Before we go...

Had a nice breakfast (spaghetti on toast) at the motel, and had a very long shower, since I won't be having one for a day and a bit, and got ready to go. Met up with family, got some photos, and dad dropped me off at the airport.

Official weight of the luggage: 20.4kg, carry on with the computer was about 6.5kg. No issues what so ever. Got some delicious (but expensive) wedges with sour cream and sweet chilli sauce, and a large bottle of water afterwards (they were pretty salty).

Went through customs with no issues. Things are all going pretty smooth. Was temped by some of the stuff in duty free, but decided not to get anything. the HD camcorders were VERY tempting. huh

Installed Snow Leopard last night. Thanks to my sister's bf who got it for me (because she was too lazy). Saved about 14Gb of Hard Drive space, and things seem to be running all right, except for Spaces, which has a weird thing going on sometimes.

Have a window seat to Malaysia, and then an isle seat to Seoul. 2.5 hour stopover in Malaysia (1 hour behind Korea time, 2 hours behind East Australia). iPod has a few movies on it, with a battery pack, so it should be all good. The noise-cancelling headphones worked a treat in the car yesterday, so looking forward to testing them out on the plane. *^^*

1 day to go

Drove to Adelaide today. Stopped at the Waikarie Bakery for lunch, and had lunch at Watermark, an all you can eat place in Glenelg. Fly out at 3pm South Australian time tomorrow. *^^*

2 days to go

Suitcase is sorted
Carry on pretty much sorted
Everything else is pretty much sorted ^^

Driving to Adelaide tomorrow, and fly out on Sunday, arrive in Korea Monday morning.
Won't be online all that much from Saturday until Monday (and possibly longer)

Yay!

Copy and Paste

I don't mind a bit of YG Family Electro Pop now and then. Se7en is alright, and so is Big Bang. I also didn't mind 태양's first EP (i refuse to call it a "mini album", it's an EP!). G-Dragon's latest effort, Heartbreaker, is sickly sweet to the ears, like when you've just eaten too much double chocolate chip chocolate ice cream with quadruple choc pudding with chocolate fudge sauce with white chop chips on top, just for the color contrast.


For me, it looks like some people have watched a Lady Gaga video, listened to Right Round by Flo Rider, and listened to any american rapper trying to sing and fixing with Autotune.

But hey, I'm still listening to it :p

2 weeks 1 day - update

Since the time to go to Korea is getting closer, the theory is that I'll be blogging more often. With 15 days to go, it's starting to sink in that the next weekend, will be the last weekend that I'll be in my hometown. Will be driving to Adelaide the next weekend to get my flight to Korea.

I'm very much over the suitcase situation. I called the airline and they told me it would cost me $25 for ever kg over 20kg. I got the suitcase down to 20.5kg, with most of the essentials in it. If it ends up being 22 or 23kg, then I'll just pay the extra cash.

Saved another wad of cash to go with the savings for when I get to Korea. Not exactly sure when I'll get paid and all that - coz have to go though the whole process of getting my Alien Registration Card, and then making a bank account. So, the more cash I take with me, the less stressful it will be.

Had lunch with a friend at centro today. It made me think that i'm at that stage (again), where I'll be meeting up with good friends for the last time in a while. My list of friends to see in the remaining two weeks is pretty short. It's my last 2 weeks, and I'll spend it how I like. ^^

Saw this t-shirt at Target today, and since it was 20% off, I decided to get it.

It's only 1 t-shirt. It won't mess with my luggage limit too much, will it?

Is or Isn't?

Every now and then, I'll read a few articles from the English newspaper websites in Korea, and after clicking on a title that catches my interest, i'll read the opening paragraph to see if it's worth reading.

Here's what I read, from the Korean times, titled "1.1 Million Foreigners":

The number of foreign residents topped 1.1 million in May, meaning one in every 50 people living here are foreigners. Korea can hardly be called a multicultural country yet, but it may only be a matter of time before it becomes one, given the ongoing pace of increase in foreigners, whose number has doubled in just three years.

So, what I got from that, is "2% isn't multicultural, but soon "Korea" will be tolerant."

It then talks about "finding" SE Asian brides for rural guys, discrimination, and what some of the things the government are doing to help the foreigners adjust to Korea.

Then I saw an article called "Face Korea's Racial Divisions" in the Joongang Daily, so went on to read the opening paragraph:

The number of expatriates living in our country has exceeded 1.1 million, according to the Ministry of Public Administration and Security’s survey of non-Koreans of foreign nationality who have lived in Korea longer than 90 consecutive days or have acquired Korean nationality. The statistics show that our country has become a multicultural society.

So, what I get from that is "2% = multicultural". It then talks about the reason for why there are racial/discriminatory problems in Korea, and what steps are being taken (for both Koreans and foreigners) to try to improve the situation.

After reading both articles, the one that gave me the positive feeling about have had lived in Korea, and the feeling about goin back, is the Joongang Daily article. Because of the final paragraph:

What’s most important is to have open hearts and a warm attitude to accept foreign residents as our neighbors. Employing a foreigner as the head of a public corporation does not suddenly make our society international and advanced. When all foreign workers and spouses in Korea feel they are welcome here, only then will our country become global in the truest sense.

That's the kind of "feel good" stuff that is refreshing for me, rather than other articles aimed at over-exaggerating already over-exaggerated stereotypes for both Koreans, and foreigners in Korea.

2 weeks, 6 days

Worked two days last week, and have two days this week so far. Suitcase is pretty much packed. Will be getting a bus from the airport to Anseong, assuming I don't have customs officers trying to frame me.

3 weeks, 6 days (update)

9:15pm update: Checked with my recruiter about the whole "rural benefit" thing (extra 100,000won a month, and an extra 1 week holiday a year). This school I'm working at isn't in a rural area. She said, this evening:

yes, first I told you would get the rural beneficary because I thought the school is in rural area, but after I checked with vice principal, he said, the school is not considered as rural, so there will be no rural beneficiary.

She didn't mean it, but it did annoy me/slightly piss me off that she told me information she wasn't sure about, and then didn't tell me what the vice principal said.

I'm also disappointed with her saying "I'm really bad....I make a lot of mistakes" then "I don't want to make an excuse.". But, this is something you don't really want to hear from a recruiter. In her defence, this is the only mistake/problem she's made, and I really hope it's the last. I've lost some confidence in her skill and professionalism, but I still have the job, and things are still going to planned for getting to Anseong.

She convinced me to let her call him asking about information today, but because of this incident, I can't trust her as much as I used to.

I'm just glad that I found out now, rather than when it was my first pay day, and 100,000won was "missing"...

3 weeks, 6 days

Mini-update:

The school has found an apartment for me, but is waiting to hear from GEPIK about how much cash they to use, etc. I've been told it's in downtown Anseong. I'll know the address and all the info when a contract is signed.

The recruiter convinced me to take the van from the airport to Anseong, but I made it clear that I want to go to the apartment, rather than the school. By the time I get to Korea, and then Anseong, it will be a day since I've had a shower, with being on planes, and being in humid Kuala Lumpur for 2.5 hours.

Most likely will have a week off work, or as they put it "not let you go to work", because of the whole swine flu thing. Probably because I'm not eating my gimchi. I've been told that it won't be a "week in your apartment and you can't leave" thing, more of a "don't go to your school for a week" thing. Something I don't get the point of. I'm not going to call it quarantine, since it's not really that.

Didn't sleep very well at all last night, so that's when school decide to tall me at 7am in the morning. Just before 7 was when I actually started to get some sleep. Some extra cash would be nice, but honestly, I'm not a fan of being woken up - especially if I hadn't had sleep the night before. Considering telling schools that I'll only be doing pre-bookings only.

4 weeks to go

With 4 weeks to go, and with my departure date being in the same month as the current date, things are feeling more real. You're probably thinking "yeah, whatever, you've been there before, so why are you so excited?". Sure, I am going back to Korea. There will be things that are the same in Korea no matter where you go. But it's the things that are different that I'm looking forward to.

I've been away from Korea for about 9 months, so my Korean skill will be a bit rusty. Also, since I'll be living in a different place, the Korean spoken will be in a different accent. I'm sure that there will be situations where I'll have to tell people that I've lived in another province before, so when I speak/use Korean, it might be a bit different.

I'll be in a different city/town, with a different job. So, different people, different things to get used to, a different group of kids, and a different group of people that I'll see every day, both at work, and both outside of work. I plan on re-starting my Geomdo classes a few weeks after I get there. I'll have to take a weekend trip to Jeongeup and Jangseong to collect my old swords, and to meet up with my previous hagwon boss, students and previous geomdo teacher - a kind of end of chapter event, to start a new.

My latest challenge is to be able to put my life into a 20kg suitcase, with 5kg of carry on stuff (My 17" Macbook Pro weighs 2.8Kg!). I'm going to have to send one package over, either just before I go, or get a family member to send it just after I leave. The main culprits of weight are my geomdo uniforms and Korean text books. I'll also set up another box to be delivered later, with some winter clothes. I'll have enough to survive the end of summer, and the autumn. I can also make a trip to Itaewon to get some clothes after I arrive. I just need to take enough to survive for 2 months.

I was sick with a bad cold for a few days in the last week. I was expecting a lot of schools to call then, since I was sick, asking me to work that day or the next. But, no calls. This week (Week 4 of this term) will be the first week out of four when I haven't had any days pre-booked. This means I'll have to wake up at roughly 6:30am, and man the phones, just incase someone calls me for work. With being sick last week, I've decided that I won't work in my last week in Australia. The last thing I want, is to have a cold when I'm travelling, mainly for the fact that people will think it's swine flu, and get all super paranoid about it. If I can limit my contact to snotty nosed kids, the better my chances are of not getting sick. It also gives me a week to drink heaps of water and orange juice, if I do catch a cold in the second last week I'm in Australia.

The recruiters that I went through offer a pickup service from the airport to your school. I'll be arriving at Inchoen Airport just after 7am, Korean time, and by the time i get my suitcase and get through customs/immigration, It'll be 8am-ish. I've decided that I'll get one of the buses from Incheon Airport to Anseong, rather than get in a van with a stranger. I've seen too many scary movies and the news to just randomly get in a car. Stranger Danger and all that.

Also, I want to do it myself, to test myself. I want to see how bad my Korean has become, and also just to be stubborn and independent. I'd rather get a bus, and relax on that, and take it all in.

By this time, in exactly 4 weeks from now, I'll be on a plane heading towards to Malaysia, and the 2.5 hour stopover there, before I get the flight to Korea.