First Day in South Korea!!! Yay!

Backtracking from July ><....I have been m.i.a lately because I have been busy and adapting to Korea life...For real tho...lol

When I arrived to Korea in Seoul I had to transfer to Busan (PUS) so I had to wait for another 2 hours. I was so excited at that point. I felt like a little kid receiving a giant lollipop but even better. 
In Seoul's Airport, they have a Hello Kitty Cafe. It was sooo cute!!! I love Hello Kitty!!!! <3 <3 <3 

Alistair had told me in the previous email that he will be picking me up from Busan International Airport (PUS) and I should not worry to much. As I am an over-thinker. In my head, thoughts were scattered in my brain. What happens if this is a scam?, What happens if Alistair doesn't pick me up? What do I do? Yes, I am that kind of over-thinker. But thank goodness everything went well. 
When I finally arrived in Busan (PUS), it was late, I was walking out of the gate and was looking up to see if I can find Alistair. I stand about 6'3 so I was expecting Alistair to be tall. hahaha I heard my name being called but I didn't know where it was coming from so I was scoping around up and down. There I saw Alistair for the first time ever. He was short and a petite man with doctor looking glasses. If you went through Alistair you know, that you don't see Alistair at all, there is only audio.
Alistair helped me with my bags and he drove me to a hotel in Changwon were I would be staying for the night. He told me while he was driving that I will have a roommate at the hotel. 
After arriving at the hotel, Alistair just told me to take the bag that I need, to dress business formal to meet the office of education officers tomorrow morning. But my instances kicked in again, should I trust him with my bags, I literally just meet him today in person. What happens if he runs away with all of my things. hahaah..

I was expecting a hotel that looked like the ones in the States like Holiday Express or something. I was expecting to much but I have to say my standards are a bit high and I had to remember that I am in a different country. It looked more like a motel. I didn't mind at all. I was a bit jet-lagged and really didn't care at this point. I meet my roommate that I would be spending the night with but I literally woke her up. She was a familiar friend. We actually meet a couple weeks ago taking the 20 hours in-class TEFL course in NYC.... Small World...We ended up talking for hours catching up with each other. I barely sleep that night because the time zone difference.

Next Morning....

We went down to eat breakfast. I meet another person who went through Korean Horizon and he has been here for 2 weeks already. He mentioned that he wanted to visit some friends before teaching begins. We went to the office of education in Gyeongsangnam-do to review and sign are work contracts with are co-teachers. Mr. Oil was another teacher from my school that came to get me. He was not my co-teacher. His english was not perfect but he was able to get his point across sometimes, without me getting confused that is. lol He was really nice and talked a lot. After an hour in the Gyeongsangnam-do Office of Education, we departed to go get other important documents done such as are Alien Registration Card (ARC) and a full check up at the hospital. It took us awhile to get are ARC card because Mr. Oil was also very unfamiliar to Busan. We were walking a lot in this blazing hot sun around Busan. Don't get me wrong but I was still very exhausted, tired, jet-lagged and spacing out. We were finally able to get lunch after figuring out my ARC card and check up. It was my first Korean meal, Black bean noodles in Busan. Yummy!! Mr. Oil also took me to my main school to meet all the my future colleagues and Principal from there I was passed on to my real co-teacher, Mr. Kim. He does not speak English at all..very minimal. Mr. Kim took me to a grocery store at this point I was not thinking straight at all as I was still very exhausted. He told me to buy things I needed for apartment. I haven't been to my apartment so I don't really know what I need...hahaha I just ended up buying instant noodles and water. 

Finally I went to my apartment, it was nice. 

After a couple of days and weeks in Korea, I was thrown into teaching not knowing what to do, so far I got my bank card eaten by the atm machine...and yes it ate it!, I got lost in my own town at night. I did not know where anything was at that time, since I was still very new and mind you I had no cell phone...literally I was on the verge of crying. There was a city wide summer camp held in July 28- August 1 and it was summer vacation for us after. I also meet other cool foreigners in my town. There is only 15 foreigners in my town so you can see how small my town is. Life was rough in the beginning...now I am a bit better off. 

XOXO-Chuiee

Korean Horizon is the way to go!

I've been thinking and researching about teaching abroad since my senior year in College (2013). I knew about teaching abroad through Fulbright. There was an event held at my college called Fulbright Gateway Orientation. I really didn't know about Fulbright, so I was curious and did some homework.  I found out that my college was one of the 10 hosts across the United States by the Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. There is more information about it here: Centenary College. It's basically an event for Foreign Graduate students who were studying in the United States for there Masters or Ph.D. My college was welcoming them to the United States.

After doing some intense research I came across the Fulbright U.S. Student Program. I thought the program was great and decided to apply for it. I would have to say it is a very competitive program. I submitted my application and essays two months earlier before the due date. I had rewrote my essay three times because I was a geek and paranoid. There was also many other components to the application which I have also submitted. The submission due date was around October or November 2013 and the waiting process begins. I had to wait until March 2014 for a response if I was accepted or not. duh...duhh.... Unfortunately, I was not accepted. I did not take NO for an answer. 

I did some more research about teaching abroad and came across Korvia. I have read and heard great reviews about this company. I have applied through their website and receive a quick response. My recruiter was Sara. She was a great. She had told me about the requirements that was needed. I kept her updated with my progress, but never seem to get a response back until a month or 2 later. It happened over and over again. I was becoming very impatience. 

Here I go again, researching other recruiting companies. I came across Korean Horizon. There service was phenomenal! The response of the email took only a day. Alistair Wery was my recruiter. He was awesome! He went above and beyond. I have cancelled Korvia at this point. Switching to Korean Horizon was the best thing. I have updated my progress with Alistair and he responded the next day. I have felt relieved. I have interviewed for Seoul and Busan. They are highly competitive. I was denied for both position. I have no teaching experience and that was one of the main reasons. I was so discourage at this time and decided to give up. I sent a really long message to Alistair and told him that I was going to get some teaching experience in the States first. Alistair told me not to give up and he said I would get the next one. I went through an interview again and ironically enough I was hired. I was ECSTATIC at this time. I was so happy I finally got a job offer.

This was my crazy experience...Let me know how your experience went.. I would love to hear about it!