The Great and Magnificent List of Things
To Accomplish
• First 안녕하세요!
• Pass training
• Successfully teach first class
• Remember and employ all meal (and drinking) etiquette during a dinner.
• Order food in Korean at a restaurant (without disaster)
• Street food
• Order takeout in Korean
• Haggle a price down (Still in Korean)
• Make first grocery trip
• Navigate subway for the first time
• Get a cab (again with the Korean)
• Don’t cry for first month
• Make a new friend
• Make five new friends
• Make 10 new friends
• Make 15 new friends
• Be told “your Korean is very good!”
• Eat something I am terrified of
• Make it through first Christmas away from home
• 10 posts to blog 2.28.13 (first one down and I haven’t left the country. woohoo!)
• 20 posts to blog
• 30 posts to blog
• 40 posts to blog
***
To Do:
• Try on a Hanbok
• Sing at a 노래방
• Explore (some part of) Seoul for a day
• Visit Itaewon
• Poke Japan
• Make Kimchi
• Be invited to a family dinner?
• Evade using a squat toilet for the entirety of trip
• Evade eating live octopus for the entirety of trip
• Buy things at an open air market
• Buy/wear some absurd aegyo animal apparel
• Take a lesson in something I’ve never done before
• Get a phone charm
• Make it to one K-pop show. Because.
• Find EYK studio.
Places to go to:
• Namsan tower
• The trick eye museum in Hongdae
•Damyang Bamboo Park
• to be updated…
Via Korea 
Are you coming via EPIK/EPIK/SMOE or will you be teaching at a Hagwon?
Hagwon. Chungdahm Learning. What about you?
I’m am doing EPIK. Chungbuk-do Province,it’s pretty cool,I like it a lot.
Holy shitake mushrooms! I taught at Chungdahm in Ansan. Which branch will you be in?
Cool! Don’t know yet. I’m hoping anywhere but Jeju. Question about Chungdahm– do they expect you to haggle your salary at all?
They offered me a choice between salary and hourly. Salary included them paying for your apt but it was lower monthly pay. I ended up choosing hourly and then of course they gave me as few hours as possible and I had to pay rent myself. I actually had a really bad experience with them. The first week is unpaid training and if you screw up, you’re out. That’s it, go home. So you gotta hit it out of the park on your first try, basically, to even impress them. The branch I was at also had trouble paying us on time. They were usually 2-3 weeks late and my friends who are still there say it’s still happening. It’s also a hella-load of prep work for each class. Pray you aren’t in Ansan, and if you are, say hi to Hannah, Craig, and Matt for me!
(I’m replying here because it won’t let me reply below). Ouch! Sorry your experience wasn’t great. I do know about the training being unpaid, but I’m not too horribly worried about it. I’ve done some work teaching before and it’s what I’m interested in doing as my career, so it should be possible to pass. :) I think just having the training week at all is great if only because of the chance it gives to meet other teachers as well. About pay issues etc., I’m working for Chungdahm through an American company called Aclipse. The friend who referred me said that Aclipse will get into contact with Chungdahm to work out of any big issues, like (Inadequate housing, pay issues, etc), if I need them to. So I’m feeling relatively safe. We’ll see! It’s always a toss up. I’m still excited, though.
oooooo, lucky! In that case, you should be fine. Having an advocate on your side will make all the difference. I’m excited for you! There’s so much awesomeness waiting for you.
“Evade eating live octopus for the entirety of trip”
Nooooooo. Sannakji is a GD Korean national treasure. Eat it. EAT IT.
But some people choke to death on it because ITS STILL WRIGGLING and the suckers attach in your throat! ew ew ew ew ew ew ew ew….
What city will you be in, do you know already? Also, live octopus is a fantastic experience. . . .
I actually won’t know until May/June, right before shipping off. Do you like your area?
I think taking a cab for the first time and calling for pizza delivery were the two things that gave me the most sense of accomplishment when I first got here. If you want something strange and weird, try 순대국밥 or blood sausage soup. It’s my favorite Korean food.
Take aegyo pictures with friends in a photo booth!
I really like the idea of making a list of things to accomplish. I leave next Monday for a GEPIK position and feel like I’m going to explode with anxiety. Maybe this will give me something else to do besides endlessly ponder the unknown.
So exciting! I’m jealous. But I understand how nerve-inducing it must be as well. Good luck! And if you have any good ideas for lists, be sure to blog them so I can steal them :)
Hey American, I also briefly got a job with Chungdahm and really regretted it. So far as I could tell (after enduring an incredibly dull five-hour training session) your only task is to get Korean adults to memorize random English sentences. I think you should probably ditch them before you even come here and get a public school gig instead. You might get stuck with bad teachers / students / apartment / neighborhood but you won’t have to worry about getting paid on time. Footprints Recruiting had me on a plane to Korea within a month, so I recommend them. Drop me an email sometime at sublunari at gmail because I’m also a little curious about why you’re so interested in coming to Korea. And thanks also for all the nice comments on my blog :)
I’m sorry that you had such a bad experience! I believe that they are either doing things differently now, or the fact that I’m going through an American company as well changes things a bit. I’m supposed to be with kids in the evenings I believe. To be honest, I think I would actually like teaching adults better– we’ll see. The “why” is always a legit question, so I threw together a little post about it earlier. https://notanforyou.wordpress.com/2012/12/09/25/
Thanks for the comment! :)
Only 29 more days! Can you believe it? ^^
Wow. If you do all of that….MY!! Good luck! I think this professor would probably fall apart in your position.