Seoul one of the “World’s most expensive cities”

One of the reasons that I picked South Korea for teaching abroad was that I would be able to save money. (My apartment and plane ticket are paid for) It turns out that might be a little harder than I thought. On my MSN news feed today I clicked on a story about the “World’s Most Expensive Cities” from Forbes.com. Much to my dismay, Seoul, South Korea, is number 5 on the list. U.S. cities New York and Los Angeles fell in the rankings due to the declining value of the dollar. (They are #22 and #55 on the list)

The survey “measures the relative cost of more than 200 items in each place, including housing, transport, food, clothing, household goods and entertainment. The survey is used to help American government agencies and multinational companies determine living costs for their expatriate employees, who usually demand a relatively high quality of life.”

I guess I need to learn more about this concept called “frugality” my mom’s always talking about. :)

People have been asking lately if I'm nervous/excited/etc. and the answer is yes. Once the countdown reached 30 days, I started to freak out a little bit. I've had plenty of things to distract me this summer: summer school, grad school, wedding planning (for my sister). I'm not really worried about being in Korea, I just hate saying goodbye and thinking that I'm missing out on what's going on back home. But I think that a year will fly by and when I come home it will be like I never left. That's what I'm hoping anyway...

Speaking of flying by, the next 24 days are going to do just that. I'm going to New York in 4 days to meet up with some friends from high school, then to DC for a few days to stay with a friend from college. When I get back, I will have 2 weeks left before I leave the country. It's such a weird feeling.

One thing that I will not be missing is the end of July/early August panic attack. Right now my teacher friends are mourning the end of summer and starting to plan for the coming year. This time last year I started to get teaching nightmares (i.e. showing up on the first day a half hour late, in the wrong classroom, with no lesson plan, etc.) Maybe I should be panicking about teaching over there, but I'm not...yet.