Oh, hey! Did I mention my NOA/Contract packet from Epik arrived today? Beyond ecstatic, 10 minutes after it arrived I book my flight to Korea :) August 7th I will be headed to Scotland, probably doing a little two day trip to Norway/Sweden/Somewhere Scandanavian and then flying out the 19th and arriving at Seoul Incheon Airport the 20th!
In my packet I received a spiffy, shiny NOA, my SMOE contract, a notice for successful applicants and an amazingly nice note from my coordinator. He is pretty much the best, by the way, and you should all be extremely jealous...unless we have the same coordinator, in which case I suppose I'm okay sharing.
The Information packet was really helpful so here are some of the details..ABRIDGED!
1) Visa Info: Sign your contract when you receive it, unless you are a SMOE teacher; in which case you will have the pre-signed contract that you previously submitted. The contract is temporary and just for visa purposes, you will sign two additional contracts when you arrive in Korea. Americans can find the required documents here.
*On your visa application you will be asked to fill in your visa issuance number. This is in the top left corner of your NOA. Leave the Guarantor section blank.
2) Flight Stuff: Notify your coordinator of your flight details and make sure you arrange your flights to arrive on the correct day. I will be arriving on August 20th, with team 2. Team 2 includes: Seoul, Busan, Daejeon, Ulsan, Gangwon, Jeju and will be held in Daejeon. Of course this changes from year to year, but I am very excited! Epik will be there to pick up teachers between 11am and 9pm. The last bus will leave the airport at 9:00pm. Epik says your flight should land by 7 p.m Make sure you have enough time between landing and grabbing your luggage, to get to the shuttle. That way you wont end up doing the hoodrat Snooki, four suitcase shuffle through the airport...I have perfected it.
3) Documents: If you are missing any documents (TEFL certificate, proof of teaching or apostilled diploma) they must arrive at the Epik office by July 20th.
-Remember to bring 2 additional passport photos (3.5cm x 4.5 cm)
-Bring an original copy of your teaching certification
4) Entrance Allowance: In most cases, a teacher will be provided with 1,300,000 KRW by their POE/MOE within the first month of teaching. This is intended to assist with initial set up costs for Epik teachers. I wonder if a deep fryer could be considered an initial set up cost? A girl's gotta have her chicken ;)
5)Medical Business Ya'll: As you know (and have probably stressed about) all Epik teachers need to take a medical exam which includes: a physical examination, a blood test and chest x-ray. You will need to obtain a medical report issued from the hospital and must bring 50,000-100,000 KRW in cash to pay for the examination.
-Epik teachers who test positive for illegal substances will have their contracts immediately cancelled. At this point I'm assuming no one is dumb enough to have gone through this whole process if they planned on failing.
6) All successful Epik applicants must complete the online pre-orientation course (17 hours). Once you complete the course you will be asked print out the certificate and present it to your homeroom teacher during orientation.
I actually cannot wait for Orientation and my first week teaching, but what do I need to pack?
To Be Continued.....
