Volunteering & Travelling in Korea (Busan)

Quite a number of friends have asked me about this and I encouraged each and every one of them to try, especially if you're having a semester break, or taking a gap year. I guess one of the most important issue is the cost of  volunteering and travelling. 

I went through for volunteering and travelling in Korea for about a month. It was probably one of the best decisions I've made resulting in one of the best holidays I've spent. 

Also, my very good friend, Tom, from Spain introduced me the website whereby you can find many other volunteering jobs. You can click into the website for more detailed explanation on how it works.

http://www.helpx.net 

Upon registering as a member, you are required to pay €20 EUR which is about RM97.18 which lasts for 2 years.

There is also another website, in which I realise most volunteers that I've met in Korea uses. 

https://www.workaway.info

Registration cost $29 USD which is about RM113.10 which lasts for only 1 year.

The differences is that Workaway has more list of hosts as compared to helpx but helpx is cheaper by RM20 and has a longer membership duration.

(Special thanks to Tom because before registering as a member for helpx, I used Tom's account to search for the suitable host and then, register myself, just so you know, I don't waste unnecessary money. This is because it was my first experience and I was still a little bit skeptical with the whole idea of volunteering in exchange for food and accommodation. Plus, the website looks a bit dodgy.)

Once you are a member, just pick any country you plan to visit, and then you'd be able to view the list of hosts. 

Reason why I picked going to Busan instead of Seoul is because I believe the standards of living in Busan is lower compared to Seoul and since our currency is quite weak against the Won, it is actually quite expensive to survive in South Korea. 

Anyway, it really depends on what you are looking for. For me, I wanted to meet people from all around the world, thus, I picked the one that requires a higher amount of helpers. Also, I picked the job that has the most  reviews. More reviews in which helpers themselves tell their experience, so, in a way, you'd know whether this the right job for you. 

I picked to work in LZone Language Cafe in Busan so I sent them an email through Helpx and within a day, I received a reply. The owner of Lzone, Mike, requested a Skype interview that lasted for about 15-20 minutes. He asked a few simple questions, and also explained the working routine and what to expect. He asked me to send him my air ticket through email to confirm that I won't be bailing out. But Emil & Frankie, both from UK has taken over the role as the person in charge with all the Skype interviews, so you will be seeing them through Skype instead if you choose to volunteer under Lzone. (PS: Tell them I said hi!!) 

Fast forward to the day I landed in South Korea, I arrived at Busan at around 7pm ish. Once I arrived, I found my way easily to the cafe from the metro station as they've provided specific instructions which is easily understood. If you are lost, you can just ask any Koreans you've met on the streets as LZone is really famous in that area. 

To start of with, LZone International Language operates in Kyungsung-dae district in the city of Busan, which is one of the liveliest districts in the city as there are several universities with convenient subway access and only 15 minutes walk from the beach. Trust me when I said it's lively, it's like living in Changkat/Publika/Bangsar but probably much busier, especially on weekends. 

So to make things easier, this is the details and requirements which I've gotten from their host list in helpx:- 

Volunteering Description You need to be able to speak English fluently because your primary duty will be to facilitate English conversation with café members. You will have access to many games at the café to assist with this activity. You can also share your culture and language and will also have the opportunity to learn about Korean culture through conversations with our members. Volunteers share the responsibility of keeping the café and their living space clean. What We Expect • Play games and have conversations with members • House cleaning shift – reduced working hours for the day and cleaning schedule rotated through volunteers (typically only 1 or 2 cleaning shifts out of 30 days stay) • Work Schedule: Monday through Friday (Weekends off) What We Offer • Free accommodation - Bed, Bedding, personal lockers, Toiletry Basket • Free Wifi in your dorm • Lunch and dinner at café • Rice, Bread in your dorm • Weekends Off • Free drinks at our international parties Requirements • Fluent English conversation ability (do not have to be native English speaker) • Minimum Stay: 30 days (after completion of first 30 days, extensions possible after review of performance) • Professional conduct, Excellent Personal Hygiene, Sociable

On my first day of work, I've met a really nice Korean friend, and his name is Jee Hun, he brought me around Busan and treated me to my first Korean beer! Throughout my month in Korea, he has always been really nice, bringing me around Busan and always helping me out. I am really grateful to him and felt really lucky to met him :)

Typical lunch & dinner they provide. On some good days, you'll be served bibimbap and kimchijeon (kimchi pancake). 

They also provide free Korean classes every week. 

First bottle of Soju! It's so cheap, like RM5 per bottle? 

In the metro on the way to Grid, one of the best clubs in Seomyang to celebrate Ellie's birthday! <3 

Meet one of my favs, Maegen from Scotland & Billy from Cheras! 

One of the best drinks ever created, makgeolli, Korean rice wine. 

Typically, makgeolli is eaten with kimchijeon during a rainy weather. BEST COMBO EVER.

We also had this flour noodle which tasted like Mee Hoon Kueh. 

Meet Scott from Belgium! I wanted to have some dreadlocks on my hair and he offered to do it for me, but my hair was too soft and I had to resort to washing my hair with soap. But it was still too soft :( 

Sometimes, we have movie nights with lots of snacks in the hostel ;) 

Korean Fried Chicken, food from heaven. Even the tteok(rice cake) was fried and it was so chewy plus fries are sprinkled with cheese shavings. 

Meet Joab from Mexico & Franco from Barcelona. 

Even pizza taste good in Korea. 

A typical day in Lzone. 2 volunteers are assigned to each table, so I'm with Julia, from Germany. The other 3 are one of my favourite Koreans! 

Dwaeji Gukbap, the famous pork and rice soup which apparently is really good for those who had hangover from a night of drinking. 

Meet Ye Ji from the furthest right. We met her in Lzone, and she's a local so she brought us to a famous shopping district to get our shopping done.

One of the street food everywhere, waffles! Their waffles taste so good.  

Deep fried puffer fish - puffer fish is supposed to be very poisonous if it is not prepared right 

Meet Mi Suk, she actually made research on the best place to have puffer fish and brought us there.  ;_; 

Meet Neal from Korea, Maegen from UK & Kevin from USA

Us having our meal. One thing I really like about Korean food is the amount side dishes along with the main course. So much love for their food! 

Ye Ji from Korean, Julia from Germany and Mi Suk from Korea! 

An illustration of how puffer fish looks like 

Gwangali Beach; 15 minutes walk away from our hostel

Yes, this is part of the side dish as well, beondegi; broiled silkworm

The food I've been wanting to try for so long!! It was moving quite a lot and it tasted really fresh! 

Look at the amount of side dishes :O 

Sometimes we have entertainers at night playing the guitar and singing in the hostel. Meet Emil from Manchester & David from Chile.

Hanging out by the beach on our off days

Celebrating Stephen's birthday! 

A Korean in Lzone teaching me how to pronounce different fruits so that I could easily order fruit juice in the local juice store

And guess who came down to visit me! Jinnnnn. He was my classmate during A-Levels but he returned to Korea. It was so good seeing familiar faces. 

And you know the stereotype that all Koreans can sing? IT IS TRUE! All Koreans CAN sing!  Probably it's because one of their past time is in Norebang (Karaoke). I've also spent a lot of my time there in Norebang and had so much fun! It was really cheap as well. On my second last day in Korea, I lost my voice singing and yelling in Norebang from 1am until 5am. 

Oyster soup 

Maegen, in which we got food poisoning together :P, sharing toilet, taking turns to puke. 

Gwangali Beach <3 

I've also tried baseball for the first time in my life. About 1.000 won (RM4.50) for 20 shots

By the last week, I was actually quite sick of Korean food, so it was nice to have something different. And this cost only 3,000 won which is about RM12-15.  

Meet Rhia and Natalie (Korea) who brought their manicure sets over to our hostel to do our nails for us! 

Rhea painted his right hand fingernails whereas I did the left! Meet Charles, my mochi and roommate from France. 

Rhia even brought her manicure tools to Lzone because I messed up my manicure :x 

View from our balcony. A good place to do your work outs in the morning and the chill at night with a guitar.

Charles and Omar from Israel

More drinking and eating after work 

Usual hangout spot. Outside CU, a convenient store with bottle of soju

From left, Sarah (Canada), Billy (Malaysia), Kevin (USA), Lucas (Switzerland), Charles (France), Omar (Israel), Birdie (Denmark) & Maegen (UK)

There was a day whereby they need us to come in on a Saturday to aid with some recording for some TV show, this is us communicating with a 95 years old Korean senior citizen who was really fluent in his English and Mandarin.

In exchange for coming in on a weekend, FREE PIZZAS FOR EVERYONE.

Our trip to the SEA Temple

Ended our night with Samgyeopsal (Korean BBQ) for dinner

More soju nights! 

In just one picture, we come from 10 different countries; Belgium, Switzerland, Canada, Denmark, Malaysia, France, United Kingdom, United States of America, Germany & Korea

All dead on the way back from SEA Temple we were so tired we just fell asleep in the Metro. 

Meet Gonny (Korean), my housemate and a future flight attendant

I also had the chance to visit the famous fish market; Jakgalchi Market

But before that, some street food! Kimchi and spring onion pancake 

Half eaten tteokbokkis 

Man doo; dumplings

Gimbaps

Chicken satays

Dried seaweeds

Ke bul, penis fish. Too bad I never had a chance to try this

Cheese dakgalbi, one of my absolute favourite food in Korea!! Can cry eating this, 

Cheaper option of cheese dakgalbi

Another version of cheese dakgalbi but this is the more expensive option 

Kimchi Cold Noodle

Supper! Gimbap which costs 1,000 won 

Strawberry bingsu! Honestly, strawberries taste so so much better in Korea as compared to Malaysia.  Before I left, I had as much strawberries as I can and I am missing the taste of it so much right now. 

Us on the way to Jimjilbang (Korean Spa). *Korean fashion lol! 

User guide and instructions to use the jimjilbangs

Changing rooms

Gina & Callan! 

They also have a lot of different rooms to enjoy the sauna

One of the best jimjilbangs around in Busan

Hotteok, pancakes filled with brown sugar, honey, cinnamon and nuts for the extra 'oomph'. All of us loved it so much, and they have an ahjumma selling very good hotteoks near our hostel! 

Cheese dakgalbi again! 

Meet Elodie from France (one of my roommate!) and Caleb from Las Vegas

On my last day there,  we went out for a farewell supper. I regret not taking a group picture/ more solo shots with everyone :(

Kimchijeon! 

Strawberry makgeolli

This is how my workplace looks like. I am seated on the same table with Maegen, and the Korean guys comes in the have a chat with us in English/ play board games/ card games! :) 

I ended my trip to Korea with a heavy heart. I wish to visit Korea again sometime in the future as I really think it's a beautiful country with beautiful people. I've made many friends from all edges of the world and learnt much about their culture. The different cultures still amazes me as we are all just people, but how can we live life so differently? I regret not taking enough pictures and probably more pictures of food than the people there.

Some of the advantages working in Lzone / working while travelling :-

1) I've met so many people and learnt so much about their culture. I was inspired by most of them, as they were taking their gap year/quit their jobs to discover to world via backpacking. Mostly, I was amazed by their courage as some of them were backpacking for almost a year alone, away from their family, some of them are only 18 year olds, some hated their jobs, but all of them just wanted to see the world.

2) Now you've heard of stereotypes about different races, etc, etc. But when you meet people who're backpacking/travelling, they are mostly fun, outgoing, adventurous people who loves making new friends and just wants to have fun! At the same time, we just want to enjoy life and make the most use of our time abroad, thus, everyone, sharing the common purpose, leads to more fun!

3) Culture shock. Trust me, working and partying with people from all over the world, you will definitely feel it. For me, one of the biggest culture shock is really just the difference in attitude and behaviour between Asians and Caucasians. Although it may not apply to everyone in particular, but in general, I've really noticed how loud and confident Caucasians are as compared to Asians.

4) You learn to work with people from different backgrounds. As our economy is becoming more integrated and globalised, we are deemed to work with people having different working cultures in the future, better start getting used to it now!

5) You may get free accommodation and tour guide when you visit their country in the future! *wink wink*

6) I can really tell the difference between the one month I've spent just purely travelling around Europe and 1 month spent working and travelling around Korea. Firstly, just by purely travelling, I don't meet as much friends as I did while working. Also, as I really, really hate planning, I would feel like my money is wasted if I'm not able to fully utilise my day. However, by working and travelling, it doesn't get boring as I occupied half my day working already. Besides, I get to really experience Korean culture while working as opposed to just purely travelling. I also found that working and travelling is much cheaper than just purely travelling!

Now you've heard plenty of good things from my side about working in Lzone, what's the downside?

1) No privacy. You literally live with 30 people in an apartment sharing 2 toilets (that's if you stay in global house). You can't really take your time in the toilet and if you choose to get diarrhoea, make sure it's in the middle of the night. But otherwise, this issue did not bother me much as I don't usually take long to shower in the bathroom.

*Global house- the 'big' apartment with 30 occupants.

2) It's rarely quiet. This will seriously affect those who're light sleepers. Again, this is not an issue for me so it did not bother me at all. Imagine living with 30 people, some are early riser, some party till late at night with the door making loud noise every time someone comes home. I know this girl who couldn't stand it after 2 weeks living in the global house, she stated that she rarely had enough sleep causing her to have massive headaches. She moved out of the global house and into other small apartment.

I remember my first night arriving there, I was sleeping and then suddenly my roommate, whom I have not yet met, came barging into the room, drunk and was making a scene. It was quite funny tho.

*However, for those who prefer more privacy, a more quiet place, Lzone also prepares smaller apartments in which there will be 4 occupants each. Those apartment has also facilities like toilet, washing machine, kitchen and bunk beds. These apartments are given to those who prefer to stay with a single gender and prefer more solitude.

3) The job can get boring. As with most of the jobs you guys have had experience, it may become repetitive. Yes, meeting new people and making conversations everyday seems like an easy and fun job, I cannot deny that. However, imagine having almost the same conversation everyday as you'll meet new people everyday. "Hi, how old are you? What are you studying? etc, etc. ". 

Otherwise, there's not much downside to it, really. I genuinely enjoyed my time in Korea so much so I couldn't stop talking about it when I'm back home!