My first full month has drawn to a close, and I'm really happy to be drawing closer to my first paycheck.
The hardest part about living here so far has definitely been that I got here in mid-August but won't get paid until mid-October. I was warned that it would be a month before I got paid, but I thought that meant mid-September.
I've been living out of my savings so far, and that's been super stressful. Trying to set up a living space from money that I set aside for other things (like student loans and emergency plane tickets home) is difficult, so I've been doing the minimum. I don't have enough storage containers for all my things, so I don't have a place for everything yet. A bunch of stuff is just kind of eternally being shuffled around on my table. I don't like that I've never seen my apartment with all my stuff fully settled in it.
My first paycheck will be larger than normal because it will include training as well, but I'm still going to be on a slightly tighter budget than I hoped for the first few months to make up for everything I've had to spend so far. Grump grump grump. At least it's almost over - I get paid in a week and a half.
But the nice thing about living in a big city is that there's plenty to see and do for cheap or free, so it's not like I'll be unable to enjoy myself.
As for teaching, some things have gotten easier while some things have gotten harder. I have some unruly students and a couple classes where I'm hard-pressed to keep my students from speaking Korean all the time. However, I have figured out what certain classes of students do and do not respond well to, so I've been able to tailor lessons to their needs a bit better as time has gone on.
The weather is definitely getting chillier here, but I haven't seen leaves changing color yet. I'm sure that will come soon enough~ I'll post pictures when it happens. I'll also post pictures of my apartment when I eventually get everything settled, but that's still a bit away.
Showing posts with label getting started. Show all posts
Showing posts with label getting started. Show all posts
Sunday, October 5, 2014
Saturday, September 13, 2014
I got a phone!
FINALLY. I got my ARC and set up my bank account last Friday but didn't have time to get my phone on Saturday, and Chuseok (Korean Thanksgiving) meant everything was closed Monday through Wednesday.
I set out early Thursday morning in search of the Olleh global store downtown. I was told to go to Jongno3(sam)ga station and go out exit one, walk for 5-10 minutes, and it would be on the right. It would be in a tall building with little flags showing which languages were spoken there.
I got out of exit 1 around 9:30, and I knew most places didn't open until 10, so I popped into a coffee shop for a little while and took full advantage of their free WiFi. At 10, I left and started walking down the street. I saw a small Olleh store, but no flags, so I kept going. I saw a second small Olleh store, but still no flags...so I kept going. I found a third one and figured I'd just go in and ask because I had to have missed it.
So I went into this little Olleh store, a little nervous because I'm not really sure how to ask where the global store is. I looked up different phone and phone-plan related words, but I never thought to look up how to say "global store." I walked up to the counter and managed to convey that I wanted to get a phone and phone plan but needed an employee who spoke English. They said they didn't have anybody there, and I told them I could walk to the global store if they could tell me where it was. They said no no no no, it's okay, we'll call someone down here.
Yup. That's right. They called an employee from the global store and had them walk down to this other branch to help me. You want customer service? Top notch, right there. I felt bad at first, but they were super nice about it.
While we were waiting for the English-speaking employee to walk down, one of the other employees asked if I needed a phone or already had one. I said I didn't have one, so he asked if I already knew what I wanted. When I told him no, he took me over to the case and talked with me about various models. After some discussion I picked out the one I liked and he started helping me choose a plan based on that model. Initially he had me on a plan with unlimited data, but I didn't think I'd use nearly that much. I ended up choosing a plan with 1.5GB of data, 200 minutes, and I forget how many text messages (incoming calls and texts are free) for about 75,000 a month (around $75/mo). I'm not overly concerned about my call and text allowance because I do the majority of my communication over KakaoTalk. The plan I picked also includes free access to all of Olleh's many WiFi hotspots around the city. It's immensely satisfying to finally be able to connect to those - whenever I'd be out and about during my WiFi-only periods both this year and last year, I'd see those and be so frustrated that I couldn't connect because they're seriously everywhere. But now I can. HA.
So by the time the English-speaking employee arrived, I had already done a lot of the difficult work and all I really needed her help for was some of the contract terms. I have a 24-month contract now (I'm stuck in the country for 2 years oh darn) and a really pretty new special-edition Samsung Galaxy s5. The waterproof one. They also gave me two cases, one of which is an immensely useful wallet/phone case combo, with my new contract and phone.
I plan on taking Ingrid back to that store once the iPhone 6 is released (because that's the phone she wants) and helping her get set up now that I've been through it all. I have a copy of my contract, so I'll be able to more easily pick up the vocab and think through some sentences in advance so I'm not stuttering and stammering my way through things like I was when getting my phone. I'll also have internet access, so I'll be able to use the good dictionaries while talking. That has definitely been my biggest stumbling block and I'm so glad to finally have that resource again.
I set out early Thursday morning in search of the Olleh global store downtown. I was told to go to Jongno3(sam)ga station and go out exit one, walk for 5-10 minutes, and it would be on the right. It would be in a tall building with little flags showing which languages were spoken there.
I got out of exit 1 around 9:30, and I knew most places didn't open until 10, so I popped into a coffee shop for a little while and took full advantage of their free WiFi. At 10, I left and started walking down the street. I saw a small Olleh store, but no flags, so I kept going. I saw a second small Olleh store, but still no flags...so I kept going. I found a third one and figured I'd just go in and ask because I had to have missed it.
So I went into this little Olleh store, a little nervous because I'm not really sure how to ask where the global store is. I looked up different phone and phone-plan related words, but I never thought to look up how to say "global store." I walked up to the counter and managed to convey that I wanted to get a phone and phone plan but needed an employee who spoke English. They said they didn't have anybody there, and I told them I could walk to the global store if they could tell me where it was. They said no no no no, it's okay, we'll call someone down here.
Yup. That's right. They called an employee from the global store and had them walk down to this other branch to help me. You want customer service? Top notch, right there. I felt bad at first, but they were super nice about it.
While we were waiting for the English-speaking employee to walk down, one of the other employees asked if I needed a phone or already had one. I said I didn't have one, so he asked if I already knew what I wanted. When I told him no, he took me over to the case and talked with me about various models. After some discussion I picked out the one I liked and he started helping me choose a plan based on that model. Initially he had me on a plan with unlimited data, but I didn't think I'd use nearly that much. I ended up choosing a plan with 1.5GB of data, 200 minutes, and I forget how many text messages (incoming calls and texts are free) for about 75,000 a month (around $75/mo). I'm not overly concerned about my call and text allowance because I do the majority of my communication over KakaoTalk. The plan I picked also includes free access to all of Olleh's many WiFi hotspots around the city. It's immensely satisfying to finally be able to connect to those - whenever I'd be out and about during my WiFi-only periods both this year and last year, I'd see those and be so frustrated that I couldn't connect because they're seriously everywhere. But now I can. HA.
So by the time the English-speaking employee arrived, I had already done a lot of the difficult work and all I really needed her help for was some of the contract terms. I have a 24-month contract now (I'm stuck in the country for 2 years oh darn) and a really pretty new special-edition Samsung Galaxy s5. The waterproof one. They also gave me two cases, one of which is an immensely useful wallet/phone case combo, with my new contract and phone.
I plan on taking Ingrid back to that store once the iPhone 6 is released (because that's the phone she wants) and helping her get set up now that I've been through it all. I have a copy of my contract, so I'll be able to more easily pick up the vocab and think through some sentences in advance so I'm not stuttering and stammering my way through things like I was when getting my phone. I'll also have internet access, so I'll be able to use the good dictionaries while talking. That has definitely been my biggest stumbling block and I'm so glad to finally have that resource again.
Wednesday, September 3, 2014
Food!
I want to apologize for the lack of food pictures. I've been slacking. It's mostly because I'm hungry whenever my food arrives in a restaurant and I start eating immediately. Korean food is delicious and I don't have time to wait to take a picture.
So, the guy who lived in my apartment before me wasn't the cleanest of dudes. The apartment was cleaned by a cleaning service, but they didn't wash the dishes...or the sauce/spice bottles sitting on a little shelf above the stove. Grease and grime everywhere. Between work and meeting up with friends and/or coworkers outside of work, I haven't had a ton of time to clean the kitchen. If it were just a normal amount of cleaning I'd have been done long before now, but I have to scrub. And scrub. And scrub. He left food storage containers that were wonderfully sturdy and looked really nice...except they were dirty. After scrubbing one for 10 minutes to no avail and realizing that the rest of them were the same, I just pitched them. I'll get my own, thank you, and I'll keep them not-nasty.
Tonight, I finally finished washing all the dishes, utensils, the main cabinet above the sink, the spices/sauces, the itty bitty kettle, and the two pots (both tiny). There's still a lot to do, but it's enough that I can start making my own food instead of going out to eat every night. I have a brand-new rice cooker, but I still have to wash the bowl and muddle my way through the instructions. The previous tenant left me a few food items in the cabinet (including ramyun, curry mix, chicken bouillon packs, and some coffee). I also have a few basic groceries, like rice, potatoes, onions, hot peppers (and hot pepper powder), garlic, and a couple other small things. I have to keep it small, because my fridge here is about the same size as my dorm fridge back at OSU and I only have the one cabinet.
I was planning on attempting to make 부대찌개 (army stew) tonight, but I had last-minute company and we sat chatting until about 11. At that point I didn't really want to bother with all the prep, so I decided to make one of the two packs of ramyun that the previous tenant left me. I threw in some 떡 (ddeok - the best way to describe it is that it is ddeok. It's a sticky rice cake and it is easily one of my favorite foods in the world) and have now officially made (and eaten) my first-ever home cooked meal in Korea.
Even if it was just ramyun.
So, the guy who lived in my apartment before me wasn't the cleanest of dudes. The apartment was cleaned by a cleaning service, but they didn't wash the dishes...or the sauce/spice bottles sitting on a little shelf above the stove. Grease and grime everywhere. Between work and meeting up with friends and/or coworkers outside of work, I haven't had a ton of time to clean the kitchen. If it were just a normal amount of cleaning I'd have been done long before now, but I have to scrub. And scrub. And scrub. He left food storage containers that were wonderfully sturdy and looked really nice...except they were dirty. After scrubbing one for 10 minutes to no avail and realizing that the rest of them were the same, I just pitched them. I'll get my own, thank you, and I'll keep them not-nasty.
Tonight, I finally finished washing all the dishes, utensils, the main cabinet above the sink, the spices/sauces, the itty bitty kettle, and the two pots (both tiny). There's still a lot to do, but it's enough that I can start making my own food instead of going out to eat every night. I have a brand-new rice cooker, but I still have to wash the bowl and muddle my way through the instructions. The previous tenant left me a few food items in the cabinet (including ramyun, curry mix, chicken bouillon packs, and some coffee). I also have a few basic groceries, like rice, potatoes, onions, hot peppers (and hot pepper powder), garlic, and a couple other small things. I have to keep it small, because my fridge here is about the same size as my dorm fridge back at OSU and I only have the one cabinet.
I was planning on attempting to make 부대찌개 (army stew) tonight, but I had last-minute company and we sat chatting until about 11. At that point I didn't really want to bother with all the prep, so I decided to make one of the two packs of ramyun that the previous tenant left me. I threw in some 떡 (ddeok - the best way to describe it is that it is ddeok. It's a sticky rice cake and it is easily one of my favorite foods in the world) and have now officially made (and eaten) my first-ever home cooked meal in Korea.
Even if it was just ramyun.
Sunday, August 24, 2014
Immigration
So all I've heard about immigration are horror stories of long lines and all-day waits. It's not that the actual application process takes a long time. There are just so many people there every single day, and this is a really busy time of year because all the new NETs (Native English Teachers) are arriving. Myself included.
The office didn't open until 9, but we were told to get there by 7:30. Ingrid and I left the motel a little before 6am and made it to the building by 6:45. The man working the desk had us sit next to the only other person in the lobby and pointed at each of us in turn. "1, 2, 3." So we were numbers 2 and 3 in line and had just over 2 hours of waiting in front of us. Awesome.
We didn't see anybody else until 7:30, and around 7:45 things got nuts. Some people were getting pissed at the length of the line. Honey, if you show up to immigration at 8:30, there are bound to be people there a lot earlier and you're going to have to wait. Our wait time was based on the clock, yours is based on the number of people. Deal with it.
Ahem. Anyway. Submitting the paperwork took about 10 minutes, and we were told to come back in 2 weeks for our ARCs (Alien Registration Cards). Once we have those, we can get phone plans and bank accounts and we don't have to carry our passports everywhere. I'm a little impatient.
We didn't have to get to school until 10:30 and we were right by Cheonggyecheon, so we walked along it and took a few pictures.
This is actually one of my favorite places in Seoul because it's just so beautiful, day and night. Here's a picture from last year that I took when some friends and I stumbled upon it after dark:
We also took some pictures by the fountains up top, which is a really nice place to sit and drink coffee or tea.
And yes, we did make it back to work on time.
The office didn't open until 9, but we were told to get there by 7:30. Ingrid and I left the motel a little before 6am and made it to the building by 6:45. The man working the desk had us sit next to the only other person in the lobby and pointed at each of us in turn. "1, 2, 3." So we were numbers 2 and 3 in line and had just over 2 hours of waiting in front of us. Awesome.
We didn't see anybody else until 7:30, and around 7:45 things got nuts. Some people were getting pissed at the length of the line. Honey, if you show up to immigration at 8:30, there are bound to be people there a lot earlier and you're going to have to wait. Our wait time was based on the clock, yours is based on the number of people. Deal with it.
Ahem. Anyway. Submitting the paperwork took about 10 minutes, and we were told to come back in 2 weeks for our ARCs (Alien Registration Cards). Once we have those, we can get phone plans and bank accounts and we don't have to carry our passports everywhere. I'm a little impatient.
We didn't have to get to school until 10:30 and we were right by Cheonggyecheon, so we walked along it and took a few pictures.
We also took some pictures by the fountains up top, which is a really nice place to sit and drink coffee or tea.
And yes, we did make it back to work on time.
Thursday, August 21, 2014
Day one
Day one started early - we met at 8:40am to go to the hospital for
medical checks. Chest x-ray, blood test, urine test, and EKG test. It
took about an hour from start to finish for two people, so it wasn't too
bad.
After that we got to the school and got our full schedules for training. I won't go into much detail about it, but basically I start at 10:30 and finish around 7:30. The morning is learning about the different classes and tracks, and the afternoon/evening is mostly observation. I have a mock lesson at the end of this week, which I'm pretty nervous about, and then I'll be assigned to my classes. Next week is all lesson planning, observation, and learning about teaching the specific classes that I'll be taking over.
After finishing my first day of training, I ran back to the motel for a very brief nap before heading out again to meet some of my new coworkers for dinner. Dinner was really tasty, but the lack of sleep was making me feel a bit sick so I mostly just sat there while we talked. After dinner, I collapsed in my bed and managed to get a few hours of sleep, but I could not for the life of me figure out how to turn off one of the lights. It wasn't tied to the light switch and none of the buttons on the remote said anything about "light." In a lot of Korean hotels, you have to put the key in a slot by the door in order to turn on the lights or A/C. That left me with two options: sleep with the light on, or take the key out of the slot and shut off the A/C as well. I ended up with only about 5 hours of sleep, but it was better than the night before.
Tomorrow is a suuuuper early day - Ingrid and I have to go to immigration and lines are horrendous this time of year...
After that we got to the school and got our full schedules for training. I won't go into much detail about it, but basically I start at 10:30 and finish around 7:30. The morning is learning about the different classes and tracks, and the afternoon/evening is mostly observation. I have a mock lesson at the end of this week, which I'm pretty nervous about, and then I'll be assigned to my classes. Next week is all lesson planning, observation, and learning about teaching the specific classes that I'll be taking over.
This is the view from the windows across from the front door of my school. Olivia likey.
After finishing my first day of training, I ran back to the motel for a very brief nap before heading out again to meet some of my new coworkers for dinner. Dinner was really tasty, but the lack of sleep was making me feel a bit sick so I mostly just sat there while we talked. After dinner, I collapsed in my bed and managed to get a few hours of sleep, but I could not for the life of me figure out how to turn off one of the lights. It wasn't tied to the light switch and none of the buttons on the remote said anything about "light." In a lot of Korean hotels, you have to put the key in a slot by the door in order to turn on the lights or A/C. That left me with two options: sleep with the light on, or take the key out of the slot and shut off the A/C as well. I ended up with only about 5 hours of sleep, but it was better than the night before.
Tomorrow is a suuuuper early day - Ingrid and I have to go to immigration and lines are horrendous this time of year...
Monday, August 18, 2014
Getting to the motel
Going through immigration was pretty painless, baggage claim was quick, and customs was a breeze. I changed most of my cash at the counter before walking out to the main part of the airport. There were a bunch of people with signs so I scanned for my name but didn't see it. I wasn't surprised - I was told I would be met about an hour after my flight landed and it had only been about 30 minutes. (Yes. 30 minutes for immigration, customs, baggage claim, and money changing. I wasn't kidding when I said it was easy.)
I made my way over to the exit where I was supposed to meet people from the school and sat down to collect myself. I really wanted to go to the restroom and freshen up a bit, but I didn't think I was supposed to take my whole luggage cart in...so I had a great mental struggle for about 10 minutes before I decided I was just going to do it anyway. I no sooner got my cart in the door than I heard my name over the announcements. Gah. I checked the time - I didn't think they'd be here for another 10 minutes or so, but if they were using the announcements they had probably been waiting for a while.
I found them pretty quickly...turns out the sign had two names on it and I had only read the first one before moving along. Whooooooops. It didn't look like two names when I was scanning over it. My bad...
But I found the people I was supposed to meet, and that's what matters. I met the other new teacher (there are only 2 of us) and we got along right off the bat. She wants to do a lot of traveling as well and our personalities seem to work well together. We had the whole taxi ride back to Eunpyeong-gu to chat, which was nice. She's fluent in two languages and has intermediate proficiency in two more, and I'm definitely jealous. She doesn't know any Korean though, so I've been helping her out with that and I'll be giving her more resources once our schedules settle down. She also hasn't been to Korea before, so I've got plans to show her some of my favorite places after work over the next couple of weeks.
We got to the motel and lugged our suitcases into our tiny rooms. We were there for about 5 minutes before the owner of the school showed up to make sure we made it in okay and get us settled in. She gave us the schedule for the next day and told us we'd get a more detailed schedule once we got to school. Her husband brought by bread, bananas, and milk for both of us so we would have food for breakfasts, which was really nice. She also said she'd be calling in the morning to remind us that someone else from the school would be meeting us around 8:40 to take us to go get our medical checks that are required for our visas/Alien Registration Cards (ARCs).
After we showered, Ingrid and I went out to explore the area around our motel a little bit. We found a few restaurants that looked promising, a Paris Baguette, multiple cafes and clothing stores, a couple small grocery stores, an E-mart where we'll be getting stuff for our apartments once we move in, and a pretty little park. We didn't stay out very long since we were both exhausted, but it was nice to get out and about for a little bit.
I did try to sleep, but my body was having none of it. I slept from about 9:30 to a little before midnight, but then couldn't sleep after that. After a certain point I just gave up and stayed up all night, knowing full well how difficult it was going to make the next day.
I have to get ready to leave for work now, so I'll write about day one in another post. Bye for now!
I made my way over to the exit where I was supposed to meet people from the school and sat down to collect myself. I really wanted to go to the restroom and freshen up a bit, but I didn't think I was supposed to take my whole luggage cart in...so I had a great mental struggle for about 10 minutes before I decided I was just going to do it anyway. I no sooner got my cart in the door than I heard my name over the announcements. Gah. I checked the time - I didn't think they'd be here for another 10 minutes or so, but if they were using the announcements they had probably been waiting for a while.
I found them pretty quickly...turns out the sign had two names on it and I had only read the first one before moving along. Whooooooops. It didn't look like two names when I was scanning over it. My bad...
But I found the people I was supposed to meet, and that's what matters. I met the other new teacher (there are only 2 of us) and we got along right off the bat. She wants to do a lot of traveling as well and our personalities seem to work well together. We had the whole taxi ride back to Eunpyeong-gu to chat, which was nice. She's fluent in two languages and has intermediate proficiency in two more, and I'm definitely jealous. She doesn't know any Korean though, so I've been helping her out with that and I'll be giving her more resources once our schedules settle down. She also hasn't been to Korea before, so I've got plans to show her some of my favorite places after work over the next couple of weeks.
We got to the motel and lugged our suitcases into our tiny rooms. We were there for about 5 minutes before the owner of the school showed up to make sure we made it in okay and get us settled in. She gave us the schedule for the next day and told us we'd get a more detailed schedule once we got to school. Her husband brought by bread, bananas, and milk for both of us so we would have food for breakfasts, which was really nice. She also said she'd be calling in the morning to remind us that someone else from the school would be meeting us around 8:40 to take us to go get our medical checks that are required for our visas/Alien Registration Cards (ARCs).
After we showered, Ingrid and I went out to explore the area around our motel a little bit. We found a few restaurants that looked promising, a Paris Baguette, multiple cafes and clothing stores, a couple small grocery stores, an E-mart where we'll be getting stuff for our apartments once we move in, and a pretty little park. We didn't stay out very long since we were both exhausted, but it was nice to get out and about for a little bit.
I did try to sleep, but my body was having none of it. I slept from about 9:30 to a little before midnight, but then couldn't sleep after that. After a certain point I just gave up and stayed up all night, knowing full well how difficult it was going to make the next day.
I have to get ready to leave for work now, so I'll write about day one in another post. Bye for now!
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