Chris: I Googled our home city for the next year - Chungju - and one of the first Google blurbs that appeared indicated that one of Chungju's claims to fame is that it is South Korea's 3rd largest peach producing areas. Well you could imagine Rowena and I's excitement! I don't like peaches all that much to be honest. It's more about the bragging rights. Look, obviously we'd prefer to live in Korea's number 1 or 2 peach producing areas, but we're realistic. We're sure the competition for English teaching jobs in those areas are pretty tough. A Masters degree and some teaching experience are probably prerequisites.
Strangely, our Korean recruiter made no mention of Chungju's peachy exploits. It was instead sold as a conveniently central location. It made sense to me. It should make weekend trips around South Korea relatively quick and easy, and only 90 minutes bus ride from Seoul which isn't too bad. But I guess the real reason we chose Chungju was that it was the first job we were offered. Well the second job if you count the EPIK gig in some southern regional town that I forget the name of. But just as we finished gathering the mountains of forms together some other couple snaked us. Oh well, off to Chungju we go....
It is also near where my father is from -- and interestingly, half of my father's family has a severe allergy against peaches. I am sure you will take the Chungju Dam boat tour at some point while you are there -- I visited there so often I can recite the tour speech out of memory.
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