Preparing for Korea, August 2013

 Getting ready for my 14 hour flight

Saying Good Bye to Pebbles

Saying Good Bye to Izzie--This sums up our relationship

                The time has finally arrived for me to finish packing up my bags and move to Korea for a whole year! It has been a crazy couple of weeks here. The family went to Maine, as usual, the last week of July and then we were home for a couple of days before heading out to the West Coast to visit PJ and see California for the first time. Vacation in California was fantastic and it was great getting to see PJ before leaving for this upcoming year in Korea. The only problem with so many vacations is that it made packing and my preparation a bit crazy. Luckily my mom was as fantastic as ever and helped me scramble around the DC/MD area to get everything from my Korean Visa to new clothes at New York and Company.

                As many might know I am with the program called EPIK (English Program in Korea). The application process started all the way back in January 2013 when I first started researching teaching English abroad programs. I narrowed it down to about four programs. There was the North American Language and Cultural Assistant Program in Spain, the Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship, JET (Japan English Teachers) and EPIK. Japan’s application didn’t open until fall of 2013 and Fulbright didn’t open until May so in January of 2013 I focused on applying for both Spain and Korea. I had also heard that JET was a very competitive program, requiring a lot of experience in the education field and for Fulbright you had to apply to a specific country. I had initially wanted Fulbright as a gateway to returning to Africa but after speaking with my advisor realized that my most probable placement for Fulbright would have to be in South Africa, specifically Cape Town. Although I loved Cape Town it was very similar to the states and I wanted to be pushed out of my comfort zone. There are other countries in Africa requiring English teachers but they are mainly in Western Africa and require French language skills. Not to mention that most positions available on the African continent were for university or collegiate level and I was more interested in working with kids. So my focus was narrowed down to EPIK or Spain. However, Spain required Spanish language skills which I possess but I feared were not strong enough for this program. A quick note about Korea is that the government runs two native English Teacher Programs; EPIK and TALK. With EPIK you are a full time teacher teaching both curriculum classes and after school classes. However with TALK you only teach afternoon classes, it is intended for people either in college or just having graduated and there is supposed to be more support. Although I met the curriculum for both, I chose EPIK as I was ready to be an adult and not be nurtured or coddled as I thought I would have been in TALK. This also made it a lot scarier. As I kept telling my dad it’s scary for a lot of new grads who are going out into the world on their own for the first time but not only was I becoming completely independent and going into the “real world” but I was doing it in a foreign country!

Anyways, by March I had submitted my applications to both Spain and EPIK and two weeks later was granted an interview with EPIK. Then a couple of days after my interview, on my birthday actually, I learned that I was accepted into EPIK! Then the real headache started. For the next four months I spent countless hours and money driving around the state and submitting things online to complete the EPIK process. It required a FBI Criminal Record Check (which required me to go get fingerprinted), apostilled copies of my diploma (which required me to go to PG County Courthouse and to Annapolis), certified letters of recommendations, notarized copies of my passport, passport photos (in professional attire), multiple trips to the Korean embassy for my VISA, a residency certificate so I could be exempt from Korean taxes, a completed TEFL course (which I had to pay for and do over the summer) and a variety of other small errands. However by August all of this was complete and all that was left for me to do was pack.

                Packing created a whole new list of tasks to check off. The Korean people are generally smaller than Americans especially when it comes to shoes. So I had to buy a whole bunch of new shoes. Not to mention for the past four years my attire has basically consisted of exercise clothes and now I had to have a whole new professional wardrobe. This led to many hours racing around department stores with my mom, all of which was a lot of fun!

                Anyways, back on topic here. So all the family vacations are over and it’s time to tie up loose ends here and get ready to move. On Friday I taught my last BodyPump class at the FDA and said good bye to everyone there before doing some last minute errands and going out for an early family dinner at MiRancho which was as delicious as ever!!

                Saturday morning I wanted one last exercise so dad and I took one final run down Sligo Creek Parkway before having an awesome Brice family brunch and heading to the airport. Everything at the airport went smoothly including exchanging a huge amount of USD for Korean Won which I was hoping would last me until my first paycheck at the end of September (which I strongly suggest if anyone is going to Korea, roughly 1000won). Surprisingly saying goodbye to the parentals and Lainie wasn’t as hard as when I left for Botswana even though this was for a longer period of time. I’m not sure if I realized how long a year would be or if, having been through it before, it was as hard. I think I also knew that I was going to a country that was known for high speed internet so staying in touch would be much easier than in Botswana.  Plus I had a 14 hour flight to prepare myself.

                I had some time at the airport, plus my flight was delayed so I spent the time making some last minute phone calls to family and friends and looking at my fellow passengers. After inspecting the other passengers I realized I was one of two white people on the plane and everyone else was Asian. At first I assumed they were all Korean but once on the plane, I realized that there were a Chinese school group and therefore I was not the only one who didn’t understand everything the flight attendants said. I also distinctly remember looking at the other passengers clothing trying to understand what fashion was in Korea. I saw one lady with the shortest little shorts I had ever seen on a mom. Something that I soon learned was the norm in Korea: High collared shirts with short shorts!!

                The plane ride was uneventful except for some pretty good food and a variety of movies. I got to watch Beautiful Creatures (which was nothing like the book), Hunger Games, The Call (really scary) and a bunch of TV shows. What was cool about flying Korean Air is that they gave you a little pack that included headphones, a night mask, toothpaste/brush and slippers. I had no idea what to do with slippers. Only later after living in Korea for a while have I realized the importance of slippers and in-door shoes. I kept looking around at the other passengers trying to figure out what to do with these slippers. Am I supposed to wear them to the bathroom even though they are just paper? Are they just to keep my socks clean? What do I do?

                After some great meals, some great movies and no sleep, I heard the flight attendants call that we would soon be landing in Seoul and to please prepare for landing. The time has come. I made it to KOREA!