Good News!

I don't have to miss my cousin's wedding! I got an e-mail from Ms. Choi (the principal at BIS) and the current teacher will stay an extra week. I'll be leaving on July 5th, arriving in Seoul the evening of the 6th and must report to work on the morning of July 7th. This is going to be a very exhausting first week of school, but I don't have to miss the wedding. It's pretty insane, I'm leaving for Korea July 5th!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm sending my contract via fax by the end of this week. It's official kids!

July 1st

Well, I'm about 95% sure I will be teaching at Brown International School (BIS) starting July 1st. This means that yes, I will have to miss my cousin's wedding, being that I'll most likely leave June 26th-ish. Well and because the wedding is July 4th, but anyway...I will be living in Gangnam, which is the more foreigny part of Seoul, but nonetheless amazing. I started taking impromptu Korean lessons with a girl in my graduate class and I have learned a few things, but obviously I have more to learn. However, I can say hello, thank you, where is the restroom, I am from America and my name is Molly. Pretty good, huh...oh and I can count to 10. Sweet. I'm starting to stress out about all the paperwork I have to have completed, especially my diploma, but I try not to worry too much because I think it will work out, keep those fingers crossed.

BIS sounds like a great place to work, but I only get 2 sick days the whole year and I'm still unsure about vacation days outside of national holidays, but this is a growing experience, right? I'm really excited to start teaching, but it seems like I have a million things to do before I leave. Trips to Chicago for Visas, figuring out my McDonald's schedule, etc. It'll all work out, everything always does, but still incredibly stressful.

Last week of classes start tomorrow and then it's finals week. I have two finals, both on May 6th and then I am done. Completely finished with my undergraduate career, sans the graduation ceremony of course, but I'll be done! I'm incredibly excited...it's about time I finish school and start experiencing the world beyond Mississippi, Wisconsin and the United States. I don't think I can entirely express how happy I am!

Brown International School

Well since it's been almost a week since my interview with Brown International School, I thought I would fill in some gaps. It turns out that the school really does only have four teachers. This was a worry of mine in the beginning, but I am liking th idea of a small close knit group of people. However, this can also work the other way, maybe nobody gets along and we'll all want to bite each others heads off, but I am optimistic. I would have to start July 1st which does interfere with a wedding I am supposed to attend, but Reuben is going to talk to the school to see if maybe we can push the start date to July 7th. We'll see of course, but I really do want to work at this school, it seems right up my alley. Hopefully I'll know more by weeks end.

another job offer

I got an e-mail this evening from AT and they have another job offering for me. I will have an interview tomorrow evening and this job would start July 1st, so a lot sooner than I thought. I would have to miss my cousin's wedding, but I can't help that and I actually was beginning to look forward to that and the Independence Day 5K, which would probably be the last of the three races I am looking to run this summer. Today, I started doing Hip Hop Abs with my friend Ish and holy crap it was a workout (and then I learned how to make chicken fried rice, so good!). Anyway, back to this job offer...It is in Daechi which is a very affluent part of Seoul and many schools are located here. This in turn makes for a higher salary, but I'm assuming its because the cost of living would be higher. However, Daechi, part of Gangnam is really close to a lot of stores including Lotte, a pretty awesome sounding store (like Target/Woodman's/Kohl's all in one store!). I know very little about the school though. I know that I would be teaching 7-13 year olds, from 10-6:30 MWF and 10-7 TR, which I like much better than the late night hours. The one thing I am confused about is the number of teachers. Reuben, one of the AT guys, wrote "4 teachers (2 female and 2 male foreign teachers)" I don't know if that means there are 4 foreign teachers or 4 total teachers. The latter scares me a bit, but I have the interview tomorrow night and I'll have to ask that. Since I have not heard back from Avalon I don't know what to do, I guess I'll just wait until I get contracts, which is when I'll have to choose. I like the idea of this school and it's proximity to Seoul and it seems like subway stations are frequent, which makes transportation a breeze. Well, I suppose I'll write more tomorrow, when I know more.

Edit: The school is called Brown International School (I couldn't find a website, but I found the job posting, sounds pretty good)