Camera Cafe 꿈꾸는사진기 - Dreamy Camera Cafe just outside Seoul, South Korea

I am rather late to writing this blog post and sharing these pictures (in the time since I visited Dreamy Camera Cafe, Farmboy and I...and our pup Shadow, moved back home to South Africa, settled on the family dairy farm and I had a baby! Whew...An awful lot considering these photos were only taken a year and a half ago!).

A quick recap if you're reading this post and wondering what on earth we were doing in South Korea...

Farmboy and I moved to South Korea for our second stint of teaching English (the first was for a year in 2010 when we had just started dating, and ended up living in Daejeon...our second round we returned as a married couple and were placed in the teeny tiny rural town of Buan...which you can read more about by scrolling through the posts here:

One of our absolute favourite things about Korea has got to be their plethora of themed cafes.

Koreans sure do love their coffee, and what they love more than good coffee, is a cute place to enjoy it in.

I'm linking below, some of the other cafes we visited (there's a racoon cafe, dog cafe, cat cafe, flower cafe, teapot cafe...the list goes on!):

And now back to Dreamy Camera Cafe...

The cafe is situated outside of Seoul, and isn't that easy to get to. We had in a car while living in Korea and so were able to get drive there ourselves. But, the owners are so friendly, and before we had a car I had been in touch with them and they had given me really good directions for using public transport. I'll put those details at the end of this post.

We took our pup, Shadow (he went everywhere with us) and he had a ball meeting the two local pups who live with their owners (the camera cafe owners) in a sweet little house next to the cafe. You'll find them in one of the polaroid pictures below.

The cafe itself is set inside a model of an actual classic Rolleiflex twin-lens camera. The cafe is a double storey building, with seating upstairs as well as downstairs. Every square inch of the cafe is filled with cameras and camera paraphanalia. It's a photographers dream!

It ended up taking us a good hour and a half driving through the peak holiday traffic in Seoul, and so we spent the morning at the cafe, drinking coffee, eating cheesecake and being served delicious homemade pink lemonade! The owners, Park Sung-hwan and his wife Kwak Myung-hee began construction on their dream in 2012, and first opened their doors a year later. 

Both Sung-hwan & Myung-hee built the cafe in the hopes that people would visit for longer than the time it takes them to snap a photo in front of the iconic building and gulp down a cup of coffee. They encourage their customers to spend time dreaming and leave inspired to bring their dreams to life.

They even take photos of their customers with a polaroid camera, encourage them to write down their dreams and hopes for the future. Here is our Bucket List...and I often look back at it with fond memories of our visit to the cafe:

They even take photos of their customers with a polaroid camera, encourage them to write down their dreams and hopes for the future. Here is our Bucket List...and I often look back at it with fond memories of our visit to the cafe:

Farmboy and I fit right in with our collection of cameras (I had my Nikon d750...used for the photos here in this post, and my polaroid, and Farmboy came armed with his GoPro).

If you're looking for a fun daytrip from Seoul, I highly recommend heading out to Dreamy Camera Cafe. Take a book, your journal or even your knitting, and spend a few hours in the peaceful surroundings. The cafe is also just as magical in each of the 4 seasons. Head on over to their Instagram account (click here) to see more photos of the cafe in the snow, the blossoms and the Autumn leaves.

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Address:  

341-13 Jungwon-ri, Yongmun-myeon, Yangpyeong, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea

Phone:

 +82 31-771-3264

Opening Hours: 

Tuesday - Saturday 11:00 AM - 6:00 PM
Closed on Mondays, Sundays & Public Holidays

Directions: 

If you come from seoul, there are two ways.
1. Use the Subway:
Jungang line station (youngsan, oksu, wangsimni, Cheongnyangni station...etc). 
Transfer to the Jungang line and go Yongmun station(용문역). 
Get out from yongmun station(용문역) Exit 1

* 2hrs need from Chungnyangni station to Yongmun station

2. Use Mugunghwa Train (usually once every two hrs)
You can only start your journey at Cheongnyangni station.
Cheongnyangni station (use the subway) and take the Mugunghwan Train to Yongmun station.
It takes 40minutes from Cheongnyangni station to Yongmun station.
At Youngmun station, take exit 1.
Take a taxi (it's 7km to the cafe). Tell/Show the taxi driver  "중원리 꿈꾸는 사진기"
+-10,000won need (about US$ 9~10)

Find the camera cafe online:

• Naver
• Facebook
• Instagram

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More posts on life in South Korea:

Our final few weeks in South Korea - A Daily Vlog by Farmboy

Today is the 6th of June, and in T-minus 20 days we will be boarding a flight that will take us back home to South Africa.

Farmboy and I have been living in Buan, a teeny tiny countryside town in South Korea for the past 3 years. We are about to wrap up our final teaching contract and head back home to sunny South Africa,

It's been an incredible adventure filled with all sorts of challenges and excitement (the biggest being the rescue of our Korean street pup, Shadow):

Over the past 3 years we have traveled to Bali, Vietnam, Malaysia, Borneo & India all while working a full time job teaching English. I've written travel guides to these countries as well as posts filled with photographs of each place. Click the images below to read and see more:

We have also spent many a weekend camping, something I never thought I would enjoy before I met Farmboy. You see, I really am a city girl, but somehow the inconvenience of toilets or showers pales in comparison to the beauty of the places we have camped in.

It's been so worth the few moments of being uncomfortable. Click the images below to read and see more about camping in Korea:

As we get ready to pack up our lives here (and as I attempt to take back every single item of Korean stationery and beauty products!), Farmboy has taken on the challenge of a daily vlog.

These videos are a really fun glimpse into our lives here in Korea, and they also take you behind the scenes of what life is really like here in Asia.

I hope you'll join us over on Youtube and that you like and subscribe if you enjoy the videos. Farmboy will be documenting these final few weeks as well as the whole process of taking Shadow home (dealing with the steps and processes of taking a dog from Korea to South Africa) and of course us fetching him on the other side after his stay in quarantine. 

Here is one of the vlogs from our weekend in Seoul, enjoy!

Winter in Korea and our latest snow fall!

I have been complaining for the past few weeks about the lack of snow this Winter in Korea. Facebook kept reminding about all the snow we had here last year, and all we got was a measly few centimetres at the end of November. Well, the weather man finally heard my pleads for snow and we had a non-stop flurry of snowflakes which started last thursday afternoon and only let up Friday night, nearly a full day and night later.

While this was wonderful for me and my camera, it wasn't so great for my car. Poor Cherry (the VERY old red Matiz) had to spend the night at the bottom of the driveway after she failed (on more than one attempt) to get up the drive way to park. She spent the night under a tree and woke up to her handbrake and wheel frozen solid.  Farmboy and I spent a solid 15 minutes trying to pry her from that icy grip but to avail. Luckily the 1 degree increase in temperature during the day had thawed her a bit and we were able to get her started again...come on Cherry!

Here are some photographs from our early morning walk with Shadow, who simply adores being out in the snow. This will be one of the things we miss the most when we return to South Africa. 

An afternoon in the Damyang Countryside

I spent the day in and around Gwangju this weekend, and ended up at the Damyang House for an afternoon stroll with a great group of fellow rescue dog owners. Sean & Jo-Jo own the gorgeous Damyang House, a beautiful (dog friendly) holiday home for rent in the surrounding Gwangju countryside. You can find out more about renting the Damyang House on Airbnb by clicking here. 

Sean & Jo-Jo often arrange get togethers at their dog friendly rental holiday home, and I was very happy to be able to join in this past weekend. Having a dog in Korea isn't easy, especially when your dog dwarfs 90% of the other Korean dogs, and so to be able to go a place that gave him plenty of space to run around and socialise with other dogs is a real treat. 

Sean & Jo-Jo own two rescue dogs, Soonie & Gauda (the small black and tan & the regal looking white pup) and we were joined by Meg & Ben who own Millie (the little, long haired black and white rescue dog) and their friend Ryan. I also met a lovely Korean lady, Jiseong, who brought along her two little Maltese rescues, Coco & Gucci. Of course, Shadow (the big black and tan Jindo mix) was a bit of a handful for the smaller dogs who weren't too interested in his playful advances, giving him a run for his money through the mud and farm lands. He had a ball regardless, none too phased by the barking and chasing he received when he tried to get too playful with them. 

November in a nutshell

November wizzed past in the blink of an eye and looking back at my photographs I realised it was one of my most photographed months of the year. Instead of leaving my photos sitting in digital storage, I wanted to share some of them here with you. I have posted a few of them on Facebook, but I know that a lot of what get's posted on Facebook business pages get's lost amongst everything else.

November was the month of leaves as Autumn slowly drew to a close and my mom was here visiting us and got to experience a real Korean Autumn. We also had our first snow towards the end of the month, and have yet to have any since. Let's hope it comes back so we can have a white Christmas! Having my mom visit was the highlight of the year, as was each and every single cup of tea (and boy oh boy did we drink a lot of tea!). 

So here is November in Korea, in a nutshell. 

Enjoy!

x

English Science Camp And Activities for kids - VOLCANOES

I taught a rather fun science English camp to different groups of students at the end of last year. I wanted something that was very hands on for the kids, while being fun and educational. I did these lessons with both elementary and middle schoolers and all my kids loved these experiments. We made exploding volcanoes and did the Egg drop experiment. This post will be focused on...

Volcanoes

I started the lesson by having my students in groups of 4. I gave each group a picture of a volcano that I had cut up into small pieces. I placed the picture facedown and then told them they had to put the pieces of the puzzle together and the first team to do it would be the winner.

Then we went over a very basic power point presentation showing the different parts of the volcano and completed a worksheet (I found the worksheet on Waygook, an incredible research, free rich website aimed at teachers here in South Korea). 

Then we set about making our volcanoes. I found all the ingredients that I needed at my local mart:

Ingredients for the Volcano

Vinegar

Oil

Flour

Dish Soap

Baking Soda

Water

Salt (try to use buy a ground salt...I learnt this lesson from the No Cook Play Dough recipe I did last year, course salt is horrible when making clay!)

Water based paints (i found these at the back of my English room)

Bottles (for the structure of your volcano)

How to Make the Volcano

For the dough a.k.a. the outside of the volcano

- In a large bowl mix together 3 cups of flour, 1 cup oil, 1 cup salt, 1/2 cup of water. Keep mixing! Add more flour, salt, oil as needed.

- Add paint and keep mixing and kneading until fully absorbed

Building your Volcano

-Tape down your bottle onto a plastic plate or piece of cardboard (this is very important and the volcano will make a lot of mess when you ignite it).

-Using bits of clay, build up your volcano. Make sure to leave the top open for the volcano to explode out of.

Making your Volcano Explode

-Now the fun part! Fill the bottle 3/4 full of hot water (be careful as the plastic bottle will melt if boiling water is used).

-Add 1/4 cup dish soap & 2 Tbs baking soda

-Add red paint/food colouring

-When you are ready, add 1 cup of vinegar and watch the volcano erupt!

It's best to do the erupting outside as these volcanoes tend to make quite a big mess. Make sure to come back for the second part of my Science camp, The Egg Drop Experiment!

The Hunger Games English Camp - Lesson Ideas for Teaching English in Korea

If you're an English Teacher here in Korea you will have (hopefully) heard or know about the English camps you are required to teach your students during the winter & summer holidays. According to your school schedule and hoe many schools you teach at you may have 1 or 2 camps (or even more) camps. We are all supposed to teach 20 hours of camp during the vacation (you may have more/less) but 20 hour is the standard. I usually break this up into 1 week of camp with 4 hours a day. My classes have always been in the morning. 

In my first year at my current middle school I developed a Hunger Games English camp (thanks to this  wonderful thread and the original creator 'Marbar' on Waygook!). I have successfully done this camp 3 times now with different students. They all LOVE it! I teach at an all girls school, but the lessons would suit mixed students too. I have taught this to First & Second Grade Middle School students, and then have just slightly adapted the lessons for the higher/lower level grades.

The camp is based on the first book, with lessons and fun activities surrounding a poster they will complete by the end if the camp, leading up to the final day where the students present their poster and watch the full screening of the first Hunger Games movie.

I want to share these lessons with you in the hopes that they might help you in your camp planning. I will post a Google download link to the camp below where you will be able to download the plan, lessons I created (and be able to edit them to suit your school) as well as the workbook I created for the students to fill in as we went along (I basically just inserted the powerpoint slides and made blanks for them to write down notes etc). Here is a link to download the plan, the printables, the ice breaker for the first day, the actual power point slides and the workbook:

I don't break my schedule up into hours/lessons (although this is how the plan works) but I rather teach until I can see the students need a break and then stop to give them some time to relax. I have found on some days we only stop for a short bathroom break as the students get really into the lessons and have a lot of fun. You will have to judge the timing based on how your students respond.

I always start off my camp with an ice breaker activity, and then divide my students up into their teams. I did this following the reaping ceremony in the Hunger Games whereby my students reach into a hat and pull out their team. They stay in that team for the entire camp and the activities are based upon that team. I also use their team names to keep score of points for prizes/snacks throughout the camp. (pictured aboveO. 

I wanted my students to produce a poster by the end of the camp, and so on the first day I had my students divide their poster page into 5 sections (4 sections and a centre circle for their team name/logo). I have the section 'Homework' on the camp plan above (that is more for admin purposes as some schools will want to see you at least plan to give the students homework) but I have never given them actual homework to do. There has always been time in the lessons to finish all the work.

Here are the finished posters:

One of the activities my students loved the most was designing the costumes for the Opening Cemerony. I went to my nearest Daiso and bought a whole bunch of random supplies (bubble wrap, tinsel, gloves, ribbon, string, cleaning cloths and sponges etc) an then gave the students free reign to do what they liked. This is what they came up with:

I hope you found this camp idea useful. If you use this idea or have any other great ideas for English camp themes I'd love to hear from you in the comments below.

Happy camp planning!

Cherry Blossoms in South Korea

Spring in South Korea has got to be one of the most beautiful seasons, and my absolute favourite time of the year. Although, I must say that Autumn is also beautiful in it's own way with gorgeous red and yellow hued leaves falling gently to the ground (click here to see photographs of Autumn in Korea). It's Autumn right now, but it's Spring for everyone in back home in South Africa and so I wanted to share these pretty flowers with you today. 

These photographs are a selection of blossoms that I have taken over the last 2 Springs that we have had here in Korea. The gloomy & wet photographs are from an afternoon wondering around Gaeamsa Temple, just outside of Buan (Jeollobukdo, Korea) in the rain. It was pouring but I was really happy with the effect the rain gave to my photos. The last set of photographs are from the first day after that rain where the beautiful sunshine meant I was able to do a styled shoot with my friend Alysha. 

Enjoy!

x

Photographs all taken with my Nikon d700 and 50mm 1.4 & 85mm 1.8 prime lenses. Edited gently with Lightroom.

Water Lilies in Korea

Every month new flowers bloom here in Korea, each as unique and distinctive as the changing seasons. As this is our last year here in South Korea I am hoping to be able to capture them all with my camera.

July brings with it humidity such that I have never experienced before (I have been told Dubai is worse though so I won't complain too much) but with that humidity comes the beautiful water lilies. These photographs were taken just outside my town at around 5h30am, with one the last one being an extra special photograph of my pup, #ShadowTheJindo. 

As much as I hate spiders, they were all over the lilies and I felt I just had to include at least one of them. I'm sorry if it makes you jump!

Enjoy 

x

What's your favorite flower here in Korea? 

How to Plan your own Murder Mystery Party

I organised a Murder Mystery party for Farmboys birthday and it went so well that I thought I'd share some details on it in case you too want to host one. I hadn't been to a murder mystery party before, and so really had no idea where to even begin. I started off getting in touch with a girl here in Korea who holds an annual murder mystery event, and she was so incredibly kind. She gave me all the info I needed to get started, as well as as sample character bio's. Her event is the larger end of the scale, with up to 40 people attending. As I only had 22 guest, things were a little easier. You can buy complete party kits online, and there are loads and loads of free printable goodies on Pinterest, but to really save time I followed an awesome plan I found online, put together by Nick Breen (click here).

Nick lays out an entire scenario, characters, backstories & email templates so all the hard work is done. Then it's just up to you to send out characters to your guests and hope they all dress up! I would also suggest asking a friend to help you if you aren't the creative type. I had the help of a very talented friend, Kim, who helped me in creating more characters and their backstories. Thank you Kimmie! I couldn't have done it without you!

Thank you for all the help Kim! Photo taken by Ian Bethune

I used Facebook to create an event for the party, and from there was able to send out group messages (I'm sure theses were terribly annoying at times) but they helped to let guests know what was going on, as well as to send reminders for things like directions, starting times & pre-ordering food.

The hardest part of the entire planning process was making sure I didn't send the wrong character information to the wrong person! I sent out a message 3 weeks before with the basic details of the event (time, place & theme) using the following template adapted from Nick Breens site:

You are all guests at an upscale casino in Las Vegas. You have very rare tickets to the best night of excitement on the strip; the famous Elvis Impersonator. It's 8 o'clock and everyone has gathered into the swanky casino bar for the star performer, the best Elvis Impersonator of all time. 
As the show starts, a gunshot echoes throughout the bar. The curtain comes up, and Elvis goes down. The casino's bar doors slam shut and everyone in the bar is now a suspect.

You are requested at the party to determine which of our friends is the murderer. Throughout the night you can talk to any of the suspects to see who they are and to determine if they are the murderer. One person will be the murderer, if you are not the murderer, you can try and trick everyone into believing you are, or you can simply hunt for the murderer.

I will be giving everyone attending a short character backstory. I encourage you to develop your character as much as you want. I have given you a lot of room to be creative with your character. The more you shape your characters backstory, the more believable it will be. Some of the character backstories that I will provide you with will contain clues which you must tell everyone else at the party. Piece together enough clues and you may find the murderer.

In order to guess who the murderer is, you must answer the following three questions;

1. Who Murdered Elvis
2. How did they murder Elvis
3. Why did they murder Elvis.

Each person will be allowed two guesses throughout the evening. All guesses will be made publicly. The first person to correctly guess these three questions will get a prize.  I will be sending out your character information next week so you can prepare a costume etc.  It should be a lot of fun! 

I had 22 guests and so had to create a few more characters than those suggested by Nick Breen on his blog. If you do this, you need to make sure the new character stores tie in with the existing ones. I also suggest creating one or two extra characters in case you have a few unexpected guests. You can make these character roles minor, so that if they aren't in the plot the story still makes sense.

Then I sent out the characters 2 weeks before the event, and a few final reminders in the last week.

I asked Dave (the owner of the Jeonju Diner in Jeonju) if we could host the event at his restaurant. I also asked very nicely if he would be our Elvis too. He was very gracious and went all out in preparation for his role as the murdered showman. It was fantastic.

I was thrilled to see that most people really got into character, and their costumes were great. I had asked guests to start arriving at from 7pm with the aim of the game starting at 8. I did this to make sure that everyone had arrived by the start of the event. If you do this, make sure to let people know they should not be in character until the game starts otherwise you will have people guessing and chatting about their characters, and possibly even solving the mystery before all your guests even arrive! On that note, to keep a real air of mystery, remind your guests to keep their characters secret until the actual party.

I really had a great time, and I think so did everyone else. It was a wonderful change from the usual dinner and drinks shenanigans, and it was great fun hunting for clues and sending people off onto the wrong trail in their hunt for the murderer. 

Let me know if you host your own Murder Mystery party. I'd love to hear how it goes as well as if you have any tips or advice for making things even better.

A Winnie The Pooh Baby Shower

One of my dear friends from university will soon be having a baby boy here in Korea. This is both a very exciting and scary time for her, being so far from friends and family back in South Africa. Even though it may seem incredibly daunting to some people, Vicky and her husband have done everything they need to stay up to date with how things work here when it comes to giving birth, and have an amazing support system, made up of new friends who have all come together to help in any way they can. Her friends threw her a very surprise baby shower a few weekends ago, and I was able to be part of the surprise, and to capture a few photographs of the special day. Everything was organised and put together so beautifully, and the Winnie the Pooh theme was just so cute. 

Vicky, you are so brave and so strong. I admire you more than words can say and I can't wait to meet your baby boy.

x 

For any soon to be moms here in Korea, there are a whole number of really great Facebook support groups created by fellow expat moms. Let me know in the comments section below if you would like me to put you in touch with them.

Camping in Korea - Namhae Island

Four weekends of camping in a row, I didn't know I had it in me! We spent 2 weeks in Jinan at Yongdam (click here to find about more about this dog friendly camp site), a long weekend in Gangwon Province (click here) and then this, our last camping spot on a secluded beach on Namhae Island, on the Southern Coast of South Korea. 

Namhae is an island off Korea that you can reach without a ferry, something that is quite important to bear in mind if your are traveling over a long weekend and haven't booked ferry tickets in advance. It only took us 2 hours to get to from our home in Buan (a small town near the South West coast of Korea). Namhae Island has quite a lot of interesting attractions (which we did our best to avoid due to the large crowds) like the German Village; an odd settlement of houses along the coast built to welcome home the Korean families (and their German spouses) who had moved to Germany in search of work in the 1960's. 

Namhae is also very famous for it's rice terraces (although rice is farmed all over Korea it seems that Namhae is one of the few places that farms on terraces) and these terraces made an interesting contrast to the ocean views. The canola (or Rape Seed as it is called here in Korea) fields were still out in full bloom and also made for a pretty photo stop on our drive around the island.

I can't tell you exactly where we ended up camping, but i can say that it took us nearly 4 hours to find. We ended up driving up a tiny forest road, parking at the top of a very steep hill and then having to bundu (bush) bash through a forest and along a path that had not been used in years to get to this gorgeous stretch of quiet beach. We were alone, apart from a few early morning fisherman and hikers and had the beach to ourselves the entire time. 

Food is always a challenge with camping, unless you are able to bring along a fridge (something we would never be able to fit in our little red Matiz) and so one has to do quite a bit of planning. We only ended up camping on Namhae for one night (although we had planned for two).

Here is the menu we planned and prepared for:

DAY 1

• Breakfast: coffee/tea and digestive biscuits
• Lunch: bologniase mince wraps with salad
• Snacks: store bought popcorn 
• Dinner: pre-cooked sausages/vienna sausages, sweet potatoes fire roasted with garlic & spices
• Dessert: s'mores (& wine!)

Day 2

• Breakfast: coffee, tea and digestive biscuits
• Lunch: tuna wraps with salad
• Dinner: Left over mince, sweet potatoes and sausages
• Dessert: s'mores (& wine!)

We spent the weekend on Namhae Island over Buddha's Birthday, one of the many long weekends here in Korea but what we hadn't realised is that it was also the famous Namhae Beef & Garlic festival. As we drive around the island we were greeted wit the warm smiles of of garlic farmers going about the business, reaping (is that even the right word?? must ask farmer husband) garlic. I have never seen so much garlic in all my life. We also managed to buy a small bunch/pocket/posie??? of garlic from a gaggle of adjumma's on the side of the road. They were full of smiles as we we drove away with our prized garlic in tow. 

The first picture below is of the famous Silver Sands beach, which we avoided at all costs as it seemed like the whole of Korea had gathered to camp there. We prefer to stay away from all the noise and chaos of the traditional camp grounds here in Korea and were so happy to finally find our secret spot after many hours of driving and searching. 

You can technically camp anywhere in Korea, as long as you clean up after yourself. We have on occasion when we have been able to find a land owner, asked permission to camp and have so far been greeted with a warm welcome (even with our pup!). 

Have you been camping here in Korea? Do you have any recommendations of places to stay? Please leave me a comment below, I'd love to hear from you!

How to Get a Korean Drivers License in Korea For South Africans

Buying a car in Korea has been one of the best decisions we have ever made as it has freed us up to travel and explore so much more of the country without having to worry about bus schedules. As we live in a small town, we were very much at the mercy of the last (usually very early) bus that returns to our town from all destinations. Having a car means we never have to worry about that anymore and can on a whim decide to make travel plans. Also, as we have a dog here, having a car has made life so much easier especially as he isn't small and can't be popped in my handbag or in a pet carrier. Now that the weather is so mild, camping has been a dream with a car (click here to see more posts on camping in Korea).

There are two ways for South Africans to go about getting a Korean drivers license; either doing the whole test like you would have done in South Africa when first getting your drivers license, or exchanging your current license for a Korean one. This post is all about exchanging your current South African License for a Korean license.

You are also able to drive in Korea with an International Driving Permit (we got ours from the AA in South Africa, I was able to write a letter and have my mom apply for it for me in South Africa) but I had read conflicting information on how long it would be valid here and our insurance required us to both possess full Korean licenses in order to be fully covered.

Getting a Drivers License in Korea

As mentioned above there are two ways to obtain a Korean license. The first is the long and arduous process of taking the actual Korean licensing test. I simply didn't have time during my work hours to go to the nearest station and do the tests. The second, and easiest way of getting a Korean licence is to exchange your South African one for a Korean one.

What this means is you go to your nearest licensing station (click here for a list of all of them in Korea as well as their contact details). You basically hand over your current South African license and they give you a Korean license, which is then valid for 10 years. In this time your SA license will probably expire. If this happens, when you are next in SA take your expired license, copies of your ARC card and Korean license as well as proof of being abroad and you should have no problems renewing it (please note I have no first hand experience with an expired license but this is the information I have found online).

The License Office here in Korea will then keep your South African license on record, until you return to South Africa (either for a holiday or permanently). If you are going back to SA on holiday, you simply go to the same Licensing Office with a copy of your airline ticket and then they will give you back your SA license AND you keep your Korean license. You then will have both licenses.

Getting Started

You need to get your current SA license certified by the South African embassy in Seoul. You can do this in person, or you can send it via express mail. If sending it by post you need to send your original drivers license, as well as a return envelope with paid postage to the following address:

남아프리카공화국대사관 (South African Embassy)

1-37 Hannam-dong, Yongsan-gu, Seoul

Tel: 02-792-4855

I sent both mine and my husbands licences and got back the certified copies within 5 days.

What you need to take to the Licensing Office

• Original South African Driver’s License
• Original passport (with the stamp for most recent entry into Korea)
• Original Foreigner Registration card (ARC card) or equivalent (issued from Korean government)
• Colour photo x 3 (we had these taken at the Licensing Office for W7000 pp person for a set of 8 photos)
• Confirmation letter or such from the South African Embassy stating the validity of the Foreign Driver’s License (this is the certified copy of your license)
• Processing Fee : KRW 12,500

Then simply stand in the queue, look a little lost (this always helps!) but with big smile on your face so someone feels compelled to come up to you and offer you assistance. Then hand over all your documents to the teller. You will need to fill in a few forms and then do a test of sorts. We were only asked to do an eye test (done right there at the office) but I have heard some people being asked to do a written test. It seems to depend on the office. We did our test in Jeonju. I have even heard of people having to do very strange 'physical' tests; squats, jumping, raiding their hands in the air (I am not kidding! So be prepared for a few squats). Click here to find out more information on the aptitude tests sometimes required. 

Cherry even managed the snow without snow tires, what a good girl!

Some Useful Info on Buying a Car in Korea

We bought our car second hand from a private seller on Facebook through one of the many Facebook groups for foreigners here in Korea. We paid W1 million (about $1000) and it was the best $1000 we've ever spent. Cherry, or Cheryl when she's struggling up hills, is a very old little Matiz, but she gets us safely from A to B and her fuel consumption is so good that we barely notice the cost of fuel. Also, as she is a small car (under 1000cc's) we are charged half price on all tolls and ferries #cherryforthewin!

Some Useful Info on Car Insurance

Insurance is something else to budget for when getting a car, and ours costs about W650 000 ($650) per year. If you are looking for an insurance agent I highly recommend Sami from Car Insurance in Korea (click here for his Facebook group) who offers a free price comparison of all major Insurance companies in Korea and is always such a pleasure to deal with. He helped us get our car registered in my name and sorted out all the hiccups we came across when it comes to insurance. 

Have you got a Korean license here before? Did you have any problems getting it? I'd love to hear from you in the comments below. If you have any questions, please feel free to leave a comment here and I'll get back to you asap.

#DiyDaysInKorea {Picnic Meet-Up)

This past weekend I organised the #DIYDaysInKorea ladies a picnic meet-up in a little park in Jeongeup. Our usual get togethers usually involve doing some form of DIY (and chatting...there's always lots of that...oh and food...there's always so much good food!). These meet-ups are a way for us crafty (and in my case, definitely UNCRAFTY) ladies here in South Korea to spend quality time together. We even have a Pinterest board for us to share ideas and inspire one another, we're cool like that. 

It was such a nice opportunity to get together, without spending a whole lot of money, and while still having fun. 

If you're here in Korea and you'd like to join in the next time we get together, join our Facebook group (click here), we'd love to have you!

Here are some photographs from our afternoon together.

Enjoy!

x

Everyone brought such amazing food (most of it home made...like those milk tarts and the bread). I even tried making a Banting bread (top photograph above) which came out quite well, although I will admit to eating a slice or two (or three) of Alysha's loaf. 

We even had three pups join us which provided us all with a lot of entertainment. My pup, Shadow (the big black one) and the white one are both Korean Jindos (of the mixed variety hehe) and all three dogs were rescue pups found here in Korea.

Thank you so much to Marilize who got hold of my camera and snapped the lovely photographs below. It's so nice to be on the other side of the lens for a change.

We would love for you to join us next time, simply pop on over to our Facebook group to join in.

I hope to meet you soon!

x

Setting up NH Internet Banking in Korea

If you are with the Public School program here in South Korea, you will have to set up a bank account with NH (Nonghyup). This is the standard bank the government/education department uses to pay your salary. You can open another account at a later stage for sending money home (we have an Easy One Account with KEB which we use to send money home easily to South Africa as KEB changes KRW straight into ZAR without having to first convert to US dollars).

Please Note: Internet Explorer & NH are best friends. I often have problems trying to use my Mac to do internet banking. Some days it works and some days it doesn't. But it always works with Internet Explorer on my school computer.

To set up internet banking with NH you need to visit a branch. Do this straight away when you first go set up your bank account (hopefully you have a friendly co-teacher/friend to help you). Farmboy and I both have check cards that we can use for paying for goodies online (some internet sites accept these check cards and some don't so it's a bit of a luck of the draw). A check card is basically a debit card which acts as a credit card without any overdraft. You can use it to pay online but the money is automatically debited from your account. As far as I know, I can only use my check card here in Korea. I tried to use it to pay for flights online like I used to be able to use my South African check card, but no luck so far.

When you set up internet banking at the bank, you need to give them your passport (they will make a copy for you), you also need your ARC card (if you don't have this yet you need to show them your ARC certificate which you get from your nearest education office when you apply for your ARC card. It acts as a temporary ARC card until yours arrives). There is also a charge, it was a whopping W1000 when I opened mine.

What to Bring:

-passport
-ARC card/temporary certificate
-cash 
-address (of your apartment or school)

They will give you:

-an Internet banking registration form
-a banking password card (this looks like a credit card with a load of different number combinations)

The following will be given to you if you are setting your bank account up for the first time (ie you don't get a separate card & bank book for Internet Banking)
-a bank card 
-an account book (which is actually pretty important in Korea, and you can use it to withdraw money without your bank card, and to print out statements)

Once you are all set up you will have to create an internet banking pin (usually 10 - 15 numbers and letters) to make transactions & another pin called a User ID to log onto internet banking. Keep those all somewhere safe. And you will need to have your card/ATM pin handy (4 letters).

You will then be given a OTP (one time pin) to use to set up internet banking for the first time. You usually one have 2 -3 days to use it before it expires.

To use internet banking you also need to have a digital certificate which gets loaded onto a USB. You use this every time you log onto internet banking so make sure you keep this on you all the time. If you lose it, its pretty easy to re-issue. You issue it for the first time through NH (click here) on the top menu bar = Certificate Centre. Keep this on a USB so that you can access Internet Banking from any computer in Korea. Whenever you do internet banking you will need this certificate so keep that USB safe!

Here are some wonderful step by step instructions from Asrune at TeachTravelLearn. Once you have been given the One Time Pin from the bank, you can set up Internet Banking at home/at school.

On a computer with Internet Explorer:

1. Go to http://banking.nonghyup.com/nhbank.html

2. In the bottom right hand corner, select "Global Banking" and "English"

3. You will see this page. It is prompting you to download a keyboard protection program. Click the left hand option to download and continue:

4. Go to the "Certificate Center" and click "Issue a Certificate"

5. Enter your ID, which you created at the bank. It is listed on your registration form under "이용지명 ID:" on the second line of text.

6. Enter your foreign number (National Identification Number), or passport number. Select the free certificate, and confirm

7. Accept the terms of Service

8. Register. Have your registration form (given to you at the bank) and password card ready.

9. Create your banking password.

A pop up message will appear and ask you to create a Banking password. It must be 8 digits with both letters and numbers. You use this with your USB digital certificate every time you do Internet Banking 

10. Save your Certificate to a USB device.

You can use a USB so that you can log on any computer, or save it directly to your computer. You have to have a certificate to access Internet banking in Korea. A USB is recommended. After you have Internet banking set up, you can also add it to your phone, but that's a whole other blog post waiting to be written.

11. Log on! A pop up window like this will show up. Find where you saved your certificate, select your name, and enter your 8 digit banking password at the bottom (created in Step 9 above).

If you have any other problems, call the NH English customer service at 1588-2100 *730 for English Help.

Now that you have your digital certificate set up you can log in and start doing banking transfers. As the NH site is all in English it should be easy enough to follow. Good Luck!

Owning a Dog in Korea {Part 2} Health Check Ups & Vaccinations

This is a follow on post from Part 1 in this series Owning A Dog in Korea.

In Part 1 I talked about all the things you need to have to make sure you and your pup are happy. Nothing in the guide is compulsory by any means, but rather is is written from my experience. Keeping a dog in an apartment here in South Korea is hard, and so that blog post is filled with ideas of items you may want to buy, as well as links to places you can get hold of them. Things like where to buy collars, harnesses, crates & toys for larger dogs. I hope you find it helpful!

We have had our rescue pup, Shadow, for just over 6 months (click here to read more about how he came into our lives) and had no idea what needed to be done in terms of health check ups. This post will hopefully provide you with enough information about what your pup needs to be healthy and happy.

The first thing you need to do with your new pup/dog is to take him to the vet to have a thorough health check. This basic check up will determine whether your dog has any diseases. Depending on whether your pup had a previous owner, you may or may not need to have vaccinations. We rescued Shadow from the side of the road when he was tiny, and so he needed to have every test done as well as all his vaccinations.  You also need to ask your vet to check for Heartworm which is a very nasty disease very prevalent here in Korea.

If you have rescued a puppy you need to be very mindful of Parvo virus which is incredibly contagious and deadly to young dogs. Parvo is spread through the feces and vomit of infected dogs and puppies. This virus can live in feces for about two weeks and can survive in the environment (areas on floors and cages) for many months. This survival rate allows it to be passed along by hands, clothing or shoes of anyone who comes in contact with it. We were warned by many dog owners not to let our puppy go outside until he had had all his shots, but this just wasn't practical for us. When we go home to South Africa, Shadow will be an outside dog and so we needed to toilet train him outdoors. I know many people here in Korea who use pee pads, and it works for them but is a personal and situational preference (if you live on the 20th floor of a sky rise building, it might not be practical to take out a young puppy every 3 hours). Getting up at all hours in the freezing cold to go outside was hard, but it was something we decided and have just put up with. 

What to Do if your dog Tests Positive for Heartworm

I don't have any experience with treating heart worm and so I asked the local dog owning community here in Korea for some advice. I just want to say thank you to each of these ladies for taking the time to respond to me and offer help and advice to dog owners who may have to go through heartworm treatment.

"Finding out your new foster or adopted pup has heartworm is awful. This happened to me in January 2013. All dogs in Korea need to be given monthly heartworm preventatives as heartworm is rampant in Korea.
At first the vet will just do a quick blood test to determine if your dog is heartworm positive or negative. If it is positive, the most important thing is that you ACT QUICKLY!
You do not have time to save up for a month or so! Find a vet that will do a payment plan if money is an issue. Heartworm is more difficult to treat the longer it progresses. There are 4 stages of heartworm - you will find out which stage your dog is by having scans done. If it's stage 1 or 2 - it's treatable. Stage 3 and 4 treatment options are not as successful and will depend on your dogs health.
I have experience with treating stage 2 heart worm. My dog was given two rounds of injections 24 hours apart. After the first injection, she cried for a solid 8 hours. It was agonising to watch. The second one was a little better but still awful.
The dog must be kept calm during the few weeks following treatment - their heart rate needs to stay steady.
About 4 months later we retested my dog and she tested negative! We were really lucky! I have heard it can take up to 9 months for a negative test result. Or worse, the treatment may need to be repeated" Julie

---

"Our dog, Sue, had to have 2 rounds of Immiticide before she tested negative for HW. For Close to 4 weeks each time, she had to be quite still and not have too many walks.  She was a bit lethargic and tired after the injections. Each round of treatment was 400,000won.  I did not check around as I wanted her to have the treatment right away.  My vet also kept her over night on an IV to give her fluids and monitor her.

She was rescued from a shelter, nearly dead, from malnutrition and she had just given birth. The initial injection causes them to be in quite a bit of pain and sometimes they writhe around on the floor and you feel completely helpless as you watch.  they don't understand what is causing the pain and you can't help them at all. It is usually 1 injection and then you wait for the medicine, which is essentially poison to kill the worms near the heart and hope it does not kill the dog in the process.  We had to get Sue to a good weight and moderate healthy before she could even have the injection. One round just did not kill all the worms and we had to go back and do it again" Erin

---

"From my experience, once my dog tested positive, we did blood test to find out if he had any worm eggs in his blood. My vet also did an ultrasound of the heart and he was able to see the condition of his heart and adult worms in his heart.
Next, he staged his heartworm given his symptoms. This is an indication of how advanced the heartworm is. It goes from Stage 1 through 4 (1 being the mildest and 4 being the most serious).
It is important that dogs are at a normal weight and try to maintain their weight during the treatment. My dog was underweight. So, we had to wait some time for him to gain weight before starting actual heartworm shots. Being arsenic based, these shots take a lot from a dog’s body.
While we were waiting for him to gain weight, he was on antibiotics (2 rounds). My vet also put him on puppy food for a month as puppy food is higher in protein and calories to help with his weight gain. He had poor appetite, which is one of the symptoms of heartworm disease. I bought him My Beau nutritional supplement, salmon oil for dogs and some wet food to mix in his dry food alternatively to encourage him to eat more. I also offered him a hard-boiled egg once or twice a day.
I tried to offer 3 or 4 mini meals when I was around over the weekends to help with his weight gain. I weighed him every other day so that I could see my progress.
We gave him pills with Greenies pill pockets as he didn’t want to swallow them otherwise. I have heard people mix them with a bit of jam/peanut butter/bread as well.
Some of the other symptoms of heartworm disease include: cough, shortness of breath, labored breathing, lethargy, swollen/distended abdomen, and edema of the legs.
Once heartworm shots are initiated, the most important thing is to restrict exercise. Dogs should only be brought out for the toilet and always on a leash. We have to restrict things which increase heart rate such as running, jumping, playing ball, climbing steps/stairs/hills, barking a lot and mating.

Also, it is important that the day dogs get an injection not to rub/massage the area even if they may be in pain. It is very important to do everything possible to keep them calm" Dee Dee

As heartworm is such a problem here in Korea, Vets advise giving dogs heartworm preventatives. These are given once a month and come in tablet form. You can take your dog in once or month to your vet or buy a couple of months supply to give your dog at home. The tablets aren't that expensive and most definitely worth doing. 

Vaccinations

Here in South Korea vets give dogs the following vaccinations:

•  DHLLP (Distemper, Hepatitis, Parvovirus, Papainfluenza & Leptospirosis (x5 shots)
•  Corona Virus (x2 shots) 
• Kennel Cough (x2 shots)
• It's also a good idea to get the rabies vaccination done too.

Some people feel very strongly about not over vaccinating their dogs, and lots of websites suggest having a Titer Test (anti body test) after about the 3rd or 4th round of DHLLP. I trusted my vet, and as Shadow is a larger breed than most dogs here in Korea I took my Vet's advice to have all 5 rounds of DHLLP.

Vets usually administer 2 shots together, 2 - 4 weeks apart. In my case Shadow had the following:

• Round 1: DHLLP & Corona
• Round 2: DHLLP & Corona
• Round 3: DHLLP & Kennel Cough
• Round 4: DHLLP & Kennel Cough
• Round 5: DHLLP & Rabies

Each visit to the vet cost W22 000 (I do live in a small town so I think the prices are slightly less than in bigger cities). The rabies shot was a little more and was more painful for him than the others.

After the initial vaccinations, you are advised to take your dog in for yearly booster shots.

All of the above is very important to bear in mind before you get a dog. There are so many abandoned pups on the streets here in Korea, but before you just pick them up make sure you know what you're getting into financially.

A few numbers to chew on:

Heart worm treatment: +-W400 000 a shot (often times you may need 2 or even 3 rounds) basic Basic Vaccinations: +-W150 000

Neutering: -+W200 000 (male) can be as much as W400 000 for a female

Spaying: +-W400 000

And thats before the food and toys and bedding and treats. And of course the final cost of transporting your pet home.

Even with all of the above, we can't imagine our lives without Shadow. He has brought so much joy to our lives and we don't regret picking him up off the streets one bit.

Do you have anything you want to add, or is there something I've left off here? Please drop me a comment below or email me and I will update this post. Thank you!