Never in a million years did I think I would move to the other side of the world for a job that I wasn't even crazy about. But in all honestly this experience has changed my life for the better in so many ways.
A little back story... November 2017, kpop group BTS performed at the 2017 AMA'S. Prior to this I had never really thought about Korea before, I had always been interested in Japan both culturally and food, and anime, but this performance made me think about the country. In the beginning nothing really changed, every once in a while I would check out different kpop groups or see if any k-dramas interested me, but it slowly turned into a fire from within me. I suddenly wanted to surround myself and immerse myself into this culture that I really knew nothing about except what was being published about BTS. I started researching the culture in depth and started learning the language by really focusing on the Korean dramas I was watching and making correlations between the words in Korean and in English. This is when I started getting recommended videos to my youtube account, and that was when my life had really started to change.
September 2018, nearly one year since I had started to get into Korean culture, I started to do research on visiting Korea. To my surprise, many articles I found mentioned becoming an English teacher in many Asian countries such as China, Korea, and Japan, at first this was not even on my radar because I had just graduated with my degree in Criminal Justice and I hadnt' even started to job hunt in my field yet.
A few weeks later, after countless hours of research and reading 100's of articles on the experiences of people who had and were teaching in Korea, I had decided to start looking into schools. Almost October and I had been in touch with a few recruiters and had interviews lined up. Finally after some weird interviews I was now waiting to hear back from the recruiters about whether or not I got the job. A few days later I heard back from one recruiter saying that the school wanted to hire me and that she would send over a contract within the next few days for me to sign. Once I got my contract in my email the reality of what I had decided to do started to hit me. A few days later I sent over my signed contract and began getting all my other needed documents together for my working visa.
This process takes a few months and once you send all your documents to Korea its a waiting game to get your visa. This was the most stressful time of my life and I had a lot of anxiety over it. But once it was finally over I could enjoy what time I had left in the states. Finally February 2019, about three weeks before I was set to leave I started packing up my entire life in preparation for this 8,000 mile move. The struggle to fit your whole life into two suitcases is real. I ended up paying for an extra bag and overweight fees because I just could not leave any more behind. Then before I knew it the time had come for me to leave my entire life behind and move to a country where I was not fluent in the language and didn't know a single person. To say I was nervous would be an understatement. Before this I had never lived on my own, and now I would be living in my own apartment and be responsible for everything on my own. I definitely had a mixture of both excitement and anxiety.
Fast forward through my 15 hour flight, 6 hour layover, another 3 hour flight, and a 2 hour drive to my apartment, I finally arrived in my new home, about 8:30 pm Korean time. It was February 26th when I finally arrived here, I was hungry and exhausted and my new landlord, who did not speak any English was attempting to explain how to open my door (they only use numbered key locks here) and he typed in the code too fast so I couldn't memorize it, as well as how to work the floor heater, and how to turn on the boiler for the hot water (all of which you turn on from a keypad in your apartment). Since everything is in Korean it is a little hard at first, but you get used to it quickly. Thankfully other teachers from the school I would be working at came to welcome me and helped me with my door code and to get some food, and my first night in Korea passed by quickly, soon after I went to work as an English Teacher!
If you want to know more about my life here in Korea comment and let me know!
I have been here for about 6 months now and I love my life here!
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