SK: The Process Begins

When Kate and Chaz left last fall for South Korea, I was a little jealous. Over the last year, more and more of what they have told me sounds outrageously amazing. I've always wanted to be an ex-pat, and the opportunity to work with kids would be so super cool. I didn't think Steven was interested, but I guess I was wrong, because he is.

So we got into contact with the Engelkes', who got us into contact with Kat Lundberg (hi Kat!) who told us about the recruiters she and Kelly used (oh, hi Kel): ATC, or teachersbus - www.teachersbus.com. So we looked at the application, got our reference letters, transcripts, and all of our ducks in a row, and applied last Thursday night. Last night (Sunday night), we got a call from Christina who works for ATC! Wow, we were impressed. Did she know it was Easter here?

We both talked to her, and she was very kind and patient with our questions. She sounded somewhat optimistic, but told us she could not guarantee us spots in Busan (the city all our friends live in) because it's "everyone's" top choice. She also asked if we could live in separate apartments. We said absolutely not. We told her we understand it is a big city, and we understand we'll be in different schools and have to use public transportation - but we need to be in the same apartment, and we would strongly prefer that apartment is in Busan. She said again that she couldn't guarantee it, but that she is going to work on it to see what can be done. She also wanted to know if we could actually leave next month (MAY!). Trust me, I would have loved to say yes, because I love being spontaneous, but I also need to be here through early June so I can say goodbye to my kids before they head home. So we said no, we'd just wait until more jobs became available in late summer or early fall. Finally, she (strongly) encouraged me to get TEFL certification to make me more competitive in the Busan teaching market. It would also increase my pay by $300/month! Ok. You don't have to convince me.

She then e-mailed us information about getting our visas, so we need to start working on that. Of course we have to be hired first, but we want everything to be ready when that day comes. That also means that I need to get on working toward TEFL certification right away -- and that means I may be taking a trip to San Francisco next weekend to begin the first 20 hours of a 100 hour course towards certification.

That's where we are now. I'm going to try to log this as it happens so that others searching for jobs in SK can have a good idea of what to expect, and so I can look back and remember how it happened. Wish us luck!