still waiting...

I haven't heard from the recruiter yet.  She said I'd head about GEPIK at the end of the month.  Its Dec 29, I am worried. 

glory days article

I just read a good article on The Art of Non-Conformity website.


what I considered to be my glory days has changed over the years, which maybe means I don't have any real glory days or maybe it means I keep having them?  Recently I had already become aware of myself talking about my most recent glory days too much.  And I have been trying to stop, but I feel like I still end up talking about them.  Part of it involves my old job, and people new to my field often ask about it.  That's ok, but the thing I really don't like is I am not super experienced.  I only worked at that job for 3 1/2 years.  So I feel a little silly being in a role where I am The Authority on that aspect of my field. 

I was about to write that I hope teaching in Korea doesn't become my glory days for the future, but that's not exactly true.  I hope they are worthy of being glory days, but I hope I don't dwell on them excessively for too long.  I'm sure I will.  I know how I am. 

all the stuff I'm not doing

There's a lot of stuff I should be doing before I go to Korea.  I should be studying Korean.  I should be doing some research about how to teach English or activities for during class.  I should be trying to learn something about English grammar.  Yeah I am a naive speaker, about to take a job teaching English and I don't know anything about grammar.  I probably know more about Japanese grammar (my Japanese sucks now due to not using it) than I do about English grammar since I was actually taught Japanese but with English I just grew up with it.  So that's something i feel I should be learning about a little.  

 I should be cleaning up my place.  And a lot of other little things I need to do.  I have about 2 months if everything goes well, I should be working on all these things instead of waiting till the last minute like I always do.  I guess I am in denial that I am going anywhere.  I have thought about going to teach English in another country for so long, but never followed through, at this point, even though I have done all this work to apply I still feel like its not going to happen.  Plus my life has been stagnating for the past 2 years and I have started feeling like I am not going anywhere.  Geographically or with my career. 

how to gather all the documents

This information is current as of Dec 2009, in Illinois.

Criminal Background Check


Outdated info... skip this paragraph...
It has to be done by the state police, not the town you live in.  Info about it is on the IL state police website.  Its called something else.  There are two kind of checks, one that involves finger printing, and one that does not.  You want the finger printing one.  You can do it the slow cheap way which involve mailing things back and forth, or the fast more expensive way.  The fast way involves finding a "live scan vendor" (Google it.  I used Accurate Biometrics) in your area and having them fingerprint you.  Police told me it would be $30-40.  It cost me $40.  They will give you a receipt with a number on it.  The next day call the state police and request notarized copies (otherwise they will not be notarized and then cannot be apostilled).   I asked how many copies I could get, I was told they only do 2.  That whole thing only took like a couple days.   

2011- As I am getting ready to spend a second year in Korea, you now need an FBI background check.  The FBI website is very good at explaining what you need to do.  You must be fingerprinted, the police can do it.  It was a bit of a pain in the ass doing it in Korea.  I'm sure its much easier to do if you are in the US.  You will send the fingerprints, some personal info, payment (I cannot remember how much) and a cover letter telling them the background check is going to be apostilled and asking for some one's signature on it (FBI website tells you exactly what to ask for).  FBI will return the background check to you, and you must send it to the US Secretary or State requesting an apostille.  FBI will not send it directly to the Secretary of State.  The US Secretary of State website has a form you must send in with the background check.  Cost was $8 per document if I remember correctly.  Their site gave a turn around time of 15 days, which was pretty accurate in my case.  The FBI background check took several weeks.  But I have read on Dave's about it taking months for some people, so get started on that early.  Lack of an apostilled CBC just cost me a job, but I will write about that later.


Certified Diploma Copies

Master's degree
I got my MA from a big school.  I was able to search their website,for certified diploma copy, and found instructions to get them.  They say just send them a photocopy of your diploma.  They'll make up to 5 copies for free!  The school is in another state, so I called to see if they could send them to the secretary of state (in the state the school is located in) to have them apostilled.  They said ok.  I also called the SOS to confirm that I could do that.  I sent a paper for the school giving them instructions along with the photocopy of my diploma, and an envelop for the SOS with instructions for them and my credit card number to charge me for the apostille, which I think was $5 each.  I also found out during the call to my school that its pronounced "apo STEEL" not "apostle," which was embarrassing for me.  

Bachelor's degree
I got my BA from a tiny school near where I live.  They had nothing about it on their website.  When I went to the registrar to request transcripts I asked about the certified diploma copies, woman #1 knew nothing about it, but woman #2, sitting next to her remembered that woman #3 had done something like that before.  so #1 went and asked #3 about it, and came back a minute later and asked "is this for Asia?"  Yes it is!  They know what I want!  When I went back to get the diploma copies made, #3 was going to just notarize my diploma.  I told her I needed copies, I guess the one time she did this before it wasn't for copies, but it turned out to not be a problem.  She copied my diploma, and wrote on the back that its a copy of the original, signed it, and another person notarized it.  There was no special paper they copied it on or anything, just the signature and notary stamp.  I was worried this one wouldn't be good enough for the apostille cause the copy of my MA was printed on special university paper.  But it was ok. 

Transcripts

Schools give these out all the time, they are easy to order.  My recruiter is telling me I need 3 copies.  I don't know why so many.  They are $15 each from the school I got my MA from.  And free (if you can wait 2 weeks, otherwise $15 each) from my BA school. 

Apostille

The Secretary of State does it.  There's not much info about it on the SOS website.  I went to the Chicago office to have it done.  I was worried my BA diploma copies wouldn't cut it, but it was fine.  Only $2 per document.  The documents need to be notarized first.  They must be apostilled in the state in which they were notarized.  For example, I got my BA in Illinois, so when I got notarized copies made, I had to get the apostille from the Illinois SOS.  I got my MA in Iowa, so when I got my diploma copies notarized by the university, I had to get the apostille from the Iowa SOS. 

I felt good when I heard the guy in front of me in line pronounce it "apostle", clearly he is not experienced in these kinds of international processes as I am. 
 
These things were so confusing and stressful when I first started, but now I feel like a pro.  I mean I am assuming I didn't fuck anything up.

The biggest stress ended up coming from trying to get a recommendation letter from my boss. 

finished with the docs

I got my background check and diploma copies apositlled today.  It went fine.  I was worried there would be a problem with something based on some things I had read on Daves.  Someone from my state was saying after getting something notarized you had to get something proving the notary was legitimate then get it apostilled.  But clearly that person doesn't know what they are talking about.  The secretary of state website says documents just need to be notarized before being apostilled,so that's what I did.  It was easy.  It didn't even take long.  Going downtown Secretary of State was the biggest annoyance in the process.

After that I sent everything via Fed Ex to the recruiter.  Now I have to wait. 

cold feet

In the past I have always gotten cold feet and never followed through with applying for any teaching jobs.  Even though I have wanted to do it for so long I always thought of a reason not to.  Now I am finally doing it and I feel too far along to stop now.  What would I do if I decided not to go?  I'd still be bored with my life, and I'll still be thinking about teaching in Asia and wondering what it would be like. I hate regrets, that's why I have to follow through. 

getting the documents

I had a hard time getting my old boss to cooperate with sending me a signed letter of recommendation.  Its like he just doesn't want to listen to what I am asking of him.  Today I finally got the original signed letter of recommendation from my boss after I gave him my Fed Ex account number and told him how important it was that I got it by today.  So it only ended up costing me like $30 and a lot of stress rather than the cost of a stamp and no stress if he had send it 2 weeks ago like I had asked.  He sent 3 copies.  These things are fucking precious.  It was so hard getting it from him I need to save them in case I need them someday in the future.

I also got my apostilled diploma copies from the state I went to school in.  Now all that's left is going downtown to get my other diploma and background check apostilled.  I wish I could have done it today, but I was busy all day.  Gotta wait till Monday now. 

applying with GEPIK

Since I failed the EPIK interview (I don't care.  Really.), I will be putting all my hopes on GEPIK, which is the entire Gyeonggi province.  When I first decided to apply I didn't know if I wanted Busan or the Seoul area.  Sometimes it's nice to have the decision made for me.

interview fail

This is how it went....
My interview was at midnight.  So all day Wednesday I sat around nervously reading about teaching, about Korea and looking over questions I heard they ask.  It was a long day, but finally midnight came.  My interviewer was a young sounding North American.  It was nice I could understand him easily.  I thought I was doing ok, and about half way through he wants to talk about my location preferences.  He said I had only listed Busan and Incheon for my preferred locations and asked if I was flexible with my locations.  I said it depends on where I would go.  Any larger city would be ok.  But all the cities are full.  Incheon is full and he can "pretty much guarantee" I would not get Busan.  Ulsan, Daegu, Daejeon, arent options either apparently.  all that's left are the "regular provinces".  If I am placed in a regular province I wouldn't even know where I would be in that province till I arrived in Korea.  He asked if that would be ok, I said if I was placed in a rural area I would be miserable.  I decided I probably shouldn't refuse outright, though I think I made it pretty clear I wasn't interested, so I agreed to talk to my recruiter about the location later.  There's nothing I hate more than living in a rural area.  So after I found out that was my only option I considered the interview over.  My attitude about the whole thing totally changed.  Both my tone of voice and answers.  "I dunno" almost came out a couple times in response to his questions, but I tried to give some answer.  The interview felt like a waste of time after that but I decided I should just try to be professional and finish the interview, even though I didn't care about the outcome.

Found out today from my recruiter that I failed.  There was no way I would have taken the job, and I know I wasn't even trying after the talk about location, but still it feels a little bad to hear that I failed.  What I am wondering is if I was failing before the location talk?  I suppose it would have been better for me to keep doing my best the whole time just to see if I could do well enough to pass.  But after hearing I wouldn't get Busan, or any other location I would want I was so disappointed that I just didn't care.

interview in 2 days

I got my interview date and time.  Its in 2 days.  Dec 4th 3pm Korean time.  That's midnight here.  I wasn't nervous about it till now.  I need to do some research about teaching methods like the recruiter told me to, and go over the questions people on Dave's ELS board said they were asked.  I am confident but still nervous.