There are several things you can bring to make you'r life a bit more comfy. Here is our list of suggestions.
- A copy of your vital documents - bring photocopies of your passport, degree, transcripts and photo ID in case you lose your passport or other documents and need to replace them.
- Pictures from home - bring a couple of photo albums with you with photos of your friends and family. Condensed versions of your photo albums are fine- don’t bore yourself and your class to tears with ten consecutive shots of Aunt Millie. This is a great way to combat homesickness, and you can also get a lot of mileage out of them in the classroom- your students will be endlessly curious about life in your home country.
- Map from home - people will always want to know where you're from.
- Posters - always nice to decorate your place with something familiar.
- Books - you will need a English to Korean - Korean to English Dictionary (listed in our Books on Korea section) and while there I suspect you're get a whole host of teaching books. Check out our Footprints Teacher Bookstore for titles that are most relevant and useful.
- Prescription Medication - they have great pain relievers here and cold meds but not your prescription, get a year's supply. Ask your Footprints representative if it's possible to get your medication over there.
- Medicines and Pharmaceutical Products - there is a drugstore on virtually every corner in Korea (yak- not to be confused with yok- which means subway station) and they will sell drugs for virtually every ailment over the counter. If you prefer western brand name medicines, here are some common ones you may want to consider bringing with you.
- Advil
- Tylenol
- Midol
- Pepto-Bismol
- Tums
- Neo-Citran
- Neosporin
- Nalgene - the winters can be bad for dehydration
- Deodorant - is almost impossible to find and if located is incredibly expensive - TRUE - to put it in perspective - a 26 ounce bottle of vodka is 6,000 Won, a stick of bad deodorant is about 15,000 Won!
As a note in the personal section --- it's a good idea to go to a doctor and dentist before you leave. English speaking doctors in Korea (especially in rural areas) can be hard to find. I got a serious skin burn when I first got here from my temperamental stove and I had to get a Korean escort to a doctor.
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“I'd like to start off by saying that my choice to teach abroad in Korea was one I know I will never regret! Footprints made it very easy to communicate with the school regarding details of where I'd be living and what I'd be teaching as well as taking care of my flight information. At the airport the morning we left, my boyfriend and I encountered overweight bags and extremely long lines at security, and we missed our flight by literally one minute. As we watched our plane pull from the gate, we just about lost our minds and any hope that we'd make the long journey we'd been planning for so long. We made one simple phone call to the travel agent, Claus, that Footprints set us up with. It was 6AM where he was on a Monday morning when we called in a panic. He said, "Stay by your phone," and we knew that he would fix this fiasco for us. Luckily, while Claus was searching for a solution, a woman from United Airlines was able to book us on another flight so that we would make our connection out of the U.S. to Seoul. We would like to thank Claus and Laina at Footprints for all their help in getting us to Korea!
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