When I last left you I was waiting for my visa to come back and it did!  Exactly a week to the day that I sent it off I got my passport back with my nifty visa attached to one of the pages.  With that in hand I went ahead and booked my flight.  Since there are two orientation sites and two different days that they start I was a little paranoid about getting to the right airport on the right day and before the EPIK shuttles stopped running.  I went back and checked my email from The C about four times before I booked my flight.  Hour flight to Atlanta and then 14 hours to Seoul.  Oh, joy.

The flight was brutal.  Weird meals at weird times, simulated night and simulated day.  Weird.  Jet lag is my best friend right now but I just had a traditional korean breakfast with rice, spam eggs, kimchi and optional pickles and hardboiled eggs.  Good fun.  The kimchi was not what I expected.  When people said it was spicy I was expecting Thai or Mexican chilli spicy, but it’s more of a vinegar spicy with a little bite to it like a really dry wine.  It makes your tongue curl up a bit.  I did feel like I was back in Hawaii though, having rice for breakfast…NAOMI I miss you!

As I write I’m now in my comfy dorm room at Eulgi University which is the orientation site for my group.  At 11am we have a campus tour so we know where we’re supposed to go for all the classes.  Till then I’m going to chill, maybe take a nap and see if anyone is online to chat with me.

Just a side note: this is the last post I will make on this blog.  I really don’t like wordpress so I’m starting a brand new blog that will detail me life here so I’m ending this one as simply the chronicles of my application process.  If you want to keep up with my life my new address is…

http://emmyinkorea.blogspot.com/

Join me on my adventures in the Republic of Korea!

I had a time finding the info I needed to send for a visa but finally succeeded after a little digging on the internet that the consulate in Atlanta is the one that handles SC so after a little more digging for their website I found it but was massively confused since it was all in Korean!  Who’da thunk?

I went back to the site andf finally found the “English” button at the top and off I went.  I finally found the visa application and the info I needed for all the paperwork without too much trouble.  The visa application was by far the hardest to fill out.  It took me a good 5 tries before I got everything right.  First because there was absolutely not enough room to put anything on there and I got confused about where to write things since they were in Korean and English so most of the time I just guessed.  Good times.

They do have some suggested answers for us teachers but I was confused about who my employer was and my address in Korea.  The C said in the info packet that we could use the EPIK address and his name so since that was the only address I had that address was all over that sucker.

From the info that The C sent me I had some answers but the others I kinda had to guess on.  I haven’t heard from the consulate so I’m assuming I did everything ok.

BTW don’t leave your papers in your car overnight or when it’s raining, just a side note from experience.  I now have one very wrinkly and coffee stained contract for teaching in Korea.  I sincerely hope I don’t look like a complete idiot when I take it with me.  It has to be rewritten anyway since I will qualify for more money when I get there with my TESOL certificate but it still looks a little bad that I didn’t keep my precious contract safe.  I sent the remaining pristine one to the consulate so at least they don’t know I’m an idiot, unless I did something else harebrained.  Ah, well.  Such is life.

Also the sending of said papers was a HASSLE.  I had to send a prepaid self-addresses express mail envelope in with the papers so I can get my passport back.  I didn’t know that I had to fill out packing slips for these said packages.  God’s providence never ceases to amaze me.  When I went the first time they only had one size of express mail packages.  I couldn’t figure out how I was going to send the same size envelope in another one.  Turned out I didn’t have time to send it that day but when I finally made it back to the PO on my third try there was a larger new package that had just come in.  The one I sent everything in turned out to be pay by the weight while the smaller return envelope was flat rate! Awesome!  I was really worried that I wouldn’t know how much postage to put on the envelope since I’m not sure what exactly they were sending me back.  I think it’s just the passport with the visa stamped in it but there was no info on that.  Super nice lady at the PO helped me fill out the right labels and pay the right postage.  Never underestimate the helpfulness of people.

Whew!

I sent everything off last Tuesday and still haven’t heard anything.  I did put my departure date on there so I hope they’re not dragging their feet.  I still haven’t booked my flight since I was warned multiple times in the info packet not to unless I had my visa.

The official date of my departure is Feb 17th with arrival on the 18th and shuttle bus to the orientation site.  Now I just need a bajillion things like converters, socks and chocolate.

WOOT!  I got the email a couple of days ago that I have officially been accepted by the Chungbuk Provincial Office of Education and that I will be receiving my contracts and notice of appointment shortly in the mail.  Then I get all my paper work together and send it to the consulate in Atlanta.  Awesome.

I thought I would have to go to an interview as well as submit another CRC.  HA.  Take that Korean Consulate, I’m with EPIK so I don’t have to do either!

I just have to make sure all my paper work is in order and I’ve signed all the appropriate dotted lines send it off and I should have my visa in a couple of days!

Then on to the plane ticket saga.  I’ve found some good flights all under $1000 so I’m excited about that.  The C said in the email that they don’t directly reimburse us for the ticket.  They just deposit a flat fee minus the cost for the physical exam which is about $70.  So anything under that flat fee I get to keep!  Woot.

The deposit will be about $1200 and I found a good flight for about $850 so I’m home free!  The only problem being I wish I could get a round trip ticket but most online sites offer multiple airline tickets and those require a return date within a year of departure. Since I’ll probably be in Korea a little over a year because of orientation and settling in time that won’t work.  However, I will get severance pay at the end of my contract so that will pay for my ticket home as well.  Good times.

I haven’t heard anything from my coordinator in more than two weeks.  I sent in my completed application by email and he emailed me back a few days later to say that he would let me know about any progress.

Nothing.

I think the next step is the actual physical contracts that I will receive in the mail but I’m not really sure.  It says on the website that anytime from October through January is when I could get the contracts so that make me feel a tab bit better but not really that much.  I’ve been planning, buying (and not buying things) in preparation for this big move and change in my life and I still don’t have a definite answer as to whether I’m going or not.

However, since I can do absolutely nothing about it, I’ve decided to start exploring the option of Portugal or Mexico City and to not worry about it.

Tonight I’m hanging with my girl from California who is home for a week so we have two years of catching up and future plan explanations to make in just a few hours.  So I’m gearing up to talk a bunch so the soy is soothing my throat already.

I did receive just about the coolest backpack for my mac that I could ever have.  It’s been in hard use for that last few days and I still love it.  It has a million mesh pockets of various sizes for the randomness that is computer crap.  I need to buy everything I can from Apple with my handy dandy Starbucks discount like and airport express and an extra power cord since mine has decided to go on the blink.  Oh macs.  I might even get a new one when I get back.  Who knows what goodies they’ll come up with before then.

My parents are planning to buy a new imac (woot!) finally.  They one they have now is so old that it’s not an Intel based mac (argh) so much frustration has ensued from that deal.  So now they’re going to get a nice pretty new one for me!  Woot.  Many skype dates ahead I can tell.  Also my bestest friend in the whole wide world also bought a new laptop with a webcam for me too!  She and her husband were going to buy a new one eventually anyway but decided to get it now so D and I can talk.  Excitement! Go J!

Well, I’m done with blogging about absolutely nothing so I will go now and enjoy the rest of my meal break and then off to a competing coffee house to eat with the girl from Cali.

1. Pray profusely. - ongoing on this one.

2. Apply for and receive Passport – check

3. Get copies of college transcripts – check

4. Criminal background check – check

5. Authorization of said transcripts and check – check

6. Possibly find a recruiter to help find a school – not necessary

7. Find a school – again, not necessary

8.Send original college diploma and authorized said trans. and check to EPIK

9. Interview with school – with EPIK

10. Sign a contract (waiting for it)

11. Interview at Korean Embassy and subsequently receive a work visa (have to sign a contract first)

12. Acquire plane ticket (have to get a visa first)

13. Give EVERYTHING away (definitely in process of)

14. Pack what’s left (not really wanting to pack anything, but since I don’t have any suitcases the situation is looking grim regardless)

15. Fly to Korea to ensconce myself in a cosy studio apartment and teach  chi-dren for a year. (SOOOOO ready to do this one)

16. NEVER COME BACK. (still not sure about this one, I will have to come back after a year for various reasons, so I’ll be back stateside in a year at the most anyway)

Interesting side note.  The C told me that if I decide to stay more than a year there are a few things I need to be aware of.  If I want to stay where I’m placed then I don’t have to do anything as long as my request is approved.  BUT.  If I want to go somewhere else I have to resubmit all of my documents, including my apostilled diploma and CRC so just in case, you might want to get more than one copy done.  The apostilles cost me $2 a piece but the CRC was a flat $25 made out in a cashier’s check or money order and it took a full week to send it and get it back.  So just be aware.

The reason you have to resubmit is that every province has it’s own seperate POE or Provincial Office of Education and since they’re separate they don’t transfer documents.  So take them with you in some kind of protected case or something.

Now I need to start deciding what to get rid of and what to keep, pack up or give away.

Fun times.

Yesterday, I had to run some errands and since my sweet sister-in-law is what you might call unwieldily with child I thought I’d take one of the other two off her hands for a while.  So I got my stuff together and armed with raisins, a banana, a straw and my water bottle I trekked over and scooped up Knox.

I packed him into his booster seat in my car, which is a novelty for him because most of the time he rides in Honey’s van (my mom).  When we got to the mall he told me that he likes my car and that it’s a race car.  That surprised me not a bit since I can barely get it to accelerate in something like a moderate fashion but he’s decided he wants to be a rally car race driver so I think ever car is a race car.

Well, we walked all over that mall, which ended up being two stores, but still got what we needed to do done.  We went to bath and body works and smelled things.  We shopped for me a little bit and then sat down for a snack of bananas, raisins and water.  During this time, we spilled water, saw three people we knew and talked absolute nonsense as three year olds tend to do.  I answered about three million questions and saved the water bottle twice before it succeeded in falling off the chair rail.  As we were leaving the mall Knox looked up at me ansd asked, “Are we going somewhere so sit down?”  Oh, dear.  Small legs get tired so quickly.  But yes, we were headed to the car and one more stop and then home.  As we drove down the highway he snacked on cheerios and we listened to Bobby Darin splishing and splashing.

We went to AC Moore to get some yarn for two last minute gifts I still have to knit and Knox decided he wanted a scarf too.  So we spent about 10 minutes looking at all of the blue and green yarn there was there.  Finally settling on one we stood in line and Knox proceeded to ask the lady behind us all about the things she was buying.  Gracious as she was she answered all his questions and showed him everything she was holding.  I think she has kids too.

After that we headed home!  That little man was soooo tired when he got home he couldn’t even make a decision about what he wanted for lunch.  His mom said later that one of his friends came over to play and Knox said his legs were ok to run but not to walk.  After that he crashed a took a massive nap.  Score!  My plan succeeded!

Oh, I forgot to tell you the best part.  As I was putting him in the car at the mall he looked up at me and said,

“You’re the best Emmy in the whole world.”

This is a totally dry and necessary blog for those of you applying to EPIK since I do not want you doing what I did.  Now, where was I…oh yeah.  Apostilles.

I called the Secretary of State’s office and they told me that they can’t make a copy or apostille a copy.  She told me they would simply do the same thing they did before.  So my advice is to call the office and ask as many questions as necessary to find out what you need to know.  Then email your coordinator (hereafter referred to as The C) to make sure it’s alright before you send all the documents.

So after taking my own advice and emailing my coordinator back and forth over more than a week, I ended up sending scans of what I had and he said it was alright so off they all went to Korea.

I finally got everything together(so I thought) and FedExed the whole shebang to the coordinator in ROK (Republic of Korea for the uninitiated).  A few days later I got a confirmation email from The C but a very polite ending informing me that I didn’t send something they needed, and quickly.

In the list of documents I read that since I submitted my application by email I couldn’t sign it officially.  For the hard documents I sent they needed the two pages of the application signed.

In the explanation of the documents it said just to print off the two pages that need my signature and send them.  Well, The C said that he needed my completed application as well as the signed pages.  I’m seriously confused because it says explicitly to print off those two pages and include them, not the whole application.  I was feeling like an idiot that can’t read but I went back and saw that it said to do just as I did.  But if he needs it, so be it.

Ah well.  I knew this would be a process and things would go wrong so I’m trying to give it all back to God and let Him deal with it, since I just get frustrated and angry and that does no good to me or anyone else.

I haven’t heard anything else since but I think what comes now is the contract I have to sign, and with that I can go to an interview at the Korean Embassy.  After that I should be able to get a visa on my passport.  Then we should be able to arrange a flight.

Then I fly to KOREA!  woot.

So many things to do…

So I’m going to blog about whatever the crap I want to!

That’s how I feel today.  I keep getting conflicting information and can’t decided what I should do.  The problem with trying to write about anything else is that I can’t think about anything else…..hmmmmmm.

I know! Teaching!

I have now taught my five classes this week and pretty much failed as a teacher today.  I was so tired last night I just threw something together and winged it today.  I learned in college how to BS my way through anything so the students had no idea I was clueless but I still saw umpteen ways to improve my lesson.  It could have been so much better…ah well.  In the evaluation part I could tell they understood but I think they would have understood sooner rather than later if I had had a brain last night.  I mean, I was on my feet for eleven straight hours so I do have a little bit of an excuse but still…

On the plus side I did buy some new shoes last night!  And on sale, no less.  This may not seem ama-za-zing to you but to me it’s makes a world of difference.  I have three pair of shoes, including the pair I’ve worn to church for the past three months.  These three pair of shoes are well loved but also now showing as well worn.  It’s not that I’m so poor that I can’t afford shoes (well, that is part of it) but also I just couldn’t find anything I liked (translate – didn’t look like ho shoes) but last night I fell in love.  Gianni Bini is my new favorite brand of anything I can get my hands on.  I have never worn a pair of high heels that comfy.

Ladies, can I get a witness?

I just gotta say “THEY HOT” .

You know.

Holla.

Take your diploma to your secretary of state’s office.  They will verify that it’s authentic.  They will make a copy.  They will apostille.  Done.

I hope.

What really sucks is that I had my diploma with me in the car and could have done all of this tuesday instead of having to go on another flying trip tomorrow morning, waste another tank of gas and aggravate the poor woman at the secretary of state’s office. Ah, well. This is what happens when I don’t listen to God.  I heard him say, “ask what it should be like!” but no, I just went ahead and got my little photocopies apostilled, and now I have to go back.  I know it’s all in the plan, but it doesn’t make me any less frustrated with myself.