The Waiting Game

I’m not really into games. Board games, card games, video games... (ok, that last one’s a lie, but the sentence sounded better with three types of game, and it was all I could come up with...) and I especially hate waiting. I’m impatient. So when you add games with waiting, you end up with one anxious, frustrated Jacquie.

Getting a work visa for Korea takes forever. Not that I have a lot experience in the visa department (see last post) but I’ve been waiting for over a month. Order transcripts and record checks, and wait. Make appointments with lawyers, and wait. Go to the embassy, and wait. Send off your documents, and, well you get the point.

My advice: if you’re planning on getting one of these visas, give yourself about two months. Here’s a quick list of what you need...

a) A criminal record check with vulnerable sector (takes about two weeks to get)
b) 2 copies of all university transcripts (sealed)

Once you have those, you have to get the record check notarized by a lawyer. Take the original and the notarized copy to the embassy, along with photo i.d. and a photocopy of the i.d. The notarized copy will be stamped by someone at the consulate. Then you have to send the following to your school in Korea:

a) The notarized/ stamped copy of your record check
b) Your original undergraduate diploma (or a notarized and stamped copy)
c) 2 passport photos
d) 1 transcript
e) A photocopy of the identity page of your passport

Once they receive this stuff, they’ll go and get your visa issuance number. This also takes forever. What comes next? I have absolutely no idea, seeing as this is where I have been for the past three weeks.

Signed, Sealed, Delivered.... my contract that is

Well I’ve done it... after years of talking, thinking, planning...changing my mind, changing it back again, and finally, well, chickening out, I’ve packed it up and packed it in, and am on my way to South Korea... how am I coping? I’m fine. I’m terrified. I’m crawling out of my skin with excitement, anxious to get on with it... Why am I terrified, you might ask? Nothing to do with moving to a new country, where I don’t know the language (although I will try), don’t know the culture (learning is the best part!), and don’t know a soul (ok, with the possible exception of my elementary school best friend, Julia, with whom I have recently been reunited, and Kyle, a friend from my Master’s program and recruiter extraordinaire) but rather completely and utterly centred upon the fact that I am now in charge of moulding young lives. Young KOREAN lives. If I mess this up, it affects another COUNTRY. Now that’s intense.

“But Jacquie” you might say “you ARE a teacher. This is what you’re planning on doing for the rest of your life!” (And yes, a special thank-you goes out to the Ontario College of Teachers for acknowledging the gruelling work put into each and every Bachelor of Education and for accepting me as one of their own... ). And yes, teaching IS one of my great passions; what I want to go for the rest of my life... I think... (hope?...)but this will also be my first time with my own classroom, my first time without an omnipresent-mentor, my first time teaching students who are barely old enough to know how to write their own names... A girl’s entitled to a few nerves!

Not to mention, I’m blogging, which involves technology. Now, THAT’S enough to frighten not only myself, but anyone who has ever attempted to help me with a computer/ cell phone/ camera. Anybody who knows me, really...

But hey, everyone has to grow up eventually...

And so I’ve started this blog, not only to inform every one of my day-to-day musings and let them know when I’ve done something to cause those pigs to become airborne (if they ever make it back down to sea level after enduring the shock they surely experienced upon realizing that I was actually intending on following through with my decision to teach English in South Korea...), but also to chronicle my personal and professional growth... dare I say, as a form of reflection? (As soon as all of my teacher friends stop cringing and regain consciousness, I will continue. Alright – everybody good? Great.)

So, while most of you are enjoying your cushy new jobs teaching French to those captivated, motivated, enchanted grade nines, or Science to equally enthusiastic grade sevens (despite having a degree in History), or, if you don’t teach, finishing off those degrees and doing whatever it is you do... I, for one, will be STUCK in a classroom full of young children, each class capped at ten students, exploring South East Asia in my free time. I know, I know—it’s a rough life, but somebody has to do it. (I know, I can feel the karma coming back around now... you’ll all get your laughs when culture, language and learning collide and I’m all but ready to tear my hair out... perhaps I’ll stop with the jesting now...)

Now, if only my bloody visa issuance number would get here so I could get on with it!