Interview and jobs woo?

How many bears can you spot in this photo?

So good news!  We have done some interviewing and actually achieved the long awaited procuring of jobs in our search for work in Korea.  The interviewing was actually really interesting, the language gap was very large in some cases, but in others it was really not a big deal.  Amanda seemed to have a harder time understanding some of the interviewers, but was also experiencing issues with my phone so I won't hold it against her (much).  The questions were pretty basic, like "Why do you want to teach in Korea?"  "Do you enjoy working with children?"  "Do you know the Muffin Man?"  We had in total about 5 different interviews, while I was very nervous for the first one it goes easier as we went along.

We ended up getting offered two of the jobs we interviewed for.  One in Daejeon which is one of the big places we originally wanted to end up, and Cheongju-Si which is the contract we decided to take.  The school is a kindergarten which fits into our age range, and we will be finishing classes at 7pm which would work better for me since I am an early bird.  We will post pictures and progress as they happen, our tentative leaving date is currently August 17th assuming all goes well with the visa process!  We're hoping to send out our documents tomorrow which will cost us a lot of moolah but it will be worth it in the long run!

Anticipation and interviews

Feeling a little sheepish about interviewing?  More information on the 10 o'clock news!

It's been a rather exciting couple of days for us. By exciting I mean that we've been talking to recruiters and emailing them back and forth about possible options and things seem pretty neat. There are still quite a few steps ahead of us, but it's exciting to be speaking to representatives and interviewing (by phone) for potential positions in South Korea. 

Tentatively, we're going to be speaking to people from schools in Gangdong-gu, Seoul and Daejeon, both of which have their positives and negatives. One would have us at the same school, but starting more immediately than may be good for us; the other would have us at two different schools owned by the same person, but would start at a more convenient date and puts us closer to the middle of the country which makes areas accessible by bullet train. Of course, we have to get through the interviewing process and then tackle contracts and visas, but one step at a time right?

As far as interviewing goes, that whole thing that this entry was supposed to be about, it seems like there really is no standard. My reading has lead me to believe that there really is no consistency and that schools really want to hear that you're enthused about teaching and working with the children. It's also good to ask questions because hey, there is probably a lot of information you want to know, right? and to show them that you're interested. I know that I want to know more about available resources, class sizes, what the day looks like, etc. Plus, it's nice to have some clarity of how things work both at the school and with housing and your location.

We will be keeping logs of questions and things discussed for the interviews as well so that we can share them on here later. Good for anyone who might be curious and also good for us for future reference for other interviews we will more than likely have.

Korean food is delicious

So part of our ongoing cultural research into South Korea has been learning about the people, and specifically what they eat.  We were lucky enough to have the chance to sit down at an authentic Korea restaurant located in Indianapolis called Mama's House Korean restaurant.  As I've stated before in an earlier post food is going to be one of my biggest issues adjusting since I am a pretty picky eater.  That is what I thought at least, because when we went to Mama's it was an explosion of awesome in my face, with the flavors being delicious yet a million times healthier for you than American cooking.

Another bear filled with LIES

Mama's is unique since it is such an old restaurant they get away with having the ability to cook your food right on the table with little mini grills which use large mortars of red hot charcoals to cook the food.  

Under that mysterious grill lies hundreds of degree of deliciousness

We were given the dinner portion for 6 people, while eating in Korea it is customary to get a bunch of different things and share with the entire group.  The meat in the above picture is a pork marinated in a soy sauce.  There were also large slices of beef marinated in the same sauce.  There were a million different sides  to the food, all of which were balanced to meet your daily dietary needs.  To eat this delicious meal you simply had to grab your meat, wrap it in lettuce (with any extras you may want) and shove it right in your mouth.

So much food, so much food.

Personally I liked the pork better than the beef, not only due to it being right in front of me, but it just had a more savory taste.  I filled my lettuce wraps up with wild onions, pork, bean paste, and white rice which was honestly one of the best meals I have ever eaten.  

After the meal

We were lucky enough to eat with a Korean friend of Manda's grandparents named In Suk.  We will post more about her in another entry.  She has been helping us prepare to go overseas by giving us all the information we will need to succeed.  We're very excited to get started.  We just hope to be out there very soon.

New Blog Time (Or Manda is impatient)

M and Mischa meet... fluorescent minerals?? 

Because I am impatient, I figured today is as good a time as any to introduce and start up the new blog. After some careful planning and thought, I think I have the gist of it. The schedule is still up in the air, but hopefully we will have figured out something somewhat consistent in the near future. The goal of this blog is fun, so we're hoping to have a lot of it.

Have any recommendations of places they should visit? Please let us know. 

So, without any further delay I give you:  M and Mischa See the World

Waiting sucks! Also trip to Pennsylvania

So Amanda and I went on a nice trip to Pennsylvania (my homeland) to visit my family and have my super special 27th birthday.  While the trip was fun it made me realize how much I miss PA, which I am sure will only get worse once we are in South Korea.  It has really made me at least start beginning to shape our plans  for once we get done with teaching in South Korea.  Perhaps we will begin to look for positions out on the east coast for when we get back.

That is one of the nicest things about the ESL Honeymoon, it gives us things to look forward to when we get back.  I am sure that we will be homesick when over there but luckily we will also be together which will make it easier to bear.  

                                                                  one of these things

As for the update on our positions we are still searching for the position which would be right for us.  We are currently going through a few agencies to find the positions which would fit us best.  Otherwise not much to report, but here are some more pictures of bears I got off of Google image search!

Look at these fabulous bastards

Thinkin' about honey and eating faces

You're not even a bear, why are you here?

Look at that rainbow, KABLAM

Anywho I will try to get around to updating more again, I just must stop being lazy.  Till next time!

Another blog? What?

Mischa, world; world, Mischa. Mischa starts out exploring by visiting Reading, PA (with M)!

Things have been more busy lately, so we have unfortunately not been able to post as often as we would have liked. This South Korea stuff is serious business. In the time between our last posting we took a short trip out to PA and have been working on getting ourselves overseas. Plus, a few other fun things.

I'm just going to touch on another topic, and that is that we are going to be starting another blog. You're probably thinking, hey, why are they starting a new blog when they can't even keep up with one, but the new one is very different. Once I'm actually able to get pictures uploaded for said blog, I will post it on here too, but for now I will just be posting a synopsis.

So, without any further delay, I will give you a synopsis of the new blog of Mischa (a green monkey from my place of employment), and capitalMperiod (also known as M, who is a fluffy bison) and their adventures. Reading about new places is always interesting, you learn a lot of things by reading, but sometimes you need pictures too. I love taking pictures and photography, so I thought this would be a fun way to bring a bit of home to our travels and show everyone a little bit of fun (which may be a fun thing for teachers and other educators we know too).

As of right now Mischa and M have visited Reading, PA and they've also visited a neat historical site in Indiana which we're hoping to add as well. Maybe this will be the start of lots of fun adventures with our fuzzy friends for the world to see.

An informal (but informative) meeting

Just in case you were ever wondering how to look at a map, don't go by this. Benny Boo has decided that he is king of the map and has rather effectively covered up North Korea. 


So earlier this week, on Thursday, we had the pleasure of meeting and having lunch with a kind woman who used to be a local Methodist (assistant?) minister at the church my family attends. Now, why would we do this exactly? Well, she is actually from South Korea (and was enrolled in the military as well), still has family in South Korea, and has a lot of information about the area that we obviously would not have.

We visited the church that In Suk belongs to now and got to chat with her for a while before going to lunch. She had a lot of information for us just in general and about things we should see and do while we're visiting the country. She rolled out the map that Benny was laying on above and pointed out that we should head down to Busan by bullet train (it apparently takes 2 hours or so, wow!) and check out the southern islands. She also let us know that we should definitely visit Jeju Island to the south, because it's so different and interesting. Of course, we also have to visit the many palaces in Seoul while we're there too. We're going to be busy on the weekends!

In Suk told us that she has family scattered throughout the country, which was fascinating. She has a niece who is actually teaching high school students in Seoul currently. Her family, I believe she said, also lives in Gwangju which is to the south east, near the coast. In Suk also regaled us with information about her family's adventures and one nephew's adventures from South Korea to the US for boarding school (and NY University) and back again.

We talked about how South Korea is very natural smelling, unlike the US which smells very artificial. Going along that vein, she talked about the food and how different is. She explained that fish is a very big food source for South Korea and that fish from the different coasts taste different and how much different salt is there compared to what we know here. We (we being In Suk, Zach, and some of my family) are also hoping to visit a restaurant in Indianapolis that is nearby called Mama's Korean Restaurant to sample the food and see how and what things are so we are prepared for the sights, sounds, and smells of South Korean food. She made sure to highlight the fact that drinks in South Korea are very small portions, smaller than what we're used to, definitely.

Another piece of information we were provided with is that when she was in school, she attended a school like the places that many English speakers go to. Hogwans are prep schools where families pay to send their children so that they can excel at a variety of subjects. In Suk let us know that when she would be in school in South Korea, she would have normal school and would then be in school until later in the evening, not getting back home until midnight.

That being the short of it, there was also lots of other information shared, but we will hopefully have another interesting time going to Mama's. It's really interesting to hear about so many people having experienced this or knowing people who have who have loved it.