More Details!

Graduation has come and gone and my departure to Korea grows ever closer. Let me share with you some of the details I know so far... South Korea is about the size of the state of Indiana but with eight times the population. I will be teaching English at a school called Mirae Language Institute. This school is located in the town of Dangjin in the Chungcheongnam-do province on the western side of South Korea. Dangjin is a smaller city in comparison to many cities in Korea (approx. 125,000 people). For a great interactive map of Korea, go here. The town is fairly close to the coast and is about 3-4 hours from Seoul on bus/train. If there was no water in the way I'm certain it wouldn't take near that long. I am currently waiting for my visa to be processed. I've sent a package of important documents to Mirae ($44 by UPS!) where they will take it to the officials in Korea who will issue me a visa approval which is sent back to me so I can send it with my passport to a Korean embassy in the states and get it back stamped and ready to go. All of this is supposed to happen before June 24th--my scheduled departure date. There's a possibility that I'll have to make a road trip to Chicago to make sure my visa is processed on time.... Once in Korea I will be living in a shared apartment--my own bedroom, but shared living quarters. No doubt it will be smaller than what I'm used to as an American. I'm also supposed to pack plenty of shoes because no Korean woman has my size feet ;) There are three other girls who are already working at Mirae--2 Americans and a Canadian. It will be great to make friends with them and glean from their experiences.