The Barcelona Blues: Why It Wasn't My Favorite City

I was pumped for Barcelona, after so many people telling me that I would just love it there! I gave myself more time to stay there than in the other cities. I booked a train to Barcelona, which took some time. I wasn't able to find a decent host on Couchsurfing, so I decided to just book a hostel in a smaller, all female room.

Arriving at the train station, Sants, I was so confused. That's because they had the long distance train, the regional train and the metro going through there. That's good and dandy, but at the same time the signage there didn't make things obvious. There was lots of figuring out to do. I knew that I was supposed to take a train a couple of stops, and I knew my destination station, so I waited in a line to talk to the one lady at the information desk that was open. Good. Which train am I actually catching? With no map, I wasn't sure. Called the hostel, and got no answer. Then I had to buy the ticket. A bunch of different looking machines. Which one do I use? Finally got my ticket. I go to the right platform, but they had a few different trains running through there. Had to ask again. The first two trains weren't right, but the third one was. The lady told me it was my train. Good.

I get to the hostel, ready to check in. This hostel was called Urbany Hostel on a street called Mediana. I added one night, then with the city's tourist tax and the hostel's key deposit, my bill was over 100 euros. So, I pulled out my lucky 200 Euro bill I got from the exchange house in Seoul. The guy at the counter looks at me like I'm crazy, then tells me that they don't accept 200 Euro bills. They asked me to pay by credit card, and I declined, knowing that my U.S. Bank charges very high fees when using their card overseas. My Korean bank card was for withdraws only, and they cost money too of course. I wanted to be careful. I wanted to use that precious 200 Euro bill I had. Can't go to waste, can it? I asked to go to the bank later to exchange it for smaller bills, which should be free. They said okay.

Why am I telling this in detail? You'll see later.

From Spring to Summer with So Much to Do!

I decided to have some photos taken! © j i m i z e l l : p h o t o g r a p h y

It's Spring now, and the weather has really improved drastically! My life is just moving along, as usual.

I have been transitioning to my new job pretty well, and it has definitely been a big change. There is also a lot more work, but I really love it! Most of my kids are well-behaved and eager to learn. Having my own kids and classroom really makes a difference, because I can develop a real relationship with every student and watch them all progress. This works wonders with classroom management as well, because I can put real procedures in place that the kids and I follow every single day. I love all of my second-graders, no matter how bad ::wink::

Gifts from the students on Teachers' Day!

My first round of parent-teacher conferences are over, and it was really nice meeting all of the parents. Well, mostly moms came, but some dads did as well. I was surprised at the excellent English skills of so many of the parents. The school provided translators, but only a few actually needed them. There's also a culture of parents always hovering around the school, usually toward the afternoons. This hasn't really been a problem, but it's certainly a change from hagwon life where I never met any of the parents! When meeting them for the first time, a surprising number of them were very reasonable and even chill. I really liked that.

 I'm almost finished with the TeacherReady program too. It has not been without its hiccups, however. Somewhere along the line last winter, around the intensive season at my last hagwon job, I fell behind on the assignments.

Our Trip to Yeongju City: Buseoksa Temple (부석사), Museom Village (영주 무섬마을), Sweet Potatoes and Tofu!

After, a cold spell, the weather had been great lately. Perfect for taking a fall trip to see the gorgeous colors of the leaves and experience some nature! I took a trip to Yeongju City (영주시), and my, the scenes were breathtaking!

Scenes from Buseoksa Temple

I was looking for things to do on a weekend, and I found this trip to Yeongju City on The Seoul Expat Global group. The group is headed by Harry Yoon, and it acts as a travel agency of sorts.

This trip in particular was a Sunday day trip to Yeongju to see the Buseoksa Temple, the Museom Village, and a local ginseng market. In addition, we saw the process of making tofu and harvested some sweet potatoes. Lunch and transportation was included. All of this was for only 20,000 won! That's because the trip is partly sponsored by the city itself to attract travelers.

Buseoksa Temple

After taking a bus from Seoul, we arrived at the temple after the three hour ride. Anyone can get there from the Yeongju intercity bus terminal by taking either the #55 or #27 bus.

Buseoksa Temple (부석사) is an old temple that was built back in the year 676. It's large and has a fantastic scenery. You can read more about its history here.

The Korean Folk Village in Yongin, and Hwaseong Fortress in Suwon!

The Chuseok holiday gave me a five-day weekend in Korea, and I wanted to do whatever I could to celebrate the holiday and appreciate my free time! Aside from doing homework for school and cleaning my apartment, I set out to learn a little bit about Korean history.

Suwon's Hwaseong Palace and Fortress

On a Thursday, which happened to be Chuseok day, I paid a visit to the Hwaseong Palace and Fortress in Suwon [수원 화성 (행궁)], which happens to be the city I live in.

Scenes from the Hwaseong Palace in Suwon City, Gyeonggi-do Province

 How did I get there? From my neighborhood, it was a simple 20-minute bus ride away. I personally took a bus to the Hwaseong Henggung stop, then walked to the folk village. From Suwon Station there are many buses that head there, such as the numbers 2, 7, 7-2, 8, or 13. At least some of these would be taken be leaving out of exit 6 and crossing the street to the bus stops on the other side. You would get off at Jongno sageori (which means intersection).

The palace was open, and it's open every day. On Chuseok day, it just happened to be free, and all of the guests could just walk right in and explore.

Common Scams in South America... and Ways to Avoid Them

Just about everyone is excited to travel and explore new places. Although I would always recommend a new, fulfilling experience in South America, there are people who are only looking to gain access to your money. Sometimes, these people are just plain dishonest and walk away with your cash that they obtained illegitimately.

Children talking to a reporter in Bolivia

Many of us have heard of the extremes of what could happen to visitors, which include kidnapping for ransom or even murder. However, that's not likely for the average person, so this post isn't about emphasizing those extreme cases. 

In other words, these are the sort of things that visitors are likely to encounter, either directly or indirectly because they're so common. These are the scams to look out for on a day-to-day basis.

Check out these true stories about some of the negative parts of my adventures to countries such as Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Bolivia, Ecuador and Colombia!

How to Earn Money Teaching English in Colombia

Dancers in Cartagena, Colombia

 In early 2012, I decided to head to the beautiful country of Colombia to teach and travel. I had a wonderful experience and had the chance to meet lovely people and see spectacular places.

Lots of people would love to try out teaching in Latin America. However, they are reluctant to make that jump for three main reasons: there's very little information out there, they're worried about safety and they've heard about the very low pay in many Latin countries.

If you want to teach in Latin America, Colombia's a good choice. That's because the country has some of the best pay rates in the region and that there are plenty of jobs to be had. One can stay for as long as they want. For those with an adventurous spirit who are willing to put in hard work, the opportunities are endless. Here, you can meet fellow foreigners who were very successful at starting their own businesses.

Colombia's for the more independent worker. If you need someone to hold your hand, Colombia's not the place for you. However, if you like freedom of movement and opportunity, then Colombia's a good place to get started.

Learn more about my personal experience from my blog post.

What types of jobs are available? What qualifications do I need?

Enjoying Colombia's Coffee Region

Going to the coffee region in Colombia was one of the most memorable parts of my travels in that country. I went there when my mother came to visit me in July 2012. I can't believe it has almost been a year!

We traveled to this part of Colombia after exploring Bogota, the capital city. This was the most challenging leg of our trip, hands down. That's because we ran into a major problem not long after arriving. I'll talk about that later.

 



My mom posing by the shuttle to Salento

In the morning, we got our things ready and took a taxi to the bus terminal in Bogota. We had booked a place to stay in the tiny town of Salento. However, there were no direct buses, so we had to take a bus to Armenia, the closest big city.

The trip took about 9 hours and the ride had impressive views of the mountains in Colombia. It was windy/loopy, however. Headache medicine if useful for those who get dizzy!

From the bus terminal in Armenia, we had to go to the back of the terminal and go outside where we could take a smaller shuttle to Salento. For a few bucks, we could take the shuttle and arrive to Salento in about 40 minutes.





Salento, Quindio, Colombia

The shuttle took us to the main square of the small town. It looked very simple and had a beautiful backdrop of the mountains surrounding it.

Exploring the main square

When we got there, we went to find the hostel since we arrived in the evening. We eventually snapped some photos of the main square and in front of a statue of Simon Bolivar. Looking around, it was very touristy and there were a bunch of shops, restaurants and bars around the main square and along the side streets. You could see plenty of tourists among the locals.

We did just a tad bit of shopping. I knew I would need a pair of sneakers, so I bought one pair of those along with a pair of sunglasses. They sold all of the typical stuff that you'd find in touristy shops in South America, including the clothes, souvenirs, etc.

We didn't interact with many locals, but they were certainly warmer than the people in Bogota.

Korea's Gmarket: A Shopper's Paradise

My last weekend was great.

The weather was lovely and I was able to do a few activities. I had a date, nice dinners, and had the perfect kiwi martini at a bar. I also set out to do some shopping.

The problem was that I had trouble finding what I was looking for. Now, shopping in Korea is pretty good. I'm just a little picky. I wanted flat sandals, but most Korean women want heels. I wanted a large black purse, but wanted one within my budget. So I first hit the underground subway mall in Gangnam, then went to the Coex mall at Samseong station. I didn't find what I was looking for, but still found other things. It wasn't too bad.

On the other hand, I am satisfied now. That's because I found what I needed elsewhere -- on Gmarket.

Gmarket's English homepage with the original Korean site

 It's part of Ebay, but it's more like Amazon. You're not bidding, but buying. And you can do your regular shopping on this website. I'll say that Gmarket has its own appeal.

If, say, you want to buy a new outfit, some new makeup, a new camera, or a new watch, you can come here and do it. It's a good place to shop because you can find just about anything you want. The prices are competitive with additional discounts abound. It's straight to the point, and more thorough than Amazon in my opinion. Products are displayed neatly, with plenty of detailed pictures and descriptions. There is a good, standard sizing system. I've never ordered something that was too big or too small. That's more difficult in America where every brand seems to have their own sizing guidelines. Here, I don't have to memorize which stores have clothes/shoes that run big or small.