My Apartment

I have had many people ask to see pictures of my apartment. It is a small one room studio apartment (or an officetel as they call it here).

My apartment building.



My front door.



Looking into my apartment. You can see almost everything in this shot.


My bedroom/kitchen part 1




My kitchen part 2/laundry room.




My entertainment center/desk/bookshelf.



My closet and entry way. Behind the closet is an awesome shoe closet. I don't have enough shoes to fill it yet so am storing extra towels and food there.



My bathroom. To use the shower I have to turn on the sink and turn the knob on the shower. I learned the hard way to always check that I turned off the shower. I have turned on the water to wash my hands and got sprayed by the water from the shower.



My apartment Isn't big as you can see, but it's amazing how much stuff you can fit into the small space.

Orientation at Kyung Hee University

Let's just say I'm glad I went to orientation, but at the same time it was long and at times boring. Our schedule was very full, we had classes all day, and then after dinner we had Korean language classes. I was excited because I was put in the intermediate Korean class. Here is our class picture that our teacher Ji Eun took of us.


It was such a fun class, plus I learned some good phrases I can use now at work and when shopping.

I didn't take many picture of orientation but I'll put up the ones I did take.




This is a Korean drum group from a High school school in Seoul. They www a lot of fun to watch.




Kyung Hee's beautiful campus. We found a lot of hiking trails around the campus.




This is Kenny my awesome roommate Amanda's boyfriend. Doesn't he look just like the statue.




I found a turtle to sit on, isn't he so cute.




The entrance to the university.





On Sunday August 21st we went on a field trip to a Korean Folk Village. Here are a few of the busses we took.




Our fearless leader leading us around.




You write your wish on a paper and attach it and your wish will come true.




The cut out is the cast from one of the Korean dramas that is popular.




An awesome drum band that not only plays drums but also dances and does barrel rolls while they play. Oh and they also twirl the ribbon with their head. It was quite amazing!




A tight rope walker who never fell, and I thought he would for sure.




My roommate Amanda making her design on her pot. Mine was so bad I didn't want picture proof of it.




Roommates! She was the coolest roommate, I'm glad she and Kenny put up with me following them everywhere!




Making rice cakes. It was great to beat the my frustration out on the dough.




Amanda found her new favorite ride.




Kenny enjoying his melon ice cream that we found to beat the heat.

I am glad I had such a good group of people to go through orientation with. I am also very glad to be done with it, because most of the time I felt like I was in a bubble and not Korea.

My Flight to Korea

I have been in Korea for 2 weeks now and I can't believe how fast time is going. When I first landed here I was so tired after sitting on the plane for 12 hours. I didn't sleep the night before I left for many reasons, mostly it was because I was scared of what was going to happen in the next few hours. Luckily I found out another girl was flying on the same two flights I was so that made me feel better.

When I got to the airport I was so relieved to find out that both of my bags weighed exactly 50 lbs, the max they could weigh. I also found out that I didn't have to pay for my bags even though the email said I would have to pay.

The flight to San Francisco was only 2hours and it went pretty fast, and my layover there was only 2 hours. During that 2 hours I had to walk to the other side of the airport exit the secure area to go through security again. I was worried I would miss my flight, but luckily I got there with 20 minutes to spare.

My flight to Korea was long but at least I had my iPad and a tv screen on the seat in front of me that had a bunch of movies and tv shows on demand. I tried watching some movies I hadn't seen before but finally stopped because I kept falling asleep during them. I think I remember about 20 minutes of Rio. The worst part of the flight was that I was sitting in-between two guys, so it was awkward because they both used the arm rest on either side of me, so I didn't have much room.

When I got to Korea the first thing I noticed was how humid it is. The last time I felt this kind of humidity was when I was in New York City. I had to go through a lot of checkpoints to finally get to my luggage. Luck for me in Korea the luggage carts are free because I had 3 bags plus my laptop bag to take with me.

When I collected all my stuff I went to go find where all the English teachers had to meet. I was excited because when I got out to where people meet the passengers my friend Seong Woo was there to greet me. He was so nice he helped me find an ATM so I could get some money and get my cart to meet up with all the other EPIK (English Program In Korea) teachers. I checked in and then waited for my bus to load. Seong Woo helped me get my stuff to the bus and then I was off to my week of orientation at Kyung Hee University.

Here is a picture Seong Woo took of us at the airport. I was so tired and hot, can't you tell.


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How I Got a Job

Now that I am starting this blog I guess this will be a good place to explain how I got a job in Korea.  First off I went with an amazing recruiting agency called Korvia and my recruiter is Jessie.  I am really glad I went with Korvia, they were amazing to work with.  Jessie always made sure I knew what documents to get and made the process easier.  I had a lot of documents to gather, I had an FBI background check, 2 letters of recommendation, copies of my diploma and transcripts, copies of my teaching license, application, and an essay of why I want to work in Korea.  I also had to get my teaching license, background check and diploma all apostatized (it is like notarizing it but on an international level) .  This process took me about 2 moths to gather all my documents.  I finally sent them in on June 7th.

Then from June 7th I had to play the waiting game.  There was still a chance my application would be rejected, and I had heard a few people got rejected.  Everytime I heard about someone getting rejected it made me worry more because I quit my job and I was putting my faith into this job.  I had to wait until July 11th when Jessie told me that I officially had a contract and she was mailing it to me.  When I read her email I was so excited I think I did a little celebration dance in my room.

When the contract came I had to mail it with my passport to the Korean Consulate in San Francisco to get a work visa.  I sent it as soon as I could to make sure I could get a visa.  3 days after sending it in they sent it back and the only thing I had to do now was book my flight.  I was sad because when I booked my flight they upped the price by $200 from the day before :(  I can't really complain because I am getting reimbursed for the flight.

So next Tuesday the 16th I will be leaving on my grand adventure.  I am feeling a lot of different emotions excitement, worry, and sadness because I will miss all of my wonderful family and friends!  I have been seeing as many friends as I can before I go.

The next post I put on here I will be in Korea!