Greetings from Middletown

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I've reached a bit of a block as far as it comes to writing my NaNoWriMo novel (November is National Novel Writing Month, to those of you who don't know), so I figure that I might as well start my travel blog.

Let's start at the beginning: my senior year of college. Last October, my awesome roomate Kate ( Kate in Africa for those of you who don't know her) was scouring the internet for different travel opportunities, volunteer work, and jobs. We discussed some of the things she had found on a nice brisk walk to the local Giant Eagle. Among some of the options she rattled off, she mentioned seeing a post about teaching English in South Korea. It piqued my interest. I love kids, I love English-- and hey, let's be honest, the economy was starting to tank.

I kept this thought in the back of my head until about December or so. Curiousity got the best of me and I started my massive Google search. About a million and one different positions started to crawl out of the woodwork! I knew there needed to be a more reliable way to go about getting more information about teaching English abroad. I turned to livejournal.

As an active member of the LJ community, I was involved with a couple of communities, but mostly just for fun (parrot_lovers, etsy_mouse, to name a few). It took me a few tries, but I finally located Life in SKorea, a community of ex-pats living in Korea-- many of whom are/were teaching English abroad! I poked around, asked a few questions, and was guided to several different recruiting agencies.

Some, like English Apple and Aclipse, seemed far more organized than others. In early April, I submitted a round of applications and resumes, interested in what kind of responses I might get. I got about five-seven responses, but Aclipse acted most quickly. I had a response from them on April 16th and an interview date set up by April 21st. After my phone interview, I heard back from my awesome recruiter, Maurin, on April 29th and started getting my preliminary documents together.

What preliminary documents?

• Professional picture of myself
  
• Passport scan
  
• Original application
  
• A copy of my resume
  
• Prompted essay
  

I was also supposed to scan a copy of my diploma, however, I wasn't due to get my diploma until August 6th (or so I was told at the time). Most hagwons do not accept letters of completion in lieu of a diploma to expedite the process, so until I got my diploma, everything was on hold.

Once I turned all of this in, I got my first offer from ChungDahm Learning, the Korean institution that Aclipse works with. This first offer simply states that I was being offered a position with CDI, that I was guaranteed a spot so as long as I kept up my end of the bargain: get all of my documents in, pass training, and stick to CDI's rules.

Onto the next round! June 3rd, 2009: Once the offer was signed and initialled appropriately, I needed to send my recruiter a scanned copy of this offer. She received it with no problem. Once I got my diploma and criminal background check with apostille, I was set to depart in October!

Heartbreak followed soon after. Apparently, I was given the wrong date for my diploma. I technically wouldn't be getting it until OCTOBER! Obviously, there was no way I would be able to leave for Korea when I didn't even have my diploma yet. It was around this time that my recruiter, Maurin, decided to head back to grad school. In her stead, I was passed off to another equally awesome recruiter-- Colleen.

Colleen called me in late July to ask me how everything was going and introduce myself. I told her about the drama with my school. It was no big problem. During the pass-off, neither Maurin nor Colleen had told me that my scheduled departure date was pushed back to December. Needless to say, it was kind of a relief that my departure date was put off by two months-- it gave me more time to get everything together.

I got my criminal background check some time in August. I received my results (nothing came up) about a week later. I went to town hall shortly after to get my document notarized. I then submitted my notarized background check to the State of New Jersey in Trenton to get an apostille. All an apostille is, by the way, is a verification that a notorized document is, in fact, officially accepted in the state.

When I received my dipolma at the end of September (a few days earlier than expected), I got ALL of my required documents together to submit to Aclipse.

• Original copy of diploma
  
• Original application pages
  
• Fresh copy of resume
  
• Signed and Initialled offer of employment
  
• Sealed copy of official transcript
  
• Criminal background check with apostille
  
• Photocopy of passport
  
• Two passport photos of self
  

I sent everything into Aclipse via USPS Priority Mail w/ insurance on my diploma and a delivery confirmation number, just in case. Everything arrived the first friday of October and was forwarded onto Korea that day.

I received my official offer from Korea TWO DAYS AGO. I am being placed with CDI April (the younger kids) in Daegu, SK. Daegu is the 4th largest city in Korea and is located just a little southeast of smack-dab-in-the-middle of Korea.

I also completed my TEFL certification on Sunday!


What does all of this mean? I submitted my signed/initialled copy of my specific offer to Aclipse tonight. They will forward everything on to their reps in South Korea. Within two weeks, I should get a visa code. I will make an appointment with the Korean consulate in NYC (just a hop, skip, and free train ride away) for an appointment to get my visa. It will take a few days (though I've heard it could be as short as overnight) to pick up my visa.

Once I get my visa code, I can finalize my travel plans and book my flight! I am currently slated to leave for South Korea on Thanksgiving (11/26) and to arrive the next day. Training would begin 11/30 and last a week. I am required to complete this training in order to sign my final contract.

I'll keep you posted on the visa-getting process. I'll also quite possibly update with ridiculous pictures of me running around NYC, what South Korean won look like, and some of the places Puddinghead can go.

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Comments

[Kate in Africa]

hooray for starting a travelblog! now fix the link so it no longer says I'm blogger=kmh54! :)