Moving to Ilsan at the end of February :)

[piskeydoo]

Hello!
My name is Michael, and I am moving to Ilsan next month to teach at EISner English Academy!  I am moving from Greensboro, North Carolina, but I was born and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana.  I am a bit weary of moving to a new city only because I have no clue how to get around yet.  I'm sure that in no time I will figure it out.  I want to meet as many people as possible and have lots of fun.  I am 22 and like to go see local bands, and drink occasionally on weekends.  I love the theater and dancing.  I was a professional ballet dancer until last year when the arts council in my city stopped funding my ballet company because of budget cuts
Will I be able to bring and ironing board onto a city bus?  I figure it will be my first large item to purchase since I will need to iron my clothes for classes but I have no clue how I will transport it back to my apartment, haha!

[andyfoggy]

there are loads of places nearby that will wash and iron all your shirts and trousers for a really good price, i hate ironing so let them do it always
hope you have a great time in Korea

[DWAEDGIMORIGUKBAP]

Hey, lived in Ilsan for 18 months and you have chosen one of the best cities in Korea for all round livability and convenience.

It's a residential city for middle class famillies and I always found native Ilsanites very friendly, laid back and accustomed to foriegners.

Lake park is gorgeous (well for Korea and the fact it's an artifitial lake) and a good half day out, jeongbalsan is a nice easy hike, the larger bhukansan is nearby also and there are loads of free outdoors gyms everywhere.

For entertainment La festa and Western Dome areas have everything you need; several megaplex cinamas, foriegn food restaurants, coffee shops and there are several foriegner bars too, but i forget the names and they've probably changed since I was there 3.5 yrs ago.

I found the general non region specific Korean food to be of above average quality in Ilsan too, better than in Seoul in fact.

Also, Seoul is only a 45 min bus ride away and the busses run until around 1am both ways.

Plenty of foriegners living there too.

I always found the light there to be very good too, really, narey (is that a word, I just woke up) an overcast day and the most jubillant springtimes I ever experienced.

A first timer to Korea really couldn't have chosen many better locations imo and ime.

[justanotherwaygook]

Ditto Dwadgi.

I lived there 2 years.  It's probably the best place for a first-timer in Korea.  Everything you could need.  There's tons of big supermarkets, department stores, restaurants, nightlife, good transportation, god connections to Seoul, clean, bike paths, parks, hospitals etc. It's also probably one of the most foreign-friendly places in Korea (I think there was even less staring in Ilsan than in Seoul).

[piskeydoo]

I guess I never thought about having someone else do my pressing, haha, sounds fantastic!  I chose to go with Ilsan because or everything I heard about it, but thanks for reinforcing those convictions   Now I hear that riding a bicycle around Seoul can be pretty dangerous, but how is riding a bicycle in Ilsan?  I use a bike in my hometown as my main mode of transportation, will I be able to continue cycling in Ilsan or should I just use public transportation more? 

[justanotherwaygook]

Biking in Ilsan is pretty good.  You still have to be careful.  Driving habits here are.... different.  The good thing is that it's ok to ride on the sidewalks and the main streets have nice wide sidewalks.  There are also dedicated bike paths (some guarded by a rail) on some streets.  Biking at Lake Park is great for exercise.  However, avoid it on the weekends; people tend to walk/run on bike paths and make it difficult.