I am finishing my last semester in college this fall and want to make up for not getting to study abroad while still in school. My goal is to go to Korea hopefully starting mid-January of next year and want to spend some time really getting the feel of the country and the culture (as much as you can in 2-3 months). I can't take more than that time because I am also going to be moving to another state next summer. The major challenge in my situation is that I don't think I can really afford to just go as a tourist but I am determined to make it work somehow. I was going to teach English but those contracts are a year long minimum so I have to rethink my options. Do you guys have any advice on what else I could do?
Details:
I would be surprised if I managed to go to Korea with more than $3000 to spend. I am working part time over the semester and have a little saved up from this summer. I will also have a bit extra from my school loans.
I've looked into some home-stays and while most are about $40 a night (which is pretty cheap but still out of my budget over a couple months) I did find a few that are between $10 and $25 a night that I think I could do. I was also thinking about asking the host family if we could work out something where I pay less in exchange for tutoring their kids in English (if they have kids learning English and they want help). Home-stays seem ideal to me because it's a more immersive(sp?) experience and hopefully I'll get to learn more Korean. Are there maybe other cheap housing options I could look into?
If there are ways I could make a little money while I'm over there I'd really like that because it would help to offset the cost and give me something to do over there. I was also considering finding a volunteer organization over there that I could work with to help me meet people and give me an activity while still leaving me with time to tour about. I am waiting on a reply from Habitat for Humanity and am in the process of applying for an internship but that's about all I could find so far. Any other suggestions on money making or volunteer options would be really appreciated. Even just a site that I may have overlooked would be really helpful.
Basically I want an international experience but, my original plans for making it affordable fell through so I would really appreciate advice on how to make it happen with as small a budget as possible. I've done some searching but finding stuff in Korea is difficult for some reason.
Thanks in advance and sorry if I broke any of the rules. I will fix it if I did!