Many of you are probably thinking that Will and I have left the country already, or wondering why we haven't. "Hey, weren't they supposed to leave yesterday?" Well, yeah, but now we have yet ANOTHER target date to arriving in South Korea. We now have a new contract with not Osan Wonderland, but Jecheon Wonderland English Institute. Wonderland English Institute is a chain, and while Osan could not wait for us to arrive, Jecheon can... at least until October 20th. We ran into yet ANOTHER (I feel like I'm overusing that phrase...) document issue. Will took my FBI check, which took SO LONG to arrive, to Atlanta to have it apostilled, only to learn that since it's a "federal document," it has to be sent to D.C. ... which takes 2 weeks. The school also wants to wait on Will to get his visa in the U.S., and he still has not received his background check. So... we are waiting... still... It WILL happen. (I say to myself daily...) We are both impatient to leave, to leave Mercer (since we are not students and kind of don't belong), to leave Macon (as dear to us as Macon is, it's not our home anymore), to leave his parents' house (as kind as they've been, it's getting a little claustrophobic for all of us).
In the meantime, Will and I are researching our new location - Jecheon City. Jecheon City is a tourist city because of its beautiful mountains, historical sites, pretty lakes (or lake... not really sure), and ski resort. It's a small city surrounded by mountains and fields. Its average high temperature in October is 67 degrees Fahrenheit, in November it's 52, in December 39, in January 35, and in February 40. It snows a bit, though not a whole lot. Any of you who know me well know that this excites me A LOT. Will, on the other hand, is a bit less excited by the prospect of cold weather. He will whine and complain, but I will continue to dance in the snow. The downside of this is that I now have to buy winter clothes.
So while I'm tired of waiting, I'm extremely happy with where we've been placed. I will post more updates in the coming weeks.
Hi Anastasia,
ReplyDeleteMy name is David and run a placement agency.
I was hoping you could telle me how your experience has been at Jecheon Wonderland.
I realise no position is perfect, but if you would be inclined to let us know a little bit about your experience at this school, we would be very grateful.
We had a teacher about to be placed there, and his Korean friends warned against it. He subsequently changed his mind. I'm just curious if the atmosphere is bad etc..
Thanks so much :)
Well, I'm happy to report that I love my job here at Jecheon Wonderland. The boss takes care of us well, we get paid well and on time, and though we keep getting new Korean teachers, we've liked all of them a lot. Everyone is very helpful. Not all of the apartments where the foreign teachers are placed are very good (it's an old apartment complex, so while some apartments are fine, others have problems), but they're moving everyone to a newer place (with air conditioning) toward the end of this year. The workload is heavy (this hagwon has kindergarten as well as afternoon classes so we go to work earlier than most hagwons and leave earlier than most hagwons, but are still there for over 8 hours a day), but I think the job is worth it. And the boss is very understanding if someone is sick and has to miss some classes. I have heard many hagwon horror stories, but this place simply doesn't have them. I really think that any positive thinking person can be very happy here.
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