip to see the main attraction of Xi’an. In 1974, a farmer figured out that the clay pieces that he and his neighbors were digging up in the ground were not just pieces of an old Buddha statue to be worshiped or trash to be cast aside. He said they looked like images of ... read more
Inside the German Governor's mansion where CHairman Mao stayed for a while.
It’s Christmas morning and I’m lounging in bed considering my day. I have Christmas shopping to do, a temple or other tourist sight to see, and travel arrangements to make. I’m thinking about these things, but I’m not moving much. My room is so cold, I don’t want to get out from under my blankets. Temperatures outside are below freezing and I can hear the wind blowing. I think the Chinese are used to having the room temperature much colder than I’d like it. I’ve discovered that if I use my computer in bed, the charger gets hot and keeps my feet toasty. I know that once I get moving it won’t be so bad, but I really feel like hibernating. Other than lack of heat in the hostel, the place I’m staying in is nice. ... read more
Leaving Korea
...Slow Boat to China... When I was a child, I remember my sister and I decided to find out if we dug far enough whether we could get to China on the other side of the world. We gave up after digging a hole about a foot deep and decided China was too far away. Now I’m too far away to go home for Christmas and so I thought I’d give China another try. Being that I’m already in Korea, I decided that China was too close to fly. North Korea stands in the way of me going overland, so I thought it would be fun to take the boat from Incheon (Seoul) to Qingdao. I looked up other peoples blogs about it and decided the best way to go was first class. On the whole, ... read more
Cherry Blossoms in Korea
Spring is generally my favorite season and it is in full force here in Seoul. We are finally coming out of the cold days of grey skies and uncomfortable wind. We haven't gotten to the rainy, sultry days of summer. The sun is shinning and last week the whole city was white with cherry blossoms. At times, it looked like it was snowing cherry blossom petals. Absolutely lovely! I took a hike in Suwon (a town just south of Seoul). There is an old fortress there built in the 1700’s that has a lovely walking course on the walls. There is beautiful scenery and the cherry blossoms abound. What a nice time to be in Korea! This week all the cherry blossoms have already fallen and the trees are finally showing their greenery. Soon the skies ... read more
Spirit guardians
I haven’t written a blog in a while, but I moved to Seoul a year ago in February and thought it might be time for an update. Life here has been good. For the most part my job is fairly low stress and the money is good. There is no way I could afford this lifestyle in a city this large in the U.S. and save more than half my paycheck like I am here. I’m not exactly living it large here, but I do get out from time to time. There are things to do and see and, for the most part, Korea has treated me pretty well. So, what have I been up to? Well, everything and nothing. Life as usual happens and once settled into a place it’s pretty much the same as ... read more
