Now why have I created this blog?
Because I want to share my experiences. I have a feeling that in 10 years I'm going to laugh about this and I want to be able to remember the little details of this experience and have never been very good about writing in print journals, but do much better with blogging.
So what's happened so far?
I'm currently a librarian at a junior college and got the last week of December off(with pay :)). This allowed me to do a lot of thinking. You see, I finish my Masters in Library and Information Science in the first week of February and have to give a talk at church on the 10th of February. All this thinking has led me to conclude that the best option for me right now is to go to Korea to teach English for a year. I've wanted to do this since I graduated with my Bachelor of Arts in English in 2004, but hesitated and decided to go to Worland, WY with Americorps VISTA isntead. I'd also considered going to Ireland to get a Masters in Archival Science, and I thought about going back to AFRC and living in Germany for a year and doing the whole housekeeper thing again.
Well, AFRC was good when I was 20, but I'm 26 now and needed a job that looked a little better on a resume then housekeeping. This means I decided teaching would sound good. So this was my mindset, boredom and the certainty that I can't stay where I'm at forever. I make $12,000 less now than I will when I get my degree. I think they are expecting me to quit now that I'm so close to finishing my degree, and have been telling me how happy they are I'm here and how much they look forward to me staying, but I can't stay for what they will pay. I need to pay off my loans, afford to live on my own, and put something into retirement.
So teaching English will be my break job before I look for a longer term job in libraries. Then I decided to pray about it to see if this is really what I need to do. So I got down on my hands and knees and prayed and felt nothing really at first, so I kept at it for several days and began to feel the spirit more and I'm now at peace with my decision. I know this is the right thing for me right now. Yay. :)
Beginning the Process
Well, the first thing I did was look at blogs. Now, I researched this pretty extensively back in 2004 and have recieved regular emails from Dave's ESL Cafe of jobs since then so I started with looking for more first hand info. After viewing some blogs, I went to the cafe and looked at the forums. While looking at the blogs, I also heard of Worknplay Global. they really do have a lot of job, but you do have to register before you see details of the jobs. Looking at all the jobs gave me an idea of what is normal for a beginning teacher right now. That is single furninshed accomadation and 2.1-2.1 Mil and less than 8 hours a day of work. With this in mind I started wondering where I would like to work.
Korea is so big, where should I go?
This is what I spent a lot of time thinking about. Although I never seriously considered any place outside of Seoul or Busan. Since I've never lived in a big city, I've gravitated toward Seoul to give me the big vity experience. I also want Seoul because the only LDS English speaking non-military ward is in Seoul, the Seodaemon region specifically. I wouldn't mind going to a military ward(totally single btw ;)) but since there is an English speaking ward, I may as well go there, and the military ward in Seoul should be disbanding soon since they are moving out of Seoul and giving the base to the Koreans.
I keep hearing about the pollution in Seoul as well and that gets me thinking of breathing it in everyday, so I started looking at more of the suburbs. This is also since I'm bringing my dog. I heard on the Facebook group that Bundang is a good region and searched the forums at eslcafe.com and they agreed. Bundang is a rich suburb with parks. Exactly what I'm looking for. This leads me to consider the dog issue.
Should I bring my dog?
This issue has bothered me a lot and asked about it at forums and Yahoo answers. I love my dog and worry about her when I've had to leave her with others and cannot imagine leaving her behind. :( I've heard both good and bad things about bringing dogs to Korea. It should be really easy with some prep work to being her here and back to the US without a quarantine. Although, I'm sure she will not be happy about the plane ride or the studio apartment.
So, I've heard about the eating dogs thing and the lost dog thing, meaning that most lost dogs stay lost. I will have to be really careful of Luna so this doesn't happen and introduce crating to her. She's never been crated before and I worry whether she will ever like it. I've bought a classic kennel from Petco for $70 bucks and have been feeding her meals in it. I think I'll just giver her the food for 3 weeks in the crate before even trying to close it. She really does not like the crate, but she does like peanut butter and so I've smeared it on the crate to get her tempted by it and it works. Before the peanut butter, she would not eat from the crate. I suppose if I'd waited a few days, she would have, but peanut butter worked and now she will certainly eat from it.
I also need to work on her training. She needs to learn heel and come before we enter a foreign country.
So now I knew where to look, but what about finding a job?
After I decided where I wanted to look for a job, I posted a resume at Worknplay and the eslcafe and was innundated with recruiters. I know some people will tell you not to go through a recruiter, but there were very few schools who post jobs. So I interviewed for 3 jobs, only one was in Bundang and the others were in Gangnam. Many people will also tell you to interview a lot, but the job in Bundang was exactly what I was looking for. I spoke with the director for 1 hour and she explained their discipline policies, how the classes work, vacation and leave, accomodation. She also emailed me the contact information for a couple of teachers there and I'm exchanged several emails with them and they seem really nice.
Where will I work?
I've considered for a day(I know not long, but I usually make snap decisions that may be wonderful or horrid(re: my first apartment)) and decided to accept the position in Bundang at a Hagwon(private school). It's a PSA YSA I think, maybe the acronyms are a bit different, or not. I've seen pictures of the school and the surrounding area. The director gave me the optioni of living further from campus, or living in a new apartment closer, but for the new apartment, they would deduct 50,000 won from my salary. I think I will tell them to get me the closer apartment because it will seriously save me on time and effort in a very foreign country.
The Visa Process
Those who have been reseraching this know that there are some new regs concerning the E-2 visa. I guess this is just a few more hoops to jump through. Okay, so yesterday I went to IBT solutions to get a criminal background check. It costs $25 and this is who does the official background checks for the state of Texas. It shouldn't take more than a week for that. I also need to have a medical checkup and that's scheduled for next week. The only problem with getting the visa for me is that I cannot find my diploma and had to send out for it. I need to get it in the next couple of weeks I think for the visa process. Bummer.
Anyway, I'll write more tomorrow about the process so far.
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