Hello Korea!

We made it to Korea a few days ago and so far things have been pretty easy going. We arrived at Incheon International Airport Thursday, February 21st at around 4:30pm and made it through customs within about 10 minutes. Nice airport, easy to navigate and free WIFI!

One word of advice about your flight to Korea, if you're flying Delta and call within 24hours of your departure, you can upgrade your seat for relatively cheap. We paid $59 each to get an exit row seat, which was the first row in the last cabin. There was no one in front of us so we had about 5 feet of leg room and could get up whenever we wanted. It made the trip so much easier and a lot more bearable. It's worth checking out and paying the few extra bucks to keep your sanity for the 14 hour flight if it's available.

Either way, a driver picked us up (he was just a cab driver hired by our recruiter) and took us directly to the school (Dayelin Langcon English School). Because Koreans are very image conscious, it's not a bad idea to changed out of your comfortable airplane clothes after you get off the plane since it's likely that you'll go straight to the school to meet the Principal/Director like we did (nothing fancy but we made sure to have a wrinkle free nice sweater ready to wear).

A few things that you probably already know but if not, will hopefully make your arrival to Korea as smooth as possible (if you decide to make the trek):

 1. I've run into far fewer Koreans that can speak English than I had expected. Bring a translation book or download a translation app on your Smart Phone (Korean Lite is a good one - spend the extra $ to get the full version though)
2. There is WIFI everywhere and it's usually for free. We haven't gotten our rental cell phones activated yet, but as long as you have a charged Smart Phone, we've been able to connect to the internet everywhere we've been so far.
3. Taxis are very cheap, but stay away from the black ones, they can be more expensive.

It feels like it's been a lot longer than 3 days since we've already "worked" three days and have been shadowing some of the current teachers. We have to teach a mock class for the principal on Wednesday and then teach our first classes on Thursday while some of the students graduate. It's been a lot to take in but no complaints yet. All in all, it's been an easy transition into our new life. Once we move up into our permanent apartment and start getting the hang of the language, things will be much better/easier.

Looking forward to start venturing out into other parts of Suji-gu, Seoul and Korea soon...stay tuned for more!

Our drive from the airport to Suji-gu

What to pack for Korea

There are a lot of things you want to bring to Korea and just as many that you NEED to bring with you to teach English in Korea.  Given a two checked bag and one carry-on restriction from Delta, here are some of the things I was able to fit into my two checked bags and one carry-on bag.

Two quick packing notes:  
1.  I was looking around at Goodwill and other thrift shops for cheap suitcases to transport all of my stuff over to Korea.  We will probably be leaving most of what we bring over there to backpack for a month or two after our year contract so we didn't want to spend too much money on a travel bag.  Luckily I came across this - www.walmart.com/ip/Protege-32-Expandable-Rolling-Duffel-Bag-Black/11069689.  I haven't used the two bags yet obviously, but will report on how useful/reliable they are once we get to Seoul.

2.  Space saver bags are the way to go!  I've been able to pack all of my  stuff in half the space I'd use without them.  You can get an 8-pack at Bed, Bath and Beyond for less than $15.  Well worth the money.  www.spacebagbrand.com/To-Go-Roll-Up.dtm

Teaching English in Korea Packing List:

Must Haves

- Gift for your school director and principal

- Copy of your passport and Visa

- Extra copy of your college transcripts (depending on your school)

- College diploma (depending on your school)

- At least $1,000 in your bank account to live off of until your first paycheck

- An open mind!

What to wear
- Clothes, clothes and more clothes (shorts, shirts, jeans, hiking pants, sweaters, workout stuff, winter hats, gloves, lots of socks and boxers, dress pants and shirts, suit jacket, rain and winter jackets, 2 ties, swim trunks and a towel)
- Black dress shoes, gym shoes, sandals and hiking boots

Keeping clean
- 2 bars of soap
- 1 bottle of shampoo and conditioner
- 4 sticks of deodorant
- 5 things of floss
- 5 toothbrushes
- 8 tubes of Chapstick
- 4 tubes of toothpaste
- 1 bottle of mouthwash
- 1 bottle of face wash
- Mac3 razor with 8 extra blades
- 1 bottle of shaving cream
-  600 Q-tips
- Bandaides

Good to have if it fits in your bag, but not a necessity
- Small Brita water bottle with extra filters
- Full size Brita water filters
- Playing cards
- 2 cameras
- Headlamp
- Green tea (I heard it wasn't too common over there)
- Bottle/wine opener
- 2 bottles of vitamins
- 1 bottle of Advil and cough medicine
- DvDs of 4 of my favorite movies
- Ski goggles
- American flag
- Family picture
- Kindle
- Leatherman and a Swiss Army knife
- Pens, pencils, stamps for kids work
- Portable shoe shine kit
- Outlet adaptor
- AA batteries
- 2 locker locks
- Portable speakers
- Frisbee
- Carabiners
- Korean language books

Safe Travels!!

And the plot thickens...

Over the past couple of days, we've been frantically getting ready to leave the country on Friday the 15th, selling almost everything we own and enjoying going away happy hours, brunches, dinners and drinks with friends.

We just heard from our recruiter that now the school doesn't need us there until the 21st, meaning we have more time to pack away our lives before we leave!  Apparently, there was a parent/teacher conference on the 15th that the school wanted us to try and get there for, but since we cannot, we have an extra few days before we depart.

Three important lessons from this experience:
1. It IS possible to sell a TV, TV stand, patio set, 3 coolers, 6ft table, 2 dressers,  2 lamps, bike, computer screen, grill, queen size bed, table and vacuum in less than 3 days.
2. You can cancel a flight for no extra charge if you do so within 24hrs of purchasing it (this might be common knowledge, but is news to us!).
3.  We have some pretty amazing friends here in the DC area

Still waiting...

Well, with our journey to Korea about to begin, I wanted to start up a blog to document the year we'll be spending over there.  I've never done a blog before so am not sure how this will work out, but I'm sure it'll evolve over the year and will hopefully give you a glimpse of our life abroad.  Stay tuned and enjoy our detour to Korea!