Guide to UNESCO World Heritage Sites
Distance Traveled Today: 86km
Distance Traveled Total: 86km (it’s day 1!)
Outside of the wonderfully short seasons of spring and fall, you’re unfortunately at the mercy of the weather when it comes to travel in Korea. From the snowy season to the current torrential storm season, you have to kind of amend your plans accordingly. While I would have liked to have headed east towards Chuncheon for some delicious dalk galbi, it was less likely to rain west, so I headed to the island of Read more
For first timers and experienced teachers alike, understanding a contract offered by a Korean educational institute can be… well… intimidating or outright confusing. There are ‘red flags’ you should run from and ‘yellow flags’ where you proceed with caution but could be nothing. Keep in mind that many of these things are subjective and my advice is based on what I personally believe is and isn’t a big deal, and keeping both the employee and employer point of view in mind. In making this guide, I cross referenced about a dozen contracts posted on Reddit’s Korea Teaching sub, a couple posted on Dave’s and Waygook, EPIK’s sample contract, and a bunch of contracts I have been offered over the years and just saved. Here is also the official Korean Labor Standards for reference.
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I guess this comes as no surprise to people who have visited lately, but I am in the middle of a massive hiatus. Before now, the longest I went without posting was…maybe 2 weeks? Now, it has been a solid five months. I guess I felt like I owed some long time visitors (and new fans too) an explanation. Last September, I made a big decision to make teaching my career and decided to get a Master’s, all the while working full time. As you may imagine, 50 hrs working, 40 hours studying…something had to give and unfortunately, it was the blog that no longer fit my schedule. Don’t worry though, the plan is to come back and post more once I finished the Master’s (November) or when I got a reduced schedule at work. The honest fact is, most of the ideas I currently have for posts aren’t that good. While I still didn’t post about my most recent trip to Bali and Lombok (Indonesia), seriously, those have been done to death and in far more detail than I can possibly give. Why reinvent the wheel with a lesser product?
So anyways, as you might have guessed, I will be back, but will take a different approach. I will post far less frequently but hopefully trade quantity for quality. Let’s face it, no one wants to read another “top ten things to do in Bali,” an island with about a billion visitors a week. I am rambling but, I do want to finish a more comprehensive South Korea travel guide and will hopefully finish that by July. Thanks for the support and see ya around. Oh, I almost forgot, in the meantime if anyone has ideas for something they would like to read more about, feel free to post it in the comments or shoot me an email.
Don’t let this cute face fool you, he is fearless. When my friends and I went to Yellowstone National Park, we climbed to the top of Avalanche Trail. There was this single squirrel (or chipmunk) who was not afraid of humans at all. He would come down and take our trail mix. At least I got this picture out of it.
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Taken two weekends ago in the Changgyeong Palace in Seoul. They are cherry blossoms that are so close to blooming. It was kind of difficult to focus on the three buds in the front at the same time, but I like the picture anyways. That weekend was the famous Cherry Blossom Festival in Seoul. We decided to pull a fast one and avoid the massive crowds by coming here instead. I am told that there are many species of cherry blossoms. Does anyone know where I can find this information?