I got a job offer at a school in Seoul on Thursday. I'm still waiting to hear back from the current teacher I was put in touch with (PLEASE ANSWER ME, SIR, FOR I HAVE IMPORTANT QUESTIONS) but I'm going to be moving forward with it anyway. The school seems nice, the area seems nice, the pay I was offered was what I was hoping for (linguistics double major = best double major yusssssss), and they're covering my flight to Korea. Initially the contract only stated they would cover return flight, but now it only discusses flight there. That's 100% fine with me, since I plan to either renew my contract there or find another school in Seoul, depending on how this year goes. Already being in Korea could potentially make things a lot easier when it gets towards the end of my contract, so I don't necessarily need them to cover a flight back to the US at the end of my teaching year.
I may or may not have looked up the address for the school on Google Earth and been an excited little monkey when I saw it. The neighborhood looks nice, the building looks pretty and clean, it's right by the subway (so hopefully my apartment will be too), and I've already found a few restaurants in nearby alleys that I want to try. I can't wait to get there.
As of right now, it looks like I'll be leaving for Korea in mid-August, so I have way more
time than I thought. I was kind of hoping for mid-July (and I'll
admit, I'm the tiniest bit disappointed that I have to wait so long) but
mid-August isn't bad at all. Unfortunately, it does mean that I have
juuuust enough time that I no longer have an excuse for being
temporarily unemployed, so I'm going to have to celebrate getting a job by...getting another job. *grump face* At least this one will be temporary - if anyone will hire me for just two months, that is.
If not, I'll probably try to do some volunteer work or something. My
mom suggested looking for Korean churches and seeing if they would be
interested in having me help a few people learn English. Not a bad
idea, especially considering what I'm about to go do. It'd be a
different age group from what I'll be teaching in Korea, yeah, but still
a good idea for volunteer work if I can't find a summer job.
In addition to that, I should probably start coming up with some loose lesson plan ideas that I can adapt to what they want me to teach. According to the email my students will be kindergarten to elementary, so I'll probably just be teaching very basic to low-intermediate English. In a way that seems like it'll be much harder than high-intermediate or advanced English, but I also feel like I can learn a lot from my students this way. I don't know a lot about the songs and such that Korean children learn, so I'll probably try to find a way to learn those from my students while teaching them from kids materials that I grew up with.
Saturday, May 31, 2014
Wednesday, May 28, 2014
Interview tonight
Seriously. That was fast. I told my recruiter last night that I had all my paperwork together and he had an interview request for me within a couple of hours...and it's scheduled for tonight at 9. Super nervous.
So many what if's are running through my mind. At first I was worried that an offer that came so fast wasn't going to be in a good neighborhood, but after some reassurances from friends I'm now only worried about whether or not I can hold my own in a phone interview. I don't like talking to people on the phone. At all. I feel super uncomfortable unless I'm really familiar with the person. I prefer face-to-face talking (including Skype) so I can use people's facial expressions and body language to judge how a conversation is going. I also occasionally have trouble hearing exactly what people say (not sure why), so I usually watch people's mouths when they speak just in case. Can't do that on the phone. If I can't talk face-to-face, I prefer text/email so I can revise what I'm saying to make it sound right. Oh well. Can't do anything about it except try my best.
Anywho, I don't have a ton of info yet, but I like how this school sounds so far. I want them to be interested enough in me to let me get in touch with a current teacher in order to ask more detailed questions about the school and apartment. (According to my recruiter you're not supposed to ask many - if any - questions in these interviews. I'll probably still have one or two prepared just in case.)
Send positive thoughts my way!
So many what if's are running through my mind. At first I was worried that an offer that came so fast wasn't going to be in a good neighborhood, but after some reassurances from friends I'm now only worried about whether or not I can hold my own in a phone interview. I don't like talking to people on the phone. At all. I feel super uncomfortable unless I'm really familiar with the person. I prefer face-to-face talking (including Skype) so I can use people's facial expressions and body language to judge how a conversation is going. I also occasionally have trouble hearing exactly what people say (not sure why), so I usually watch people's mouths when they speak just in case. Can't do that on the phone. If I can't talk face-to-face, I prefer text/email so I can revise what I'm saying to make it sound right. Oh well. Can't do anything about it except try my best.
Anywho, I don't have a ton of info yet, but I like how this school sounds so far. I want them to be interested enough in me to let me get in touch with a current teacher in order to ask more detailed questions about the school and apartment. (According to my recruiter you're not supposed to ask many - if any - questions in these interviews. I'll probably still have one or two prepared just in case.)
Send positive thoughts my way!
Tuesday, May 27, 2014
Progress!
Things have been pretty calm lately, but I get the feeling that I was
sitting at the top of the roller coaster and will start speeding forward
any moment. My apostilled background check came in the mail this weekend, so I sent an email to my recruiter today and will hopefully hear from him soon heard from him before I even finished this post. Talk about prompt. I got a response within 10 minutes, and another within about 10 minutes of my reply. He's working on finding me positions in Seoul now. Awwww yisssssssss~
Right now I'm working on planning my last visit to Columbus, starting to pack and then stopping, constantly changing which shoes are sitting in my suitcase because my decisions on my fashion needs change by the hour, and agonizing over what's "essential" and what's not. I'm probably going to have to spend the better part of a week trying to find all of the articles of my clothing that have managed to make their way into my sister's closet, "accidentally" or otherwise, but that will have to wait until just before I leave or they'll get "lost" again.
Right now I'm working on planning my last visit to Columbus, starting to pack and then stopping, constantly changing which shoes are sitting in my suitcase because my decisions on my fashion needs change by the hour, and agonizing over what's "essential" and what's not. I'm probably going to have to spend the better part of a week trying to find all of the articles of my clothing that have managed to make their way into my sister's closet, "accidentally" or otherwise, but that will have to wait until just before I leave or they'll get "lost" again.
Tuesday, May 13, 2014
Still no job
So I guess the title of this blog should be "Liv not quite in Korea yet"...but I'm working on it.
I have almost all of my visa paperwork done. My FBI background check is back and will be sent off for an apostille tomorrow. Once that comes back, my recruiter will be able to set me up with interviews and job offers.
I don't know how long I'll have in the US once I accept an offer, but I doubt it'll be much more than a month. More than likely it will be only a matter of weeks. That means I'm probably going to be saying some of my goodbyes a bit early, just in case.
Meanwhile, I'm setting up all kinds of ways for people here to keep up with what I'm doing over there. I even signed up for Instagram. Whaaaaat. I figure posting tons of photos there is better than overwhelming Facebook (or this blog) with them. I tell myself that I won't be posting pictures of my food, buuuut Korean food is delicious and gorgeous and I'll probably want to share. However, I won't be posting anything there until I actually get to Korea, so I won't be sharing info on that just yet.
More updates will happen as I get closer to leaving~
I have almost all of my visa paperwork done. My FBI background check is back and will be sent off for an apostille tomorrow. Once that comes back, my recruiter will be able to set me up with interviews and job offers.
I don't know how long I'll have in the US once I accept an offer, but I doubt it'll be much more than a month. More than likely it will be only a matter of weeks. That means I'm probably going to be saying some of my goodbyes a bit early, just in case.
Meanwhile, I'm setting up all kinds of ways for people here to keep up with what I'm doing over there. I even signed up for Instagram. Whaaaaat. I figure posting tons of photos there is better than overwhelming Facebook (or this blog) with them. I tell myself that I won't be posting pictures of my food, buuuut Korean food is delicious and gorgeous and I'll probably want to share. However, I won't be posting anything there until I actually get to Korea, so I won't be sharing info on that just yet.
More updates will happen as I get closer to leaving~
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)