I spent two months working on a farm in South Korea for free lodging and food. It was hard work, but I saved at least $2,000.

05.08.2024 - 08:06 / insider.com

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Tim Winkler, a recent graduate from Germany taking a gap year to travel. The following has been edited for length and clarity.

Two days after submitting my master's thesis in April, I bought a one-way ticket for a gap year. I knew I would never have the chance to do something like this again.

I had completed a master's degree in teaching at the University of Hamburg in Germany.

I set a budget of $10,800 to travel for the entire year, intending to find volunteering projects on sites like Workaway to keep costs down and explore countries in a new way.

Other than a short trip to Bangkok, I had never been to Asia. I was curious about its cities and had friends who lived in South Korea. So, after spending a month in Japan, I decided to fly to Seoul.

Initially, I had difficulty finding a host as few projects were available. But eight days before I headed to South Korea, a host texted me, asking, "Hey, are you still free?"

He needed volunteers for his chestnut farm on the outskirts of Cheongyang, a village two hours from Seoul. He was also able to host me for two months.

I replied: "Yes, I am. Very much so."

It was a nice working atmosphere and there was no pressure to finish tasks by a certain time. We went out to do some weeding between the chestnut trees.

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I was fortunate to form a strong relationship with my host and his family. It wasn't like he'd just give orders; we were really living together.

I lived in his house, and the accommodation was basic. It consisted of a room with a bunk bed and another room with two air mattresses for two other volunteers to stay in.

On the farm, we had rice for every meal, every day. At first, I was worried that after a week, I'd think, "I've had enough rice. I can't see rice anymore." But that wasn't the case, and I enjoyed every meal.

The crops and animals don't care that it's a weekend. So you're there every day of the week.

There was no set schedule. Every two or three days, we would leave the house very early, around5:30 a.m., sometimes even earlier, to start picking a crop called gosari, a type of fern commonly used in Korean side dishes. This would takefour or five pickersaround four hours.

Every other task was dictated by daily occurrences on the farm. For example, we would go to the farm and see that the goats took down a fence. So, on that day, we would rebuild part of a fence. On another, we'd decide to spread some fertilizer because of the amount of rain.

We worked seven days a week most of the time. But whenever we had a trip in mind, such as going to Seoul for two or three days, we'd ask the host for time off.

Our host always arranged the trips for us and even offered to cover the