Becoming New for the New Year a.k.a. Obligatory New Year's Post

Happy New Year Everyone~!
새해복많이 받으세요~!

우와~ 벌써 1월이네요. It's already January. Many things happened for me last year but I don't want to reflect on the past. I want to talk about the here and now, I want to talk about the New Year!
I don't know how I feel about New Year's resolutions though. Everyone gets so pumped in the beginning of the year, sets all these goals, and then forgets about them come March. So I'm not making any New Year's resolutions. You know how in college we had to make a four-year plan right? And then you have to revise it or check it at the end of the year? Well, that's kind of how I live my life. I use the new year to evaluate the goals I have set for my life. Am I closer to reaching those goals? Have my goals changed? Do I need to set new ones? These are the kinds of questions I ask myself.

But since I'm in Korea now, I have to do a lot of goal changing. I usually set a long term goal and smaller goals to put me on the path to reaching it.

Back in the day, my long term goal was to become a journalist and have my own magazine company and be a beast. Well, things have changed. I've been a beast for quite some time now so I can scratch that off my list. My new long term goal is to become an English professor at a Korean university and be fluent in Korean. In order to get there I need a master's degree in TESL education and I should study Korean. Well, I'm looking into programs and I'm already taking a Korean class so I'm moving in the right direction.

But honestly, I just want to live my life. I don't know the future so things can change even tomorrow. I seize opportunities as they come. I try to create opportunities for myself without missing the ones that just pop up out of the blue.

What about you all? What are your goals? How are you living your lives? Feel free to tell me about them in the comment section below!

Sorry About the Hiatus

Hey ya'll, sorry I've been gone for so long. ㅠㅠ
Actually I'm not really sorry. lol I wanted to just live my life and get settled before I continued blogging. Now I think I can do that.

Instead of starting from where I left off, I will start from where I'm at. And right now I'm in Busan.

Oh! Merry Christmas~!!

My family is has been here for the past week and we had Christmas dinner together. My mom and sister cooked, asdlkfja;sdkj DELICIOUS~~!!! I love Korean food but there is nothing like the food mom makes. It was a good Christmas. I will post pictures of my charlie brown tree and apartment later.

But right now, I am in Busan with my dad, mom, and sister. We will be here for two days and one night. We are staying at a guesthouse. I really like this place and I want to recommend it to others so I will make  separate post about it later.

So, I'm back everyone and you can expect regular posts from me from now on. Unless, something happens.

Wow, the new year is almost here. What a great time to make a comeback. ^^

Officially Seoul Livin'

Dear Chaerim,

Congratulations!

I am so excited that you are coming to Seoul !

Thank you for your hard work Terri, we are such a great team =)

You are one of the 170 SMOE teachers who are coming to Korea for Fall 2013!!!

Myself and our whole team is all proud of you! =)

Designated Office of Education : Seoul

You passed the final evaluation and have been offered a position with the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education.

Enough said. 

But really, I am so thankful that I will be in Seoul. I found two churches there that I can possibly attend.  Being in Korea without a place to worship would have been so hard. But I am sooo glad the Lord has answered my prayers! Now to wait for my contract!

Once I arrive in Korea and get settled, expect me to put out a YouTube channel!

Teaching in South Korea

So back in April I applied to EPIK because I wanted to teach English in South Korea. Everything so far has been successful thank the Lord. It is now June and I'm waiting to hear about placement. It has been a really long process. I mean, it's not really that long, it's just that there is a lot of waiting involved. All this waiting is making me crazy~~  @_@. But, with the help of Korvia Consulting, the recruiting agency I applied through, and Ciena, my Korvia recruiter, the whole process is passing by smoothly. Both EPIK and Korvia has a facebook page where you can ask questions or just let everyone know where you are in the process. It is really encouraging to read and everyone is really nice. It helps make waiting easy.

I'd like to share the timeline of my application process. Everyone's timeline will be slightly different but I know I like to have a general idea of how long things takes so I'm sharing mine.

If you have any questions about any part of the process let me know in the comments below.

Best wishes to anyone applying!

March 5- Mailed FBI CRC 

April 1- Submitted EPIK Application (Korvia sent it. I sent it to Korvia 2 weeks earlier so that they could check for any errors in my application. Errors in your application causes delays in the process. For that reason I decided to apply to EPIK with the help of Koriva.)

April 2- $18 posted to my account. (The fee posting to your account means that your CRC has been completed and it will be on its way back to you. They only process your payment after the check is done.) 

April 10- Received CRC in mail! yay~~

April 11- Skype interview with EPIK at 8pm. (Ciena, my recruiter, skyped me 30 minutes before to help me prepare and give me words of encouragement. She really helped me relax! Thanks Ciena~~ ^^)

April 12- Dropped off my FBI CRC at the US Dept. of State Authentications Office. (This is the place where you get your CRC apostilled. I did walk-in. Walk-in hours are 8am-9am only.)

April 16- Received interview results from EPIK via Ciena. (I passed!!)

             - Picked up my apostilled CRC. (Pick-up hours are 8am-9am only.)

April 17- Shipped all of my final documents to Korvia via. Fedex.

April 19- Korvia received my documents and sent them to EPIK. EPIK received my documents in the afternoon. (I didn't need to make any copies because Korvia made all the copies I would need and sent them to EPIK. But, I made copies for to keep for myself.)

April 26- Paid and faxed my US Residency Form 8802 to the IRS. (This could take a really long time so I applied early. This form is needed so you won't have to pay US taxes and Korean taxes as it exempts teachers for 2 years from having to pay Korean taxes. It is best to have it in hand when you arrive in Korea. Make sure you request 2-3~~~! I heard that a school told a teacher that they lost her certificate.)

April 28- Passed EPIK document screening!! (EPIK will now recommend me to a MOE/POE).

May- Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. (Nothing happened in May. My process went by pretty quickly in the beginning. I had finals for university in May and my graduation so I had things to keep me busy.) 

June 4- My degree posted on my transcript! (This is relevant to current students: Even though you sent in your current transcript, EPIK still needs your final transcripts. Once your degree information posts, you can request your final transcript.)

June 7- Received e-mail with placement information. SEOUL!!!!!! (My recruiter is sooo sweet, I love her so much. She went out of her way to email me my placement information. Korvia is beast! Especially Ciena!!)

June 12- Received diploma and 3 notarized copies of diploma. (My school has a notary person? lol that works in the diploma office so she made copies and notarized them for me.)

June 14- Got diploma county certified. (It was only $3 for my 3 copies so I'm assuming each copy was $1.)

June 15- Got notarized certified diploma copy apostilled. ($5/copy. I only got one apostilled now and will send the others later.)
             - Shipped final documents to Korvia (Fed ex $55)

June 19- Final documents delivered to Korvia.

June 24- Final documents approved by EPIK.
             - Residency certificates received in mail.

July 15- Took visa application, contract, and NOA to Korean Embassy in DC. ($45. They told me to come pick it up on Friday.)

July 19- Picked up passport with VISA.

So nothing's going on right now. I'm just working and trying to save money for my plane ticket and the first month I'll be in Korea. If any of my friends in Korea are reading this, know that I will probably be poor for a month so feed me!  

I'm still waiting for placement information, my diploma, and my US Residency certificate. Lord willing, I'll receive some good news this month! The Lord has answered my prayers!

아빠! 어디가? Dad! Where are we going?

I stumbled upon this MBC variety show today and I am totally captivated! The kids are soo cute~~!! I've watched a few clips and the first episode and the show is great. Whoever's idea this was, they deserve a raise or something. All of the dads are great and the natural chemistry they have with their children is so adorable. These kids are little stars in the making! My favorite so far is 이종혁 (Lee Jonghyuk) and his son 이준수 Lee Junsoo. He has a habbit of saying "왜?" whenever his father asks him something or tells him to do something. (See video below.) You all need to check this show out if you aren't watching it already. If you are studying Korean and your level is about low-intermediate, you should be able to watch it without subtitles! Try it. If you've seen it, leave comments below!

Nature Walk and Bike Ride

My sister and I rode our bikes to go see a parade. The parade was nice but on our way home we found a really nice place. It was soo beautiful. I posted some pictures of our walk in the woods below.

                                     

Too bad the water is dirty. 

If you look closely, you can see two turtles. 

It looks like a hand. 

No time for selfies Chaerim! 

It looks like a campfire was here. 

A butterfly~~~ 

She finally landed after being blown by the wind. 

It's so symmetrical. 

A playground. 

They must be married. lol

자기 소개 (My Korean is Horrible.)

안녕하세요 여러분. 제 이름은 홍채림이에요. 22살이에요. 최근에 대학을 졸업했어요. 일번어를 전공했어요. 그리고 0한국어와 TESOL를 부전공했어요. 근데 공부 너무 싫어요. 아무리 싫어도 학사 학위위해서 안 싫은 척 했어요. 이제 자유인이서 제 마음대로 할수 있어요. 

그래서 매일매일에 제 제일 좋아하는 것을 해요. 교회에 가는 거, 한국 드라마를 보는 거, 이 두개한데서 기쁨을 받아요. 그럼 친구들이랑 놀아는거도 좋아해요. 사실은 친구가 많아요. 친구가 많이 아니라, 날 아는 사람들이 많아요. 

나를 아는 사람들이 많은데 제가 특별 안하는 생각해요. 저는 재미있는 착한 여자예요. 하나님을 사랑해요. 사람들도 사랑해요. 한국과 한국 사람도 사랑해요. 

제 나쁜 한국말로 한국 사람이랑 애기하고 싶어요. 한국 남자랑 데이트 해 보고 싶어영~. ㅋㅋ 소락산을 등산하고 싶어요. 

외국에 가 본 적이 없어요. 한국에 괸심이 있어서 한국에 가고 싶어요. 한국에 돌아가는 친구가         많아요. 제 친구 너무 보고 싶어요.

8월에 한국에 가요. 영어로 가르치려고 가요. 여기에서 한국어를 열심히 공부해서 한국 대학원를 신청할 거예요. 

근데, 제가 큰 꿈이 있어요. 런니맨에 나오고 있어요. 나오면 좋겠영~~. 런닝맨은 대박이다!

대한국, 조금만도 기다려요. 채림이 올 거예요!

Teaching in Korea is so Cliche

Yes I said it. Teaching in Korea is cliche. Almost all of the foreigners in Korea are English teachers. So Chaerim, why are you trying to teach English in Korea? Because I went to school for it. It makes me sad to know that people think teaching English is an easy job and that anyone can do it. Think again.  (҂⌣̀_⌣́)

Speaking English does not qualify you to teach someone else how to speak it. I feel bad for Korea, not even just Korea but most of East Asia, knowing that most of the teachers they have aren't passionate about teaching English. What about the children?!?!   (/ﾟДﾟ)/

If you like kpop or dramas, that is no reason to go to Korea and teach. Be an actor or a kpop star. Go on Star King or something. Don't go to Korean schools and waste the students' and your co-teacher's time. Teach English because you love the English language and your own native culture and want to share it with others. Teach because you went to school for it or want to break into the field.

I said all of that because we won't become amazing at what we do if we don't have a passion for. Sure you can become good with practice, but we don't want to be just good. We want to be beasts. Beasts at everything we do. Without passion you can't be a beast. Remember that.

Kudos to the teachers who are teaching abroad for the right reasons.

I'm a Real Adult

I graduated on Sunday evening. Yaaaaay~~ *tears of joy* Finally, I am a real adult. But, who knew being a real adult was so difficult. Choices are the most difficult things to make. Why don't people explain that to you before you become an adult? Seriously, there should be a class about making choices and how difficult they are. Sike, I know being an adult and making choices are difficult but I didn't think I'd have to make a difficult one so soon.

What decision? Going to Japan all expenses paid or working at my current job for the summer.

Woah, woah, let me explain~~. You're probably thinking "psh, why is that a hard decision?" You see, I'm in the middle of the EPIK application process (I'll talk about that in a different post). My parents aren't too cool with me going abroad but they've known it's something I've wanted to do for a long time now. I mean, I graduated a Japanese major with a minor in Korean and another minor in TESOL Education so going abroad for me is inevitable. With that said, I didn't want to leave my parents so quickly. If everything goes through with EPIK then I will be in Korea for a long time. If I accepted the camp position in Japan then I'd be leaving at the end of the next month. Not enough time for my family to adjust to me leaving. So I decided it's not best to go.

Another reason I decided not to go (maybe even the main reason) is that being in Japan during the summer would interfere with getting my E-2 visa for Korea. South Korea that is. I feel the need to clarify because people around have been asking if I'm going to North or South Korea.             (-__-)    <--The face I make every time I get that question. Anyway, the point is, I've decided not to go to Japan because it would be difficult for me to get my working visa. I'm not sad or anything because nothing is stopping me from vacationing in Japan in the future. Sorry Japan, you'll have to wait to see Chaerim. Womp.

So do you all understand me? That was a tough decision. To turn down going to Japan and helping cute, little children with their English at no cost. I was stressed for a week! #realadultproblems But now, I'm just chilling, improving my Korean, waiting to hear what city I'll be teaching in, and making gwap on my job. Not tryna be broke during the month before I get my paycheck in Korea. hehe

So here's to transitioning into real adult life!