Hi, Korea.

Extending Your E2 Visa in Korea.

Please note everyone's situation is different and regulations are changing all the time. Just thought I'd put this stuff up here because there's confusion about it amongst my coworkers and friends that teach here. Hope this can help out a bit.

I got my visa for another year here. Seoul Immigration required a photocopy of my contract with my school, a health check, criminal background check, my passport, W80,000, two types of academy business registration, a reference letter, and my Alien Residence card.

I got the health check done at Saint Mary's. Lots of running around all over the place there but it was much cheaper than the other places I looked into.

I got a state criminal background check but had to go to the US Embassy and have them vouch for me about having no criminal record.

W50,000 was for multiple entry and W30,000 was for the new visa itself. You'll have to go downstairs to buy stamps for it.

Your school should help you along a bit but it's a bit complicated.

Make an appointment at the Seoul Immigration website if you're short for time.

Here's Your Future

English Spectrum and WorknPlay are the best sites I've found for finding part and full time jobs teaching in Korea. Worknplay used to have a ton more but then the economy got worse and they started charging a bunch for employers to post ads on there.

Anyways I've spent some time on these sites cuz I'm now officially back on the trading block ie lookin for a new job.

Pure Magic.

I'm entering the 4th year of my term in K-Vegas. I've lived the country life in Gangneung, suburban life Korean style in Bundang, and now... enjoying the rush hour in Seoul where the bodies of 5 people might be rubbing up against mine at any one time on the commute on the subway. I got an overpriced apartment in Sadang, south of the river. But at least it's close to the "coolest" part of the city that I never go to, Gangnam.

Life can be a bit isolating for a foreigner at times even in the biggest city in the country. There are alot fewer foreigners around than I thought there would be when I first moved here. But there are two main reasons that have kept me interested in life here. One is that I've met some good friends through work and around and also I got a couple American neighbours (a rarity in this area).

The other is variety in my work. Teaching the kids 30 plus hours a week was kind of wearing on me for the past couple years. So now I teach kids about 20 hours a week and the rest of my work time is spent teaching businessmen one on one, general and business related conversation. My Econ degree is coming in handy after all! The freedom I have now in my life in general is great and I'll keep on this way til things fall apart.

The Man Comes Around.

So I'm teaching kindergarten in the Seoul area. Alright so far, tiring but sometimes pretty fun. Got to take some pictures of the kids (cute) and school (big money) so I can put them on here. Quite a responsibility for my 23 year old person being the sole caretaker of 7 year old kids 5 hours a day... might not be a perfect fit for me but I'll take it. They cry, they pick their noses, they hug me for no reason. I'm with the same kids each day, every day... I'll miss'em whenever I go.

Trying to figure out how much I want to pursure studying Korean. My level is at the point I can survive but if I want to reach the next level I'll have to step it up. But on the other hand I really want to learn Spanish before I settle back in Florida so...

Anyways, Corea is cool (ugh).

The good, the bad, and the... I'm not sure.

The lame and inevitable list of things that are good, bad and the I don't know whether it's good or bad has arrived. We all know things are done differently in the next household down the street, let alone in another country. Being fortunate enough to be able to experience another culture for months at a time has been great. I'll just try to sort my thoughts online here, there are decisions to be made!

The good.
I've made good friends and met really nice people through my local church. I'm not sure exactly where I stand on religion but I do know that I look forward to Sundays. The biggest reasons to stay.

I'm in Korea. Radical.

While not the coolest thing to do, being employed does have benefits. Like when I'm hungry and need money to eat.

I don't need a car here. I would, of course, need one at home. Unless I chose New York or someplace like it to live. Not likely.

Along this thread, I don't want to go home and start racking up bills (car, rent, insurance) and obligations (like a job!) so that I'm in a hole and it'd become financially difficult to pick up and leave again. Say... next spring I want to visit a friend in London for a month. What, my new boss won't let me take 1 month off after working for 6 on the job? Or say I want to live in Mexico for 2 months learning Spanish. Or return to Korea 2 years down the road for 6 more months (maybe half a year is a good time limit for such things, personally).

So... I could lease a car (expensive?), sign a short rent (possible?), and get a temp job (wish me luck). Hmm, no clue what kind of job that would be, either. I still have no experience being part of the American labor force, I delayed that for a year by coming here. What's it like to live in a small American city, paying your own rent? So that possibility interests me, the grass is always greener...

The bad.
It's harder to eat healthily and excersize here (in my case).

On the flip side, I miss a good hamburger and ESPN.

Disrespectful kids. Somedays I wish I never began to learn Korean. It's something that's easy to laugh about with friends, but having it happen to me for the 1000th time and so on wears on me. Yeah, funny thing about kids is that they're in every country. Kids are great, funny, energetic and all that. Definitely. But... edited. I'm posting 99% of my truth here for everyone to see. Sorry, I have some mildly interesting pictures in earlier posts if you look around a bit though!

The I'm not sure.
Stop staring at me, please. Stop pointing at me, please. It's because of the color of my skin, first and foremost. I can even tell you that I've seen 4 foreigners in the past month. So that's why they stare, I'd be curious about the unknown too. But my personal tolerance of it has been wearing thin as of late. I'm not blaming anyone for it, and I knew it was going to happen. It'll be nice to go into a store when I go home and people will barely care that I'm there.

The whole attention thing is in the I'm not sure catergory because plenty of great stuff comes about from it as well. Nice Korean people, everywhere. All the time. Simply because of how I look. I'm guessing they're happy/interested/amused someone not Korean is around. That's what I can gather from my friends.

Why did the taxi driver give me $2 off my fare the other day? Was he really impressed I had no clue where I was going and equally floored by my horrible butchering of his language? He could use the money alot more than I could, I am sure of it. Tiny things like this keep reminding me it's not about the money. I often forget.

Why did the shopkeeper send his son running after me on the street to call me back into the store where he accidentally overcharged me ($20 overcharged actually... don't ask, I was tired), so he could give me my money back? He probably would have done it for a Korean, too. It probably would happen in America, too. Great, nonetheless.

Um, summer is coming. I don't think this place has air conditioning.

Why do you keep giving me free/extra food, you nice lady? Do I look chronically underfed? Not likely.

Safety. Wow, I feel safe here. Walking around town that is. If it wasn't for some rowdy northern neighbours it'd be great.

Health care. I don't know how good it is. Everyone has to go to the doctor every once in a while. I'm in no hurry to find out how it is around here.

So that about wraps it up. I mentioned before that I was homesick. It's really not too bad. I'd prefer to meet some more English speakers, but I'm a bit shy about such things. My personality also doesn't lend itself towards being a career teacher, but I must be doing something right since I've made it for 6 months. I think if I lived in a bit larger city, knew more people and had a different profession (the chance of that last one here is about nil) I'd stay for a few years. The grass...

I think it helped me to get my thoughts down. Most of what I mentioned begins and ends with me, of course thanks to a bit of input from my environment. The cliche it is what you make of it applies here. If I could do it over again, I'd still come here. I've made a pretty good 6 months of it, consulting must be done for the next 6.

My body is very weak.

More than 25 hours a week of classroom teaching time can be a little tiring. I don't know how my students feel. They spend more than my 25 hours in private after-school academies and at home studying. Add on the time they spend in public school during the day and I can see why they're bouncing off the walls. Such long hours led my student to say, in the very clear fashion that often is a benefit of learning a new language, "My body is very weak." He just wasn't mentally tired. And I doubt he had much physical activity this week. Some of these kids get winded after some simple rough-housing in between classes.

Chinese overload, on the BBC Asia-Pacific news site at 01:16GMT the word China appeared 12 times. The word Korea... 0.

IU falls to Minnesota...

Never microwave those microwaveable rice packages you can buy in E-Mart with tuna on top. The rice gets all dried out for some scientific reason that is beyond me.