soon to be - from gwangju, with love

the adventure from maple syrup to kimchi begins.

I finished up my last class with a bang - huzzah! Cue happy dance. 

I am now in the process of getting all my Visa documents together. From what I hear it’s not a great process. 

I’m eagerly anticipating getting that degree in my hands to send off to the Vancouver Korean Consulate for confirmation. May 31st cannot come fast enough! 

Now off to hunt for the perfect cute luggage set that will hold more than one year of my life (sidenote: joinmeinkorea.tumblr.com also known as my lovely fellow Canadian friend, future roomie and hagwon teacher, check her out! and let her know if you stumble upon a zebra-print luggage set!) a few cute Korean-modest outfits and avidly devour my ESL textbooks and Lonely Planet travelbooks on Asia and the Phillipines. 

Love from a small-prairie town (for now!), 

Jolene

Signing the contract.

Dear tumblrverse, 

I signed my contract for a hagwon in South Korea yesterday. I felt a little terrified admittedly, signing my life away. Brief moment of panic and my first thought was: ohmygosh, I’m terrible with directions, how am I going to navigate this country when I can’t even navigate my fair small prairie city? No joke, folks. I am that bad.  

Then, I thought about the fact I’ll be in Korea, experiencing their culture, meeting new friends who are just as excited about teaching ESL (well maybe not all of them ;)) and travel as I am — and really, who could say no?! 

Plus I’ll be sharing the experience with a kick-ass new friend. 

And so I did, all whilst listening to K-Pop of course. It really grows on a girl, damnit. 

[The man is not adjusting to the idea of my moving across an ocean. Poor guy. I will miss him so stinkin’ much!]

I am literally on cloud 9 and am so excited to go! 

Now to start packing for all my many adventures and get through this last horrific final. Am I being overly dramatic? Perhaps a little. 

I will continue to keep this updated. From the initial process and arrival to navigation of the hagwon and Gwangju! (Eeee, happiness. Can’t wait to arrive in my new home city!)

With Love From Canada (for now) xo, 

Jolene

P.S. My hagwon has zero negative reviews. That being said, the contract is standard, they promised teacher e-mails and did not get them to us. Our negotiation was unsuccessful with only their supplying basic information upon our attempt and requests.

Through our own research (thanks Google, you are so great!) we discovered a few current teacher blogs and all were positive and with no complaints. So fingers crossed. If it is a negative experience, I’ll be sure to let the bloggy world know. 

I feel any hagwon position is a gamble, some are worse than others. The experience makes it worthwhile. Here’s to hoping my opinion remains the same! 

joinmeinkorea:

See you in 2.5 months, Korea.

http://reaching4amoment.tumblr.com/ and I will be LIVING together AND working together.

So. Freaking. Excited.

AHHH - cannot even believe how amazing this will be! We are going to have so much fun!