Packing for a year of teaching English in South Korea: an Epik and Hagwon packing list

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After the logistic nightmare that was finding a job in South Korea, getting all my documents together, and my airfare and quarantine booked, the next challenge presented itself: packing for a year in a country I have never been to before. I spent hours googling EPIK packing lists and articles that would tell me what to pack for a year of teaching English in South Korea, but never found anything that suited my particular needs. Hence, this blog post.

****A few confessions before we jump into this blog post:******

1) I am an over-packer. I love fashion and nice things and with me leaving for a whole year I just couldn’t leave some of those things behind LOL okay I love my things! I definitely overpacked but will also create an updated list with what I wish I didn’t bring as well as what I wish I brought.

2) I’m actually really good at packing as far as space goes, but weight is where I struggle. Especially with packing for work and everyday life, for every season, from the dead of winter to the heat of summer, I found it difficult to stay under the weight limits set out by the airlines! Korea gets extremely cold in the winters, but also gets super hot in the summers, so everything had to serve multiple purposes and I brought lots of layering pieces!

3) Some people are really good at styling clothes to take pictures of them and create beautiful photos for their packing posts…. I am not one of those people. The pictures in this post will be extremely unprofessional, but honestly with the stress of all the logistics and leaving my boyfriend and family, this was the best I could do. Hopefully it’ll be relatable or something.

Okay! With that out of the way, lets get into it — I will be teaching at a Hagwon in South Korea for a year, and here’s everything I packed! Obviously everything applies if you’re teaching for EPIK or something along those lines.

I know what you’re thinking: “Emma, why did you bring the entire rainbow’s worth of jeans?”

And to that I say, all my favorite jeans I typically wear in day to day life have rips in them, and I needed to get ones for work that were looser and didn’t have rips in them! Zara was having a sale and I did go a little bit overboard, but to be fair I did end up taking out two pairs of black jeans to save weight in my suitcase, so it’s not as bad as it looks.

8 pairs of jeans
2 pairs of jean shorts
lots of tanks and crop tops for layering purposes (not shown, going-out tops basically) — these took up next to no space so I went a little ham and brought probably an unnecessary amount of options, oh well
4 pairs of fun/work pants: checked work pants, Leather leggings, pvc leggings, and black linen pants for the hotter days where jeans would be uncomfortable
5 button down/dressier work shirts (I have tattoos covering one of my arms and am not sure how strict my school is about it, so I thought I would play it safe with the long sleeve shirts)
5 long sleeve body suits - these are tighter and will probably be a staple to wear with the looser jeans I bought for work.
2 sleeveless bodysuits to wear with —>
the 3 oversized button downs to make sure I cover my arm: 1 linen shirt, 1 flannel, and one black oversized button down (not pictured)

four comfort color shirts to sleep in
6 mini skirts and a casual ribbed dress

2 short sleeve v-necks: one black and one white
3 graphic Tshirts
2 t-shirt dresses: on black and one white
two of my favorite tees to wear with biker shorts
two pairs of biker shorts

3 sweaters: two lighter and cropped, one super hefty
my favorite fleece
workout gear: 7 ish pairs of leggings, an array of sports bras, and a few tops in case working out in just a sports bra is not socially acceptable?? I honestly have no idea of what to expect, as I’m sure you’ve gathered from my spastic, unorganized packing

And a quick break from the madness to appreciate the cutie who helped me make decisions on what to cut out to get the weight of my suitcase down, went last minute shopping with me, and kept me company while I endured the most stressful weekend of my life: Thank u bb for giving me hugs and centering me when I was hyperventilating in my room <3 You’re the best!!

Another confession: I am so brand loyal. My absolute favorite clothing brand is SLA the Label, and just about anything they put out, I will buy. I.E. the fleece pictured earlier. I own like 6 different sweatsuits from them but I did manage to pare down to just two sweatsuits, my favorite random sweatpants and crewneck, a zip up and sweat shorts…….. not including the sweatsuit I wore to the airport. Lmao. We do not play games around here when it comes to SLA.

I know you might be thinking, “Emma HOW did you fit all that into your suitcases??”

Two words: Vacuum bags. Shrank those babies right up.

These next items were probably the ones that put me overweight: I brought my favorite oversized leather jackets as well as my puffer jacket. It gets really cold in South Korea and I didn’t want to pay for more expensive items like these when I already had them at home! I also brought my HEFTY Doc Martens, which probably didn’t help at all either.

2 Leather jackets
1 puffer jacket
1 pair of Doc Martens

literally all the socks I own
All the underwear too
4 bikinis
Air Force 1s, Nike gym shoes, strappy heels, and two pairs of flip flop kitten heels

Toiletries: In the photo, I have purple shampoo and two bottles of self tanner, but I sacrificed the shampoo and one of the bottles in the name of saving weight, rip. I’ll just be pale and have brassy hair. It’s fine.

shampoo
conditioner
dry shampoo (I brought two because it is an ESSENTIAL to me)
self tanner
shower gel
body lotion
hair oil
Toothpaste and toothbrush (extra toothpaste)
2 deodorants
razor, refills, and face razors
Shaving cream
eyedrops
Makeup
- Extras of mascara, eyeliner, and foundation
Hair straightener — I use this as a curling wand
Hairbrush

Medications

Birth Control - I was able to get 8 months worth of it from home! the last four months of my time here sounds like a problem for future Emma
allergy meds
Ibuprofen/Tylenol PM/Sudafed/Mucinex/whatever works for you
laxatives (bro you never know with an entirely new type of cuisine)

Miscellaneous

3 books to get me through quarantine
tripod — I’m paranoid I wont find friends who can take pictures of me so I can get content for the blog LOL
Journal
agenda
Korean textbook
resistance bands (quarantine workouts, amiright?)
500 dollars in KRW
lots of documents — extra passport photos, copies of vaccination cards and passports, everything I could possibly need JUST IN CASE

Electronics

Macbook
Chargers
Airpods
Converters — we forgot about these until the MORNING I LEFT. I haven’t traveled in a while I’m out of practice omg

OKAY! That’s everything I packed for a year of teaching English in South Korea! so I know thats a lot, and I’ll quickly discover what was worth taking up space in my suitcase and what wasn’t! I’ll keep you guys updated. For now, I need to get through the next 12 days of quarantine, and maybe through the first couple months of living and working in here in South Korea before I know what was a mistake and what wasn’t.

Would you ever pack up your life and move abroad? Let me know in the comments below!