Recently in Before Korea Category

Well, it's been about a month since I last posted but that doesn't mean nothing's happened. For one, I left Madison and got rid of a lot of my stuff there, and found someone to sublet my room for the next couple of months, so I am free and clear to disappear and never be heard from again. I did find out that my co-teacher had been on a week-long field trip and then a school vacation week so my papers weren't submitted as soon as I thought they had been, which just meant I was going to have to wait a couple more weeks to get the visa.

I finally got my visa insurance number on Monday of last week, and I called the Korean Consulate in Seattle and made an appointment for Tuesday of this week for the face-to-face interview, and then today I was able to pick up my passport with E-2 Visa attached. One pleasant surprise is that the E-2 Visa is automatically a multiple entry visa for Americans, according to the Google, which saves me some time and effort.

Other news, Hilary has been assigned to a school in Namyangju as well, an elementary school, though I don't know the name. Don't know yet if we'll live together or not, but at least we'll be in the same city!

In technology related news, I was given my parents' Nikon D50 as a graduation gift to use in Korea, and I got myself a new backpack that carries both camera and laptop as well as a pocket for various things that handily fits my iPod and headphones. Basically everything I'll ever need all in one bag. Not only that, but since the last time I posted my Xbox 360 gave me the Red Ring of Death so I mailed it in to be repaired, and I guess it's lucky I was delayed getting my visa because I got it back two days ago. Looking online, it seems that it's not too hard to find US versions of games or region-free games so I'm going to try to take it with me.

What more can I say, except please e-mail me if you want to be on my mailing list/alerted when I post here, and make sure to check out the rest of the site (after Sunday) to see my photos and tweets and other crap.

While I still haven't heard anything from the school or Korean immigration regarding my visa insurance number (as they said I wouldn't), I have made some more progress towards being ready to go to Korea.

First, I sold my desk, which is one thing gone that I couldn't keep or take with me, so I don't have to worry about that.

Second, the internet bill has been transferred to Natalie's control, so I no longer have to worry about that either.

I've found someone to take my bed, and my bike, and the hamster, so as soon as we've done the actual physical transfer of items those will be taken care of as well.

In one of the biggest developments, we may have found someone to sublet my room which would be a great relief if we could get that worked out. As it is, things seem to be coming together nicely and I'm looking forward to getting my visa info so I can actually go.

So I just remembered that I can track the status my shipment on usps.com, and lo and behold it was delivered two days ago:

I guess it's only logical I make a real post now that the site is mostly set up. So, here's the status on my Korea plans:

1. GlobalCampus found me a position in NamYangJu at Songra Middle School. NamYangJu is near a giant forest, which is very cool, and a mountain, which is nice. The position is classified as rural so it comes with an extra 100,000won a month.

2. I collected all my documents and mailed them to the school, and now I wait. This process turned out to be a lot easier than I thought it would be. I got my reference letters in about 3 days, I got my transcripts in about 30 minutes by walking into the registrar's office, I had my parents fax me the diploma and the registrar notarized it in about 15 minutes. Then, I walked roughly 5 blocks to the Wisconsin DoJ and asked for a criminal record check on myself, and they gave it to me about 10 minutes later notarized and all official.
 
I took the diploma and criminal record check 4 blocks to the Sec. of State, and had them apostille it which actually only took about 3 hours but they called me 10 minutes before they closed so I had to get them the next morning. Then I photocopied my passport's info page and packaged it all together with the application documents GlobalCampus sent me and it was ready to go.

3. Getting rid of my stuff and subletting my apartment. This has turned out to be not as easy as I hoped, although I can still throw away a lot of my stuff if need be, or leave it behind for someone else.

4. The Visa, now that my documents are mailed I have to wait until Korean Immigration issues me a Visa insurance number, which I can use to get a visa from the Korean consulate/embassy in Seattle (hopefully, but maybe Chicago).

I wait.