Job Placement

I have just recently received my job placement from Chungdahm Learning. Along with that came my official arrival date: August 14th. That means I'll be leaving Oregon on August 12th. That's less than two months! Wow. My actual start date is August 30th. My training is August 16th-20th. My arrival date gives me two days to get over the jet lag (16 hour time difference - Ufda!). After training I'll have a week to get settled in my new apartment, start some lesson planning, and just in general get to know a bit about my new neighborhood.

Speaking of my new neighborhood, you might have noticed that I haven't mentioned where I will be exactly. I will be in Mokdong (the o's are pronounced long like "mOAt" or "OAts"). Mokdong is a dong (or a neighborhood) on the west side of Seoul, the capital city of South Korea. It is part of the Yangcheongu (pronounced yahng-chun-goo), a district of Seoul. According to Wikipedia, "Yangcheongu is home to mostly middle and upper-class families and is considered one of the best wards in Seoul to live."

Above is a lovely picture of Mokdong all lit up at night. I think you can see the Hyperion Towers in the picture. They're supposed to be pretty famous there and are the 105th tallest buildings in the world. Pretty cool. To the right is a daytime view of the same buildings.

That's pretty much all I got on Mokdong. It looks like I'll be living in a city (which is to be expected). I'll definitely post my own pictures once I get there and then you'll have a primary source of pictures of Korea (Mokdong in particular) for your viewing pleasure.

It's kind of crazy how real this is now. In less than two months, I'll be living on my own in South Korea. I'm really excited, but still a little bit scared. It's nice that Kendra and I will be going together. That way we'll have someone we know and can look to for support.

Now I'm just waiting for my visa code before I can go to the Korean Consulate for my actual E2 Visa. Did I mention it takes A LOT of paperwork in order to get this job? It really does. I'm very thankful that I've had my Aclipse Recruiter, Zach, coaching me through all of this and taking care of everything. I don't know that I could have ever figured any of this out on my own.

I'll let you know how when anything happens. Wish me luck, everyone!