I Love My Neighborhood: Jinsari, Anseong (South Korea)

Welcome to another edition of “I Love My Neighborhood”, where I ask expats from across the globe to share the joys of local life they’ve found in their corner of the world.

If you’re just joining in now, check out the other cities that have been covered so far here.

Today’s post comes from Samuel Jeffery aka Nomadic Samuel, travel blogger extraordinaire. An expat in Korea, he’s known for his photography as well as his travel videos and 100-part series on India (plus several other travel-related endeavors). His post marks the first time this series has featured a couple (woo!), as Samuel is also boyfriend to Audrey of ThatBackpacker, who wrote about her neighborhood last month.

Nomadic Samuel: Why I Love Jinsari

Jinsari is sandwiched in between two large cities (Pyeongtaek and Anseong) in which a simple highway divides my neighborhood. I’m currently based here as an ESL teacher at Yangjin Elementary School. I live in a high rise apartment that overlooks both a parking lot and miles upon miles of farmland. My neighborhood is tiny and wherever I walk I’m constantly bumping into and being greeted by my students. I’m well known at restaurants and I like this feeling that this community is close knit.

There are a number of things I really appreciate about my neighborhood. The following things come to mind immediately:

Waking up to the sounds of chirping birds

This may sound ridiculous but I find it so refreshing to wake up in the morning to sounds of chirping birds, as opposed to traffic.

Proximity to my school

I live only five minutes’ walking distance from my school. For a night owl, this means I can sleep in a bit longer than usual.

Being recognized wherever I go

My school has over 1000 students, so whenever I go out I’m almost surely to be greeted by a smiling face.

Korean restaurants in my area

I absolutely love some of the Korean restaurants in my area. My favourite is a hole in the wall type of place where I go to get Dolsot Bibimbap (stone pot mixed vegetable rice) several times a week.

School Field

My school has a state of the art of field equipped with modern artificial turf and a track. If I will wait until around 11 pm I can often have this all to myself. It’s like having my own personal field.

Korean Pizza Man

My Korean friend (locally known as Chingu) is the Korean pizza man who operates a little pizza joint only a stone’s throw away from my house. I come to him weekly to satisfy a craving for Western food and I’m often served soju or maekju (Korean rice wine and Korean beer) while I’m waiting for it to cook.

Bus service

There is excellent bus service in my area that allows me to be in Seoul (the capital of Korea) in less than two hours. I often head into Seoul on the weekends and I’m fortunate I live in a neighborhood that allows me to get there easily.

About the author: Samuel Jeffery is the wizard behind the curtain pulling the strings of Nomadic Samuel Travel Blog and Smiling Faces Travel Photos.  Additionally, he’s the lesser half of Backpacking Travel Blog which he runs with his girlfriend Audrey – aka as That Backpacker.

All photos courtesy of the author.