"I speak 12 languages. English is the bestest."- Stefan Bergan

I've been working on my Resume for teaching English in Korea... and only succeeding marginally. Not only do I hate making resumes (I always forget something and I'm really bad at b*ll-sh*t, unlike Jamaal... Jamaal, wanna make my resume for me?). It doesn't help that I'm used to making resumes highlighting my project skills and engineering type experiences. Here's what I've got thus far:

Note the shortness. I feel like it should be longer. My resume since graduating high-school has been longer. Maybe I should mention how much I love to read, or somehow insert how much of a good deal I am. (Hello, I'm already here and I already have a visa, and I already have an apartment! I just want a job nearby, during the day.) I thought about referencing this site, but then I remembered how truly unprofessional this site is. >.> (*cough* Engrish post *cough*)

Speaking of unprofessional, (does professionalism matter so much in applying for a job like this? It's not engineering or a corporate position after all) listing my Husband's cell as a way of contact... but you know, there's only so many ways to get a-hold of me in Korea.

This resume would probably be going to American/Canadian recruiting agencies, so other then the address (so they can locate our apartment more easily), everything should be in what an american would understand.

In summary, help! Any ideas you might have to enhance the resume or to emphasize skills that might be applicable to teaching English, would be more then welcome! Also if any expats are reading this, any suggestions on Recruiting Agencies, or tips and tricks you might know, would be awesome!

To end on.... could you eat this soup? I couldn't. (And didn't.)

In case you're wondering.... that's Hair Algae soup. I did try it, it tasted good. I just couldn't get over the fuzzy texture in my mouth!! Ewwwww!

Update:

I modified the resume a little, to explain what ERP was and to emphasize that Passport is a computer program, not a travel document. ;) 

Then, I sent an e-mail to a particular posting from Dave's ESL Cafe for an elementary school position close to our apartment. This was my cover letter:

Hello,
I am responding to your post regarding an English Teaching position near Gijang-gun...   http://www.eslcafe.com/jobs/korea/index.cgi?read=46536 

I currently live with my husband, who is working for KHNP, in                        near               . I have an F3 visa and my ARC, so I don't know what, if any, of the documentation you still need. 

I have my original diploma with me, but it has not been notarized. I have my Bachelor of Science(BS) in Engineering Management from the University of Missouri-Rolla (otherwise known as Missouri University of Science and Technology).

I am very interested in this position because it is nearby, the hours are daytime, and teaching elementary students is my preference. 

Attached is a picture of myself and my resume. I have never taught English before, but I'm looking forward to the experience. In my previous positions, I tutored adults in a computer program called Passport, I found that to be a very rewarding part of my job. I feel that this was a good experience for a future teaching English in Korea. 

I look forward to hearing back from you soon. 

Thank you,
Kim Conner

Not bad, right? I feel like my cover letter is much better then my resume. Too bad recruiting agency's don't have space for cover letters..... This will only work when I apply to individual positions. ;)

North Korea

Of course, everyone asks us if we’re worried about North Korea. Actually we weren’t really until we started watching documentaries.

Here are some of my favorites, they’re better than a ghost story for giving you the willies.

1.       Vice Guide to North Korea
You can find this on Netflix instant play if you’re interested.

2.       BBC Documentary: State of Mind

I have to admire the people for being so determined to persevere, but I’m sad at how ignorant they are. They don’t know how a market will work?

3.       A day in the life of….

Shannon, here’s some of the footage that I think Vice uses in their documentary?  This day in the life of is supposedly all propaganda (which makes sense, since they restrict the use of cameras in their country). I didn’t post the other parts to this one, but you can get them on YouTube.

4.      Report Inside North Korea – a lot more recent, right after the sub attack by North Korea.

 Those children that are taught to despise us from birth are adorable.

I was trying to find some North Korean Propaganda films that I really liked but I can’t bring myself to watch them for more than a few minutes at a time.

Please, feel free to post your suggestions in the comments section. I could watch these all day and night and never get tired of scaring myself.

Next time: Some happy South Korean films to make me feel better!

Shipping our Cats to Korea

Both our cats are coming with us to Korea. Rather, I’m shipping them from the US, my husband will receive them in Korea.

We went through an IPATA certified shipper.   http://www.ipata.com/   We went with Air Animal Inc. I’ll give them a more thorough review after our cats get to Korea. http://www.airanimal.com/   Before I hired them though I looked into what would be required to get our cats out of the US and into Korea. Korea’s requirements aren’t that bad.

1.       Need to have a rabies vaccination < 1year but more then 30 days. If less than 30 days, then they have to sit in quarantine until the 30 day mark is reached.

2.       Need to have a Health Certificate by a certified veterinarian (this means the USDA certified vet for your state…. Which means you’ll have to send off for the certification, the USDA has its own rules and regs and it’s a lot harder getting a straight answer from them)

An IPATA shipper, depending on how much you’re willing to pay them, will sort out all this paperwork for you. Pick your pets up at your front door, provide appropriate kennels and supplies, they will transfer your pet (make sure they don’t get lost at an airport), get them through customs, and deliver them to your door at the end.

Because I had so much trouble finding out costs before I did this, I’m going to provide our breakdown here for anyone who might be using this as a reference for their own move. And let me just say, Thank God Shannon’s company is paying for this.

$350       Residential pickup/airport delivery

$403       International health certificates with USDA endorsements

$500       Domestic Cargo

$350       Airline Transfer

$950       International Cargo with Insurance

$1200    Customs clearance, duties fees, and residential delivery

$945       Pet Move Management Fee

_____

$4698    Total

I probably could have done this for cheaper (they call this the VIP treatment). It was worth it to me to have them take care of everything so I wouldn’t have to stress out about this. A month on my own trying to figure out from the USDA certified vet what we needed to do (they gave me 10 year old documents about what’s required by Korea and then contradicted that information on the next page, not to mention pricing charts that had farm animal information instead of pet information) convinced me that it was worth any price to have someone else figure it all out and get my pets safely to me. Also, they’ll have someone who speaks Korean escorting our cats through clearance at the end.  (That’s why customs clearance is so expensive!)

My experience thus far is I would recommend this route to anyone who can take it. I’ll let you know if I still feel that way in April.

Introduction

I debated about introducing myself. On the off chance that someone besides friends and family read this, here it is.

My full name is Kimberly Ann, I grew up in Kansas City, Missouri, went to college in Rolla, Missouri and more recently lived in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

My husband recently got relocated to Busan, Korea. Busan is the 2^nd largest city in Korea with a population of 3.6 Million, according to Wikipedia   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Busan

Also interesting, this tourist site has a really good Tourism map (when it’s working)  http://english.busan.go.kr/main/

Shannon (my husband) left on March 17^th. I will join him/leave the states on April 6^th. We will be living 30 minutes north of Busan, near Wollae-ri.

This blog will be information about what it took to move to Korea and after we’re there, any useful information I can think of, as well as adventures we have!