The Next Step

So my first round of documents are finally at the immigration office in Seoul. Great news. They were received last Tuesday (Monday our time) and it takes "a minimum of one week, a maximum of two weeks" as my recruiter told me. Hopefully it is closer to the one week instead of the two weeks. If all goes according to plan, by the end of next week I'll be in Chicago for my interview.

The interview asks some pretty hard questions: Why are you interested in South Korea (versus another country)? How will your major help you become an effective teacher? How is South Korea different from America? (be specific). What do you know about Korea? What’s your career plan after a visit to Korea? If you don’t have any teaching experience, how do you think you can manage?...just to name a few. I already know what I'm going to say and I already have my examples ready so I don't think it will be that bad.

I am still very excited to embark on this journey. I will finally be able to live on my own (which I've been wanting to do for one year now) and experience that. The apartments are fully furnished with a full kitchen and all appliances, a bed and living room furniture. Usually it's a one bedroom or studio apartment within walking distance of my school. Since Inje is so small - a population of 34,000 - I'm assuming my walk will be minimal.

The apartment is free as well as the round trip airfare. That's a pretty good deal as they pay you a monthly wage on top of that. I think I will be able to do some traveling (hopefully to Beijing, Shanghai and Tokyo) and I'll still be able to save money and bring it home. It seems like there are lots of advantages to this program, so I am eager to get over there and start working!

Until next time...hopefully the next post will bring photos of my trip to Chicago!