CAA: Christian Anime Alliance

Dear Luke

This is the VISA CONFIRMATION NUMBER. Please contact the Korean Consulate first. They will give you more information in obtaining an E-2 visa.

(the number)

NAME INSTITUTE: GnB English School
ADDRESS: 157-3 Yongdu-ri Gongdo-eup Ansung-si Gyunggi-do South Korea
Mobile number: School phone number 82-31-618-4027
Cell:82-10-2290-1141
Director: Young Soon, Lee

Anyway, this is the basic steps you will need to know in getting the visa stamped

1. First, contact the Korean Consulate near you.

2. Second, you can go in person or mail (FEDEX MAIL) to the Korean Consulate your passport, your visa application form, VISA CONFIRMATION NUMBER, a processing fee and a prepaid return postage. Please note, sending by registered or express mail is advisable. (This process take 5-10 days, going in person will take one or two days. The actual number of days will depend on the Korean consulate you are registering you visa at. (Once done, you can fly at once)

3. Third, wait for the Korean consulate to contact you for the IN-PERSON interview.

4. Fourth, after the interview, you will need to wait for your visa to be stamped on you passport. Don't forget to check. (Takes 2-3 days)

4. Fifth, wait for you flight reservation and E-ticket

5. Finally, you are ready to fly.

If you have any questions, feel free in contacting me by email

Best,

Esther

Well, it looks like it's happening a bit earlier than I expected. I had been thinking it'd take at least 10 days to get the visa application number...

I'm headed to Korea soon.

Congratulations!

Pyeongtaek! A growing area (a lot of the US forces are moving out of Seoul and down into that vicinity). Best of luck to you!

Best luck to you and I'll be praying!

So... I'm going for my Visa interview on Thursday. The person I spoke with at the consulate told me it only takes a day to get the Visa, so I should be able to pick it up Friday. That may mean I'll fly out on Sunday, but it may be a few days.

This is all happening quickly. I'm looking forward to having to pay hefty duties (about $140) to cover all my personal effects, plus another loan payment to be made soon, but I'll still have a good deal of money left to live then next month after that and a gift for a friend. I'm nearly certain I won't have to pay my way there (but my parents said they'd loan me the money if I did have to)

I found out Korea is in the same bluray region as the US and Japan, so I can buy blurays there (though not DVDs) and Korea is NTSC, so provided they use RCA plugs, I should be able to use my PS3 as soon as I get a plug adapter (PS3 has universal power, unlike the other two systems... Very travel friendly! Except, you know, the size...) and I'll have instant access to all of my movies, and as long as I only buy bluray, I can watch their movies too... Well, I suppose I could rip region 3 DVDs with my laptop, if it came to that, or even pick up a cheap DVD player after my first paycheck or so...

In any case, I'll be jumping into this mid-semester, taking over as an emergency replacement for a teacher who had to go back to the US due to family issues... I hope I have some time to recover from Jet Lag, but I won't count on it... My life is going to be a blur for the next couple months, no doubt.

Annyeonghi gyeseyo! (well, not QUITE yet)

Congratulations Bob!

Have a fun trip, whenever it begins.

Congratulations~ You must be so excited!

That sounds fantastic. Hope for all the best with it .

Congratz:thumb:

So here's an update.

The Agency told me that they wanted me to fly out 2 days after getting the Visa. That means I'll be leaving on Sunday, if the Consulate says that I'll have my Visa for sure the day after I have the interview.

My mom's freaking out now... I am a bit, too, but not the way she is.

:O. Sounds like things are moving right along then. Pretty fast too. Not that that is necessarily a bad thing.

Good to see you're keeping your cool as well. As for your mother, well, what are mothers for if not the voice of reason, eh? (Or is it the voice of hysteria in this case... either way )

Hope all goes well for you man. I've prowled here (these forums) longer than I've been posting, but I've noted you to be a particularly nice guy, so again, all the best with it hey (and even if you weren't a nice guy, hoping for all the best anyway ).

Congratulations Bob! I knew you could do it!

So I found out I'm going to be paying 220 dollars in excess baggage fees because my stuff is 5 linear inches oversized a piece.

Cheap-(...) airline they sent me on... How do they honestly expect me to move to another country with smaller pieces of luggage... I'd never be able to take all I needed in smaller suitcases.

This is in addition to whatever the stupid customs are going to make me pay... Even without having to pay my way there, this is already an expensive trip. Korea has a 400 dollar limit based on what they THINK you may have paid. Japan had a 2000 dollar limit, and I didn't think I'd go over that, but 400... I mean, my videocamera blows that, ignoring all my other stuff... I don't carry receipts for stuff like this, either, and I hope they don't assume korean prices on my movies and games...

EDIT: Some people I know who'd spent several years in Korea told me that I should be fine as long as I put "personal effects" on the declaration card. They should only do something if they think I'm bringing things to sell. The only problem is it's been 4 years since they traveled. We'll see, I guess.

I leave in 13 1/2 hours now. I'm all packed up... Here goes everything!

Bobtheduck (post: 1351252) wrote:I leave in 13 1/2 hours now. I'm all packed up... Here goes everything!

Moving forward in life is so exciting, so try to enjoy the excitement. You will do fine. I will give you the thumb up of assurance!
May God be with you on your journey my friend!

One of my friends from college teaches English in Korea. You're going to love it! Good luck and congratulations!

*Hugs* Congratulations, Bob \o.o/ I wish you nothing but the best while there (and anywhere) ^__^

We'll wait anxiously for whenever you're able to pop back on and give us an update. May God bless you in your endeavor!

Congratulations.

So the Bob is in Korea now.

Do you think you can potentially give us some photo updates? I'd love to see your progress!

I'll have some photos up soon. All I have now is pictures of my room when I got here as I was unpacking. I"ll also have a vid or 3 up on youtube, but with my crappy digital cam, not my camcorder because I don't have a firewire port on my laptop.

Edit: I just got back from the doctor's. The Korean teacher I went with was worried it would be very expensive because I don't have insurance yet. I was too, but he was "really sorry" about a 36,000 won (just for simplicity, I'll say 36 dollars) visit + prescriptions. Where I'm from, at least, a visit to the doctors without anything else would be about 45 bucks (no insurance) and prescriptions (which are filled differently) are a different mess altogether.

I've got a cornucopia of medicine to take, now, and a mask to wear when I'm in public (which I forgot to say thank you for, and I think the Korean teacher was embarrassed) and I still get to follow the other English teacher around when she goes to the Kindergarten.

Right now, I officially have only 2 or 3 classes a day, but I'm supposed to follow the other foreign (She's from Manchester, England, and all the kids know about Manchester because, I think, of the soccer team there) teacher around to her classes and in the Kindergarten in the morning, which I'll also be, um, "teaching" starting next month.

I'll take my camera with me to the school tomorrow (I'll need to buy a battery charger soon, though) and snap pictures of the area. Some of the girls in one of my classes all had to snap pictures of me on their cell phones, and shoot video of me whistling, which they thought was really funny for some reason.

What I was told by the other Foreign teacher here is that in this type of school (Hagwan? Private english school), the Foreign teachers are used more as bait to lure parents to enroll students, and not so much as actual teachers. This has left the other Foreign teacher's classes rather... ineffective. I've tried to do something halfway in between what they expect from her, and a full lesson, though. I feel terrible just giving them word searches and such, so I try to expand on them, talking about the subjects of the word searches, drawing pictures and miming and talking about them

One of my classes today, I did a word search about fruit. I tried to talk about each one of the fruit on the list, and I'm learning (very difficult, because it is 100% against my instinct) to speak P-a-i-n-f-u-l-l-y------s-l-o-w-l-y. The second class I tried the same things, but they got distracted when they saw the word searches, which amount to time sinks and don't really teach much, even though they can read the words on them. They wouldn't listen to what I was trying to get them to talk about (bugs) and instead grabbed for the word searches. I ended up wasting a lot of time with that, but I used the time they were doing that to write all the names of the bugs on the board and draw pictures of them, and throw in a few more. It went well once they finally finished the search, but I think I may have shorter word searches for them next time... I would like to spend more time talking and less time doing... that.

The director is supposed to be very nice, and I don't have any real reason to say he's not, but I have a difficult time reading him, particularly since he doesn't speak English well (gotta love irony) His wife is in charge of payroll and deductions (for maintenance on the apartment, insurance which I don't have yet, cell phone bill, pension, etc) and I see her far less than I see him.

My first two days was a bit more of a disaster, though... I was thrown into this with basically no instruction, because the director didn't speak English well. I didn't know what level the kids really were, and to be honest I still don't really know. That makes it difficult to plan anything, but more recently (after learning to slow down a lot and not feeling (too) embarrassed about it) I've been able to connect with them pretty well, with copious miming and sound effects. The worst part, though, is remembering to actually use grammar correctly, because it's a huge temptation, particularly when I'm in slow speaking mode, to talk like a caveman, and I know that really won't help any of those kids.

I don't think I've found my wife yet, hehe (my Dad says I'll come home married, and have “Korean grandchildren” for him. He had wanted to adopt a Korean baby in the '50s, because he was in the Military (but not in Korea) during the Korean war and saw a lot of the destruction (in film reels and such, I'd have to guess) and wanted to help out. He wanted to rescue the kids from that. Due to red tape, mostly, he wasn't able to do this.

So, yeah, Pictures will come tomorrow after I get back from the school.

Got my money converted before I went. For simplicity's sake, I'll say 50,000 won is 50 dollars (It's actually less than that, but... When I shop, that's how I treat it.)



My flight, Asiana Airlines. It was much better than I thought it would be in one regard (cargo allowance) but it was rather uncomfortable... 13 hours of nothing. I listened to Deathly Hallows for much of it, turning it off occasionally and I watched Star Trek for part of it...



My seat on the airplane. I could chose the movie I wanted to watch. I could have chosen Transformers 2 (which I haven't seen) and a few others in addition to Star Trek (which I had seen) and I still chose Star Trek (though I watched part of Transformers 2 without the sound on)



My Bedroom



My Bed. It's not the most comfortable mattress in the world, but it's ok. No sheets, just a matress cover and a comforter.



THis is the room I have to hang things to dry. I don't think I'll be doing that for my nicer clothes, since I never learned to iron anyhow...




Finally got smaller money, keep it in my passport case



For those pesky derivatives and integrals



I had to buy a power strip (and a cable for my PS3) when I got here because both of the main plugs were taken up by the fridge and the TV.

I ended up getting paper towels by accident instead of Toilet paper... I doubt I'll have much need for Paper towels, to be honest. The red ramen packets are Nong Shim Spicy Ramyun. Good, but painful. ^_;



Detergent... Haven't used my washer yet.



Bottled water is a must



Prescriptions come in bags (just like Milk in Canada! *cough*)



Korean Tagging



The street I live on



Family Park



Fresh Seafood... I think



Some torn up house. I didn't expect to see something like this here.



Staircase that goes over the highway. These are all over the place. Even besides climbing up and down the stairs from my apartment and the ones in the school, I've climbed stairs every day since I've been here.

As I've got 20 pics up, and there is a limit of 10, I'll upload the rest of the pics tomorrow... Night!

Wow! That's pretty intense. How are you holding up otherwise? Is it still really surreal, or are you becoming immune? Are you learning any of the language?

The toothpaste made me litterally lol, I gotta say. Congratulations, though, man! Hope this works out for you.

As a side note, I think you did yourself a favor by not having the sound on for Transformers 2.

I'm holding up pretty well so far, but I had to see a doctor, and wasn't really able to communicate what I needed... I have medicine anyway, so we'll see how my body responds when I'm done. I think the doctor thought I only had a cold... I haven't gotten my Alien Registration card yet, and haven't had my full physical. I don't have a bank account, either, but that's because I can't until I have my ARC. I'm gonna be doing some new things today, like taking clothes to the dry cleaners.



At the bus stop with my mask, to keep my non-contagious sinus infection from infecting anyone else...



The girl covered it up just as I was taking a picture, but the crayon case was Keroro Gunsou / Sergeant Frog. It's really popular here in Korea. THey had to "correct" me when I called it Keroro Gunsou... Can't remember what they called it.



Health PSA poster



Ad for the school... That kid must have been from one of the other schools, because there isn't a single kid anywhere close to that in ours, heh. (yes, I know he's just a model)



It's a bit disconcerting when an English school makes mistakes like this... I think I'll be fixing some of these over the course of my time there.



0/5



0/1



Sick teacher Luke



No comment...



I'm not sure what this thing is... A casino? It had what looked like a coffee cup at the top, though.

Pizza... Korean Pizza. There's Mayonnaise on it. It's also very expensive and you don't get much, but my appetite hasn't been strong enough for that to matter.



The Pizza place... My apartment is above it, on the third floor. I drew the name on the sign in the picture because it was too blown out to see. It's kind of hard to draw with those little touch pads...

So there are my pictures. I've got a lot of stuff to do today... Laterz

Wow... Mayo on Pizza? Are you sure you didn't end up in Australia by accident?

Fascinating, man!

Hahaha, 'just like Milk in Canada!' lol I laughed. My family never gets milk in bags. We get 4 L jugs...bags would not be enough for our family lol. But anyways, I love your pics! I've been interested in Korea lately, actually. I hope you're feeling well soon, and that your job and everything goes well! Praying for ya! ^^

The tagging says "Cha Goh Ahp. Joo Cha Geum Jee"

NOOO idea what that means, haha.

And your comforter looks so Korean. Haha. I love comforters like those.