Hey Big Slender

My past few days...

... have consisted of drinking, shopping, driving and getting scared shitless

Generally in that order.

I'll give you a brief (or not so brief, you know how I get when blogging) rundown on the last few days, starting from Saturday because thats when the more interesting stuff happened.

Saturday

Got up.

Got dressed.

Then had an uneventful day. If anyone remembers what I actually did please feel free to remind me and tell me what a terrible friend/sister I am for not remembering. I am pretty sure I did nothing much of note.

Then Saturday night Nay and I tagged along with Kirst and Dan to the MC Lion, as it was one of their friends' bdays. Pert came down and met us there, and Kirsty, Nay and myself proceeded to get a wee bit drunk. We had already well and truly pre-drank our way into town and were is a fab mood, so we highjacked the dingy room towards the back and the DJ there was fairly accommodating to any song we wanted played. So we danced for ages, the girls took their shoes off and the rest is history. 

Got some funny pics, which have graced FB and all was good.

Ran into Vron and Chris which was awesome and unexpected! 

This was a good night out for a few reasons. Firstly, I was really looking forward to having a drink with the girls. I mean, it was nice that the boys were there, but I was really happy to be out and having a good ol' bev. Secondly, as I have mentioned in earlier posts, I really love hanging out with my friends. It was seriously just us dancing in the back room, and the photos look kinda lonely like we are the only ones there... But we don't need other people to have a good time. Just the core crew is sufficient for me - can't speak for the others here they may have been secretly wishing for more people. Another reason was I like that place. I like not having to get super dressed up and just having a nice and un-pretencious time. Generally speaking no one ever gets on my goat when we come to this place, most of the people who go are just wanting to have a fun night, so it works for everyone. 

As a side note, the MC Lion is the pub in Melbourne Central, right near Hoyts. Don't go too often, because I wouldn't rate the cover band as the best one in town, or the DJ's, but the atmosphere is really good especially when they get a crowded night. We only go a couple of times a year so maybe thats why I always enjoy it.

Sunday

Nay and I slept on the couch - she takes the long end and I take the short. Its turned into a tradition, that we wake up on a Sunday morning at Kirsty's and everyone tries not to wake me up. As soon as I am awake I can never get back to sleep... Kinda like a baby. And I carry on and whine until people get up and talk to me. So I woke up about 9-9.30 and tried to quietly put Popasia on but Nay woke up and then we watched tv together for a while before yelling for Kirsty to come make us breakfast. She eventually got up, and we all had macaroni for breakfast. I was seriously hungover, so it took me a little while to eat my delicious Easy Mac. Adam came over sometime after 11, and maybe an hour later we were ready for the next phase of the day. 

We were on a mission.

To get trackpants.

So the whole family got in the car and the 5 of us drove to Torquay. it ended up being 6 of us, because we stopped in Werribee and grabbed Pert too. So then we went to Torquay, had a lovely lunch at the fish and chip shop then went to our face shop and got trackies, hoodies and whatever else people bought.

Why go all the way to Torquay for trackpant I hear you ask? Only because the Ghanda trackies are the BEST TRACKPANTS EVER!!! It really is worth the drive.

Then we all got in the car and went home. What a great weekend! 

And aren't you glad I told this story??? I know, I will write a book one day and be sure to include this chapter!!!

And then the week started.

Which wasn't really a bad thing. Davey and I had dinner on Monday night at the York on Lilydale, which was an interesting experience. The weirdest thing happened to us... 

We ordered 1 serve of garlic bread, but when I was off getting some thirst quenching soft drinks for us the waitress came over with 2 serves. Davey told her we only ordered one, so she went to check. She came back just after I sat back down with the drinks.

Waitress: "You have 2 serves of bread."

Me: "No, we only ordered one"

Dave: "Yes, we will take them both"

Waitress: "Its from Daniel"

Me and Dave: "..."

Waitress: "Do you know Daniel?"

Dave: "Uh, I don't think so"

Me: "I don't think I do either"

It went for a little longer, but we ended up keeping the free bread. But who could this mysterious Daniel be, and why is he buying us garlic bread? I believe the answer lies in the kitchen, because I thought I heard the waitress say something about Daniel from the kitchen or chef or something, but Davey said he didn't hear that so i might have been making it up. 

Well, for the rest of the meal we kept glancing around to see if we could spot the elusive Daniel. Everyone we made eye contact with we assumed must be him. I wouldn't say we completely enjoyed our meal, we were too concerned about the bread incident. We left and vowed to never return.

And now we are up to today. And Tuesday means True Blood night at Kirst and Dan's place!!! Tonight was a little different, because we played this scary game that Adam told us about. Its called Slender, and it involved creeping through a forest and picking up these 'notes' until some creep creepy guy kills you. 

I kid you not, I am sitting up in bed writing this mindless dribble because I am too freaked out to go to sleep. All I keep thinking about is the Slender Man. 

In the game, you will be walking around (in the dark with a torch that slowly runs out of power) and every time you collect another note this scary bass note gets louder and more intense until the music alone is enough to send you screaming. And then as you are walking, the screen will get this static, and the noise will go static too and you look around and the freaking Slender Man is right next to you or something so you have to run until the static goes and you can breath normally again. And then if he gets too close he catches you and then you die. Absolutely terrifying. It might not sound that way right now, but download the game and give it a shot. And do it by yourself at night... Then come back and tell me what nightmares are made of.

In other news...

Another thing that happened yesterday was Dave helping me set up my YouTube channel. I already had one, but he worked on the page to make it pretty and set it up so that as i load videos they will come up in the right order and all that cool stuff. 

The big game plan is to have this blog and the YouTube channel kinda linked together. So they will both have similar content, but different medias. The colour schemes are now way more similar, and I have a photo up. Now all I need to do it to get some more videos up there. My game plan for tomorrow is to maybe do some filming before I get stuck into my homework. Then I can have a play tomorrow night and see if I can upload a vid :) Hopefully it will be ok.

As I said, the content will be the same type of thing as what I have here, but I want to keep the videos shorter. Just somewhere between 5 - 10 minutes depending on what I am raving on about, but I don't want to go longer than that. So if I get some videos up, please check them out and let me know what you think!

I have pretty much finished all my electives now, I fired off a few questions about 3 of them last week so I will get onto them tomorrow (thanks ATA for getting back to me super fast with some answers!) so hopefully by the end of the week they will all be submitted then i can just sit around and wait for the feedback. And hopefully my lovely Diploma will come in the mail and I can take it with me to Korea. 

Ooo - Korea status?

Yeah, about this. I had a minor issue last week, because my TESOL certificate that I was sent doesn't have the amount of hours I have completed on it. So far I have completed 180 hours of TESOL, but none of the transcripts that the ATA send out have the hours printed on them, which sucks, because the school in Korea wanted proof of how many hours I had done. So I called ATA up and explained it to them, and they sent me an email with a letter attached saying how many hours I had completed and that I was enrolled in a higher qualification and would get presented with the complete amour of hours once the whole thing was done. I have no idea what the school has made of this, apparently Jean forwarded them the email but I have not heard if they want a proper certificate or anything. This was on Friday that i sent them the email... I am going to email Jean tomorrow and just check that everything is ok - I don't want to pester her with emails, but if I am supposed to start on September 1st then I really need to get some firm confirmation of my arrival! I mean, as of tomorrow, thats only a month away! And flights are only getting more expensive the longer I wait to book them. I will get the money back from the school, but I need to outlay the flight costs so I don't want to be paying a fortune.

Anyway, once I upload a video I will do another post. Hopefully it will be a little more interesting than this one.

Like I said, I am too scared to turn off my lights and go to sleep because of Slender Man. 

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/UKNSTd_s_Rg" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

I have no idea if the above link works, but its basically us screaming because of Slender. YouTube it, its scary shit.

Night all xx

Friends are fun

Call me the "friend collector" 

I like to collect friends from everywhere I stop by in life;

For example work friends. Every job I have had (with one kinda exception - I have fb friends from Ozmosis but none of us catch up. All were great people though :)) I have found good friends and kept them. And by friend I mean that I still have their numbers and could call them up right now and have a relevant and enjoyable convocation without awkward pauses. And honestly, fb has reinforced some of these friendships. But I have already talked about my love of fb so I don't need to rehash it just yet.

I also still have friends from primary school. One in particular is Bec, who I love to death. Friends all through primary school, then high school, and into today, we will be friends forever!

My high school friends are some of my closest friends, we catch up regularly for a coffee, or a snack, or whatever! We just like to catch up. 

My more recent work friends have also turned into my close friends. The best friends I have are either from Bevilles or Jeanswest, both recent workplaces. 

And I also have my friends from uni, who I don't see nearly enough of, but when we do catch up in turns into 5 hours long sessions at the Pancake Parlour or an equally delicious place. 

Tonight I caught up with some recent friends, who I met while doing the TESOL course. We organised the dinner over fb, and caught up at the Good Luck Teahouse in Prahran. 

NB 

I'm gonna have to go slightly off topic here for a moment and talk about how delicious my meal was at the Good Luck Teahouse.
There was 4 of us eating, and we started with some dumplings - vegetable, pork, and prawn and duck. The veggie one and the duck ones were steamed, the pork was fried but they were so so tasty. I tend not to eat any meat when I go out, I have a hard time trusting any person other than my mum and Kirsty to cook meat. I always worry about how its prepared and cooked... But tonight I are some of the pork dumpling and it was so good! I preferred the veggie one but still it was a big deal.
We also ordered main serves of sweet and sour chicken, fried spice chicken ribs and some noodle dish with meat and prawns. I ate the sweet and sour chicken and the weird noodle dish and they were both great. I am trying to ease into spicy foods, and the noodles were a good level of beginner spice. Hot, but mild. Anyway there was a heap of food (we all got a serve of rice too) and pretty much ate all of it. The whole thing ended up costing just under $100 which I think was pretty good for 4 people eating a shit load of food.
Amanda knew the owners so thats why we chose that particular place but I would totally eat there again. The only downside was that the dumplings took ages to come out. They were made fresh so I suppose thats why, but we were all starving by the time they arrived.
I didn't take any pics because my phone went dead, but please go eat there. It was great.

http://www.urbanspoon.com/r/71/1509157/restaurant/Melbourne/Good-Luck-Tea-House-Prahran#
http://www.goodluckteahouse.com.au/

ANYWAY BACK TO WHAT I WAS SAYING...

So yeah. Basically, I am a friendly chic who has a lot of friends. I also have friends through the horses, but I could easily write an essay about these girls, specifically the club CINC of which I have been a member since the early 2000's. Its kinda like Fight Club, so I can't really talk about it...

The trouble comes when you try to blend groups. I am an avid blender. Networker if you will. I love it when all my friends get along and we can all play nicely together... I guess this isn't always possible when you have such a random mix of people coming from so many different backgrounds. I love that some of my friends all get along together though, it makes hanging out a whole lot easier - one night, triple the friends :D

I am pretty close to my family, but my friends are different. Family you are stuck with - they can't get away from you either. Friends, on the other hand, can potentially ditch you whenever they want. No one forces them to hang out with you, and as such they require a bit more work than the relationships you have with family. Or so I feel (keep in mind everything I write is my opinion, and your own relationships with family members and friends might be totally different... Maybe you pay your friends. Whatever.).

It would be lying if I said I was not concerned about my friends replacing me while I am away. I know I will make new friends, and hopefully add to my eclectic friend collection, but I like where I am in my friend web. I am concerned my place will be shifted, or filled, or removed all together. I put a lot of time onto my friends, and I worry that the bonds we have aren't as strong as I think they are. I'm sure I am worrying over nothing, but its something that I am feeling. Only time will tell how it will all play out, but I am planning on still being an annoying part of their lives. I will still be on my beloved fb, and I will ensure everyone has Skype so we can chat practically face to face.
And I hope they will still message me with what is going on with their lives, and post funny things on my wall, and fill me in on all the goss.

Korea update

The documents have left! The guy from FedEx picked them up from my place today and they are currently en route to Korea. Apparently the little ol' parcel will arrive by 6pm tomorrow night, which I thought was pretty impressive. 

What I was not impressed about was the price - $121.70 to send a small stack of A4 pages to a country that is in the same time zone. And I have on good authority that the same paperwork sent from America only costs $35. I plan on calling them up again on Thursday or something and having a massive whinge. Its stupid that Australian's have to pay so much... Next blog I will do another tally of how much this saga has cost me. Its gotta be creeping up pretty high now, last week I forked out a crap load of money for the Notary and the Apostille's. I would guesstimate around the $400 mark but I will check it out properly. 

Makes me really mad.

And I did my tax wrong. So I am not waiting on the edge of my seat to find out how much I get back. If its less than $1000 I will really flip my lid, because I am sure I should get a fair bit back seeing as I haven't really worked this finical year. And I need the cash to pay for my flight to Korea. GEPIK will reimburse me, but not until the first pay or something so I need to have some money handy to cover the cost and I would prefer not to dig into the last of my savings :s

No other news for now, so reader get away with a reasonably short read tonight! Usually the posts are more like essays (or so i've been told), but at least I am trying to vary the content. 

I will prob do another post at some point about how friends are fun. Cos, well, friends are fun, and I love to write about my friends. They are awesome, and you should be so lucky to have friends like mine.

xox

The week so far...

Concerts, comedians, and some jazz... 

I know I should really do this on a Sunday night or whatever, to sum up all the things I do in the week. But, there is really nothing wrong with Thursdays so here it is. A new thing i'm trying - writing about things other than Korea haha (but there will be Korean stuff in here hands down).

Flight of the Conchords - Sunday

Myself, Nay, Jacqui and Steve all went to Flight of the Conchords on Sunday 15th at Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne. It was one of the funniest nights I have had in ages! So many lol's all over the place! I even enjoyed the car ride in :) 

Unbeknown to us, Arj Barker was also there and was up first doing his comic thing which was hilarious. I really like Arj, I think he is super funny so I was really excited when we heard over the loudspeakers that he would be up first before the Conchords. 

I just realised, not everyone knows who they are...

So Flight of the Conchords are two blokes from New Zealand, Brett and Germaine, who play funny songs on the comedy circuit. I have no clue how they got started, but they ended up with a t.v show, called Flight of the Conchords, which is set in New York and is basically just different episodes of their escapades in the city trying to get music gigs. Arj Barker is part of the show, he plays their friend Dave. 

The different songs that they wrote for the show, they played during the concert. They talked in between about random things, and were all round funny. I can't remember all the convos they had, but I laughed at all of them. 

They played my two favourite songs, David Bowie in Space and also the Rhymenoscerous song (I dunno what its called). They didn't play Carol Brown which is Nay's favourite so that was a shame. Another downside was some dick head in the audience who kept calling out "Nigel". He was super annoying and I wanted someone to shoot him, or punch him in the face. But the guys handled it really well and brushed over the whole thing.

All in all, I would give the concert 4 out of 5 pawprints. The jerk in the audience kinda spoilt it, and there wasn't very good food. The other downside was out seats which were kinda shitty. In saying that, the whole of Rod Laver was sold out and the audience were all having a really great time. i brought a tour tee to remember the event :)

4/5 paws

Arrival of the National Police Check! - Wednesday

Finally I can stop whinging about this!!! I know for a fact all my friends are super tired of hearing about this, so I can officially say that the CRC is back! It came in the post on Wednesday after me freaking out over emails that were finally answered by the AFP. I got one email from them saying that I should receive it this week, and then a text message Monday telling me it was posted. Then, on Tuesday I got another email to one of the ones I had sent them, saying that it was processed on the 26th June and supposedly posted out the following business day. This woman is clearly a lying idiot, because I got the damn thing on Wednesday. So I can put a paperwork update in here too, as I have more to say about this...

Paperwork Update

Tuesday, I liberated my degree from its lively glass frame and went with mum down to Officeworks and got 2 colour photocopies made. I got one extra to save the hassle of getting the thing out of its cage again if I ever need another copy made. Anyway, I think it cost about $3.20 or something like that... Didn't break the bank :) Then on Wednesday I went with Kirsty to get the Notary stamp on the copy of the degree... This whole process was stupid and expensive. It turns out my Aunty was not able to sign the copy of the degree, because she is not a registered public notary person. So I did a Google and found a guy in Box Hill who was able to do it for me. His name is John Pearce, and he is a Solicitor and all that, and is also registered to be able to do the notary stuff. We went to his place (he also has an office in the city, but works out of his home office some days too) and sat in his office. He had 3 different stamps that he used to legitimise my copy, and had a cool stamp thing that pressed into a waxy stamp. I guess this is what makes him legit??? Anyway, I got both copies done to be safe, and it cost me $88. Absolute rip off. We were there for about 7.5 minutes or something. John was a nice guy though, and gave me very specific directions on how to get to the Melbourne Passport Office to get the Apostille stamp.

I got home Wednesday from John Pearce's place and checked the mail. Nada. I was emo as, getting ready to have another cry over the whole thing. Then, Georgia left to go somewhere and called me as she was heading down the street. She had seen letters in the letterbox, and it might be my cert. I ran outside, down the driveway and viola! There it was! My CRC :D

So i emailed Jean and let her know that the everything should be in the post to her sometime on Monday. She was super happy for me. As was everyone. 

Then today, Kirsty and I went into the city to the passport office (she knew the way, having had to do an emergency passport pick up a few years earlier) and we found a really close park and headed on upstairs. We lined up behind some annoying people, including a weird looking child that kept staring at us. I handed my documents over, proceeded to the cashier and handed over $120 for the Apostille stamps. I will go back in on Monday morning and pick them up. 

So this crappy paperwork saga has cost $208 this week, not including the printing, petrol and other rubbish costs. I will do another total cost tally soon. 

And thats that. Paperwork update done for now. At least thats the last you should hear about the CRC. It was a clean record by the way... I am a model citizen :)

Dinner and Latin music - Thursday night

And now for tonight! 

Bec and myself went out for a bite to eat and a catch up. I hadn't filled her in on the latest with Korea, and I wanted to hear about her uni stuff so it was good to get together. She had seen in the local paper that some Latin band - Soleal Q - were playing at the Treble Clef in Chirnside Park. Now, I am not usually one to take pics of food but I want to start doing this sort of write up.review thing for the blog so I have started to record my food pics. Unfortunately I only remembered that I wanted to do this when we had finished most of it, so when you have a look at the pics keep in mind they were really big serves, and there was a lot more colour originally :)

The Treble Clef Jazz Lounge is located at 17 Paynes Rd, Chirnside Park. They have jazz bands playing regularly, and tonight happened to be Soleal Q. They played Latin jazz, from all over the place, but I remember him saying Venezuela so there you go. 

This was the Trio of Dips, which, as you can see, actually had 4 dips. We got the beetroot dip, pumpkin, homes and balsamic. The bread was fresh and tasty :) There was heaps of bread too, def enough food for 2. Cost $17

This was the Chicken Strips, there were 4 on each side and we could have easily just had these and not the dips. But we ordered already so we HAD to eat them. They were the tastiest chicken strips ever. Maybe they were a bit generic, but still really yummy. They came with 2 dips, a plum sauce one and some white one that was awesome. There was a heap of lettuce for garnish but I ate it :) I love garnish lettuce... This was $15.

The drinks were kinda expensive though, I got a Rekardlerlig Cider which was $8 and Bec got a chambered and lemonade which was $12... 

The band had their music up a little loud, we couldn't really chat while they were playing. In saying that , they were really talented and I enjoyed the music. they started sometime after 8pm and were going to be on until I think 11.30, but we both were pretty tired so we skipped out early. Then I came home and I have been online since... Go figure. 

Anyway, all up it was a good night and I would recommend that place. I will probe go back sometime and try some of the other things on the menu. It was a pretty limited menu, more snacky things that meal but they were big serves. 

http://www.treblecleflounge.com.au/contact.html

I rate it 3/5 paws.

Anyway, that will do for tonight :)

Hope everyone else is having a nice week!

xx

Mission Accepted

I have finally accepted a teaching position in South Korea

I know, after all my whining and moaning, I have finally chosen a job. I will tell you all as much as possible about it, and then when I get there and tell the REAL story we can see how they compare :)

I am really excited about the move, but nervous at the same time. Either way, its gonna be a huge adventure, and I hope everyone at home will email/fb/comment/skype often so we can all stay connected. Anyway, I am getting ahead of myself...

Songsin Elementary School, Pyeongtaek-si, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea

This is where I will be for the year. The school is a public elementary school, and I will be teaching English to grades 4 - 6. I had the interview on Wednesday arvo last week with my co-teacher Mr. Park, who has been to Melbourne a few years ago on a teacher exchange. He visited Frankston (God knows why :s) so already feels like we have heaps to talk about. 

It was a crazy few days, because I hadn't heard back from the school about if they wanted me or not, and in the meantime another one of my awesome recruiters (I actually mean this - Dan from Teach ESL Korea is a great guy) had found me some other really great positions. So it came down to my choice - did I want to take a great, highly recommended position in a Hagwon in Gwangju, or take this public position in Pyeongtaek?  The choice was really hard. And, strangely enough, many would think I made the wrong choice. 

In Gwangju, I would have a huge network of foreign teachers and made a heap of friends. The place is beautiful, with really nice mountains and all that near by. 

In Pyeongtaek, the foreign community does not seem as big. The place seems kinda ugly (judgement call here based on Google Images - I may be really wrong) and doesn't seem to have any real drawcard. Its only claim to fame is an American Airforce Base... 

So why did I pick Pyeongtaek?

As I told Dan, I wanted to be a bit closer to Seoul. Gwangju is like, 4 hours away by bus... A bit far, especially when I have people in Seoul and surrounding areas that i want to meet up with and hang out with. Another reason is that I really wanted to teach kids. I will be honest, it is pretty daunting the idea of teaching kids who speak no English, in a class size of 30+ with a co-teacher I don't know, but for some strange reason the challenge appealed to me. 

We all know I tend to do things the hard way. Its a strange knack i have...

And there is another reason, but I can't put my finger on what it is... I just feel like this is the place for me. 

I may be totally wrong, and this might be the worst year of my life. I might hate it, and have no friends. But, as one good friend says, there is no such thing as a bad decision. You make the best choice you can with the given information, and then you make the best of your choice. Simple as that. If YOU have decided it, then its right.

Anyway, here is the Wiki for the area - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyeongtaek

The white area in the middle is the are around Seoul. 

Pyeongtaek is about 20 mins further south of Suwon. If I find a better map I will pop it up.

Here is a link to the schools website (its in Korean, I have no idea what it says. Someone tell me if it means Death School or something ok?) - http://www.songshin.es.kr/

Some basic information about Pyeongtaek - 

Area size - 453km2

Population approx - 412, 757

The contract includes the standard return airfare, severance pay, 50/50 medical insurance and accommodation. I also get 300,000 won to get myself settled in. The accommodation is not yet picked for me, so I am a bit nervous about what it will be like :s

Like I said, the co-teacher sounded really nice, he has already pre warned me that the kids speak basically no English so at lease I know in advance. The start date on the contract is September 1st, which is actually a Saturday, so I don't know yet when i will be flying out. I suppose it is all still dependent on the visa and documents.

Document update

I have received an email from the AFP, saying that my CRC is complete and that they are posting it out with the next available Australia Post service. So I am assuming that I will get it sometime Monday or Tuesday. Prob Tuesday. So, as soon as I have it in my hand I will go make a copy and get both the CRC and my degree copy notarised. There is a guy in Box Hill who can do it after hours so i can go that night if I need to. And then the very next day I can drop the documents down to get the Apostille, and then thats pretty much it! I have my reference letters, and my passport sized photos. I need to make colour copies of my passport info page, but as soon as I get some more ink for the printer at home I can get that done too. So, if all goes to plan, all my documents will be ready by the end of the week, and be en route to Korea!

Recruiters

I feel that I should put a special area in about this. The recruiters have been a big part of my job selection. A word to anyone thinking about embarking on this same journey - choose your recruiter wisely! There are so many out there... In the end I ditched a heap who were either not legit enough for me, or who were not really helping me find suitable jobs. The position I have taken was found for me by Jean from Korvia recruiting. They are are big recruitment company, and only find positions for the GEPIK schools (GEPIK - Gyeonggi English Program in Korea) which are all public. They are well reviewed on the internet, and heaps of people I have spoken with or read posts from online have used Korvia.

GEPIK - http://gepik-tek.weebly.com/index.html
Have a look at this site - tells more about GEPIK and the education system in South Korea :)

This is not to say that others are bad. I just got a good vibe from Jean, she was really honest with me the whole time. And she is handling all my documents and getting all my visa stuff sorted. I guess she is speaking with the school, means I don't have to do it. It will be interesting to see if there is any follow up communication from her once I get to Korea. 

As I mentioned earlier, Teach ESL Korea have been super fantastic too. Although I have not accepted one of their positions, I am still on their FB page, and Dan has still extended the hand of friendship for any help I might need. He was pretty devo that I didn't take the position he offered, but I emailed him some of my reasons and I hope he is cool about it. It totally get that they worked to find me a good spot, and I do feel bad. But like I said, this place called to me for some unknown reason.

In a nutshell...

I have no idea why I actually went with this school. It just felt right. I don't really trust my gut instincts, I am usually way off, so i anticipate me finding that I should have chosen otherwise. But for now I feel good about the decision. 

I am pretty nervous, I am worried that I won't make friends, or that i will be bad at teaching. These feelings are normal I guess. 

Pyeongtaek appears to be one of the most boring places in Korea. There isn't anything there that would draw tourists. But I am not a tourist, I am there to work so hopefully it won't matter. I have joined the FB group for the area so with a bit of luck I can do some networking before I get there. And, at least if the North attack, I am near a US Airbase so I should be able to escape pretty quickly :) Better make friends with some army blokes haha. Don't worry mum, just friends.

This is all I can really think of at the moment, I guess the blog is gonna change gears a bit now, from the decision now to the prep. Its not real until I get on the plane, but it is a step closer... Once I know when I fly out I can plan everything a bit better. 

NB - 

South Korea have decided to not go a' whaling! I was so excited to hear this, they must have read my blog haha

xox

Whaling and South Korea

I hate whaling, and everything associated with it

South Korea are whaling again. And I don't know how to feel about it

This week, South Korea have announced that they are going to begin "research" based whaling again, after having agreed to the International Whaling Commission's (IWC) 1982 moratorium. Now I am personally VERY opposed to whaling, for both commercial and scientific uses. I am a conservationist in general, a bit of a greenie and all round pro-environment. So when I heard that the county I was planning on moving to was taking up a practice that I find abhorrent I needed to rethink if this was somewhere I wanted to go. I know it sounds kinda extreme, but I am really quite passionate about certain environment issues and whaling sickens me. Will going over to Korea and having an awesome time make me a hypocrite?
In saying this, I actually do not know all that much about it. I know that whaling involves the killing of whales (duh) for the meat and blubber, and that Japan have gotten away with it through a loophole in the moratorium that allows whaling for scientific research. So I thought that i would try and have a closer look in the whaling in South Korea, and how I feel about the whole thing.

Whaling moratorium

In 1982 the IWC put forward a moratorium to ban commercial whaling. The stocks of whales in oceans all around the world were so depleted that there was really not enough left to sustain commercial whaling. Countries all over the world signed up to it, as they agreed that to save the different species something had to be done. Pretty much all whaling countries agreed to it, but there were a few who didn't. These included Iceland, Norway, Russia, and of course Japan. All these countries have continued whaling, Japan is the only country that claims scientific research the others simply do not care. 

Interestingly enough, many other countries allow their indigenous peoples the right to hunt whales... So in Canada if you are an Inuit then you are allowed the hunt whales. The sad part about this is now it is a massive tourist thing, to go on a traditional whale hunt. I guess some people feel really manly when they can shove their spears into and kill something that can't escape. 

Anyway, South Korea were in with the moratorium, and have been since I think 1986.

http://iwcoffice.org/conservation/rms.htm

South Korea and whaling

Apparently, in the past the people of Ulsan on the coast of Korea used to hunt whales for meat and all that. They claim it is part of their history and culture. Being a country surrounded by ocean I don't doubt this, I am sure whaling had played a part in their history. South Korea have been acting in good faith and accordance with the moratorium for all these years, following the rules and not whaling (a complete lie, but they were not out there actively hunting whales in international waters *cough Japan cough*). 

This week, the IWC had their annual meeting in Panama and discussed what was going on in the world of whaling. It was here that Kang Joon-suk, the delegate from South Korea, announced the country's intent on whaling. They claim that Japan has been hunting whales for their "research" program for years and Korea was now going to do the same. He said that they will not act as Japan does and flout international laws i.e. hunting in marine parks and sanctuaries, but they would only hunt whales that happened to swim into South Korean waters. 

A really good article is a BBC one - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-18719512

The guy who wrote it reports on the meetings every year, and knows the players and the rules.

In a nutshell, South Korea want to start whaling again and they are looking for loopholes too. 

How to the Korean people feel?

I have no idea. I would imagine it is a mixed bag. The culture is different, many of these countries honestly don't see a problem with whaling. Its like fishing to them (which I also have an issue with, but thats another story), and if its in the ocean its fair game. But they would totally be hearing the international objection to this... A lot of people globally are opposed to whaling and environmentalism is getting more and more trendy every day. Being 'green' is cool right now. So even if they are feeling not committal about whales, they would have to be aware of how people view whaling around the world. Generally, people are pretty opposed to the friendly sea giants being slaughtered for meat and whatever else people do with dead whales. 

There are even reports from Japan that whale meat is not as popular as it once was - people are waking up and realising that its not cool to eat endangered animals. 

I have been thinking about this issue all week, and how it makes me feel. I want to know how the average Korean citizen feels about whales, and whales in general. Do they know they are protected? Do they like whale meat? Are they opposed to whaling? Do they have endangered species lists too? What is the Korean deal when it comes to protecting biodiversity? Do they have a plan?

it opens up a can of worms. And I am very curious about it. I mean, i'm not going to get over there and start preaching, but if I am responsible for teaching young kids English, maybe this is an opportunity to teach them something else... 

Its a bit like how Gen Y are all about climate change, and how to fix it. Do the young people of South Korea have a similar deal? Is there factions of the public who want change too? 

I think there would be. And if this is the case, then I am going to find them and make friends with them.

Change happens from the inside and works its way out. So I am going to go and plant seeds in the minds of young, impressional Korean kids about the negative impacts of whaling. And about being energy efficient, and being nice to their parents, and eating plenty of fruit, and all sorts of good things. And if a few pay attention then thats awesome! If they don't, then oh well I gave it a try. 

Something that i have learnt, is that you can only make an impact on your own space. And its up to you how big your space can be... So for me right now, my space is my friends and family and all that. I grew my space by making this blog, and it will grow even wider once I up and move countries. And I have a responsibility for it too, what I do and say affects what happens in my space. So if I can do something positive with it then I will. Or I will at least try. 

So, in summary, boo to whaling, and I am very disappointed in South Korea for wanting to take it up again. But I will treat this as a conversation started and learning topic, and go over there and tell people what I think. And hope i don't get deported.

xx

Visa Run

I have had to turn down the Hanam position. Which I am very upset about. I completely blame the AFP, because when I called them on Tuesday they (after over an house on hold) told me that they hadn't even opened my email yet. I had sent them the application on the 20th June, so as you can imagine I was pretty pissed. It wasn't that particular lady's fault, so I tried to keep it cool, but I expressed my displeasure and asked when she thought I might receive it. She said it might still be ANOTHER 20 DAYS. To me, this is complete rubbish... I know I have a clean record, how long does it honestly take to do a name search and print off the page? On all the crime hows on TV it takes 30 seconds. And we all know that the TV is based on real facts (like the internet) so I know they are just being slack.
I am on the phone to them again now, waiting in a call queue. The current time of waiting is 14 minutes...

The SLP school in Hanam knew that it would take ages for this check, but they still offered me the position. They wanted me to come over to Korea, work for a bit then do a "visa run" to Japan. When Irene first suggested it to me, I was pretty sure I knew what it was but I asked anyway. I was pretty much spot on with my guess.

Visa Run

This is quoted from the email from Irene:

1. When you have all your documents, come to Korea

2. When you arrive, give all your documents to the school. They will go to the immigration office and apply for your E2 visa. It will take a week or 2 tops.

3. Go to Japan with your visa issue number

4. The next day get your visa (still in Japan)

5. Come to Korea with E2 visa!

Its that simple! Everyone does it! There will be no problems!

It is actually illegal. You can Google visa run, and heaps of things come up. You cannot get a working visa done while being in Korea for some reason, you need to have it issued in another country. Not all schools will pay for it, but SLP offered to pay for mine. They usually pick Japan, I guess because its closest and they get the system over there. I have not read one instance where someone has been caught doing it, and I have been informed that it used to be the way to get a job - you go over on a tourist visa for a face to face interview, accept the job then hang out in Japan until the visa is ready. My issue isn't the going to Japan, its the working without a visa. 

I would have been working in Korea for a week or 2 (depending on the visa application time) without an E2 visa, meaning that I would have been working in the country illegally. And I have spoken to a heap of people, and they all say that its fine and heaps of people do it. But, for me it just wasn't right. I do not want to start my time in Korea on a bad note. I would have been super worried all the time, and not able to enjoy the whole thing properly. 

I love that the school was going to organise all of it - they would have paid for the trip to Japan, paid for my motel and given me some spending money. And they were super nice. The teachers email they gave me was that of a really really helpful guy from NZ. They offered his email without me having to beg for it. They head teacher told Irene she felt that her and I had a 'connection' and she really wants me to work with them. They gave me extra time to think, they say they understand what a big decision this is for me. And I actually feel super bad to let them down. They were jumping through hoops to get me there. 

But I refuse to commit fraud just for a job. There will be other jobs. The stress of it would have made me sick.

NB 

By me saying "it will make me sick" I mean I will put myself in hospital. Its not common knowledge I suppose, but I have a form of Crohn's Disease (inflammatory bowel disease) and when I get overly stressed, or make poor lifestyle choices (like eat too much crappy food or drink too much booze) it upset my fragile tummy and I end up quite ill. 

So i am concerned about the spiciness of the Korean food :s should fun times ahead.

So, to avoid stress and deportation I am turning the position down. As soon as I get off the phone with the AFP (30 mins strong) I will email Irene and tell her the bad news. She will be upset, but I have to do what is right for me.

Update!!!

I finally got through to the AFP after over an hour... He said they haven't processed it yet but they will do it either this week or early next week and I should have the CRC by the end of next week!!! Finally, some good news!!!!!!

The school risks a fine. I risk being sent home and having a blemish on my clean criminal record. Then imagine how hard it will be for me to get another one???

Yune (ESL Partner) has found another school for me, this one is in Suwon. Its kinder and elementary, the hours are a little later 10am-7pm but thats ok, its not too different. The pay is a little lower, 2.1, but if they want to interview me, and if they offer the position I will ask for 2.2. Its worked before so doesn't hurt to ask. 

And I am waiting to hear back from some other recruiters too.

I don't think Claudia is going to help me much anymore, she was pretty disappointed that I didn't take the Yongin position. But its my year! And I will take the job I want. 

All this is good though, because I am figuring out what I do and do not want in schools. So even though I still do not have a start date, I am figuring stuff out. Amelia (shout out to ya!) was really helpful, and made a really good point when she said that there are endless jobs out there, so really I can pick one that suits me.  

At some point I will put a map up of South Korea, and show you where all these places are so you can see where I have been offered jobs. I have a bit of a criteria that I am trying to stick to:

• Kindy - elementary aged kids
• Day time working hours... Nothing that starts in the arvo and ends late at night. Nothing past 7pm
• somewhere within the Gyeonggi province (where Seoul is located - kinda like the state)
• 2.2 million won per month pay
• at least 1 other foreign teacher

Apart from that i am pretty open. Oh, and I want my own apartment, nothing shared or dorm like.

So anyway, the rest of my day will involve waiting on the phone, then I will go feed the horsies and go to medicare. And get some milk... I haven't had my cereal today and I feel on edge :s

Then catch up with some pals tonight! 

I am looking for another good book to read. If anyone knows a good one (please do not say 50 shades of grey - really really NOT MY THING) let me know!

xox

Fun Korean Facts

Disclaimer - these 'facts' may or may not be facts...

Some funny things I have heard

As you can probably imagine I have spent ALOT of time Googling information on South Korea, and through my online travels I have read some pretty interesting things. Some of them might be complete bullshit, but others may just be true. At the request of a friend (Nay - shout out to you pal!) I thought I might start putting some of the more interesting stories up in here. So, bit of a disclaimer here, these so called Korea facts may or may not be true. Its just things I have heard or read. And there are probably WAY more, so by all means if you hear something funny/weird/gross/interesting/scary or whatever please post it up! Drop me a comment, or an email, or fb me or whatever! I love new information :)

Korean 'Fan Death'

This one is all over other people's blogs... Its pretty ridiculous, but the theory is that if you leave a fan on inside while you are sleeping, and you haven't left a window or a door open, you might die. Apparently death can be caused by asphyxiation, the fan can suck the oxygen out of the room and leave you with no air. Another theory is that your body temperature lowers too much and you die of hypothermia. And another theory says that the fan blowing air over your mouth/face moves too quickly, and people cannot get enough air and therefore die. There have been documented deaths and during summer the government issues health warning about fan death. 

Check out this link - 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fan_death

So there you go, fans can, and DO kill. Beware of fans.

And this pic just made me lol. I am totally going to start up a pics page, and put this one in there... It's like - "the Fan did it"

"Unlucky" things

This, I would imagine, may be a common theme throughout parts of East Asia. In fact, every culture has things that they consider to be 'unlucky' so I am not sure if this really counts. But it made me giggle, so I will put a few in...

The number 4

Number 4 is super unlucky, it has some link with death. I am not sure why... but there you go (I will do some research and see if I can find the reason). 

In elevators and things like that, there is no 4th floor. Rather than using the number, they actually write 'fourth' or just the letter 'F'. Some building even leave out 4 all together and just go straight to 5. I was telling someone about this the other day, and they told me that its common in hotels and things to not have a13th floor. Thats why they often have a dining room or something like that on the 12th so they can go straight to 14 after (have a really big/high level I suppose...) so its not just them. But still, its just a number...

Writing in red ink

Also very unlucky. If you write someones name in red ink, apparently it works a little bit like a Death Note... You are increasing their chances of dying. I have read on a few ESL teacher blogs that its best not to do corrections in red pen either, as it can really upset the kids. It actually freaks them out. :s

Tongue Surgery

This one is a bit different. The belief is that if you have that part of your tongue that joins it to the bottom of your mouth cut, then you can speak better English. It has to do with pronunciation... So mothers think they they are helping their kids out by getting them to have tongue surgery and then being able to speak better English. I really do not believe this is the case, I am sure that with some practice and a good teacher they can pronounce English words just fine. But there you go. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lingual_frenectomy

Believe it... Or not?

I will totally check these things out when I get there :D

xx