Snapshot of Life in South Korea: Siheung City

When Ben and I applied to go to Korea, we both checked that we would like to be placed in a "rural" area. We figured- we both really like the outdoors; agreeing to be "rural" might give us a better chance of being placed in the same city, as not many people volunteer for rural placements, and we wanted to get on the good side of the people at the Gyeonggi-do Office of Education who was doing our placements; and you get paid W100,000 more per month for being in a "rural" area.

So, we got placed in Siheung City.... a city of about 300,000 people (yes, this is still considered rural) just over an hour SW of Seoul by subway.

It is a nice little town, but, as Ben and I have quickly realized.... there is really nothing here; apartment buildings, schools, and just enough shops/restaurants to keep the people who live in the near vicinity happy. Ben and I live about a 15 minute cab ride/45 minute bus ride apart from each other. (Hopefully you can see the 2 red-ish dots on the map below)

We have met a few other westerners here, which is great (stories about this to come)
We also spend most of our weekends venturing to Seoul or other nearby cities and always manage to have a blast (stories about said adventures to come as well)

Finally- if you want to read more about our lovely little city..... you can check out the city website! (in English, don't worry):

http://www.shcity.net/english/index.jsp