Teachers Share their Experiences While Living Abroad!

This year hasn’t been the right year for traveling abroad. This is true for everyone everywhere in the world. One can travel for business, but for pleasure and family visits, then it is hard. In my case, I am used to taking some time off to visit family yearly. I had my vacation dates set aside well in advance. They were plans made pre-covid. So, of course, those plans were canceled once covid struck. As an English teacher and the faculty manager of two branches, I don’t have the time to travel to my family in the US. In order to spend two weeks with family, I would have to request four weeks off! The additional two weeks is due to the mandatory two week quarantine for those entering the country from abroad. So, I truly thought seeing my family this year was going to be impossible.

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Tags: hosting visitors in Korea, living in Korea, communicating with family back home, family in korea, COVID-19, teaching during covid-19

I have been so lucky to live out COVID 2020 from the comfort and safe haven that is South Korea. Sadly, while I get to live my day to day life comfortably and with minimal interruptions to my life before COVID, there is one huge inconvenience for me. I cannot travel to the United States to visit my family. Well, I could, but with the two week quarantine in place upon arriving back to Korea, I would be asking for about a month off. It’s too long to go without working. I am so family-oriented though! Still, I love my life and teaching job in Korea, so I can’t just up and move back due to missing family. Thus, I have found that these three ways of staying connected to family have really helped me feel a lot better. I’m happy to share these ideas with you. 

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Tags: communicating with family back home, homesick, going home, COVID-19, teaching during covid-19

Feeling homesick is inevitable no matter where you are. Whether you are teaching in Korea, away at college, or even just a couple of hours away from home, it happens. So it isn’t something to fear, but rather something to prepare yourself for.  Although some people, including myself, had a hard time being away from home upon first arriving in Korea, I have found my time abroad has really helped me become a more independent person and I am forever grateful for this experience. Below I will detail ways about how to not only become more independent and comfortable while living in Korea, but also, thanks to modern technology, how you can communicate with friend and family back home.

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Tags: pets in Korea, communicating with family back home, homesick, Cafe, dog cafes in korea

 When was the last time your mailbox actually had a letter in it: handwritten and addressed to you from a real live person you know? The newest J Crew catalog does not count, although I know how exciting its arrival can be.

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Tags: teaching in Korea, communicating with family back home, friends, America, mail, postcards, teaching at Chungdahm

I've learned so much since coming to teach English in Korea! Take some of my advise below: 

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Tags: moving to Korea, teaching in Korea, ex-pat life in Korea, communicating with family back home, teach in Korea, Activities to do in Korea, teaching at Chungdahm, smartphones in Korea, Yoga in Korea

Being in a long distance relationship, I quickly figured out different ways to keep in touch with Neil while I’m here teaching English in Korea. I’m not talking about calling cards and emails, but other methods of communication.This could be a double edged sword in that it could help you keep in touch with your friends and family, yet also leave you missing them even more. I want to share with you what Neil and I did to make our long distance relationship work.

One thing we used as often as possible was Facetime. It’s essentially the same thing as Skype, except for Macbooks, iPhones, and iTouches. I prefer it over Skype because it’s easier to access, there are fewer lag moments, and you have more privacy than Skype. For example, in Skype other people can call you while you’re in the middle of a call. You can use Facetime as long as you have a wifi connection. 

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Tags: a year in Korea, long distance relationships, dating while in Korea, communicating with family back home, relationship advice