Start at the very beginning...

It's a very good place to start.

I've been wanting to go teach in South Korea for some time now. I had the notion a year or two ago, then after doing the TEFL course last summer, I decided the time was right for me. I started a job very shortly afterwards though, and wasn't able to follow through. I was still looking at placements and considering my options, casually applying, but not really getting anywhere. Then my good friend Aiden O'Donoghue put me onto a very respectable looking hagwon (private language school) named MoonKkang, and managed to swing himself a job there aswell. Maccon Fionn Macnamara, another lad who was on my TEFL course also managed to get a job there too, and for a while it looked like I would be the only one of us left in Ennis! But fortunately, things fell into place, and I was told on Paddy's day I'd a job in Korea.

I'll be working in Daegu, the same city as Aiden and Mac, and while we'll be in the same company, it's different branches, so between us we'll meet a good few new people. My branch is in Siji, near to the soccer stadium, and has ten other foreigners, a couple of whom I've already been in contact with. So I've an idea of what to expect. But also, I suspect, I'll be very bewildered too...

When I signed the contract, I was told I'd be starting May 1st. I got an email from the HR manager this morning saying that the teacher I was replacing wanted to leave a little early, and could I come sooner. So now my departure date is April 20th. That's three weeks time! So much to be done. I wrote out a list of things to pack and jobs to be done, and there is an awful lot! I have a week off work next week though, and I'll get loads done then. There's injections to be got, insurance to be bought, going away partys to be had, and lots of other little things to be taken care of, before I even start to pack a bag.

This is long enough for the moment. I hope to come back to it fairly regularly though, so continue to watch this space.