Mid July Update

The Blog
I've decided to put my "Andy in South Korea" and my "Andy in Real Life" blogs together, and (as you can probably tell) have decided to call it just 앤디오빠 (Andy oppa). You can find out what oppa means from here. With the new-ish blog, decided to revamp a few things. Some of my decent stuff links have gone missing. If you used to have your blog listed there, and it's not there now, let me know. It only shows the latest 10 that have been updated.

Current situation
I finished my contract with my old school, and survived the 2 week winter break. Didn't want to spent too much money, since I wasn't sure about how much substitute teaching work I would get, and how nice my tax return would be. The tax return is very nice, and it means I'll be going to Korea debt-free, which is nice. Also, any substitute work I get will be a bonus, trying to save a bit of that here, so that if I use my credit card while I'm in Korea, I won't be in a rush to send money back.

First week in the term, I've had 2 days work, with one of them at my old school. It felt a little strange being there, but I wasn't in the computer lab. It seems that they're just filling the gap that i left there. Had an interesting, but non-surprising chat after a day of subbing there, about the lack of things being done/fixed. It's one of the main reasons why I'm glad that I left (I don't have many of them).

I've got four days booked next week, with three of them at my previous school. I've had a lot of calls about working as well, which is good. The good think about working casual, is that I can, in a way, pick and choose which days I will work, and which I can have off.

Back to Korea
I've gotten a job through GEPIK, working in an elementary school a few kilometres outside of Anseong, which is about an hour from Seoul. There's a map in a previous post, showing where I was, and where I will be. I sent my visa application to the Korean embassy (don't get me started on how the Korean consulate in Sydney doesn't seem to have it's act together, when it comes to appropriate and correct information) last Monday, and it arrived at the embassy the day after. I was looking though my blog, and noticed that when I was living in Melbourne, the whole process took five days - from posting it on a Monday, to receiving my visa on the Friday of the same week. It would make sense that the Embassy might be a bit busy now, going though visa applications, since the new semester in SK starts in about 6 weeks time, on September 1.

After checking out heaps of different flight options, the plan is to get a flight from Adelaide (which is only a 4~5 hour drive from where I am), using Malaysia Airlines, with a 2.5 hour stopover in Kuala Lumpur, and arriving at Incheon Airport 7am-ish the next morning. That's the plan. As soon as I get my visa, I'll but the tickets. If that's not an option, then I will have to get a plane from there I am to Melbourne, and fly out from Melbourne.

I've met a few of the people who are in Anseong already, and they seem like very decent people. It's good to know that I'll have a kind of "support network", but more importantly, good friends there when I arrive. I've sent a friendly email to the Vice Principal of the school I'll work at, in Korean, and he wrote one back. Almost 2 weeks ago, he got notified from GEPIK that I would be working there, but according to the information he got, it said that the person coming was female, so he called the recruiter and checked. It literally made me lol.