Our first day in South Korea did not go as planned, to say the least. Thankfully my friend Jill is very experienced with traveling and knows how hard it may be to get around unfamiliar places. She gave Sarah and I detailed notes on how to get to her town Gwangju (one of the bigger cities in the South) from the Incheon airport. Our first and cheaper option was to take a 4-hour bus ride to Gwangju (32,000 won). Unfortunately for us, that wasn’t an option when we found out there weren’t any seats available on a bus for another 3 hours.

Our second option was to take a high-speed train, Korail, for 3 hours (59,400 won). When we went to the ticket counter we wrote down the city we were headed to. While the lady at the counter did her best to communicate with us, it was still difficult. She wrote down a different name for the city and said we could take the train there. We got really nervous when I asked if that was the same place as Gwangju and she, no joke, said “maybe.” Yikes! We decided to take our chances and purchase train tickets, only to find out there was only standing room only. Standing for 3 hours on a high-speed train did not seem like a good time at all, but we were running out of options. At least standing tickets were a bit cheaper at 50,500 won. Sometimes plans don’t work out the way you expect them to, so it’s important to be flexible and always have a backup plan.

Thankfully the bad luck did not follow us further. The train had wifi and it was only full half the time so we didn’t have to stand during the whole duration. When we got off, Jill was there waiting for us. It can be difficult to get around foreign countries when you don’t know the language, but I find it especially difficult to get around Asian countries. At least in Europe, their language has familiar letters, but with the Asian language I am completely clueless, so I was happy Jill was there to lead us around. Funny thing is she has been living here a year and has only learned like 20 Korean words. That is pretty shocking, but she says it’s surprising how easy it is to get around without speaking the language.

A quick description of Jill’s situation: she is living in South Korea for a year teaching English to schoolchildren. She does it through this program called EPIK (English Program in Korea), that pays her rent for her and over $1,000 for flights coming to Korea and returning to whatever destination. She was assigned a co-teacher, who is in charge of scheduling doctor appointments when she’s sick and setting up her Korean bank account and her Korean phone number. Her co-teacher is pretty much her go to for anything. She picked Gwangju to live in, after doing some research on the city. She said Seoul is very hard to get placed at because everyone wants it and Busan is also a popular pick. The minimum time you have to sign up for is a year, but some people stay on much longer. EPIK teachers get 18 vacation days plus national holidays for the whole year, Jill has used that time to explore other countries nearby. Your pay is determined by a number of things like your degree, the area you teach in, your teaching experience, etc. Jill gets about $2,000 per month and after a year of living here, she is happy with her choice but ready to move on to her next adventure.

From the train station, we went and bought “T money” cards, which is just a card you put money on to get on public transportation. The subway system in Seoul is amazing, but in cities like Gwangju, not as great. Taxis aren’t super expensive, so that is always an option especially when you have 3 people or more since it will be around the same amount as getting on a bus, but will cut your travel time tremendously. We exchanged our money. Every American dollar is 1,100 won. It’s funny because I’m carrying around like hundreds of thousands of won and feeling like a baller when I pull out the 50,000 bill to pay for dinner.

For dinner, we went to Goso Dak Galbi. It was not Korean BBQ, but it is one of Jill’s favorite spots right by her house. It had a grill on the table and they put a massive pot of chicken, ramen noodles, rice cakes, cabbage, and cheese in front of us. It was all mixed together in this sauce, that was a bit spicier than I would have liked. Also no forks – my worst nightmare, hahaha. Looks like my clumsy self will be learning how to use chopsticks this trip. (You know how hard it is to try to eat melty cheese with chopsticks? Impossible). There’s no tipping here, even though the service was on point. They even had a button at the table that sends a message to an earpiece in the server’s ear when we need something.

While the journey may have started off a little rocky, we were safe and excited to be in Korea.