A Short Return to Korea

After Bali my trip to Indonesia, as well as my Southeast Asian adventure, had come to an end.  Now that didn't mean I was headed straight back home to Ohio - first was a stopover in Korea, then a visit with an old buddy in Dallas.

Why head back to Korea?  Well the reason originated way back in Thailand - just this past spring, although it seems like years ago - when I met up with Mike.  A friend of mine from college, Mike is always seems to be coming up with creative ways to avoid needing a real job while still enjoying the comforts of financial security.

Take his trip to Thailand as an example: Mike had made it first to London and then on to Phuket at a fraction of the ticket price using airline miles.  Instead of doing it the hard way and accumulating miles from paid flights or purchases, he opened up several credit cards which paid bonuses.  You could open a specific Citi card, for example, and receive 50,000 bonus miles after spending $3k in the first 3 months.  Not bad considering a one-way between the US and Europe costs as little as 20,000 American Airline miles!

Mike was able to book a flight to SE
Asia with his airline miles earned with
credit card sign-up bonuses.

After learning about the airline miles cards from Mike I decided to get in on the action.  For those of you who like the sound of near-free airline travel, I have to warn you: the deals have unfortunately been scaled back, possibly because of people gaming the system (who could that be)!  If you are interested in current offers check out this useful site.

Thanks to my new credit cards I had enough American Airline miles for my flight back to the US, but a reward flight from Indonesia would have been quite complicated.  It was easier instead to pay for an Air Asia ticket from Bali to Seoul and then book the reward back home from Korea.  Plus I could go back to Seoul for visit - a nice way to end my trip!

From Bali I had a layover in Kuala Lumpur, and I arrived in Seoul on the 31st of August.  Most of my 10 days back in Korea was spent in Seoul visiting friends and going out around town to familiar spots.  My schedule was open and not nearly as hectic as the constantly on-the-move Indonesia trip, although I crash in different places around the city, bouncing between various friends' apartments, leery of overstaying my welcome.

The weekend I arrived back in Korea I stayed with Brent, a Canadian I had first met at Korean language class.  He lives within walking distance of Lotte World in Jamsil, close to my former apartment.  It was odd walking around my old neighborhood; a few restaurants and small shops had changed since the year before, and the soon-to-be completed Lotte Tower was coming along nicely, but most things seemed the same, as I had remembered them.

I spent a few nights with Brent (center), and English teacher who
 lives near my old neighborhood in Jamsil.

What Lotte Tower will look like once
completed; when I visited in September
they had made progress but were
still close to a year away from
completing the massive project.

Later in the week I also visited my school to see my former students, which was one of my biggest reasons for coming back to Seoul.  At YBM the new school year starts in March (in concert with public schools), so several of the kindy classes were made up of entirely new students.  Even my two homeroom classes had changed.  In Yale, which was now MIT class, one of my students had left and there were a couple new children.  Oxford class hadn't added any new kids but had lost two students since I left.

Many of the students were new, but I got to see a
lot of my old kids at YBM.

The students were both excited and surprised to see me.  Matt, who finished his first year at the same time as I did, had just come back at the end of August for another year of teaching.  Some of the kids wondered if I was doing the same.  When I told the students that unlike Matt, I was just visiting and would be going back to America, one girl from Yale class said she wanted to come with me!  Most of the children weren't too upset though - the teachers come and go quite frequently!

After staying the weekend with Brent I spent a few days with Sammy, another teacher who lives on the north side of Seoul.  During the week we went out for dinner and drinks with a few friends, where I met a Japanese guy on holiday.  The teachers, the unlucky ones who had to go to work the next morning, called it a night rather early, but the two of us ended up staying out in Hongdae until the subway was running the next morning.  And the following night we went out in Gangnam and did it again!  Not that I want to get into a habit of staying up till 6 am, but it's a lot easier to do if you have no job or responsibilities!

Out at a bar in Hongdae with some fellow expats (from left:
 Gregg, Sammy, Mike, and me)

Hongdae has more than enough nightlife spots to keep you up
 till the wee hours of the morning (or even later!)

The second weekend in Korea I took an unexpected trip outside Seoul.  I had considered leaving town to visit somewhere I missed out on during my year in Korea, but hadn't come up with a plan.  Then Young-in, one of my former university students invited me to travel to Jinju, a small city in the south, to visit her aunt and uncle.  Young-in's aunt and uncle had lived in the US for a few years and enjoyed practicing their English (I'm glad I didn't have to rely on my Korean, which was already rusty!).

Jinju has a tastefully renovated fortification - it's rare to find an historical building in Korea in its original form - along the river which runs through town.  Aside from the castle Jinju doesn't have a lot to offer tourists.  We did try a local specialty of bibimbap made with raw beef; I'd stick with the normal recipe!

View of the river from the fortress in Jinju

Jinju bibimbap: same as the regular kind (with rice, beef,
sauteed vegetables, and red chili paste) except for
one difference - the beef is served raw.

Young-in and I stayed in Jinju just one night and took the bus back to Seoul on Saturday.  The next night I stayed at Matt's new apartment, and on Monday I went back to the school to visit the afternoon students.  That night, my last, I crashed with Kwon, another of my former uni students.  In the evening I went out with Brent, Kwon, and Young-in for dinner and drinks.  It was a nice sendoff, one that thankfully didn't last until the subways were up and running but did involve lots of beer and soju.  I'm glad my flight was in the afternoon!

Out to dinner with several of my Korean university students:  
Sung-taek (left), Young-in, and Hong (right)

So by midday on Tuesday, having slept off most of my hangover, I lugged my backpack and carry-on to the subway station and headed off for Incheon airport - next stop Dallas!