OUR FIRST HOME | CHUNGJU

Just over a year ago, Sophia and I took a huge leap of faith into the unknown, the unexpected, the path leading towards our long awaited dreams of travelling and living abroad.

Finding ourselves engulfed in a surreal new environment, one ripe to explore, tugging at our inquisitive natures, beckoning us to leave out the door. We barely spent a moment standing still.

With trips booked every weekend and every free moment from our new teaching jobs, which in its own was a new affair; one we were both enjoying. Sophia and I were making the most of it, learning so many new things, taking in new scenery, experiencing the fitting change of season into Spring, absorbing a new culture and becoming accustom on how to approach the people and situations in our new world.

Six months passed in the blink of an eye, or so it felt at least. It reminds me of ‘Mary Poppins handbag’, it was tiny yet there was so much in it. In this short amount of time we had done so much, many things of which were so new to us. We often felt like 4 year olds learning everything anew. All these experiences and the constant on-the-go attitude left us pretty exhausted. It was time to slow the adventure down, perhaps finally take the time to learn a little more of our ‘new’ home town. This also had a tad to do with an idea in mind of saving some money; as we had originally planned to do when coming to Korea.

Chungju, the second largest city in Chungcheongbuk-do, South Korea, was where we called home now. It was, after all, the place we kept returning to; a place where we could ‘rest our feet’, where we could find some of the home we brought with us; which at the time was beginning to feel so far from us now. Our apartment in Chungju was also the first home we shared as a newly married couple. In actual fact it was the first place we ever lived together, other than moving in with a close friend just before coming to Korea.

With us finally living together in our first home, worlds away from anything that resembled the homes we were familiar with or the people who filled up our homes and made them that special place. Sophia and I quickly began to forge our own abode with the memories that make a home, making memories we will share and remember for a life time to come, we made a place we could call ours; our first home! We grew into one another’s person; the people of that special place known as home.

Shortly after moving into Chungju, we joined a local volleyball club that a few of the teachers from my school attended. Most of the members were ex-pros and properly warm hearted people, they welcomed us into their group and we quickly became part of their volleyball family, even though we were really shite when we started and not great by seasons end. Our volleyball group really played a big part of our lives in Chungju, often joining them for a merry ‘chicken and beer’ after practice or a random lunch over the weekend. Beong-Seok, the coach and now captain of the team, was our Korean Samurai, he is a shortish stocky Korean man whom I’m sure could snap a neck between his fingers, he however is warmest of them all and especially friendly towards us. His great sense of humor would have us, in stitches, even though we mostly didn’t understand each other and would have entire conversations through a translation app on the phone.

Chungju is a small city nestled in a lush green valley, surrounded by tall rugged green mountains. The city with a population of about 220 000 people is situated pretty much smack bang in the center of Korea; ideal of course for our travels. Exploring the outskirts of town, we would find endless rice fields and other crops such as cabbage and general vegetables, abundant though were the plantations of apple trees – this is what ‘Good Chungju’ is famous for; Apples. Delicious apples can be found throughout the town, apple trees lining the main roads and filling back gardens, protecting the edges of vegetable patches and of course scattered along the bases of mountains and far corners of the valley. Where ever we have travelled in Korea, the infamous Chungju apple has made a name for its self.

Chungju is also famous for its martial arts centre, which hosts a martial arts festival once a year in October and offer trials and trainings of the fighting arts throughout the year. We unfortunately missed the Festival while staying there, as we were assisting with the Ban ki-Moon English competition and then shipped off to Dokdo for a ‘business trip’ over the same time. We were bitterly disappointed that we had missed it however we had an absolutely great time at Dokdo; (which is another blog still to come.)

Getting back to Chungju; the city had a small town feel, with warm, friendly locals and a great group of foreigners, most of whom lived in a building they called “Shitty Bill’, actually ‘City Ville’, however, the Koreans tend to pronounce it the first way. Sophia and I did not live in Shitty Bill; we lived segregated from the other foreigners. We lived in a place called Booyoung Apartments, right next to the bus terminal and Lotte Mart, which made life very convenient for us. Downtown Chungju - ‘Shinnae’, and Yeonsu-dong were just a few blocks from us and hosted the night life; these were small bustling areas crowded with students from the nearby universities.

If you ever find yourself in Chungju, we definitely recommend that you look-up and make yourself familiar with a few places, starting with our favorite place: ‘Jazz and Sanjo’ in Seongso-dong, a great place to eat just down the road from Jazz, is the Italian ‘Bella-Luna’ restaurant – the menu is delicious and well prepared. Walking distance from here is ‘Route 66’ a Chicago styled bar, with an eccentric bar tender/ owner; this was by far our most visited bar while in Chungju. Other than that you can find many hidden gems in the earlier mentioned areas, such as a delicious hand-made burger spot called ‘Vallance burger’ and an all-you-can-eat meat place near the mega box theatre in Shinnae.

Chungju takes pride in its tourist attractions, as most Korean cities do, and it had quite a few. I will list those I can think of, if you are looking for information on them, just click on the attractions mentioned. I’ll start with places close to the bus terminal and move further away. There’s Tangeumdae Park bordering the Martial Arts Centre and the Jungangtap Park, with a 7 story pagoda marking the historical, geographical center of Korea. Then there’s Chungju lake and ferry, the lake is the largest in Korea and one can take the ferry to the Gosu caves on the other side. On an intercity bus ride from Chungju, one can visit the Woraksan national park and Suanbo area, the latter well known for its natural hot spa’s. When arriving in Chungju, be sure to stop in at the tourist information desk situated in the bus terminal.

As you can tell from this short summary of Chungju, it’s a great place to call ‘our first home’. We will never forget the experiences we had with the people we met there. We will always have the memories of exploring our first city abroad, taking walks through the city and getting lost, simply to become accustomed with our new home. Teaching at our first public schools, meeting our first co-teachers and students, getting to know them and making good friends, Sophia joining a dance school and making new friends there, learning how to shop in Korean and cook with available ingredients, sharing our first snowy winter together and surviving the freezing temperatures, being stared at and stopped by complete strangers just to find out where we’re from, are some of the many treasured memories and are part of this experience, which has formed an even more unified bond between my wife and me.

Good Chungju was home for a year. We sadly watched it disappear out of the rearview mirror of our moving van, as we moved on to a new destination for the upcoming year. We have now relocated to Uljin on the east coast of South Korea, the town is a lot smaller but has stunning beaches and beautiful mountains. We will soon be posting a blog of our new home next to the sea.

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