What a difference a week makes ...

Well, here I am. Sitting in my Montreal apartment having my last breakfast. Today is my last day in the city; I move all my things tomorrow morning back to Courtice and then in a week I'll be off to Korea. Jean-Marc left for Korea on Tuesday morning. I just received an email from him telling me that he arrived safely and that our apartment is beautiful. I can't believe it is actually happening. I feel like I'm living a dream and it's all coming together. Moving to Korea to teach, something I've dreamed of for over 4 years? Check. Great position, seemingly great colleagues, opportunity to save money and travel? Check. Fantastic boyfriend who is coming with me? Check. And that third one I never anticipated.

So from the last update, JM's visa was processed and he picked it up on Monday no problem. We packed his stuff in my little car early Tuesday morning (3:30am) and took him to the airport. He flew out at 6am but had a 7 hour delay in Detroit, which meant he didn't actually leave North America until 7pm that night. But he arrived safely the next day in Korea.

As for me, I received my visa issuance number 3 days after it was sent for processing. I applied for my visa on Monday and it is ready for pick up today .. Thursday. I can't believe how fast immigration was. I booked my flight today for August 10th. I leave Toronto at 8am and have a 3 hour lay over in San Francisco. Not bad!

Alright, back to packing. I still have so much to do before my Dad arrives tomorrow morning.

Cheers,

Jennika

KOREA UPDATE!

Alright fellow followers, here is the update as to what is going on with Korea (since this blog was originally created to keep everyone in the loop about our situation).

Jean-Marc:

• Mailed all of his documents to Korea on June 22nd to get his visa issuance number. This means the school goes to an immigration office and has them approve that JM is not taking a Korean’s job. Once he has this number, he can apply for the visa. It took the school over 2 weeks to get him his visa issuance number. They finally sent it to him via e-mail on July 12th. 
• JM mailed his visa application with accompanying transcripts, passport photos, and money order to the Korean Consulate in Montreal on July 13th. 
• JM gets a call from the consulate on July 18th saying he gave them the wrong issuance number. JM contacts the school in Korea to find out what is happening, turns out the number hasn’t even been processed yet. 
• They e-mail him another visa issuance number (this time the real one) on July 20th, which JM forwards to the consulate. The consulate told him on the 18th that if he gets the number in soon, there should be no problem having the visa processed by July 30th. 
• JM’s flight has been booked by Bugil Academy and he is scheduled to fly out of Montreal on July 31st. He hopes to pick up his visa (and passport!) from the consulate on the 30th. Fingers crossed everything goes smoothly.

Jennika:

• Accepted the job offer from Bugil Academy on June 22nd. The school then took 2 weeks to send me a contract. It was e-mailed to me on July 6th. Bad timing. 
• Since we were traveling, I didn’t have time to print it off and review it until we were in Halifax. I did this on July 11th. They had changed one line from the original contract they sent me about having to return a loan if I didn’t work for more than 6 months. I e-mailed Bugil to inquire about this change and what amount of money I would owe. 
• I sent all of my documents (transcripts, notarized and apostilled diplomas, passport photos, copy of my passport, health statement, criminal record check and the signed contract) to Korea on July 14 via Purolator. Because we are in a rural area, the mail doesn’t go out until July 16. 
• It was delivered on July 20th. No one from Bugil has confirmed this for me, I just tracked my package online. I really hope they don’t take weeks to get me the visa issuance number. 
• Originally, I was aiming to leave on August 8th so that I would have a week to acclimatize before I started work. Because things move ridiculously slow in Korea, this most likely will not happen. 

So that’s the update. JM is much further ahead in this process than I am. I don’t mind having the extra time to pack and prepare here in Canada, but I am worried that because my contract starts August 16th, they will force me to start teaching as soon as I arrive. Here’s hoping my school is more humane than that! For now, I’m off to the beach.

Jennika