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How To Transfer Money To / From Korea
I was working on a trends report recently and one of the sections was on apps for people sending money to/from Korea. I have lived in Korea for 15 years and way back at the beginning, the only way to transfer money outside of Korea was to go into the bank and initiate a international remittance with the teller. The process took some paperwork each time. It got a bit easier over time to send money abroad from Korea but nowhere near what you can do now. I had gotten so used to using the bank systems that I didn’t realize there were new and amazing startups, companies, and apps…
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57 Things That Might Surprise You When You Live In Korea
I’ve been living in Korea for 15 years and I still walk down the street and find things surprising. I don’t think there’s a right way or a wrong way to do things, there are just a lot of different ways to do something so with that in mind, here are 57 things that might surprise you when you come to Korea. From fans that might kill you to bidets everywhere… there’s a whole lot of cool, interesting, and different things you might not have realized. Here is what to expect when you come to Korea. My biggest tip if you’re planning to move to Korea is to come with…
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SlowBox: The CSA To Use In Korea
Slowbox is a service that delivers produce direct from local farmers to consumers throughout the country of Korea. I’m always on the lookout for ethically-sourced produce and I used to always head to local farmers markets like Mangwon Market since we lived so close. However, since moving and only having the large brand grocery stores within walking distance now, Slowbox has been an amazing option for us for more than a year now. Slowbox is a community supported agriculture (CSA) program that sources their produce from small family owned farms around Korea and you can meet their farmers right on their Slowbox Instagram page. Here’s what you’ll find in this…
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Housing & Money: A Guide To Getting A Place In Korea
Having lived in Korea for ten years, I’ve gone though numerous housing arrangements. I started off living in school provided housing which worked out fabulously for my first year and have gone from renting to now owning while in Korea. My second job was horrible, the owner didn’t even look into finding me the housing that was promised until a month in (I slept on an amazing friend’s floor during that time) so I ended up taking a flat cash stipend and found my own room to rent from someone. It was during that time that I learned just how horrible it could have been to live in school provided…
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10 Years In Korea: How I’ve Lived Abroad For A Decade Happily
Living abroad is amazing, scary, enlightening, humorous, lonely and from there the list of adjectives could just go on and on. Traveling abroad is one thing but most that take the adventure know that at some point they’ll go home which can effect an entire outlook on how they experience a place. Living abroad takes a whole host of adjustments and immeasurable levels of acceptance in many ways. (This page contains affiliate links. That means if you click on them and purchase something, I will get a percentage of the transaction at no cost to you. Thanks for the support!) I wrote an article for Groove Korea Magazine in October…
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Did You Know: Walking On The Right Side is the Left… Or Is It?
Have you ever gone to take a walk in Korea and come face to face with a local and wondered how that happened? I’m sure you’ve taken plenty of walks on plenty of sidewalks back home but wherever you came from, you walk, people walked, and you managed to pass each other. Why isn’t it so easy in Korea you might wonder. Why is there a weaving sort of system on sidewalks instead of a rule on which side of the sidewalk to walk on? There is a reason and one that you might not realize actually. (This post contains affiliate links, which means I receive a certain percentage of…
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The Addresses They Are A Changin’ in Korea
Have you been getting letters in the mail in Korean and you can’t read anything except that you see your address is printed in the center or at the bottom with an arrow to another address? Have you been getting emails from your bank telling you to go online or to your nearest branch and update your address to the new system? You may have gotten an English letter from the immigration office some time back if they have your updated address on file, which they always should. Maybe you have, maybe you haven’t, or maybe you have and you didn’t realize it. The addresses are about to change big…
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Air Raid Sirens In South Korea
Yesterday, the 15th of December, as happens every month on the 15th, unless the 15th falls on a weekend, there was an air raid drill at 2PM to allow South Koreans to practice what they would do in the event of a North Korean invasion. Civil defense sirens go off monthly in Korea and the first time you hear them, you might wonder what is going on. The first time I heard them, they made me think of the tornado sirens I heard growing up in Ohio. But, they’re a bit different. Here’s what you should know about the air raid sirens you hear in Korea every month. Air raid…