Just To Let You Know...

Friday, March 14, 2008

So, I guess if you are reading this, you already know that Kyle and I are off to South Korea at the end of April for a one year contract to teach English. We will be teaching Elementary students in the city of Wonju, Gangwon-Do, South Korea. I will be teaching at ELC Institute and Kyle will be teaching at Princeton Language Institute.

Wonju is a gorgeous city based about an hour or so outside of Seoul and in the mountains. There are ski resorts by the city and many places to go hiking and just enjoy the outdoors. Since we will be teaching in the evenings we will have plenty of time to chat with everyone, whether that be through MSN or through Skype. There is about a 17 hour time difference between Victoria, BC and Wonju-City. The city is about 300,000 people and we are happy about that since it is not the size of Seoul, but we are still close enough that we can go and visit Seoul and our friends in Seoul on the weekends. We are teaching M-F and only about 6 hours a day. We are most excited because we should be able to pay off about 90% of our student loans in one year.

We are also very excited to experience a new culture and to go through the highs and lows of everything together while we are there. For those who didn't know as well, Kyle and I both graduated from Providence College last April with our TESOL Certificates and our BA's. We both did our teaching practicums at the University of Manitoba through their Volunteer English Practice Program (VEPP).

I guess I am not sure what else to write at the moment. We are just very excited about the whole thing. I am so ready to be done with the E2 Visa process. It is such a long process. Criminal Record Checks, Notaries, Photocopies, Mailing to the Korean consulate in Vancouver, speaking with the consulate in Vancouver when they don't understand my questions, spending $200 to express two envelopes to South Korea from Victoria, Face to Face interviews with the consul. So many steps and that is just the simplified version. It's been quite the experience, but we have a great recruiter who has been extremely helpful through the whole process. I think he might get annoyed with all my emails sometimes.

I hope that we can update this frequently while we are in Wonju and we will start to keep you more up to date once we are on our way from Saskatchewan to Incheon Internation Airport in South Korea. Oh boy... the jet lag awaits!

Bye for now!!


PS... getting immunizations sucks