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.

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.

The mail is full of surprises!

So yesterday I got my passport back again. This is good news because you need a passport to travel overseas, but it also has my new married name on it! Hurray!  That was something I was a little worried about and still sort of am as some of my documentation will have my new last name and some will have my maiden name. I'm confident that it should sort itself out though. 

What else have I been doing lately? Well, aside from working and volunteering at the Children's Museum with Zach, I have actually been preparing in a different sort of way. Because we will be packing for a year, I've been spending a good amount of time loading up my Kindle Keyboard with books so that I won't have any lack of reading material while on the way to/from and while over in South Korea.  I have been trying to cut back my book collection at home and took a good number of boxes to Half Price Books, but now I definitely need to make up for it. 

Zach is getting a Kindle too for his birthday, so I'm also trying to help him find some reading material for it. Let's just say that the Amazon eBook Store is full of interesting surprises. Think along the lines of "oh dear, did someone actually write THAT?" The answer is yes. Someone, somewhere, has thought up some sort of notion that you most likely find (interesting?) utterly ridiculous, to which you just acknowledge that it's not your cup of tea and continue on your search. Speaking of reading, anyone have any good recommendations for books or stories for me to take along?

What is an apostille and why do I need it?

Today, I wanted to take a look at one of the necessary steps for preparing and/or teaching overseas, which is that whole apostilling (is that even a word?) process. Before we started this whole process I had never even heard of the word apostille, so obviously I had no idea how important it is.

So what is an apostille? Through some research we determined that an apostille basically just verifies our documents for international use. That includes things such as degrees, those spiffy FBI background checks, and apostilles are used for a variety of other things too.

Per the FBI website:  "*An apostille is a certification that a document has been “legalized” or “authenticated” by the issuing agency through a process in which various seals are placed on the document."

In our case, after the FBI background checks are completed and make their return they have to be sent right back out again to be apostilled. For something like the background checks, the apostille has to be done by the US Secretary of State and there is a fee associated with the apostille. This process can take a few weeks, but not as long as the background checks themselves.

Now, in the case of this apostille, there are several options. You can expedite the process by using priority mail or some sort of speedy shipping option (with tracking as desired along with self addressed and stamped envelopes for the return trip) or you can send them normally, if you aren't in any particular hurry. Just be prepared for the price increase as you take advantage of faster shipping options. You also have the option of driving to the Department of State during their brief working hours, convincing a friend or relative to do it for you, or paying an actual agency that does it to take care of the apostille. In our case, as soon as the background checks return, they are going out in the mail for the end of the worst of the paperwork.

There is one more leg to go with the apostille process though. You also need to get a copy of your degree notarized and apostilled too. The notary can be completed by any notary (just make sure it's done right!), but then it must be sent to the Secretary of State of the state that the notary was completed in. It doesn't matter if your degree is from another state, but the notary and apostille must be completed in the same state.

So we had the notary done locally here in Indiana and it was shipped out to the Secretary of State in Indianapolis, Indiana shortly after. We did run into a hitch though, and that was due to the notary public screwing things up so that they were sent back to us incomplete. Thankfully we were able to go to the shipping store where the corrections were made and shipped out without costing us even more money. We're hoping to get them back soon.

As a side note, we ran into another hitch with the degrees and that was due to the UPS losing them in the process of sending them from Indianapolis to about an hour North. Not cool UPS. Claims have been filed, however, and we are expecting them soon.