Starting Last Calls

As mentioned briefly in the last post, I no longer have a job. This means that once again, it's decision making time. I am electing to go home to the United States to bet on a job there... But not before taking advantage of being on this side of the globe to plan a trip and check some other to-do's off the bucket list. Not that I actually have a bucket list.

How did I lose my job? Nothing extraordinary. A couple of kids quit the academy - kids quit all the time - so that's what the vice owner and owner told the head teacher, to save face. What is actually happening is that the academy is rapidly losing money, because the youngest kids' school days got extended to make up for the new lack of school on Saturdays. Many of these academies are not managed all that well, so when it's time to cut corners, the foreigners come first, and I hit the jackpot. The only other foreigner at that academy is a Canadian man married to a Korean woman, so he is bound to be staying for a long time.

So what are the first things that I did after getting laid off? I modeled for a photoshoot (this isn't new, I've been modeling for about several months now) and ran a 10k. It was a swimsuit shoot near Osan, my first swimsuit shoot. Then I would have a Chinese cheongsam shoot at Seoul Grand Park, and a spontaneous shoot at Woo Am.

Modeling is something I picked up in Korea, though I had thought about it before coming here. I wasn't interested in it before, but the emphasis on fashion is real and everywhere here, so I eventually decided to learn. It involves listening to the photographer's ideas about what he wants to shoot, then picking my outfits and makeup carefully. If I don't have some items, it's time to go shopping, but I tried to buy versatile products so I wouldn't have to spend so much money. Even though all photographers are different, all logistics are agreed upon before a shoot: paid or unpaid, date and time, and location.

From this, I learned to put together different types of outfits and how to better apply makeup. However, on a daily basis, I still prefer to be bare faced with tshirt and jeans or shorts.

The next day, my friends and I ran a 10k. One woman ran a 21k. Some others went for the 5k. In high school, I had run cross country for a short period of time. I was no good at it. Even so, I still got hooked onto the idea of making my body stronger and the feeling of adrenaline.

Because of these same urges, yesterday two friends and I went paragliding. This means going to a place where there are mountains, wearing air suits over our own clothes, becoming attached to a parachute (and my paid guide) to run off the mountain and be carried around in the air for about fifteen to twenty minutes.

Aside from the Cheongju trip, I had never really planned anything before, so the build up to the actual paragliding itself was a lot of getting organized. My friends asked just the right questions for me to go do my research. I stayed at my friend's house the night before, and we woke up at 5:15 to catch the 6:43 KTX to Seoul Station, taking the Metro from there to Hoegi and transferring to the Junggang line, and then getting off at Asin Station. There, I called my contact JJ and he assigned someone to pick us up.

The man arrived in a black Mustang convertible, which played Lady Gaga as we drove past their offices and then to the landing site. There, we paid the organization's leader 100,000won each since I deposited 60k for myself and one friend while the other deposited the money herself. Then we went to their offices for a short rest while they took pictures of a man who had finished the whole paragliding training course and gave him a certificate. Then we all piled onto a pickup truck and rode to the top of the mountain, where the takeoff pads are.

Our ears were popping on the way. We made conversation, and the ride itself took about maybe half an hour. When we got to the top, they took out all the gear, and strapped us into the suits, the padding behind, the plastic knee and shin pads, the helmet and the gloves. We each got paired off with a guide, and then waited. They decided to move to a different mountain top, because the wind wasn't picking up where we were. So we did that, then my guide, Mr. Yeong, strapped himself to the parachute, then himself to me, and told me to run. I felt like a harness dog from Call of the Wild for a few minutes.

Then we lifted off! It was amazing. I know pollution is pretty bad worldwide, but you wouldn't know it from looking at all the trees over there 700m below, and feel how much oxygen there is while floating in the sky. My guide took photos and a video, which I will send to my friends when I get them through email. Then he pointed out landmarks in his accented English, and sent us spinning like it's a roller coaster ride. I got a tiny bit nauseous, but was okay for the most part. The view was still beautiful, and in a few minutes, we landed.

The ride back was mostly sleeping. When I got home, I planned some more, and then fell asleep. Right now I'm in Incheon, ready for lunch, and tomorrow will get on a flight to Tokyo, Japan.

Korea Somewhat Interrupted

Hi, guys. I am UNBELIEVABLY tired, because it's been a very hectic day despite my no longer having a job. Let's go over what happened, also because I am a bit too rattled to go to sleep at the moment.

This morning, a friend took me to Choongdae, the local university, so that we could book our individual flights. I had a samgeokkimbap for breakfast. I booked my flight to Japan for a very good price of around $350. Then he and I went to get omerice for brunch.

Then, I went back to the animal hospital to get the rabies certification for my cat Eugene. Even though I wanted to take him on the flight with me, there are two layovers for the cheapest flight, so I don't want him to suffer much. I buckled and emailed the Pet Airlines guy to pick him up on the 27th. While I am in Japan, my yoga teacher will be taking care of him for a week.

After that, I decided to ship a suitcase at the post office, but of course, found out once again that they won't ship suitcases (especially not by sea) if it's over 20kg. So I ended up having to take everything out of my suitcase and put it into 2 boxes they supplied, and the sum came to about $73.

Being very pleased with having booked the flight for Japan, I booked the hostel too, all 7 nights, and wrote down the directions from the airport to the hostel. As I was trying to book my flight home to Boston, I got distracted because there's a woman who wants to take some of the furniture off my hands.

So I attempt to go meet her at 5, but then her schedule intervened, and I wandered around Shinae instead, putting together this Greek/classical outfit for no reason other than vanity. It all cost about $130. But first, I had a blueberry cream cheese waffle and Earl Gray tea for lunch. Then I went home for a while and was facebooking. Then I went to go meet the woman who wants furniture. I remember thinking, I spent a lot of time at Choongdae's front gate today, while drinking a small size aloe juice.

She came by, she's very friendly and talkative. We went back to my apartment, and she wanted all the things she said she would, so I helped her take the bookshelf, bookcase and water kettle to her apartment. We had to dismantle the bookshelf a bit first. I also gave her quick dried food I knew I wasn't going to finish. And a 3-meter ethernet wire. We got to talking, and she's also from Boston. I miss Boston. We got a cab back to her place, which is very far on the other side of town. She gave me $10 for the taxi home, and I was grateful.

Then I went outside and took the bus. But the bus was the last bus and stopped only at the bus rest stop where they all go at the end of the night. I got off, but I had no idea where I was. I remember the lady talking about it, and I am very much at the east end of town. I walked for about 15-20 min. before I could find a taxi. I was so relieved when I did, because I was getting hungry again. Most of the food I had had all day were snacks. I bumped into the head teacher who helped fire me when I got home, and I told him life is awesome without TOPIA.

When I got home, one of my photographers asked me to register with Forever 21 the Korean site, so I did that fumblingly, while trying to finish booking my flight home. In the few hours I was gone, the price had gone up $200! @.@ So then I finished booking my flight home - because it was still cheaper than the other prices, even the price at Choongdae. Then I registered for a familiar clothing store - in a foreign language.

After that, I realized there were huge holes in my plans to paraglide with my friends on the 16th, so I called the company again to fix those holes, and now there is much more information. But I still faltered and kind of freaked out in front of my friends. I emailed my mother and sister about the cat. I plotted out the rest of my schedule with my Australian Korean BFF, and we're going to some herb gardens tomorrow, with something as yet unknown for Wednesday. Because I'm meeting her tomorrow about 9ish around her apartment, I should go to sleep now.

It will be a deep sleep. Zzzzz....

Tale of Two Countries

While we were all going about our normal business during the first week of the private academy semester, Kim Jong Il went kaput in his slew of age and heart related health problems. The hapless North Koreans put their Dear Leader in a glass box for mourning like Snow White, but I'm guessing he'll soon be six feet under. Before taking his last breath, he appointed his second son Kim Jong Un as heir, who expressed potentially hostile intent towards South Korea.

This conflict has been around for about sixty years. To pick a random point to begin, Japan defeated China in the Sino-Japanese War and then decided to occupy Korea like squatters to better watch its interests in China. After the Chinese were defeated, they went back to civil war between the Communists and the Nationalists. The Koreans took the side of the Communists, in return for help in uprooting the Japanese from their country.

As the Koreans and the Chinese worked together to get rid of the Japanese, the Japanese were trying to expand their territory further into China. The European countries had all divided China into their little spheres of influence, and were basically like, who invited you to the party? However, Europe was having its own problems as well, what with Germany having allied itself with Soviet Russia and then going to invade Poland. Then Britain, France and the rest of the Commonwealth decided that was not okay and went to war against Germany and Soviet Russia. The U.S. allied itself with Britain, France and the Commonwealth, and there you have it, World War 2.

After defeating the Japanese and taking away its military, the U.S. and Russia split Korea in half along the 38th parallel. The two bigger countries were supposed to help Korea establish its own government, but the Russians never let North Korea hold free elections and it became a communist dictatorship, first under Kim Il Sung, then Kim Jong Il. Meanwhile, South Korea has a democracy heavily influenced by corporations and reliant on American military despite the existence of its own draft army.

In 1950, North Korea invaded South Korea. They got to Busan and were trying to establish a new capital, before the U.S. pushed them back almost to the Yalu River. Then the Chinese entered on North Korea's side and pushed again south to the 38th parallel. Such was the Korean War. Ever since then, there have been miniature conflicts: a ship destroyed here, the North Koreans digging tunnels and the South Koreans having to play whack-a-mole there.

Now Kim Jong Il died. Enter Kim Jong Un, age 29, who was educated in Switzerland under a fake name.

My kids tell me they are afraid of war. Some adults are concerned, but others say, they have been threatening war for years. They don't have the guts. There's also the fact that the U.S. military is still active in this country, and are living in army bases in several major cities. That's the South Korean viewpoint. I've heard a secondhand North Korean perspective where they believe the South Koreans are not being true to their roots, are greedy for shiny things and controlled by American culture.

I personally am not too worried myself, and don't think anything will happen in the next ten months. If anything does happen though, I'll probably take a rest stop in China then make my merry way home. The U.S. should be rallying its resources to fix its economy, take care of the problems behind Occupy Wall Street and shaking down the uber-rich (people with $600,000+ incomes per year) for resources anyway. While I support our troops, this is like trying to save a friend from a bully while trying to fend off asthma.

Debate Competition

A month into my new job, working at TOPIA, there is a randomly announced debate competition. While there were three debate competitions before, they were only for the higher levels on a voluntary basis, for students who have taken the debate class. Now, the entire schedule has been paused, all syllabi notwithstanding, for a new version of the debate competition that's for all levels, whether they signed up for the debate classes or not, on a semi-voluntary basis. It's just that those kids not participating in the contest will still have to partake in the group oriented debate classes for everyone.

Teachers are suddenly grouped together, whether they've previously taught debate or not. Information meetings are held at the last minute, people are lost, but everyone's winging their way through. At the risk of sounding like I'm stereotyping, I wager to say that snap decisions from higher up that overhaul everything at a moment's notice is a Korean practice. This is encouraged by the way employees don't complain even when very discontent, because it is viewed as a sign of weakness, not that something might be wrong with the system. The way people compare each other is used to persuade people to work harder towards the ideal.

Sometimes I feel like this 'the group is always right' mentality might be more consistent than the American ideals of individuality, given that democracy is basically that group opinions overrule any one voice, and the majority wins. However, that is not to say I believe it's right to see dissension as a sign of weakness, because most of the time that is probably not true. I'm never sure whether or how much bias there is in my thinking, though, because I was raised in an American system where the loudest opinions are the most easily heard (and more so assumed to be correct). The underdog is the hero in American culture; that is, the dissenter is usually seen as right.

In this situation though, I have no real choice but to go with the flow. The elementary school children are using semi-parliamentary style debate, where there are five members per team, and one team is for the motion, whereas the other team is against the motion. The pro team always goes first, then the con team goes, with the introduction. The same is true for arguments one, two and three, where a person always replies in a rebuttal to the points that the previous person makes, and then speaks more in detail about her own argument. She should end with giving evidence. In the conclusion, the con side goes first, so that the pro team can have the final rebuttal, and then everyone in the house votes on the motion after listening to this debate in real life, but in the competition, the judges will vote.

Meanwhile, the middle schoolers will use parliamentary style debate. Instead of pro and con, the sides are named government and opposition. Each side will have three speakers, and every speaker has a name. On the government side, we have the prime minister, the deputy prime minister, and the government whip. On the opposition side, we have the leader of the opposition, the deputy leader of the opposition, and the opposition whip. Government goes first, as with the elementary schoolers, then the opposition. As before, the present speaker will contradict the prior speaker's points. This time, however, everyone has to give evidence, not just the people giving the arguments. The first two speakers on each side has to talk about the topic, give three points with evidence, and the whips give more supporting evidence. Then the opposition gives a reply speech before the government does, and the debate is at an end.

The first round will be on November 9th, with the final round on November 11th. I'm not sure who will be the judges of the competition, but I know that some parents will be there, so our academy owner wants us to prepare the children very well. After this, the schedule will return to being guided by the syllabi and then everything will be as usual. I've been having a bit of a hard time both adapting to all of this and having time at the end of the work day to create as I usually do. I miss my drawings, poetry, fiction, photography, video games and books. Of course, there's also social networking and blogging.

Occupying Seoul (Yeoido)

America always has a lot of media attention from every country in the world, mostly because our international policy is to stick our nose in for what we think is right and sway the other members of the United Nations on various issues and movements whenever possible. This is old news. So it's no surprise that the entire world also has an eye on our economic and financial troubles; everyone knows that the American unemployment rate is at an all time high.

As per the power of the internet, I had first heard about the Occupy Wall Street movement through a lot of pictorial jokes on Facebook, which probably came from some graphic designers and people on 4chan. I knew that many people have been angry with Wall Street and Obama since the U.S. government organized the bank bail-out, but it wasn't until one of my Facebook friends posted a link on my wall about the movement that I connected the two and really started looking into it. I didn't understand it, because that particular link didn't give a very good representation of why people were protesting, and that the speaker sounded like he might have been high on weed didn't help either.

This link, however, clarifies the picture quite a bit and was far more persuasive, but I only saw this article after I went to the Occupy Seoul (at Yeoido) protest to do a little on-the-spot journalism to see what it was about. For a disclaimer, I will say that this is the first time I've ever been to a protest. I was a little nervous about participating because I realized this was a controversial topic. I also wasn't sure what the entire ramifications were for a Chinese American foreigner like me to contribute to this cause in this country, even though I agree with the core gist of the message, which was that financial inequality is everywhere so we as a citizenry rely on our governments to regulate giant banks and CEOs and stem the corruption.

In addition, I am aware of the counterarguments against protesting against financial institutions and the entire Occupy Wall Street movement as a whole. Here is one example. This argument states that everyone should take personal responsibility for their money; the American economy is so terrible right now because the majority of people go into debt from overspending and neglecting their bookkeeping. My friend Amy also has another perspective here.

My opinion is that, while this is true, it is nearly impossible to do if you didn't start out healthy (like if you had some genetic disease or disability) or have a family, in which case spontaneous events may keep you from saving money. I am lucky enough myself to have been born healthy, and I worked since the age of fifteen and went to a state university, so I had saved up enough money to become debt free roughly a year after graduation. Second disclaimer: I had a lot of help from my immediate family and one of my ex-boyfriends. (We're still good friends, but that's a whole other story.)

I went with my friend Mary Garcia (not her real name) and she had this green paper sign that said, "American Citizen + American Education + American Student Loans + A Lack of American Jobs = Sad American". She also participated in a handful of interviews. I refused to say anything in an interview to any of the reporters because I am not protesting any Korean financial institutions, and as I've said before, I am not sure what the full ramifications for a Chinese American to be protesting on foreign soil are. I went to the protest because I agree with the core message of the Occupy Wall Street protesters, want to support those people back home (as is true with my friend Mary Garcia) and wanted to see how this event would happen, because I'm pretty sure this will be a memorable moment in history. Citizens in a handful of different countries banding together to protest the same thing is something that I haven't heard or read about before.

 It was drizzling, but a large crowd of Korean people were there. They were chanting "We are the 99%! Occupy Yeoido!" both in Korean and then in English. Many people had signs. Though a majority of them were in Korean, a few were in English. Some even had on Scream or Vendetta masks, to protect their identities. At times, there was a man rapping in Korean. A woman's voice was leading the protesters, and a bunch of old Korean women were kneeling under the cover of the entrance to a building. Between these women and the doors of the building were a line of riot control Korean police - just in case, I guess. There were some other foreigners there too, mostly Americans and a few from other different parts of the world. Reporters from several different news stations were going around interviewing people. There were more foreigners interviewed than Korean people, so I was all the more suspicious about what the Korean press was going to say about this event and movement.

One reporter, after interviewing Mary, asked for my phone number so she can follow up on the interview, since my friend lied and told her that she had no phone. I gave her my phone number with an "Don't make me lose my job now..." but asked to be anonymous and refused an interview myself on the basis that I don't know what my employers would think. There was also one man who pointed a video camera at me without asking first, so I very warily said hi and then basically waved him away. I assumed he only got the end of what I was saying when I explained to another man - who was a reporter, but wasn't taking notes - that I agree with this movement because there is classism all over the world, and government regulation may help every country's economy a little bit.

We didn't stay for the entire time but I'm sure many Koreans are still there. When we were eating dinner back in Daejeon at a fusion Japanese noodle place, we saw on tv that the protest at Seoul Station was much larger, and it is still going on. I have my photos from the Yeoido portion of the event, which I uploaded to Facebook and may upload to my DeviantArt as well. This was Lily, reporting not-live on her blog at a friend's apartment in Daejeon, South Korea.

Promise to Give 'Em Ecstatic Hell

Substituting for the coworker who had to go to the dentist from last time went very smoothly, because my one year of experience teaching ESL on Daebudo really did make me comfortable with South Korean children and having authority over them. Naively, I thought that first mild test was the only one, and that I'd have started to officially teach by now.

Nope. TOPIA had me back at observation of coworkers' classes, which relaxed me a bit because it was easy and I didn't know for how long I was going to be doing that. I told them I was ready to teach, but then they had me Microteach, which means I pretended that a panel of coworkers are students, have half the duration of actual class time, with material from their highest English middle school class. It was a reading comprehension class, so I had my coworkers read passages and discuss the main points of the story. When evaluation time came, they really kicked me down a notch - as was their job to do so.

It felt like a Maoist style criticism, and I was so tense that I started hyperventilating. I only got better when half of them left and I sat down, only to know that my skin had gone chalk white and there was a half subconscious part of me willing myself to breathe. The administrator Yvonne seemed really disappointed and hadn't spoken to me, but the academy owner patted my shoulder in sympathy and almost all my coworkers gave me pep talks because they all had to go through this trial by fire. In hindsight, it was true that I was under prepared, but to be fair, it wasn't that I didn't teach - it was simply not anything similar to what they were looking for. That was Wednesday.

Because this is a private academy, what they are looking for is what matters the most. It's similar to the way that one has to fit in with the corporate culture of whatever big company a person is working at in America - like EMC, the data storage company, practices Lean Six Sigma which emphasizes customer service and "project focus on the key business gaps and strategies critical to the business success". TOPIA's principles are Credibility, Competence and Compassion. The Microteaching aspect probably focuses on credibility and competence - in the way that they want me to teach.

They wanted me to go by the syllabus, which means that I will not have any students read anything in class - they will only go over the workbook exercises with my half guidance with the assumption that they all did the homework. So then my real role - as was true for my time at the public school in Daebudo as well - was to discipline them, sporadically add in new ideas and personality to the textbooks (read: be a particularly authoritative performance artist), and engage them in conversation while adding in new ideas

And I did do that, partially, but I hadn't used the workbook and wasn't informed of how to read the syllabus, or the very structured and ordered way they had wanted me to use class time. I only had maybe twenty minutes because I spent ten photocopying reading pages from the student book last minute - while they did tell me that I was going to Microteach, they didn't tell me the specific chapter or structure they wanted - and so I thought teaching the way I taught before was going to be fine.

So now that I've been fully woken up to what they actually want from me, I've spent the last two days preparing. The next Microteaching is tomorrow, Friday. To make up for my lack of satisfactory performance in their eyes, they're actually having me demonstrate two times back-to-back, so I have to go in half an hour early. I'm well prepared now, having planned everything that I think they want down to the half minute. This also means I should go to bed almost right after I log off here. Wish me luck, and goodnight.

Anticipation, Streamlining All I Have

Breakfast was a slice of bread with water, and that's enough to last me for a few hours. This means that I'm okay with a mostly Spartan lifestyle - cue: heavy guitar riffs, voice from the movie 300, "This is Sparta!!!" while I kick someone I dislike down into a metaphorical 6-foot hole. Don't worry people, lunch and dinner are always far more substantial (to back up the assertion that I do eat from the last post). Anyway, the process of moving to another city and another apartment is far under way.

Let's recalibrate. A few weeks ago, my school had told me that it's impossible for my contract to be renewed. I found another job at a private academy, since the timing of my contract's ending closed off most public school positions for me, and what scraps are left mean that I would be in a similar situation to where I am now: out in the suburbs - read, middle of nowhere - and having to travel fairly far to shop for food or see friends. So despite the bad reputation private academies have in terms of employing foreigners in this country, I really had no choice but to give it a shot. I spoke to a few recruiters, and these were my terms.

I wanted to be nearer to a city, while retaining the rest of the benefits I had before. They include health insurance, vacation time, weekends off, and having a (preferably free) apartment that's near both public transportation and the school. I also decided to move further south in favor of a less harsh winter, some people I already know there, and having it easier as a tourist to travel in any direction within the country. These are somewhat strict requirements, especially for someone without a teaching certificate with only one year of experience who was very much short on time (since I didn't want to spend the extra money to go home before coming back again to work). I was found by John Yoon of JICC Recruiting, and he sold me to the Cheongju branch of TOPIA. (I encourage everyone to blog about their recruiters - this way, we find out which ones are the liars who exaggerate to get you to take the job so they get paid.)

While I didn't get away with having nearly as much vacation time and there's more work, the pay is higher and I would not have to lesson plan. There will be a lot of student work to grade and forums to respond to online, and maybe I would have to bow to some extra parental demands. As with most academies, hours are afternoons through evenings. I will be working with more people because it is a large franchise and it can even afford having a handful of foreigners in one institution. However, the classes may remain small.

Even after I signed the contract, I continued to do my research - if this was a blacklisted private academy, for example, I wouldn't show up regardless of what paper I put my name on. When I called them and asked to speak to an English teacher, they gave me a Korean American or gyobo to speak to - whose word I still took for granted, despite the grain of salt that she would not have the guts to say she hated the place even if she did feel that way. But when she said, "Oh, you'll love it here!" there was enough enthusiasm that I think she would be telling the truth. I also reasoned that no matter how bad it is, it can't be as bad as my 11 months at Target, where my hours shifted on a weekly basis and I had no health insurance.

So John Yoon will pick me up from Cheongju train station on September 27th at 4pm. I still haven't figured out exactly how I'm going to meet him with two big luggages and a cat kennel, when I will have no cell phone and only two arms since I will be traveling alone. Later today or Saturday, I will go to Ansan Station to find a pay phone, so that I can at least call the local taxi van service to take me and my luggage + cat from my apartment near the mud flats to Oido Station, on Line 4. It might be a good idea to somehow get one more luggage to that area this weekend, so that when I meet with John Yoon I'll only have one big luggage and my cat.

In terms of packing, I've put away all my sweaters and jackets, and most of the small things are in this blue luggage next to me, and I know how I'm going to organize my shoes, my cat things, wires and small electronics. I also have another bag of toiletries, and a backpack of the stuff I'll need to stay comfortable for the next handful of days when everything else is packed away. I also need to go to the bank today to cash in all my coins so that I can travel roughly 3 kgs less.

Cleaning wise, I've cleaned the washing machine and porch area, most of the bathroom, and cleared out most of the drawers of everything that I'm keeping. I need to finish up the bathroom, work on the living/bedroom floor, the kitchen floor, sink and gas range, and perhaps the inside of the fridge. Now my goals for the next few hours are set.

I'm finished mentally recalibrating and organizing. And now, cue Juno's voice, "Thundercats are Goooo!!!"

Sudden Changes

A few months ago, the South Korean Board of Education had decided - and related through GEPIK (Gyeonggi English Program of Korea) - that due to budget cuts, they will cease to hire any new people before March 2012. This means that everyone who already has a contract can finish, but renewing with public schools will be a problem Korea-wide until they say otherwise. No one seems to know when they're going to have enough money to hire again; the March 2012 date is tentative and mainly there to stem any further questions.

What does this mean for me personally? Well, my contract is over this coming September 26. My E-2 visa expires October 27, and my corresponding Alien Registration Card expires on the same date. This means that either I find a job here before that time, so a new school will help me acquire a new visa or I'm going back to either the U.S.A. or preparing to go to another country. I decided that I want to stay here for another year, because I have more to learn about teaching, there is more to see in this country and I don't want to immediately leave some of the new friends I've met here.

So the past two weeks have been a mildly feverish rush of contacting recruiters and applying for jobs that way. Two days ago, I had made a list, and realized that I had actually contacted and applied with up to twelve recruiters. They all initially responded to receive my resume and photo, but many of them stopped after that, and around four stayed. I ended up half applying with EPIK, and then talking to a few other people about private academies. Because I am not Korean American, some places were off limits to me - this is because some parents really want a teacher at their academy that they can talk to, and my lack of Korean would be a barrier to that. Other places only want men or white people, sometimes their criteria can be very specific. I even heard that there are sometimes age requirements.

As with choosing between countries when teaching abroad, transitioning between jobs means choosing the ideal setting for me to live in. By now I had tired of the country life and want actual cities with convenience stores nearby, so I looked at my options for large cities. I've already explore a good part of Ansan and Siheung, even though the move to those two places would be easy, so I wanted something new. Seoul is too prestigious, and not being Korean American or having more experience teaching, this city is mainly closed off to me anyway. Incheon might have sounded interesting, but I know more people down south now, so that's where I opted to go. I applied in Suwon, Daejeon, Busan and Daegu. Next is the realization that because my contract ends September 26 - terrible timing! - just after most public schools are done hiring, I would have to take the place of someone who changed their minds, or just go for a private academy.

Private academies are completely different from public schools. The hours are from afternoon to night instead of morning, there are fewer vacation days and shorter breaks, and your supervisors get much more control over your teaching methods and style. I'm hoping the last one won't get me into trouble, because I had to change many things as is even when I was teaching in public school. There's a lot more paperwork to be done, in terms of others' evaluations of you and then your evaluations of the students and having to comment on students' posts on internet sites. I expect to have seven more teaching hours each week. While in public schools, they expect you to create your own curriculum, academies give you a curriculum and you follow that. I also heard that the academy sometimes either doesn't follow the contract or interprets it in such a way that they make it hard for an employee to leave or fine them so much that they ended up with only 20% of their total income.

As a result, whenever I was offered a place to work, I have to research it across a few sites for a good while before concluding whether that place has a bad reputation and whether the posters' complaints have any grounding to them. In fact, I'm still doing that, and one of the methods that people often says works is to call the school directly and ask to speak with one of their English teachers to see whether they are happy there. Either way, I'm expected to move out of my apartment by September 26, so I've begun packing. And the beat goes on.

Curriculum

So my schedule goes something like this.

I teach "morning English" every day of the week, twenty minutes before actual classes when I think of a simple game for kids of all ages involving English. So far, I've only come up with a song to sing, Hangman, Simon Says, and because Friday I was feeling lazy, I just let them watch Looney Tunes instead.

Then on Mondays and Wednesdays, I teach gym classes. So far, I've had them play tag and soccer, and haven't thought of anything much else yet. Mr. Jeong says that I should go by the textbooks and use English to teach them stretches and strengthen them through obstacle courses, except that I'm not sure how to go about that, so I will need to think of something soon. Monday's three periods are for grades one through three, whereas Wednesdays are for grades four through six.

There's also the afterschool activities, but these are kind of casual, no one really cares what I do with them, so sometimes they convince me to let them go outside, or just hang out, or something or other. But I also try to have them review the things they learned throughout the day through word games and such.

The goal is to have conversational English, so there are a lot of skits and role playing. The more talented ones can memorize the lines and act them out immediately, whereas most of them read them out loud from the "script". To make things fun, multimedia is almost always used - from sing alongs to memory games with prizes to whatever else we can think of. The main classes are through Mr. Jeong, so I don't actually assign homework - and this is perfectly fine with me.

Coteacher

After obtaining Korean currency, I rented a phone to call my only contact in South Korea - waking him up at about 6:30 to 7 in the morning. He reminded me that there are internet kiosks that I could use, so I went to one, checked my email, and sent out a help email telling my recruiter that I'm in South Korea now - please pick me up. She replied a moment later, thankfully, which means that the friend I phoned originally would not have to pick me up after work. It turns out that my recruiters basically forgot about me. So then there was nothing to do but sit and wait.

Meanwhile, I ate the food that I procured in order to get change to use the internet kiosks - a Japanese styled rice ball and some coconut juice. People came and went. I managed to calm down, since I had called my friend because I plugged in my laptop to try to find an internet connection and send out an email that way, but my laptop died a total of three times. In a panic, I had asked to use the laptop of some Cantonese people from Hong Kong nearby, effectively mooching off of them for a few minutes. They were kind enough not to completely mind. Three hours later, Daniel the recruiter arrived.

He quickly piled me and my luggage into his car, and drove forth. I talked a lot during this time, because I thought he was my coteacher, and also, it was a concerted effort to relax more. We got to Daenam Elementary School within a few hours. He picked my luggage up and settled me into my room, and then introduced me to everyone relevant, including my coteacher, Mr. Jeong. At that time, I was a bit tired, and couldn't absorb any of it. Anyhow, that day I didn't need to teach anything but the afterschool class for the first to third graders.

While settling in, I received a phone call from whoever asking for Daniel. I thought that Mr. Jeong was Daniel, and so asked him to answer, interrupting his class. For some reason, I also jumped to the conclusion that it was his wife on the phone. This greatly displeased him. I can't really explain this behavior, except to say that my travels had left me disoriented. Anyhow, Mr. Jeong had a talk with me later, and we had that sorted out.

I had no idea what to do with the kids during that afterschool time. It was a source of stress for me, so I overprepared. I had them read a dialogue about McDonald's, whereupon they agreed, but also protesting that it was an afterschool program and so wanted a game. I took away their distractions - cell phones, stuffed animals, caps - only giving them back at the end of the day. The morning English periods were a source of stress for me too, so the first morning, I had them sing "Good Morning", which struck me as very awkward. It will take me another evening and a half to get used to these proceedings.

The History of EPIK

As with any job, a person must study up in preparation to meet new challenges. Usually, I would research a company based on its history, its current projects and goals, and then all the press involved with that. If I were really bold, I might go interview someone who is working at the company now over a cup of tea or email someone who has worked at the company in his recent past for a few quick pointers.

Before I jump ahead of myself to record my secondhand textbook knowledge about Korea, it's nice to take a step back and first go over the program and school I am working with.

Through EPIK (English Program in Korea), established between the allied nations of the United States and South Korea, I am working specifically for the Daenam Elementary School in the Daebudo county, in the city state of Ansan, part of the Gyeonggi-do province/region roughly in the northwest of South Korea. (From a random scene in the HBO series The Wire, a commander cop told a street patrol cop that that's the first thing someone should know about his given situation - the very specifics of where he is.)

EPIK has a good fifteen years of history so far, though it is still somewhat a recent development. As with many international efforts regarding education and globalization, the initiator of these actions was Peacecorp, starting in 1981. The South Korean government determined, while working with Peacecorp, that having their youth learn foreign languages and be exposed to the cultures of other countries are important goals. EPIK was established in 1995 as its own organization; however, it became jointly operated by Korea National University of Education and National Institute for International Education (NIIED). In 2007, EPIK fully transferred to NIIED, which is a branch of the Ministry of Education Science and Technology. Since then, they have only gotten more organized, hiring and training more people. For more, see EPIK's Wikipedia page and its more-direct sources.

Daenam Elementary School offers first grade through sixth grade. It's a seaside building in a relatively small town, with the main attractions being malls, the beach, seafood and small resorts. I'll write more about this later when I have pictures for you. So for now, it would be easier to take a step back and look at South Korea - the country as a whole.

I was using Culture Smart!: Korea, by James Hoare as a first reference, but EPIK also has its own little booklet to pass out when training Guest English Teachers (GETs) during orientation called Living in Korea: A Guide for EPIK Teachers. (While I've mainly been talking about EPIK, I'm actually working for GEPIK, which is the branch of EPIK specifically for the Gyeonggi region, but most or all of the rules and procedures are the same - just clarifying that now.) The second source is very useful for specific information and the appendix of terminology in the back because of the Korean terms as applied to daily school life.

All of this will be especially useful when your recruiter asks about a phone or Skype interview. She's going to prepare around ten or so standard questions for you about your experiences, why you want to teach, why you chose Korea specifically, how you will interact with your coworkers, so on and so forth. The more you know, the more prepared you will be to formulate your answers to these questions based on your personal experiences. =)

Visiting the Consul

Hello! Visiting the consul comes only after you've gotten your VISA number from your recruiter. He may also have given you a form to interview with the consul and instructions on where to apply for your proof of residency. The proof of residency is for tax form purposes, but you can worry about that later.

After you fill out the form to interview with your consul, prepare:

• some money (about 60 dollars is a good bet)
• another copy of your university transcript
• your passport, and
• a passport photo

to include with the VISA application. If your recruiter didn't give you the address for the consulate, you will have to look it up on Google - type in your home city, the target country, and "consulate" (eg. Boston South Korean consulate) and search results should show their website, if not their address. Their address should be found either on the Home page or the Contact Us section, though there's a good chance that the site may be in a foreign language.

Since I reside in the Boston area, the Korean consulate that I went to is in Newton. This is their website. Because it's all in Korean, I could not access any of the forms that were on the website, and had to go visit in person to get anything done.

I had to make two or three trips. First, they had me fill out an application on site. Then, when they realized I didn't have an appointment, they sent me home with a health form to fill out and come back the next day at 10:30am.

2nd trip: When I did that, they asked for the passport photo and $45 in cash that I didn't know I was supposed to have, but decided to interview me anyway, because I sincerely apologized for being late as it was a really rainy day and the bus (there were only 2 bus routes to that address) ran 15 minutes late. So the interview was very short, where the consul asked pointed questions about why I wanted to be in Korea specifically, why I wanted the job, about my experiences, my family and my health. Then they sent me to the nearest CVS - with a Google map as a guide - to take a passport photo and obtain $45 dollars in cash to pay them for this procedure. When I returned with the desired items and dripping from the rain, they gave me a receipt and told me to come back 2 days later to pick up my VISA.

3rd trip: When I successfully did that, my quest was finally completed, thankfully.

I felt like I spent a lot of money, because each bus trip one way was about $3 in cash so I had to go to the ATM a lot, having gotten used to just using the debit card. Overall, it was $18 in bus fare plus $45 for the transaction, that's $63, plus $10 for the passport photos, and $2 for the ATM fees when I didn't have cash on me, the total rings up to a solid $75 dollars. However, most of this was because I was drastically unprepared for this visit - my recruiter didn't tell me anything about how to get a VISA, just sent me the form for interviewing with the consulate, so after reading this, you should come by fewer obstacles!

And Now To Wait

After sending all of your documents to your recruiter, assuming that she doesn't find anything that you missed and have to correct, you will now wait. You're almost done! There are only a few more steps to this process before you're set to fly to your designated country to work.

During the wait, you would be wise to do a little more research on the country where you will be staying. I will be staying in South Korea, so I got my hands on this book and a Korean dictionary. The Culture Smart series is great for me because I'm awkward enough in settings where I have a good idea of the customs, so reading up on them beforehand makes it less likely for me to embarrass myself completely.

There are other cultural sources to rely on aside from books. For example, Youtube can provide examples of music from that country, or maybe even short documentaries from people who have been there before. Google can bring up blogs from other people who are also teaching abroad, where you can read to compare and contrast their experiences. From here on out, aside from the final bit of processing to go through, it becomes a rather anthropological experience.

There are other things to plan as well. For example, if your recruiter has told you when to be at the designated country, now is the time to book your flight. Planning ahead means you have the time to compare prices and figure out which airline is the best for you, and whether it will be a direct flight or you will be making a stop in between. It's generally cheaper to use an airline that's native to the country. For Korea, I bought my ticket using the Orbitz website with Asiana Air, choosing a direct flight because it will save time. Considering it's a 13 hrs flight, you can also plan on getting some reading material or games to pass the time.

As I mentioned a few paragraphs before, there's also a tiny bit more of paperwork to do once the recruiter gives you your VISA number. That will be what my next entry is about.

I also used this time to tell everyone concerned where I'm going, why and to say my goodbyes. I reassured everyone that I will be coming back, and it was kind of heartrending all around. My words here cannot justify the depth of the emotions to be felt: how much I will miss everyone, especially my boyfriend, and my anxieties and excitement concerning the future. I feel alive.

Official Documents

So we were talking about the decision making process up through the point where we initiated contact with a recruiting company for a specific program. Once you've received a response from the recruiter, your application process has officially started.

There's going to be a list of official documents you'll need to procure. While there may be slight variations based on the country and program, most of it is fairly similar. The recruiter will need all of this information to get you an E2 visa; while you're busying putting together this portfolio of your identity, he will be effectively marketing you to various schools associated with the teaching program, based on your resume and photos. So here's a list:

resume

casual photos, 2 or 3

passport photos

passport

college transcript(s)

copy of diploma

letters of recommendation

criminal background check

application

contract

The smart way to edit your resume would be to Google some tips. Action words are encouraged. Put relevant experience first. Keep everything up to date in terms of locations and contact information. Make sure the layout looks neat. Check your grammar.

If you need it, the passport should be the first thing you work on, because some countries take a really long time to process one. According to the Bureau of Consular Affairs, it takes about six weeks. However, since there's so much paperwork involved, I would suggest giving it more time in case something gets written down wrongly. The same site I linked to has instructions in terms of what kind of passport services you need. The recruiter will need you to scan the passport's first page once you receive it, and send it to them.

Then, I suggest going after the letters of recommendation. This all varies depending on how much experience you have, which dictates the number of coworkers or supervisors who would be willing to write you one. The program where I applied, EPIK, required official organizational insignias at the top of the letters, so I had to relay that to my professors. There are also some organizations that plainly don't write recommendation letters - Target Corporation is one of these. This step comes in second, because it's the least structured, and depends mainly on your contacts.

Your college or university website should have instructions regarding how to retrieve copies of your diploma and transcripts. Criminal background checks vary by state, so you can Google your state's official website for that information. I'll dedicate the next entry on just these two documents alone.

While you can usually get the application and contract of your chosen teaching abroad program on the site, sometimes these forms are subject to change, so you should ask your recruiter about when to submit these.

Thanks for reading me!

Working Abroad: Why and Paperwork

While there are plenty of blogs via the net about people's adventures and sights once they reach their destination, there's no such information about the process of everything before getting there. I would have found this data really useful, so for anyone who's thinking about going abroad, this is the right place for you. I'm here to add a voice to all the pages about teaching abroad that are made by recruiting organizations.

So why do you want to work in a foreign country?

My reasons were heavy, but simple. I could be staying at home with my partner, relatively near my parents and sister, working a retail job. But I graduated at the end of 2009, and by 2010, millions of people are jobless. I worked at Target for a year, searching for another opportunity the entire time. When I started to apply for a teaching job abroad, these are the things I was thinking about.

I would be away from my partner and family for several months to a year, depending on the contract for the program and recruiting company. Am I okay with that? I risk being distanced from people I care a lot about, and not liking the new environment where I am stationed. On the other hand, I get to explore and be immersed in a new culture, exciting just because it's novel. It would be international experience for my resume, and would change my outlook on many subjects. So is the risk worth the potential gain?

Once I thought about that for awhile and made my decision, the research began. I was lucky, a friend referred me to this program because he's in it and patiently answered a lot of my questions. Still, the other question I was answering was, which country should I work in? I've never traveled for work before, so I was mainly considering "First World" countries, places where the quality of living wouldn't be too drastically different from Boston, Massachusetts, in the USA, where I'm from.

At first I considered China, but the quality of living there is lower, so then I chose South Korea. Next up is choosing a program suitable for you. Many of these programs have pages online where they advertise, so some facts to look for are:

a. length of contract (months? a year?)

b. room and board provided for? if not, how much?

c. wage and salary pay

d. benefits

Once you've decided on a program and recruitment company, contact them (usually through email) and the application process begins. The program I am with is called EPIK (English Program in Korea) through the recruiting company English World.