Further Bulletins as Events Warrant!

Well, here is the requisite pre-flight post. I'm almost exactly 20 hours out from departing for Korea. Another almost-20 hours after that, I'll disembark and be led by a stranger I've never met into a country I've never set foot in, where they speak a language I have never read (and only barely heard), and to a city I've never even seen a picture of. Needless to say, I'm both excited and anxious about the prospect.

To encapsulate what has brought me to the beginning of this journey is somewhat daunting but I think the result would be worth the retelling. Almost two years ago, I was studying abroad in London with a sizeable group of my Grinnell College peers, drinking lots of Guinness, singing lots of karaoke and generally having a wonderful abroad experience. During this semester, it occurred to me that I wouldn't mind repeating this experience - spending a while in a country other than the US, broadening my horizons and expanding my sensibilities. I also wanted to combine this experience with my particular interest in learning a foreign language fron the ground up, in the country of the language's origin, through immersion. I had taken two semesters of Japanese, so Japan initially appealed because I could apply those classes and teach English (my major) while experiencing that heady rush of a totally new country and culture. Due to the, shall we say, prohibitive nature of Japan's exchange rate, and to the fact that I had already spent two weeks in China, I thought I would perhaps take a closer look at China's diminuitive peninsula-dwelling neighbor, South Korea.

After a few hours of casual research and a very excited discussion with my comrade, the honorable Mr. Akili Thomas, Korea was starting to sound like not only a viable option, but perhaps the best option.

I didn't begin searching for a job in Korea in earnest until October of 2006, near the beginning of my fourth and final year at Grinnell. I was initially frustrated by the lack of prospects, and more specifically, the fact that I was for once too early to apply for the job - apparently Korea employs a much shorter hiring curve than the US.

So I had to wait - I kept a few specific options in mind (namely the ones that didn't require an in-person interview), but I was anxious to have a specific answer to every soon-to-be-college graduate's most familiar question. I submitted resumes and cover letters to a number of recruiters as well as specific schools. Eventually, around March- I had a stroke of luck. Two, actually. Through a series of phone interviews, I soon had two recruiters eager to place me with schools in South Korea. I wound up choosing a small firm (one man, actually) called Asia-Teachers.org. The waiting game was not over, however, as it was at least another month before any actual job offers started coming through. Mr. Park wanted to place me with the Seoul Language Institute, a private "cram school" that specializes in teaching students English during the afternoons, after their regular school hours. Before they could accept me as a teacher, however, I needed my final transcript and diploma.

So I waited again. After finally graduating in May (a sad occasion), I requested a transcript from the Career Development Office. When that finally came, I was able to mail this hefty package to Korea via the small miracle that is FedEx. This in turn spawned another waiting game. This pattern continued for several months, culminating in a five-week wait for my visa approval from the school and the Korean government. That approval came through just last Wednesday. One nailbiting overnight to the Korean Consulate in Chicago later, I'm an official temporary resident of South Korea. I spent the last week gathering required items, clothing and provisions, saying difficult goodbyes, and here I am - ready to rock.

Here are a few salient features of my employ:
-School-furnished studio apartment (to myself), rent paid in full (I am responsible for utilities)
-Full round-trip airfare from Minneapolis (current greatest city ever) to Seoul (future greatest city ever?) and back
-Full Health Insurance
-I'll be teaching conversational English to elementary and secondary students at an after-school-hours program at a private English academy. The job is Monday-Friday, with some Saturdays, from around 4-9 pm each day. This suits my sleep schedule very nicely.
-I am currently signed up for a 12-month contract, the option of course open to extend for another year.

I'll spare you my immediate thoughts for the moment; I don't know if even I know what they are well enough to put them down in any coherent fashion. So that'll do for now.

I'll update again with my address and other salient information as I find out what the heck it is myself.

To my family, friends, countrymen, future countrymen, and Elise: I will miss you and I'll be back before you know it.
To Korea: Here I come.