Yes, after a brief sojourn in Canada I have returned to the Republic of Korea. I spent my first week in Seoul doing training for my new school. It sucked. I would be pulling 14-16 hour days for 6 days in a row, and have a 45min commute... on the busiest subway line at the busiest time of day. However, I passed everything, which was a big big relief. A number of people didn't and had to go back for some... re-education.
I was supposed to spend two days the next week in Japan, but it didn't happen. I was going to be heading over there to get a proper work visa for Korea. I don't exactly understand why, something along the lines of my school forgetting to confirm my ticket. So I've started working this week without the proper visa, my school tells me it isn't illegal, but I'm not quite sure how this is possible. So I'm going next week, and it'll cost me $200 in lost wages. Welcome to asian bureaucracy.
I'm one of seven teachers at my new school. There are four guys; two Korean-Americans, a white guy from Maryland and myself; there are also three girls, two Korean-Americans and a Korean-Australian. I get a pretty good vibe from everyone so far; they seem to have a good combination of professionalism and craziness.
It's been good to be back and see some friends. Bora met me at the airport, and has been very helpful getting me setup in a new apartment, new cell phone, etc. I paid a visit to my old school and was begged to come back; apparently one of the new teachers is generally regarded as something below a pond lily on the evolutionary scale. I obvisously declined, my visa belongs to another. I've also been able to spend some time with Peter and Trevor, back into the off-hours routines that make teaching here a lot of fun.
My schedule is a bit different than it was before. I used to work Mon-Fri 3-9 (app.), now I'll be working Mon, Tue, Thur, Fri 4-10, Sat 2-5 and have Wed and Sun off. It should be interesting, I think I'd perfer to teach 3hrs on Wed. and have Sat. off, but we'll see how things work out. That's about it for now, I'll write more when something interesting happens.
1 comment:
Well those hours are going to put a damper on any weekend travel plans! That's too bad. Maybe there's something the seven of you can do in terms of covering for each other so you can each get an entire weekend off now and then. Have to wait and see, I guess.
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