I am finally doing the EPIK pre-orientation. Never have I procrastinated so much when it comes to study. Or maybe it’s just been a while since uni??

Anyway, it’s pretty boring and monotone but hopefully once I get to the Korean language and culture section it’ll perk up a bit.

This week has been spent lying around doing nothing and enjoying not having to go to work for a bit. I finished at M&S last Tuesday, and surprising didn’t cry all that much. Go me!

I think I have pretty much everything I need to take with me now, I’d just like to get another pair of jeans and trousers for work. I’m really hoping it’s acceptable to wear stone coloured jeggings at my school because that is literally all I live in right now!

Packing is…coming along? I think. I’ve washed everything I want to take. Going to get on the iron a bit later and sort it all into piles and then try and get rid of half of it. My suitcase already weighs 18kg which is fine because I’m allowed 30kg, but all it has in it is shoes, tampons, and percy pigs. We’ll see! Vacuum bags are definitely going to be a life savour for me!

So, one week to go. I can’t really believe it’s actually happening :)

2:49 pm  •  8 August 2012  •  2 notes

…at least I hope so?!

My NOA and contract FINALLY got here, after travelling halfway around the world and back that is. Literally. They went from Seoul - Hong Kong - Paris - Memphis - London - to me. I have never been so stressed, nor refreshed a fedex tracking page so much in my life. 

But, having that in my hands caused a great sense of calm, at least for a few minutes anyway.

Having those papers meant that I could apply for my visa. Which is a whole load of other paperwork to worry about. My printer decided to die just as I was going to print the forms off, so I had to email them to my mum at work, and her computer wouldn’t print them off properly, so I had to fill them in as they were and hope the Embassy would accept them. Then I found out that they only open from 10 til 12 for the visa service. No idea why I hadn’t noticed that before.

ANYWAY. I eventually sorted myself out and headed down to London fully prepared to sit in a queue for hours, only to walk into the Embassy, directed to the second window, have my forms and £80 taken from me, and told to come back in a week. I was in there for no more than 5 minutes. It was painless, and entirely stress relieving. 

Also, I’ve booked my flight :)

I’ll be flying from Birmingham on the 15th August with Emirates, and arrive in Seoul on the 16th around 4.30pm. A group of us on facebook have booked into the same hostel so I really can’t wait to get going now and meet everyone. 

Two weeks left at work though, I have a feeling I’m going to be all tears when August 4th comes around!

10:30 pm  •  20 July 2012  •  1 note

Well a lot has happened since I last logged onto this account. Or maybe it just feels that way to me. 

As I said before I have been officially placed in Daegu. As of this morning my NOA/contract are on route with FedEx. They should be here by Monday at the latest. That being the case my current plans are to pop down to London on Wednesday so that I can apply for my visa, which means that in just over a week I can FINALLY book my flight! The one I have my eye on is Emirates, leaving on August 15th from Birmingham.

Anyway, on Saturday I’m going to hand in my notice at work. I’ll be leaving there on August 4th which will give me 10ish days to get last minute things sorted and say goodbye to everyone. It was surprisingly difficult to write, considering that I come home and moan about the place everyday. I do love my job though, and I think spending 5 days a week there will make it even harder to accept a change. I’ll miss the people I work with, and my crazy regular customers, the questions you can only get asked when you work in retail.

It’s starting to sink in more and more everyday now. I wrote a huge list of all the stuff I needed to buy and had a mini breakdown when I realised I’d forgotten about towels. Towels! I’m currently in the half packed, half ready state, where everything I want to take with me is washed and clean and then just left in my suitcase at the bottom of my bed. Pretty much have all the clothes I need bar a few bits, still need to get toiletries and food supplies. Percy pigs, PG Tips, and marmite are at the top of the list.

Yesterday I had a bit of a stress attack because the flight I really want suddenly costs £830. This morning I checked and there was a new one on there for £600. I really want to just book it and get it over and done with. But my contract won’t be here for another few days, and I’m sure something will go wrong with my visa. I just keep panicking that it’s going to cost more money than I have and I won’t have enough for my first month over there. At the minute I want to spend £700 or less on a flight and take at least £700 over for the first month.

Anyone else stressing out about flight prices and have any advice?

11:14 am  •  29 June 2012  •  1 note

After weeks of constantly refreshing my email, as if the 30 seconds in between the last time I checked it and regardless of the fact that it was 3am in Korea would make the coveted email appear, this morning I logged on and there it was.

Final Approval.

Never in my life have I felt so nervous opening something. Other than the interview results of course ;) But this was more intense for some reason. This email would be letting me know where I’ll be living for the next year. My future.

I screamed the house down - IT’S HERE!!!!

There it is - You have passed the final evaluation and have been offered a position with the Daegu Metropolitan Office of Education.

What more could a girl want?

10:24 am  •  8 June 2012  •  7 notes

People are beginning to hear back from EPIK, or maybe it’s just that one guy on facebook.

Either way, every time I see that I have a new email I feel sick. It could happen any day now, it could happen in a month. 

As soon as I read that I officially have a contract and have been placed, that’s when it will become really real.

So hurry up already EPIK!

7:26 pm  •  30 May 2012  •  3 notes

So this waiting around to hear some more news about Korea is killing me. Well maybe that’s going too far. I’m not really aware of the days/weeks passing right now because Marks and Spencer is wearing me down so much that all the days are just blurring into one. I’m going into my third six day week following numerous 10pm finishes and night shifts. On the plus side I’ve been so tired that I’m not eating properly and so I’m losing a lot of weight…

Anyway. People keep trying to talk to me about Korea, and the flights, where I’m going to be living and so on. I feel kind of silly having to tell them that actually I still don’t know, and probably won’t for another three or four weeks. If I’m lucky. 

The problem is that it’s so close to happening now that I’m losing all motivation for anything else. I don’t want to go to work and pretend I love my job anymore. I want to book that one way flight and just get out of here. And that’s annoying me more than the waiting is in a way, because I do genuinely love my job and the people I work with. I feel like I’m wishing the weeks away and before I know it I’ll be getting on a plane and that will be that.

It keeps hitting me that this is really happening though, days will go by and I’ll be fine with it, and then suddenly I’ll be walking down the street and bam, “Holy crap I’m moving to South Korea” comes into my mind. Sometimes I think I’m crazy, sometimes it doesn’t feel real, and sometimes I feel like this is what I’ve been waiting for my entire life.

9:49 pm  •  20 May 2012  •  1 note

This is currently all I seem to do when I’m on the computer. Skyscanner is my new best friend and I am desperate to find a flight cheaper than £500. Gonna happen? probably not, but it’s worth hoping for.

9:40 pm  •  20 May 2012  •  1 note

I’m not really sure whether this should go on here or my personal blog, but it’s kinda korea related so this will do, i can reblog it for the other one.

I had my review at work today. My boss told me he was gutted that I was leaving, that I was his go to girl, his right arm etc etc. Basically he really appreciates the work I do for him. Which is so nice to hear once in a while. I’m not the type of person who has to hear how great I am all the time, but it makes you feel better knowing the work you do is being recognised now and then.

Anyway, he talked about how sad he was that I’m leaving and how amazing my new life is going to be, and I actually got a bit choked up. I spend so long wishing the months away and thinking about how much I hate it here, that I haven’t actually stopped to think about how much I’m going to miss it all. 

Just leaving work alone is going to be so hard. I know it’s just a shop but I spend 5 days a week there, I see the people I work with more than I do my other friends, I spend more time in that place than I do at home. 

It’s my life, and come August one day I’m going to have to say goodbye to everyone and probably never see a lot of them again. It’s such a difficult transition. I think it’s only just beginning to hit me that I am leaving everything behind.

10:55 pm  •  28 April 2012  •  3 notes