Last day in America

Today is our last day left in America. We're almost all packed, some a few things here and there we need to stick somewhere last minute. We have a LOT of luggage - for the two of us, we have 3 large rolling suitcases, 1 large duffel bag, 2 smaller duffel bags, 2 backpacks, and wearing our largest coats (he's wearing two, and I'm wearing my long down coat) and biggest shoes.

Tomorrow our flight is at 9:30AM (Thursday) and after ~14 hours of flight, we'll land in Korea at 3:10PM (Friday). And then we will have the weekend to relax before jumping into class-teaching on Monday. I hope we're ready! Since we never taught before, it is a little nerve-wrecking, but hopefully everything will turn out well.

We will be in Anseong, which is in the province around Seoul, Gyeonggi-do. However, it's so far south it's almost right next to the other provinces. It should be about an hour and half from Seoul. Click here to read more

Visa Process Costs

The Process for Teaching in Korea was long and costly, but in the end, we got what we wanted. We ended up going with AMS Korea, whom we recommend, at least thus far. We have tried to deal with many other recruiters, but haven't had good experiences with most of them. They made things relatively easy, even through some crazy things that happened throughout this process.

Total Cost For the Visa Process:
$30 Criminal Record Check (15 x 2 for the two of us)
$30 Criminal Record Check Apostille (15 x 2 for the two of us)
$15 Jacki's Bachelor Diploma Apostille
$15 Aaron's Bachelor Diploma Apostille
$15 Jacki's Masters Diploma Apostille
$30 3 Copies of Jacki's Bachelor Transcripts
$15 3 copies of Aaron's Bachelor Transcripts
$0 3 copies of Aaron and Jacki's Masters Transcripts (free transcripts)
$100 Est Fedex cost to send papers to Korea. (we had to do it twice)
$90 Cost of 2 E-2 Visas
$18 Express Mailing our passports to the Korean consulate
$60 Est. Gas Cost for Driving to Austin (for apostille) and Houston (consulate)

Total: ~$418 for two people

Not cheap, but hopefully it'll be worth it! Click here to read more

Post Number One!

Hello, everyone. We're Jacki and Aaron, a couple from Texas. We will be teaching with the GEPIK program in Anseong, Korea.

We'll be arriving there sometime in the end of February, between 24 and 27, but we will probably buy the final tickets in the next few days.

So why teach in Korea? Well, the job economy in America isn't doing so well right now, and at least with this, we will have a stable (at least for a year) job and enough income to live well and save (most people that go to Korea save at least half of their income), and plus, we both love to experience new cultures and travel. After all, we're only young once, and this will be an adventure of a lifetime!


Oh, and by way, neither of us have any teaching experience at all, so this should be fun. Click here to read more