Volunteering at Mulmangcho.I miss my hair this color. (2014)
Getting ready to depart Korea has left me with a lot of emotions. I have spent the last 4 years of my life in this country, and for better or worse, I have grown a lot as a person. There are a lot of things that I will miss and not miss about Korea, but as I’m winding down I thought why not close out this year with writing about those things.
…So I didn’t really go anywhere exciting for summer vacation. As in I didn’t leave the country or end up on some island with nice beaches. Luckily for me, I didn’t book such a vacation, because my foot still doesn’t let me walk more than a few hours at a time without swelling a bit and then I need to rest and it goes back to its slightly swollen self the next morning.
…Visas are a complicated mess only if documents do not come to you quickly. Another bonus is working with recruiters that truly care about you and how you are doing through the whole process. My first recruiter is a friend now and called me up after I told her what had happened before, and she said I needed to change my visa status a.s.a.p. before starting my contract or I would not be able to start working. I couldn’t believe this, but she said if you work in a public school than you must be on an E-2 visa when you start working otherwise the contract is void and you will have to start the process all over again. I called my current recruiter at the time if he had heard of that and he hadn’t but he advised me to call immigration more than once in order to receive the correct answer.
…As an American we can stay in Korea for up to 90 days with no visa, which is awesome if all you are doing is traveling. If you are coming to Korea to teach as an English teacher you will most likely be on an E-2 visa for work after receiving your work contract and NOA (notice of appointment). Once you come to Korea you will go with your co-teacher and apply at your local immigration office to receive your ARC (Alien Registration Card) or 외국인등록증. You need this to sign up for cell phones and bank accounts, it is also your main form of identification. Luckily, your ARC is good for up to 30 days after your school contract ends.
…A year ago today I boarded a plane at JFK Airport and met new EPIK friends in San Francisco before boarding our plane to Incheon International Airport in South Korea. Thinking back on the past year it is interesting to see how far I have come and how much my life has changed. A year ago, I went through orientation and upon completion was ushered by bus to a city in my province. I remember meeting my co-teacher the first day and the car ride back to where I was going to live was awkward but friendly. Fast forward to now and I can say that my co-teacher, 라미, has been my biggest supporter.
…For those of you who haven’t seen Disney’s new animated movie, Frozen, you are lucky. Personally while the story was cute there was way too much singing for me. Unfortunately, if you are an English teacher in Korea this movie and its songs are pretty popular. My co-teacher wanted to do a lesson on the song, “Let it go,” lucky for us most of the students didn’t show up to school because of snow on Friday, and the teacher’s also showed up late.
…I like to challenge my students. I like to make them think outside the box. When I teach alone this definitely fails on me. However, when I am able to teach with my co-teacher the meaning isn’t lost in context and I can talk about interesting subjects. I think the students can get to know more about me through these types of lessons.
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It is Christmas cookie season!!!! I love making Christmas cookies! I think they are a wonderful thing to eat and they go straight to your hips. But they are worth it! I will be the first to admit this was a huge undertaking here in South Korea. At first, I thought I would bake the cookies alone and then I decided to make them with a friend. Now transportation took two trips because moving everything from one place to the other was a bitch. But that’s okay it all got done.
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