Dan and Catt here! We've decided to start a blog about our time and adventures in South Korea. We'll update as we can to share this wonderful experience with all of you.
And don't freak out, we haven't actually left yet. We decided we also wanted to chronicle our time leading up to departure. Stay tuned for updates on what it was like to apply to teach in South Korea and the process and paperwork we had to go through. Let us tell you, its not easy moving to another country!
Our reason for wanting to partake in this experience was to enhance our teaching skill set. And what better way to do so by immersing ourselves in a completely foreign country! Dan experienced a similar process when he taught an English Camp in Brazil for a month back in 2010. The learning style of different cultures is something that all teachers can take something from.
So, we know what everyone's asking. Why Korea?
Well, simply because they had the best program we could find. It also helped that Catt knew someone who had taught in Korea a few years ago and it came highly recommended.
South Korea is a highly developed, first world country with a highly motivated workforce and a great transportation network. The whole country is five hours from one end to the other, about the size of Indiana.
It also helped that EPIK (English Program in Korea) has a great compensation package. Paid airfare, paid apartment, contract completion bonus, medical package, Korean co-teacher and the wonderful experience of living and working in another country! Talk about enticing huh? Plus we work only a standard 40 hours a week with 20 dedicated to teaching and 20 set aside for planning. Not too shabby.
All in all, we figured why not? We're young and mobile. Plus we have great family and friends backing us up. :-)
So what we know for now it that Dan will be teaching somewhere in the city of Daegu and Catt has been placed in the surrounding province of Gyeongbuk. (See map, Dan is green and Catt is red) It kind of like Dan being placed in the city of Chicago and Catt being placed somewhere in surrounding Cook county. At most we'll be 2 hours apart via train, but it could even be as little as a 30 minute commute. With Korea's awesome high speed travel system it won't be a problem. And for those of you wondering, co-habitation before marriage is very looked down upon in Korea so we weren't able to apply to live together. We won't find out our specific placements until the end of our 10 day orientation in Korea.
Well that's it for now. If you have any questions please fill free to ask! We love getting to talk about this new chapter in our lives.
I have to write?! Ugh.
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