Hospital Visit, Korean Snacks, and E-Mart Adventures

First of all, I am finally using the internet on my OWN COMPUTER! The past few updates were either from my school computer or the brick of a computer that came with the apartment. So yay for that!

So on Thursday I finally went back to the hospital for my checkup. Apparently it cost like 44k won (which is about 30 dollars), so we get to add that to our visa process cost list. The process itself was pretty simple - height and weight, color blindness, eyesight, hearing. And then we had to do a chest x-ray, urine test, and blood test. Koreans use pretty big needles! Ouchie. But at least it went by pretty fast.

Friday I taught my three 6 grade classes, which was actually pretty interesting. We played Simon Says with the kids and gave out my american candy to the winners. Then we would do the CD Rom videos with dialogues and make the kids repeat. After that, we would do this powerpoint of which they guessed random sports celebrities (that I had no clue about but apparently Korean people love) and where they are from, since we were learning about nationalities. So I did that 3 times in a row on Friday.

Today, Saturday, we headed towards the downtown market area of Anseong. We tried a few different snack foods, which each cost about 1000 won aka 65 cents. We got this corn dog type thing and this brownie thing that was very lightly sweet, not overpowering sweet like most US brownies.



Then we went to a local kimbap (aka "Korean sushi") fast food type place and got a little lunch. We bought a roll of beef kimbap (sogogi kimbap) and the rice dish in the stone pot (dolsot bibimbap). It gave with this very light soup (I think maybe with fish base?), kimchi, and picked yellow radish (dan moo ji). All this for only 5,500 won or $3.50.




After snacks and lunch, we headed to E-Mart, which is almost like a Korean walmart, to pick up some more supplies and food. It was pretty big, although not as big as super Walmarts in the states, of course. We wandered around for a while, and bought some random things, such as some floor mats, a drying rack (since there aren't any clothing dryers here), and some food. We are living on rice and noodles, and so we bought some things to supplement our meals, such as canned ham, canned vegetables, eggs, little sausages, tomatoes. We also bought some snacks (I found a snack that was blueberry flavored, cheese flavored pringles, and a dukbokki - rice cake in red pepper sauce - flavored snack as well), some juice, tiny yogurt drinks, imitation crab. Just an array of random assortments. It was pretty interesting carrying all of our stuff on the bus back, as well, since Aaron had his backpack, and then we had three large bags, as well as the dryer rack. So that was quite an adventure.

I also cleaned up the apartment a little bit today as well. Their vacuum cleaner is small and so light and easy to use, I likei t better than the US ones already. Click here to read more

Korean red tape and cute kids

So, in order for us to get our ARC (Alien Residency Card), which allows us to do stuff like open bank accounts and stuff, it seems to be a lot of hassle and work in order to get it. Anyway, first we would need to get some photos taken. Pretty simple. And then we also have to go the hospital to get some tests (blood, urine, and xray scan I think?). Now, I hate HATE being jabbed with a needle, so I am not looking forward to this. Since it was in the downtown area, coteacher and I journeyed after class for 35-40min to the hospital, where they said I would need a passport. Of course I didn't bring one, since the information and website told my coteacher that I wouldn't need it, so I journeyed my half and hour back. An hour of the bus for nothing, yay. Hopefully we'll try again today after school, because I actually did remember my passport. Apparently Aaron went to the hospital as well and they let him do the tests without a passport. We think it was the persuasive nature of his more experienced coteacher than my new coteacher. Anyway, after the medical test, we can go to another city half an hour or so from here to actually get the ARC card, which supposedly takes a week to receive. More red tape, I tell you!

As for teaching itself, it's not bad. Yesterday morning I had three 6th grade and introduced myself with my powerpoint. They especially liked my pictures of my family and animals. They asked me lots of questions as well. Some of the students spoke English quite well, and some didn't say anything, which could mean they don't know much or that they're shy. But they are quite cute and they all say "Hi, Miss J---" [my last name] all the time.
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Aaron's jumbled musings

I'm jumping into the blog a tad late so, i'll try to fill in some gaps here and there.

 

Consulate

 

Dealing with the Korean consulate was pretty tough.  We tried to confirm required paperwork and etc with the Consulate, but the person on the phone didn't understand and kept on saying to check the website (even though we were staring at it simultaneously).  The website, of course, was also confusing and didn't really explain much.

 

Eventually, we got down to Houston, from Dallas (left at 4:30 am), and had our interviews with some Korean guy.  He was pretty hardcore, I couldn't get a smile from that guy at all.  He seemed to ask random questions to me and Jacki (one on one), and I think as well to the three other people that were there for the same purpose.

 

Packing

 

We took about a month to pack for Korea.  Tried to weigh the pros and cons of taking various items and tried to pack against the unknowns.  Weight was our enemy.  So was bulk, but we solved that a bit by using a DIY vacuum seal on some bulkier items.

 

Prior Leaving & Korean

 

We tried to eat lots of BBQ and steak before we left, although we don't normally because its slightly unhealthy.  I figure the slight weight increase can't hurt, most people end up losing weight in Korea.

 

So I ended up learning some Korean before we left, I figure it couldn't hurt.  I started I think sometime back around 4 months prior to leaving.  I did have a extremely rudimentary understanding of Korean because I'm a halfer and I also took a semester in college (where I believe I didn't learn much do to motivation issues).  I assumed that I might be judged slightly harder because I am a halfer so I figured I'd attempt it with my free time.  I didn't have much time to learn it, because I was finishing my masters program at the time, but persistence pays off it seems.  It's slow at first, but then it builds and it feels good to be able to read/talk/listen to others when here even if only basically.  Although, most English teachers don't know a lick of it, so I wouldn't worry too much about it though if you don't know any.

 

Airport and Plane Trip

 

Well, I was worried about our weight limits, but it seemed to be fine.  Out of our checked bags, two of them were 50 pounds, and then 50.5, and 51.5.  Didn't seem to charge/hassle us for going over the 50 lb limit which was good.

 

Our carry-ons were slightly bulky and heavy as well.  A gate stewardess ended up telling us that we had to check one (at no charge), so I gave her the lightest one, lol.  The others were most likely over the 25 lb limit.

 

So the flight was long and boring, I couldn't sleep very much as usual (like one hour out of 14).  The food was not enough, it was the first flight where I asked for more food and they didn't have any.  So we slightly starved, and we're not overweight by any means.

 

Arrival in Korea

 

The taxi driver was nice and liked that I could speak some Korean as do most.  The taxi driver got lost near the end of our journey with him because we're located in the middle of the boonies. 

 

On Friday, our apartment was filled with people/co-teachers/co-workers, and no-one seemed to introduce themselves to us off the bat, so we ended up confused and bewildered in our jet-lag stupor.  We went out and got to experience first-hand how cold it was.  We ended up going out for dinner in our light jackets and nothng else -- It was cold.

 

I think the second day, we unpacked our massive horde and realized a few mistakes -- packed a few things we shouldn't have and should've packed a few things, but nothing too serious.  We went major shopping on Saturday and it filled in the gaps for a lot of basic necessities.

 

Met with about eight expats at another dinner on Sunday.  I felt a bit bad because they were blabbing away with each other without talking to the two Korean people that were there, so I ended up trying to make some small talk with them.

 

Apartment

It's fairly quiet there surprisingly.  We live next to the stair way, so we hear some people walking by, but its not too bad.  Our windows are nice and fairly secluded.  The layout is slightly strange, but no biggie.  Showers are somewhat a pain, getting the toilet wet (and most other things) irritates me for some reason.  Ah, bed was slightly annoying, they bought blankets for us, but there blankets are probably what we would consider good as floor mats.  We brought some small blankets and linens (although it was tedious last minute weight issue) which was well worth it.  Thermostat and hot water work decently, just curious about the cost of it all down the line -- cause we like it toasty.

 

Buses

 

Buses are interesting, they cost about 60 cents USD oneway and use an electronic rechargable card.  The buses are fast, but they sometimes lack enough stop buttons generally situated throughout the bus.  Getting off is sometimes difficult because of their speed.

 

School & Classes

 

Well, the school was slightly ill-prepared for my arrival, but that's alright.  I like the extra time to get settled.  I worked on the first lesson a few days in advance of my first actual class and it seemed to work out fine.  But, so far I've only taught one class.  The co-teacher (the only one that talks semi-fluently, mentors me, and shows me around), is really helpful.  Her only drawbacks are lack of information at times.  I knew I was going to teach my first class today, I just didn't know when until 5-10 min before as kids started to pile in, lol.

 

The classroom is pretty new, and has some fairly nice equipment.  The podium that they have has a built-in touch-screen computer and an electronic projector that seems to be touch-screen (although annoyingly at times) as well.  I can't help but think that these walls are my prison cell for the next year though, lol.

 

There is only one men's restroom in this school since it is all female and there are like 700+ students.  It's slightly annoying because I have to somewhat cross the school and the flocks of students along the way.

 

Integration

 

The teachers nod in acknowledgement, and some will try to talk in broken English or minor Korean, but most of the teachers are fairly oblivious.  The students on the other hand are super hyper, and about 1/5 will try to say hi or hello as your passing by.  Not really used to the attention myself, I'd rather just walk down the hallway like a college student and be ignored like the best of them, lol.  So, I generally try to avoid the hallways during the recesses between classes.  I'm a bit of a celebrity here, I suppose.

 

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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