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I warn you in advance. This is a long post. It was written in increments over the course of two months. This is the story of how everything flew up into the air, got muddled around, and then finally came back down again.
I warn you in advance. This is a long post. It was written in increments over the course of two months. This is the story of how everything flew up into the air, got muddled around, and then finally came back down again.
July 25, 2012
I need to write this down, to document this
process as soon as possible before I lose it all in a blur of yes and no and
maybe and documents and legalities.
On Thursday, a friend phoned me. Friend may actually be a bit strong,
seeing as we’ve only really had two real-life, in-person conversations. He plays Ultimate in Daejeon, so we met
at a league event and then again at a pick-up game in Daejeon. He is a really lovely guy; amazing
Ultimate player, stunning wife, beautiful daughter, gorgeous big black lab that
perpetuates the myth that dogs play Frisbee not people (this dog is too cool).
Anyway, he phoned and said he might have an
opportunity for me. His university
was looking for a new professor and would I be interested?
Yes.
A resounding yes.
Although I had resigned myself to sticking
with my contract at my current school (and you all know how I feel about my
current school), this university gig sounded too good to be true, so I
submitted my resume.
On Thursday, I was told about the job and
submitted my resume.
On Friday, my friend called to say that the
hiring people wanted to meet me.
On Monday, I received a call from the university
scheduling an interview for Tuesday.
On Tuesday, I interviewed at the university.
On Wednesday, I was offered the job.
Now, this all sounds very fast and it
is. When I look at this timetable,
it all seems so simple, but it has actually been so complicated and emotionally
wrecking.
Let’s start by saying that I really really
want this job. The hours are
ridiculously good, the pay is good, the benefits are good, and the vacation
time is so good that it is laughable.
Additionally, the university might be able to give me drama English
classes.
Drama!
Oh joy of joys! This is perfect and exactly what I want!
But, then comes the logistically crazy bit
that had me crying in the secret stairwells at school today:
I’ll back up a bit. Here is some context.
In applying to come to Korea in the first place, an enormous list of
documents is required. One of
these doozies is a nation-wide criminal background check from the FBI. I always thought that institutions like
the FBI were fairly organized and efficient, but, as it turns out, something as
simple as running your fingerprints through a computer takes months. Literally. I’ve heard it is because they don’t keep civilian
fingerprints on file and that they have to run the prints with all 50 states….
But surely that is what computers are for?
Anyway, the FBI background check is the most
horrendous of the documents required because it takes so dang long.
When I found out about the university job, my
first thought was yay and my second was, oh crap, the FBI. So, I immediately began scouring the
interwebs looking for a way that I would not have to go through this excruciating
process.
The only way that I found was to receive a
Letter of Release from my current employer, EPIK. With this document, I would not need to leave the country
and do a visa run, requiring all new documents.
Fantastic news!
I decided to wait until officially hearing
from the university to make any moves with EPIK; no need to stir the waters if
I don’t end up getting the job, right?
But I like to prepare everything, a lot. So, on Tuesday, after my interview, I
got my fingerprints taken at the local police office in preparation for another
FBI background check. I mailed the
prints, the required documents, and a notarized copy of my undergraduate degree
to my mother so that she could send the prints to the FBI and the degree to the
Secretary of State to get Apostilled.
Then, I went to the bank to transfer money into the account of a South
African woman who is busy working on getting me sealed copies of my UKZN
Masters transcripts and apostilled copies of my degree.
All my ducks were in a row.
And I waited.
This morning, Wednesday morning, I got the
phone call: we would like to hire you.
I was literally shaking with excitement.
I phoned the EPIK coordinator at the Daejeon
Office of Education and explained to her my situation: I’ve been offered an
amazing university job, I know I’d be breaking my contract if I took it, but
can you let me go and can I have a letter of release? She said she would phone back in 15 minutes.
She phoned back. Apparently, they had a meeting in the office about me. Because there are no new quality
teachers coming in, because I did not give enough notice, because so many other
people are quitting, because they don’t usually do these things, they cannot
give me a Letter of Release.
I cried in the stairwell.
I phoned my friend. I told him the situation and how I couldn’t find any other
avenues aside from the letter of release, and now that was not possible. He said he would put some brainpower on
it (what a lovely guy!).
An hour or two later, I get a link from the
friend. This link, unlike the rest
of the internet (and really, I do thorough searches), provided a step-by-step
guide on how to change jobs in Korea.
And, funnily enough, it is possible without a new FBI background check
if you do not leave the country until after your new visa issuance number has
been processed. I’ll have 30 days
after quitting EPIK to get a new contract and visa through the university and
do a visa run to Japan to collect the visa.
I phoned Korean Immigration and this
information was confidently confirmed.
Oh!
How things looked up from that point on!
I got back in contact with the university and
told them that the information I had previously was refuted and that I would be
able to work for them. The
professor in charge emailed me a list of documents that I needed to secure as
soon as possible. Some of the
documents on this list are unheard of: a certificate of employment and a
certificate of career. Vast
internet searches have not yet revealed what these documents specifically
entail and I hope that the professor will respond to my email as soon as
possible with more specifics.
My certified degrees and transcripts from
South Africa are on their way. I
already have transcripts from Northwestern. The degree is en route to North Carolina to be
apostilled. The certificates of
employment and career are awaiting clarification. Everything else (photocopy of passport and ARC, passport
photos) is easy.
Apparently, I have to translate everything
into Korean, so I am looking for a nice friend to assist me with that.
So, all things willing and if time is on my
side, I ought to have a new job come September. It will be tight.
It will be tricky. But it
should be possible. And if not,
then I’ll smile and suck it up and stay in the -dong like I was planning to do
anyway.
August 1, 2012 Update
The saga continues. As it always does.
The process of gathering documents is never
an easy one; different countries, I have found, have different procedures for
documents and timelines for their issuance. But at least the templates of the documents are
streamlined. Korea allows no such
luxury.
There are two documents that have been
requested from me that have caused a great amount of distress: the Certificate
of Employment and the Certificate of Career.
Now, usually I am really good at the
Internet. Seriously. I have mad Google skills. But, searching for these documents made
me feel like I had never experienced the Internet before and, in fact, had
never seen or heard of a computer.
I searched and searched, but nothing came up. There was no definitive answer. The documents were elusive and, as far as I knew, did not
exist.
So, I started asking around. I was given the email addresses of
another professor at the university and asked him. Despite having been hired six months ago, he had no idea
what the documents were. Needless
to say, I felt utterly lost at this point! (Later, he emailed again and said, “oh, I just remembered”
and gave a brief outline of the documents, which did prove helpful. Thank you!)
I would not have felt so devastated, however,
if the university had been able to assist me. Despite phone calls and emails translated in and out of
Korean, no direct answer was given to me.
Finally, after a few days of questioning, I was told that I could come
to the university and look at the documents that previous applicants had
submitted. Good! Could I come Tuesday morning? No, I am working. Um, but you have to come in the
morning. But, I cannot because I
am working; can you scan a document for me or give me a template to use? No, that is not possible, you must come
to the university.
After a bit of hemming and hawing, it was
agreed that I could arrive on Tuesday at 5:30pm and that someone would stay late
and wait for me. This was an
incredibly generous offer.
So, on Tuesday, I snuck out of school a bit early (shhh) and took the
50-minute bus ride to the university, armed with every bit of documentation
that I could find on these dang certificates. I printed what seemed like hundreds of documents that I
found online in the hopes that one would fit, and translated them all into
English so that I might understand what was going on.
I quickly learned that, in fact, there was
NOT a template for these documents, but rather a couple of different versions,
all of which seemed to be totally acceptable. They were all in Korean, so I couldn’t understand the
differences between the documents, but I did come away with the understanding
that any document that I turned in would be sufficient. Hopefully.
So, I boarded the 50-minute bus back to my -dong. (Dong, coincidentally, for those not
living in Korea, means both “neighborhood / suburb” and “pile of poop.” I find this very appropriate
sometimes.) I had answers, I
suppose, but nothing was concrete.
The man I met with actually gave information different to what I had
previously received as well: the transcripts needn’t be sealed and no, you
don’t have to translate everything into Korean, only your resume (this after I
spent all morning translating 7 years of undergraduate and graduate courses
into Korean).
So, I remain hopeful. It seems like the process is different
for everyone and that there is no streamlined procedure. I just hope that no (more) big catastrophes
present themselves in my process!
August 27th Update
So much has happened in this past week.
When I left for Thailand on August 10th,
everything was sorted. All of my
documents had arrived: apostilled university and master’s degrees, original
transcripts, everything. I had
snuck around and secured Certificates of Employment and Career from my current
employer (Uhhh… I need them for my taxes?).
Oh!
This tasty tidbit was left out from previous accounts, but the university,
after saying I did not need certificates of employment and career from South
Africa, changed their tune and required original stamped documents. I frantically emailed DGHS and UKZN and
begged them to sign and stamp (Koreans love their stamps) the documents that I
had attached, scan them to me, and also mail the originals. Luckily, the administrations at DGHS
and at the drama department of UKZN are wonderful and I received the scanned
documents before I left for Thailand.
Thank you!~
I arrived home from Thailand late at night on
Sunday, August 19th. On
the 20th, I emailed the university to ask if there were any updates
with my “hiring process” as they call it.
On Tuesday, I received an email stating that my papers were ready to be
signed. That afternoon, I went to
the university and signed my contract.
My glorious contract.
Then, I asked for an update in regards to my
visa. From my understanding from
Korean Immigration and from online sources, the university needs to apply for a
Visa Issuance number on my behalf.
Only once that number arrives can I do my visa run to Japan to collect
my new visa. This process is
trickier and ickier than it usually is for other professors, namely because I
am not able to secure a Letter of Release from EPIK. As you recall, oh studious reader, I phoned the DMOE
(Daejeon Office of Education) in July when I was offered the job. They told me that I would not be able
to get a Letter of Release no matter what.
Despite specifically and directly giving the
university this information and providing a detailed description, confirmed
multiple times by Korean Immigration, of how to get a new visa without a Letter
of Release, on Tuesday, oh fateful Tuesday, the admin guy tried to take matters
into his own hands. He phoned my
elementary school. He phoned to
try to get a Letter of Release.
You’ll notice that nowhere in this story have
I mentioned how I told my school that I am leaving. That’s because I hadn’t done it yet. There is a tricky morsel in the EPIK
contract that basically says that your flight entrance allowance of 1.3 million
Won is considered a loan until after you have completed 6 months of your
contract. The contract started on
February 26, 2012. Six months
later is August 26, 2012. I knew
that if I told the school, and/or the DMOE, that I was leaving, they would
force me to leave before this six month mark so that they could claim back the
1.3 million Won (this is about $1300 USD). My master plan was to work at the school until Monday,
August 27th, just for good measure. Then I would leave and nothing could be said about the 1.3
million. I tried to play the
system, admittedly…. And I got played.
Tuesday was the 21st. On Tuesday the 21st, my plan
unraveled. The admin guy wanted the
elementary school to provide him with a Letter of Release for me in order to
make his life easier in terms of securing my visa. Of course. I
totally get it. But his error cost
me. The elementary school told him
that they would have to have a meeting and would phone him back tomorrow. Then, he told me, um, does your school
know you are leaving? No, they do
not. I just phoned them. You told them? Yes, they know now. Oooooooooh, (expletive).
On Wednesday, no one said anything at the
elementary school. It was still
camp week, so it was only one co-teacher and me with a handful of
students. Things seemed a little
distant and off between us, but I did not know if she knew and didn’t want to
add any stress to her during camp.
After camp, I wanted to talk, but she beat me to it; I have to meet with
a teacher, I will see you later.
Um, ok. So, on Wednesday,
nothing. No one spoke to me.
I should clarify; no one spoke to me at the
elementary school. The university
was on the phone with me all afternoon.
First, I was asked to persuade my current
principal to give me a Letter of Release:
How likely do you think it will be to get a Letter of Release? Honestly, I think they will laugh in my
face. But what percentage chance? Maybe 1%; but I told you that there is
a way to secure my visa without a Letter of Release. The only difference is that you must apply for my visa
issuance number and then I must go to Japan to collect the new visa. Oh, is this a real way? Yes, I have confirmed it multiple times
with Korean Immigration; I will email you the details.
Finally, Ok you can get a new visa without a
Letter of Release. But now, you
need to have your original master’s degree, do you have it? No, my original degree certificate is
in the United States. Oh, you need
it. But I have a notarized and
apostilled copy; from everything I know from Korean Immigration this is
suitable and even preferable to the original document. Oh, let me call you back. (During this interim, I am frantically
searching online to ensure that the apostilled copy does everything that I
think it does—It does) Okay, maybe
your copy is okay. Bring it when
you come to the university tomorrow.
Ok? Ok.
On Wednesday evening, I received a phone call
from the DMOE. The long and short
of the phone call was: We heard
that you signed a contact with a university, thereby breaking your contract
with us. You have to submit your
letter of resignation tomorrow, otherwise you will be fired. It is better for your resume if you
resign. Also, as you know from
your contract, if you do not complete six months with us, you have to return
the 1.3 million Won flight allowance.
You will not complete the six months, therefore we will take that money
back. Also, we will not return
your housing deposit for 500,000Won.
I asked if I could have some time to think
about everything. I was told: No,
there is nothing for you to think about.
We had a meeting and this is the decision. We can make things very bad for you, since you signed a
second contract. It would be
better if you did what we are saying.
Everyone is very disappointed in you. You acted very selfishly.
Okay, okay. Fair enough. I
did have to make a selfish decision.
But isn’t that how employment works, most of the time? I want to have the most fulfilling and
lucrative job I can find for myself.
If that means that I must quit one job in order to take another, then
that is how things must go.
Additionally, it would be silly of me to not have another job lined up
when I quit my first one.
I acknowledge that I am breaking a
contract. It is unfortunate that I
am having to do this. Those of you
who know me will know that I stick with my commitments and fulfill my
obligations. It is very rare that
I pull out of something that I have dedicated myself to. But the fact of the matter is, if I
were happy in my job I would not desire to take another one. If I were satisfied, I would not
leave. And I have not been
satisfied at all. I have been
miserable. I have felt inadequate
and worthless in this school; I have not been treated like the experienced
teacher that I am. In short, I
have been unhappy in my work, and that has affected all aspects of my life in
Korea. When a better opportunity
presented itself, I took it. It
would have been masochistic not to!
In any case, I was backed up against a
wall. Regardless of how things
turned out at the university, I was out of EPIK. They wanted my head on a platter. I was dead to them.
I had no choice.
Honestly, I did feel that I was being taken
for a bit of a ride and that I might have had a legal argument against my
immediate dismissal and loss of 1.8 million Won (about $1800USD). But, there was no time to find out,
call a lawyer, call the labor board, etc.
Also, I didn’t want anything to come back and haunt me, as I’m sure it
would. I had to decide to be okay
with losing nearly $2000 of my savings.
It is the price to pay for happiness.
On Thursday, I went to school armed with my
resignation letter. Before I
turned it in, though, I wanted to phone the university and tell them that I was
resigning and that now all my eggs were in their basket, so to speak. I wanted assurance that they would
stick by me during the visa application process…
This demands a moment of pause in the
story. The university wants me to
begin work at the start of the new semester (rightly so), which is September 1st. However, it takes two weeks (as per
what the internet says) between the application for a Visa Issuance number and
the receipt of one. Then, one must
travel to Japan, or some such other place, to apply for the proper visa, and
this process takes a few days as well.
Needless to say, this is a long process. Thursday was August 23rd and no visa had been
applied for at this point. If
everything were to take the time suggested online, it would definitely be
September before I could travel to Japan to collect my new visa. Needless to say, I was concerned about
this.
So, I phoned the university on Thursday. I told them I was resigning from my
previous job. I asked if they
would stick with me through the process, and the answer given was very
vague. Too vague. But I had no choice at this point; I
had to resign from the elementary school.
Camp finished for the day and I went up to
the office. My friend who works at
the university was online, so I explained the situation to him and he, being
the lovely person that he is, said that he would write a letter to motivate the
university to stick with me through the process and not drop me.
While I was talking to him, my other
co-teacher, who had been on vacation and not at school that week, came in. Instead of responding to my greeting,
she handed me a Letter of Notice from the DMOE that stated that I would be
resigning today and would forgo the 1.3 million flight allowance and the
500,000 housing deposit. The 1.3
million Won would be taken out of my final paycheck, whereas the housing
deposit had already been paid and just would not be returned.
My co-teacher said, read this and then write
your resignation letter and turn it in.
I told her that I would like to call the DMOE again, just to confirm a
few things, before submitting the letter.
Of course, the person I needed to speak to was out of the office for the
next 30 minutes, so we all awkwardly stood around not talking to each other until
the clock hit 1pm and I phoned again.
The questions I had were answered: about
final pay, about the cancellation of my visa, my health insurance, the transfer
of my pension plan, etc. I must
admit that my contact at the DMOE remained delightful throughout this ugly
process. She never purposely
sought to take advantage of my fragile emotional and mental state.
With my questions answered, I signed my
resignation letter, gathered my belongings, and left the school.
When I walked out of the building for the
last time an odd sense of relief came over me, along with the thought that, no
matter what happens now, I was in a situation that made me miserable and I got
out of it; this is amazing. Of
course, in the next moment my elation ceased as I thought about what might
happen if the university job somehow fell through; where would I go, what would
I do, etc, etc.
Breathe in. Breathe out.
I boarded the bus to the university and
continued to breathe the whole way there.
When I arrived at the university, I was
instructed to fill out the application for the Visa Issuance number (good
good). Then, we embarked on a long
conversation about the difference between an original degree and a notarized
and apostilled copy. I cited the
Korean Immigration website where they say that they accept apostilled copies of
degrees, and not original degrees.
Okay, now that is fine.
Then I was asked, well where is your Criminal Background Check? Again, citing the website, if a
foreigner has not left Korea then they do not need to provide a new CBC when
applying for a new visa; therefore I do not need a new CBC if I leave Korea to
get my visa in Japan only after you have secured a Visa Issuance number for
me. Oh okay.
Finally, the university agreed to send
someone to Immigration on Friday, the following day, to apply for the visa on
my behalf. Things were looking up!
On Friday, I contacted the university and
asked for any updates. I was told
that they had no new information.
Okay.
In the midst of all of this, I needed to
vacate my apartment. Since the
elementary school provided my apartment, and I had just resigned, I needed to
leave the apartment as soon as possible.
Luckily, I have some amazing friends. One amazing friend helped me pack all day on Friday. Another amazing friend has given me her
apartment, rent free, for as long as I need until my visa comes through and I
can find my own place. She lives
with her boyfriend, so her apartment, which has been provided for her, sits empty. Let’s such say that I find some poetic justice
in it all!
On Saturday, movers came and an hour later I
was no longer a resident of the -dong, but rather of… well, some other –dong on
the far East side of Daejeon, affectionately called the “ghetto” by its foreign
residents, but I think it is a rather nice place to stay!
So the weekend passes and it is Monday
morning. I attend a staff meeting
at the university where I am introduced to the other foreign professors (they
all seem so lovely). After the
various meetings, the professor who hired me says, “I will phone you
later. We have some questions
about your documents.” I ask the
admin guy if they have applied for my visa yet. He says that they have not. I cannot get any further information.
Now, I wait by my phone and hope that whatever
queries arise are easily manageable.
I put in another phone call to Korean Immigration today and was assured
that I do not need a Criminal Background Check and that my apostilled master’s
degree is more than suitable. I
cannot imagine what the problem is now, assuming that there is a problem.
My imagination runs wild.
Breathe in. Breathe out.
Repeat.
August 29, 2012 Update
Yesterday, the professor contacted me and
said that there were no problems with my documents and what she had meant was
that she would call me when she knew anything further.
Thank goodness for small misunderstandings!
Today, I again messaged the admin guy to ask
if someone had yet applied for my visa.
His response was: “I heard your visa to person in charge. He said that your visa can receive two
weeks. So you will wait for your
visa sorry.” I responded with,
“Ok, I knew there would be a waiting process. So, my visa has been applied for?” He said, “Maybe your visa pass. If I heard about your anything, I will call you.”
Now, I am not one to judge others in their
ability to speak a second language.
But sometimes I wish things were just a little more clear. What I think I understand is that my visa has been
applied for and now we are in the two-week waiting period. But, I cannot be for certain.
I emailed the
professor:
“Dear Professor,
I spoke with Mr (admin guy) this morning and he
informed me that the person in charge of securing my visa said that the process
at Korean Immigration would take two weeks. Only after two weeks will I
receive my Visa Issuance number and be able to travel to Japan to collect my
visa.
This is the timeline I was afraid of, as it means
that I will only be securing my new visa in mid-September.
I wanted to check with you and see what this means
for my employment at the university. Will I still be hired despite this
delay, which is out of our control? Will I begin teaching on September
3rd? What and when are my classes?
As you know, I am thrilled about teaching at the university,
and would not want this timeline from Immigration to jeopardize my employment.”
I have not yet heard back.
Then the admin guy phones again and asks if I
have resigned from my post at the elementary school. He says okay, because he needs the “retirement” (I assume he
means resignation) documents from the school.
I ask if there is a problem. He says no.
Let’s just continue to hope!
September 1st, 2012 Update
On Thursday, I received some phone calls from
the university that started to put my mind at ease. Apparently, the reason I do not have classes yet is not
because of some issue with my visa and the timeline, but rather because the
students are still registering for classes and therefore numbers of classes are
still in flux. I was assured that
I would learn about my classes next week on Thursday or Friday, and then
classes would start on Monday.
I felt a certain amount of relief after this!
Now, moving along in parallel with all the
university dramas were a fair share of elementary school dramas. I don’t think I’ve mentioned these
before, specifically, but I will touch on them briefly here.
As I am sure I mentioned, because I was
forced to resign before the six-month mark on my contract, I would have to
return the 1.3 million won flight allowance given to me, and additionally I
would not be eligible to receive my housing deposit, 500,000won, back
either. ALSO, since I would not be
finishing the month, they would deduct pay for the days that I would not be working. Okay, fair enough.
Payday was Friday. I was not paid on Friday. On Monday, I still had not received my salary (minus the 1.3
million and the deduction for the other days). I called in.
The school agreed to pay me on Tuesday.
On Tuesday, I checked my bank account and was
shocked at how low the pay was. It
was about $150 less than was I was anticipating, taking all the deductions into
account. I asked for
clarification.
Two tidbits came back to me. 1. The school deducted according to the
“official documents,” and 2. Apparently, despite turning in the paperwork in
March with my co-teacher, I have not been tax-exempt this whole time and
therefore the school took taxes out of my pay as well, this month for the first
time.
My co-teacher told me that she would follow
up on the tax issue, seeing as we did turn in the documents. I must say how generous she has
continued to be throughout my resignation. The fact that she is still communicating with me and helping
me to solve problems reflects so well on her, when I would have imagined her to
basically say “screw you” and never speak to me again.
My co-teacher sent me pay slips, and even
accounting for the tax deduction, the total deducted for the Friday and
Saturday (yes, we get paid for weekends, when we do not work) was too
much. (I divided my total salary
by the number of days in a month to find a daily wage, and what was deducted
was far too much.) So, I asked,
how many days were deducted? The
answer was three.
What three?
I resigned on Thursday; I worked all day
Thursday. Then they wouldn’t let
me come to school on Friday, and Saturday was the 25th, the end of
the month for me. Logically, only
two days should have been subtracted.
I phoned the DMOE and enquired. They followed up with the school.
Eventually, I was reimbursed 80,000 won for
the day (Thursday, the day I worked) that the school had deducted.
I hope to close my communications with the
elementary school soon. I know
they would prefer that! All that
remains to negotiate is the tax issue, and why my paperwork, which I so
diligently submitted, was never processed by the Daejeon tax office.
Of course, on top of all of this, the
university continues to phone the elementary school asking for various
documents. The elementary school
got irritated and phoned the DMOE to ask them to tell the university to stop
calling. The DMOE tells me that
the university is phoning the elementary school everyday and that they must
stop. I tell them that I had no
idea that the university was making these calls, as everything is happening
without my knowledge. I apologized
on their behalf.
Then, I get a call from the university asking
me to ask the elementary school for a Letter of Early Retirement. Now, if you remember, I had received a
phone call from the university earlier in the week asking if I had “retired”
from the elementary school, because they needed the documents. It seems to me that the elementary
school told the admin guy to bugger off, and so now I was being asked to get
the documents.
Luckily, five minutes later, the university
called again and said that “it seems like the elementary school did not issue
this document, so we will have to make it ourselves.” Although this makes my life easier, I cannot help but wonder
if we are now in the business of fabricating official documents?
Oh well.
September 17, 2012 Update
Oh the whirlwind!
When we last left off I was pretty sure that
the university had applied for my visa, but was a little unclear. I thought things were going well in
that regard, but never knew if something might suddenly change. My relations with the elementary school
were coming to a close and I was finally paid the money due to me.
All that was left was to wait for my visa
issuance number so that I could go and get my visa in Japan. (The way things work in Korea is that
if you are unable to transfer your visa with a Letter of Release—the bane of my
existence—then you have to physically leave the country to get a new visa. The trick is, though, that you have to
have already applied for the visa before you leave the country, and in leaving
the country, you only collect the visa.)
On Monday, September 3rd, at
9:57am I received a phone call from the university: We have your visa issuance number. Really? So
soon? Okay! I was given the number and then had to
figure out when I could go to Japan.
Now, I really like to plan, as many of you
know. Usually, when I go on trips,
I have researched everything well in advance; I know where to stay, how to get
from place to place, what restaurants are good, how to say “I am a vegetarian”
in the local language, etc. But,
because I honestly thought it would be another week before I would hear
anything about the visa, I hadn’t done my research. Then—SURPRISE—you’re going to Japan!
So, at about 10:01am on Monday, I started
planning my trip. I figured that I
couldn’t leave that day, that was just too soon and ridiculous. But I knew I needed a minimum of two
full working days in Japan in order to get the visa processed (you submit on
the morning and collect on the afternoon of the next day). In order to get those two full days, I
needed to leave for Osaka on Tuesday, or maybe Wednesday at the latest. Figuring I’d like an extra day, just to
be safe, I decided on flying in on Tuesday and out on Friday (I wanted to be
back in Korea on Saturday for Frisbee practice!).
I booked flights. I found a capsule hotel for cheap cheap (like $15 per night,
as opposed to everything else which was $60 and above), and ignored the reviews
that said it was dirty and disgusting.
I figured I could deal with it.
I researched what on earth I could do during the days and nights while I
was waiting for my visa to be processed.
If I had to be in Japan, I
might as well make the most of it!
A mini holiday! I luckily found
a website titled something like “A vegetarian’s survival guide to Japan” and
religiously copied all the vocabulary words and phrases that I would need to
survive.
By evening, I had my whole trip organized. Somehow, I squeezed in making three plum
cobblers for a friend’s birthday, went to the gym, and had dinner with friends
during the day as well.
At 7am the next morning, less than 24 hours
since hearing that my visa number was processed, I was off to the train station
in Daejeon to catch my train to the subway to the airport.
Like I said: whirlwind!
I’ll skip the details of the Japan trip,
aside from the visa tidbits, as that will be another blog entirely. But the visa hassles are really worth
mentioning here, since they were so apparent!
On Wednesday morning, I was the first person
in line at the Korean Consulate in Osaka.
Nervous as I was, my paperwork was all in order and I was asked to pay
for my visa—I assumed this meant that everything worked out and I would be
receiving my visa the next day. Oh
joy of joys!
On Thursday afternoon, I, again, was the first
person in line at the Korean Consulate to collect my visa. My passport was handed to me and I
stepped out of line. I opened my
passport and found my new visa.
A sigh of relief!
Except… wait a minute… what is this? What is a C-32? I’ve never heard of that before…?
I get back in line.
Um, hello again. I was just wondering: what is a C-32 visa? I applied for an E-2, so I was
wondering…?
Oh.
Um. I made a mistake. When does your flight leave?
Well, thank GOODNESS I had scheduled an extra
day in Osaka! I was able to pick
up my CORRECT visa on Friday morning.
Oh and I doubled checked that thing a million times.
My passport now kind of looks
ridiculous. My old E-2 visa is
stamped with USED. Then, on
another two-page spread are my VOID VOID VOID C-32 (long-term tourist) visa and
my correct E-2. The face on the
immigration official at Incheon Airport was quite amusing upon my return. But no matter what he was thinking, he
let me back into the country on Friday afternoon, much to my relief.
When I turned on my phone on Friday night, I
found a message from the Professor asking me to meet her on Monday at 2pm. I was not given a class schedule.
On Monday, I met with the professor. Then, she congratulated me and shared
my relief that everything had worked out—and I gave her my traditional thank
you gift, a loaf of homemade banana bread. She also gave me my class schedule for the term: Pop Song
English and two Drama English classes!
And classes start tomorrow.
And please have your syllabus online by the end of the week.
Okay!
Now we are in business! Back to the busy, back to real work,
back to the classroom!
I won’t get all gushy here, but the two hours
I spent with my Pop Song class on Tuesday made all the chaos, all the crap, all
the stress of the past two months ABSOLUTELY WORTH IT.
Cloud 9 does not even begin to describe how
wonderful it feels to be in my OWN classroom, in front of my OWN students, and
creating my OWN course content.
And to be teaching things that I LOVE! Oh! The world
is a better place! And I am
happier to be in it!
To add to my elation, I’ve found an apartment
of my own. After a long and
depressing search, a realtor took me into a five-story walk-up and as soon as I
walked in to that 5th floor apartment I knew I was home. A two bedroom apartment, with an open
plan lounge / kitchen, good size bathroom, and a small veranda. Huge windows, lots of natural light and
air flow. The ceilings slant in
all directions, giving the place a lot of character. It is a wonderful, clean apartment, with everything I need
(plus it is 3 minutes to the subway, 5 minutes to the bus to the university,
and 5 minutes to the river). I
feel like a grown-up. I’m not
living in a box anymore! And, how
much for this gem of a place? About
$260 USD per month. That’s nothing. Really. I was seeing one-room garbage places for so much more. I got so lucky.
I move in on September 27th. And I cannot wait.
And so things settle down for me. Tomorrow starts week two of classes
(did I mention I only work ten hours a week and only on Tuesdays, Wednesdays,
and Fridays?). I adore my students
and get to do whatever I want in my classes (hello Karaoke and devised
theatre!). I’m doing project-based
learning and allowing the students to make choices in their education. Last week, my pop song class sang and
my drama classes played drama games (including the 61 year old retired army
commander!). Midterms and finals
will be projects along the lines of making music videos and spoofs on songs in
Pop Song class, and radio plays and live original performancesin Drama. Um, fun!
Everything has turned around in Korea. The sun is shining (despite the typhoon
overhead) and life is much much better.
Let’s recap:
July 19th, I got the phone call from a friend.
Now, on September 17th, I am settling into my
new job as a university professor and looking forward to moving into my new
apartment.
Two months. A whole new world.
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