Kelsy in Korea

I'm off to South Korea in one very short week!  As I sit here with piles of clothes and toiletries and other miscellaneous items scattered around my room, while also listening to Kari Jobe in the background to keep me sane, I can’t believe I'm leaving next week.  Where did the last six months go when I happened to stumble upon Greenheart Travel through Google in some roundabout way?!  More about Greenheart in another post, though, as I have to share about how great my recruiter has been throughout this entire process.

So why am I going to Korea?  I’ve secured a teaching job with EPIK (English Program in Korea) where I will teach ESL in a public school for one year.  After another long summer of applications and interviews for a teaching job but still no luck, I decided I was going to make this teaching abroad idea of mine actually happen.  I’ve wanted to travel again ever since I came home from my semester in England; I definitely caught the travel bug.

And why Korea specifically?  Initially, I actually didn’t have any intentions of going to Korea.  My mind was set on figuring out how I could get back to Europe, but as I have watched everything fall into place and have done a lot of research, I really believe Korea is where I need to be this next year.  I am very excited to travel this country and to be immersed in the culture.

I don't really know how I came across Greenheart Travel, but I'm so glad I did.  It was a mixture of googling teaching abroad, reading a post on someone’s blog, which led me to a couple other travel websites of some sort, and finally to Greenheart.  And that is how I found the EPIK program, as Greenheart recruits for them.  I knew if I wanted to make this happen I needed to start gathering the materials for my application right away because I was already a couple weeks behind the recommended timeline.  Within the next week, I was off to get fingerprinted for my background check and then continued with a very long, tiring application process that required a lot of patience and came along with a few meltdowns, including one in front of the lady at FedEx!  But all that work was worth it because I'm off to Korea.

I truly believe that everything happens for a reason.  I believe that I didn’t land any of those teaching jobs over the summer so that I can go to Korea.  There’s something I need to do over there and even though this is entirely scary, along with very exciting, I have complete peace that this is what I need to do.

Where exactly will I be living?  I’ve been placed in Busan, which is on the coast by the way!  Coming from Ohio, of course I’m so excited for that.  It is the second largest city after Seoul.  I will also be provided with my own apartment; I can’t wait to get settled in.  Check the southeastern-most tip for Busan in the map below:

I will be leaving bright and early Monday, February 18.  I’m flying from Cleveland to Chicago and from Chicago to Seoul.  There are a few other EPIKers on the flight with me out of Chicago and I couldn’t be more thankful for that.  It’s such a relief to know I won’t be alone.  Once we arrive in Korea, we’ll take a bus that EPIK provides for us to orientation.  We’ll be at Jeonju University for orientation until Tuesday, February 26.   Then I’ll finally be off to my apartment and to see my school.  I don’t know which school I’ll be working at yet because we aren't given this information until we meet with our supervisors at orientation.  If you know me, you know that’s driving me crazy!  I guess I’ll find out soon enough.

These last few weeks have been non-stop with applying for my visa, completing my pre-orientation course, buying and sorting everything I need, fitting in as many visits as possible with friends and family, and hanging out with my sweet dog.  I'm sure this next week will be a blur and just as crazy.  Maybe in the midst of all that it'll finally hit me that I'm leaving?  It still doesn't feel like it.  But I know I'll be leaning on all the support and prayers I have from everyone at home when it does.  You all know who you are--thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Talk to you from Korea!