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Natalie O
Living in South Korea for an adventure teaching english and travelling the world.nattyo84
Travel Blog Posts
Korean Adventure days 5 – 10 Beaches, Mountains and Music Festivals
Published: September 10th 2012Asia » South Korea » Gangwon-do
September 10th 2012
Gangneung It took us an hour to get from Tongil Victory Park to Gangneung which is further up the east coast, however we got off at completely the wrong stop and ended up wandering around Gangneung city for a while trying to find the right bus stop. We’d planned for the next couple of days to chill out and camp near the beach before heading up to the mountains for some hiking. We got a bus to Gyeongpo beach as I’d read there was a campsite. When we turned up it was to a chaotic absolutely packed to the rim beach. There was weird music blaring out and there seemed to be some kind of promotion going on (on the beach) for fridge freezers – why would you target trendy young beach goers as fridge buyers? ... read more
Korean adventure up the east coast. Day 1 to 4 - Samcheok and Jeongdongjin
Published: August 22nd 2012Asia » South Korea » Gangwon-do
August 21st 2012
WARNING. Family scroll down if you dont want to read about or see lots of willies! We were tempted to visit a different country for our summer holiday this year. However due to saving for UK trip and to go travelling and feeling that we should see as much of where we’re living as possible, we chose to stay in Korea. We wanted to spend 12 days travelling up the east coast to Gangwon-Do, a province in the north east of peninsula known for its nice beaches and outstanding mountains. Excited to start our trip we decided to get the bus from Daegu to Samcheok straight after school. Unfortunately contrary to advice from Daegu Tourist Information we had missed the last bus by hours. We were a bit peeved as we’d trekked across town with our ... read more
July 19th 2012
My first Korean Wedding One of my co-teachers got married the other week and Ash and I were invited! I couldn’t miss the opportunity to experience a wedding in a different culture. I got all dressed up like for an english wedding. My co-teacher was getting married in the wedding ceremony area of the big and rather posh Novotel in the downtown area of Daegu. Entering the Novotel foyer was really confusing as it was absolutely packed out. There was a big screen showing the different weddings that day and we couldn’t believe it but there were two an hour! No wonder it was so rammed. We stood in line, bowed and greeted the dashing groom and the bride’s parents who were both dressed in traditional Korean attire, then gave our card and present to the ... read more
July 2nd 2012
Another Busan blog update! Hope its not boring to keep reading about Busan as this time we had some different experiences! The original plan last weekend was to go to Busan, stay in a jimjilbang on Friday and camp on the beach on Saturday. The weather forecast for the whole weekend looked dreadful but Ash and I along with Nat and Drew and Louis and Philne decided to continue with our trip and make the most of the weekend even if we couldn’t camp. We rushed to Daegu station after school and boarded the Mugunghwa (slower and cheaper than the KTX) train to Busan. It took an hour and half to get there but the upshot of this was the train having a really good snack bar with computers, a mini noraebang room, a room with ... read more
Everyday life as a native english teacher
Published: June 22nd 2012Asia » South Korea » Daegu » Dalseo-GuJune 22nd 2012
Okay so I have been living in Korea and trying to learn the ropes of teaching English as a foreign language for 121 days! So instead of just writing about weekend adventures and the like I thought I’d write about a weekday in my life. I teach at an all-girls private high school in Daegu which is kind of in the south east of the peninsula and is starting to get hot (its apparently the hottest place in the country and will be the most humid). When I say private school I don’t mean an English academy that students go to in the evening after normal classes. It’s like a public school but parents pay more to send their daughters here. So my English classroom is pretty amazing because of this. I only teach first grade ... read more
June 18th 2012
Jules’ dramatic entrance I can’t explain how excited I was when one of my best friends in the world Jules told me that on her way home from travelling in South East Asia she was taking a two week detour to South Korea. I was also ecstatic that my other very good friend (and ginger brother from another mother) Rowan just happened to be on a month long holiday in Japan at the same time too! We coordinated all of our diaries and arranged to meet up in South Korea. Exciting times. Jules arrived in to Seoul in dramatic style and realised she couldn’t get money out of the ATM which meant I spent the evening in sporadic Skype contact fretting about her. Luckily she sorted her problems and got to her destination. She arrived in ... read more
Korean seaside villages and sea view motels
Published: May 1st 2012Asia » South Korea » Gyeongsangbuk-do » Gyeongju
May 1st 2012
Ash and I were meant to save our money last weekend and have a quiet weekend in Daegu. However we seem unable to overcome our itchy feet at weekends (need to sort this out somehow!). We still wanted a cheap weekend but had the idea to find a quiet seaside village and beach nearby so we could still get out and see stuff. I researched and found a little fishing village called Gampo just outside of Gyeongju that we decided to visit. We got up early on Saturday and caught a coach from Daegu to Gyeongju and then another from Gyeongju to Gampo. For two hours the total cost was about £3 - bargain. For anyone looking for tourist attractions Gampo is not the place for you. It’s really small and is based around a harbour. ... read more
April 25th 2012
So I am really lame at this blog but have decided to sort it out because I have some spare time this week. So in brief recently I’ve been getting out and about in Daegu, climbing Palgong Mountain (the hardest route but awe inspiring and well worth it when we got to the top), going to beer festivals in the rain in Seoul and generally continuing to adapt to life living as an alien in Korea. As I’ve been in Korea for over two months and have been at my school for two months I thought I’d have a think about the aspects of living in Korea that are different to back in Manchester. I’ll try to update over the next few days. Being a bit famous Okay so only a bit famous and not quite ... read more
April 5th 2012
On payday weekend we decided to leave Daegu and take a trip to nearby Gyeongju. It’s renowned as a beautiful place and an example of a traditional Korean city it is steeped in history as it used to be the capital of the Silla Dynasty of Kings. So on that very rainy Friday evening Ash and I met are buddies Nat and Drew (two Nat’s so I am Natalie in Korea as she got there first!) and went to get the bus to start our adventure. It could all have gone pear shaped though. When we’d bought our tickets and were waiting for the bus to arrive for some reason I had another look at the destination sign and thought out loud ‘Oh that’s weird that they also spell Gyeongju as Cheongju' We all looked ... read more
March 23rd 2012
Hi all Okay so I’ve finally decided to get a blog so family and friends can keep up to date with what I’m up to on the other side of the world. I’ve been in Korea a month now so sorry about this but my first blog post is going to be REALLY long as there is a lot to say. I will keep it shorter going forward I promise! Sorry if I have already told you about some of this as well just skip to the new bits. Seoul Extremely tired and grubby we arrived in to Seoul on the 14th February. We had decided to fly out to South Korea early so that we could get over jetlag and adjust to the culture a bit. We decided the best route from the airport to ... read more
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