First Full Day- June 23 part 1

My apartment doesn't have any U.S. outlets (some of the other teachers have them) and I didn't bring any adapters.  Duh, kinda important! Because my phone only had half a battery and I wasn't able to plug in my alarm clock I was nervous to oversleep.  So after going to bed just before 1 am, I woke up at 5:30.  I'm guessing it was the jet lag because I was wide awake and felt great!

I had plenty of time before school so I unpacked some more things.  I took a nice hot shower with plenty of water pressure!  Other than the stuff that Matt bought for me, there were a few things left by someone.  I'm not sure if it was the school or a previous tenant but there was a large bottle of water, large bottle of tomato juice, hot and spicy Pringles, grape tomatoes, and a bunch of bananas.  For breakfast I ate a banana and a pb&j sandwich.

After I finished getting ready, I met Matt outside at 8:45.  We walked to the school together and he explained some of the neighborhood.  Right next to our apartments is a little clump of stores.  Within this are two "corner stores," a dry cleaner, a fried chicken place make that two fried chicken places (apparently very popular here,) a drug store, and some other little shops (two hair salons).

Ok, so I'm writing this from a PC Bang (internet cafe) and there are a bunch of Korean men playing online video games and chain smoking like crazy!  I want to post a little for ya'll to read but I'm going to have to finish this later because the smoke is driving me batty.  Later gators!

I Made It!

Well, I've still got a few posts prior to this one that I need to publish, but I figured it would be best to catch up later.  I'm pretty jet-lagged so cut me some slack on the grammar and spelling ;-)

I made it safely to Korea last night.  Around 11:30pm a coworker named Matt and his wife Je Yun (sp?)  met me at my apartment and got me set up.  Matt even brought stuff for pb&j, toilet paper, and a huge bottle of water.  The apartment is not nearly as tiny as I was expecting.  It has seperate areas for the living room, kitchen, bathroom and bedroom.  For now my bed is in the living room.  I asked Matt if I should move it into the living room but he said it's best to keep it where it is for now because of the "air con" (I don't know why but I love that they call it that!)

Matt and Esther (coworkers) explained that because my apartment is newly acquired by the school, they are still doing some work on it. When I got there I had a bed (with super cute comforter and pillows!) a tv and stand, table with four chairs, stove top, a wardrobe for clothes, and a cabinet by the door for shoes (already full hehe).  I'm still missing a refridgerator and washing machine.  My apartment has a shower...yay!!! I'm posting this from the school so I'll need to post pictures later.

Now Matt says that everyone needs a funny first day in Korea story so I guess that's why he helped with mine!  When we got to the aparment, the doors to my balcony were not installed.  He said "I'm a kindergarten teacher, not a handyman, but I think I can give it a whirl."  On the first try he put the doors on backwards.  I was unpacking some of my luggage when I heard a loud crash.  When trying to install the second door, he had accidently knocked the first one to the floor!  Luckily the door has two pieces of glass, one in the top and one in the bottom.  Only the bottom piece was broken.  Matt and his wife cleaned up the glass and even taped some plastic bags into the hole to keep the bugs out. 

After they left, I did a little more unpacking and went to sleep just before one.  Well, I'm off to get my health check...more to follow!

You are Pre-Approved for a Visa...

Last Thursday I finally got a visa that allows me to legally work in Korea for one year. Here is the process in great detail:


• Gather visa application documents:

1. transcript and sealed transcript from the university

2. criminal background check (this one was a pain because after I did the required fingerprints I had to wait for the paperwork to come back to me. THEN, I had to overnight the paperwork, a form, payment, and a return envelope to Austin to be certified by the apostille.)

3. copy of the passport info page

4. signed employment contract

5. Health Statement (hilarious!)

6. original diploma (I wasn't too thrilled about sending the original, but oh well.)

7. passport size photos

8. I also threw in a copy of my teacher certificate in case they decided later that they needed it.

9. I had to mail all of these documents to my recruiter who looked them over and gave them to my employer. I mailed the documents on April 28 (expedited shipping). My recruiter received them on May 4.

• Next, my employer looks over the documents, adds some of their own stuff, and submits all of my information to the Korean immigration office.

• Then, I wait for the immigration office to produce a visa issuance number.

• and wait

• and wait

• My recruiter finally e-mailed the visa issuance number to me on May 19.

• On May 21, I mailed the visa application, payment for the visa, another passport-sized picture, my PASSPORT (super nervous about that one,) and another sealed transcript. The woman on the phone at the consulate told me that she would call to schedule a visa interview once she received my application materials.

• On May 25, I had a voicemail on my phone stating that my interview was scheduled for May 27. Wait, what?!? Yes that's right, May 27, in Houston. Seeing as how I live a one-way seven hour drive from Houston, I was pretty freaked out. With only two days notice, none of my friends were able to get off work to drive with me. So I decided I would need to fly. I called to ask for the days off work. I then frantically searched for a flight that would leave San Angelo in the morning, get me to the 2:30 appointment on time, and then allow enough time for me to make it back to the airport. Easier said then done. So my brilliant friend Erin gave me the idea to fly out of Midland (1.5 hour drive away.) I was about to book the flight when I thought hmmm maybe I should call the consulate to confirm my appointment first. Thank God I did! I called to tell the consulate lady that I would be able to make the appointment on Thursday at 2:30. She said "Okay, and your visa issuance number is wrong." I said "What? What do you mean the number is WRONG?" She said "Well when I put the number in the computer someone else's name pops up. Just get the correct number from Korea and let me know." Sigh. There was no way I was going to book a plane ticket without knowing if I could keep the appointment. At this point I had to e-mail the recruiter to ask about the visa issuance number. The only problem was that it was 2 am in Korea.

• So the next morning after the tenth time of frantically check my e-mail, I had the correct number. Apparently there was a problem with communication between my recruiter and the school and one letter was wrong. So I called the consulate and the woman said that I could still have my appointment the following day.

• I booked a plane ticket to fly from Midland to Houston.


More to follow...

It has been said that a pretty face is a passport. But it's not, it's a visa, and it runs out fast. -Julie Burchill