Personal Victory: New Apartment!

So, after finding a new job I came to the super-unwelcomed discovery that I also needed to find a new apartment. I discovered this while re-reading the job description to the job I had accepted.

First I was all...

Then I was all...

But then I remembered all the other stuff I've had to do since getting here and just went...

Most public and private school gigs in Korea provide you with housing. I think this is largely because they assume that most teachers are fresh off the boat and don't have the time or resources to really find a place on their own. University positions, however, assume that you've been here for one or two years already, are a fully capable, mature human being and can find your own place.

Just look at how responsible and mature these two Korea University employees are!

To be fair... I sorta cheated..

And by sorta I mean I was playing the entire game with the strategy guide in hand.

What was this strategy guide, you ask?

Two words: Korean.Boyfriend.

Yeah, I know, so it's more his victory than mine. I really want to ask one of my friends who doesn't speak Korean to write a guest post about finding their own place. I'm going to have my friends who are doing the same thing as me to write a post as well. One of them speaks advanced intermediate Korean but he would be able to give you some of the vocabulary you'd need.

Anyway, SeungHyun was amazing. He made endless calls, dealt with my few persnickety opinions about apartments, and was, in general, a freaking saint and a rock star throughout all of this.

승현양 superstar at both X-Rated Apples to Apples AND finding apartments

Korean apartments, unless you're moving to the foreigner districts, require a massive down payment called key money. It's pretty much like buying the apartment, but you get the money back at the end of your lease. My maximum was 50,000,000 won (approx. $43,000) for key money and 500,000 won a month  for rent ($430). We looked in various areas around the northeast. My one priority was for the apartment to be in walking distance of KU. We saw everything, from massive 3 bedroom places to tiny studio apartments, all within the same price range. We saw villas (split-up houses), officetels (studio apartment buidlings), and apartment complexes. Old houses and brand new apartments, we saw it all. It was crazy to think that I could afford all of these different kinds of places.

The biggest roadblock we ran into was apartments being taken before I had a chance to say yes, and one super-flakey realtor (out of the, like, 7 that we saw apartments from).

I finally settled on a one bedroom apartment in a brand new villa. The one downside is that it doesn't have a refrigerator (though it does have a washing machine, range, and air-con), but with so many people moving and leaving the country this time of the year it wont be that hard to find a used one. It's a 30 minute walk from KU and a 5 minute walk from the closest subway station (LINE 4, BABY, YEEEAAAHHH!).

Those two places written in blue are both subways stations, fyi

Now comes my THIRD least favorite activity (I just can't win, can I?): moving. I'm hoping that it wont be that horrible, seeing as we have from now until August 24th to move all our crap. I also need to buy some stuff... like closets. Oh, that's another thing you should probably know. A LOT of Korean apartments don't come with closets included, so be prepared for the possibility of having to buy a wardrobe (the olde-timey kind).

So huzzah! I sign the contract tonight and then it's all mine!

Personal Victory: New Job!

I have a new job!

This was the one picture I found of me that I felt came close to my joy at this news.

After one interview I was able to obtain my first job offer. I have accepted it (though I am waiting to hear about the possibility of a different job at the same institution) and I couldn't be happier!

My new place of work will be Korea University, one of the top three Universities in Korea (Seoul National University is the top, Korea University is perpetually tied with Yonsei University). I will be working in the Language Enrichment program. It is an English-intensive academy (a hagwon, for those of you ho know what that is) but I will be working (most likely, haven't gotten the final word) with adults. It's a pretty sweet gig. I am only teaching for 3-5 hours a day, have regular weekends, don't go in until the afternoon, have a set end-time (important for those of you familiar with hagwon horror stories), get 4 weeks of vacation, and will be paid more than I am now. 

The thing making me super happy about this is that Korea University just happens to be the institution where my significant other works (though he works in a completely different department). Things between us have been going amazingly, so much so that I am not hesitant about taking a position at his institution.

Now, for the more interesting bit, how I got the job.

The Interview

KU's Language Enrichment Program emailed me about three weeks after I had sent them all of my information and asked me to interview. The date they provided was when I was planning on being out of town, but they were very generous and allowed me to reschedule (something I was terrified of asking them to do). Since they were looking for teachers for both the elementary school and adult level they asked me to prepare two lesson plans. This was terrifying. I have never worked with elementary school children and have only worked with native speaking adults. I was seriously freaking out while writing these lesson plans. In the end it took me about three times as long as it normally does to prepare them (which is horrible for me because I can normally pump a lesson plan with powerpoint out in about an hour). I had print outs of the lessons and proposed materials with me for the four interviewers I was going to see. I went out and bought a fancy leather binder to keep all my papers in (like a boss) and hurried over to KU getting there, but for the grace of God, 5 minutes before my interview time. 

This was the single most intensive interview I have ever attended. They had already looked over my qualifications thoroughly so there were none of the fluff questions at the beginning that you would usually expect. We dove right in. They began asking me about how teaching in Korea has changed me as a teacher and what lessons I have learned. After about 20 minutes of that they asked me to present two sections from both lesson plans while they pretended to be students and created worst-case scenarios for me to react to. I am extremely proud of myself for how I took these obstacles on, I really don't know where all of that awesomeness came from, I'm going to say it came from my parents. The lesson presentations took about 40 minutes all together. Finally we got into the "why KU," "why Korea," "what are your weaknesses and how do you keep them from making you suck" questions, the ones that make you question yourself as a person of worth. At the end they walked me out while allowing me to ask them questions about the work environment. I also am not aware of where the amazing questions I was able to ask came from, again, I just had awesome parents.

DON'T MAKE THIS MISTAKE:

In the email telling me about the interview they had asked for me to bring copies of a bunch of legal paperwork (degrees, ARC, passport, etc.). I had read this as being that the scanned copies from my computer would be enough. NOT TRUE! I freaked out when they asked for my E2 self-health check, ARC, passport, 2 passport photos, FBI background check, and diplomas and said they wanted the originals of all of them. I stuttered a lot and apologized and gave them the few things I had on me (ARC and 1 passport photo) and promised I'd bring the rest tomorrow. This is when I knew they really liked me because one of the interviewers chimed in and apologized, saying that she had realized that the way she had worded the email wasn't clear and had meant to send me another email but had forgotten (WHAT A RELIEF!). The next day I brought the rest of the items in. They accepted my original apostille diploma copies and a copy of my FBI background check. I had originals of everything else.

With all of this being said, the process of getting a job in a university turned out to be an easy, although at times painful and tedious, ordeal. I am still going to look over any interview offers I receive but, at the moment, I am just terribly happy that I will be working somewhere in the city I love, doing what I love, come September.