The basic rundown of questions they asked were some no-brainers:
When do you leave?
When do you start?
Where are you going?
Is this a new passport?
Why do you want to teach?
Do you have experience teaching?
Will you come back for another year?
That was pretty much it. I found the last question interesting. It wasn't 'Do you want to come back,' he said 'will you.' I don't think this was simply a vocabulary difference. He spoke very well. Judging from my pre-trip research they really want and have a need for English teacher right now. Maybe they think I'm a good one already and hope for me to stay on or something before I even start. I don't know, I think my ego is stepping up.
After the interview they asked me to come back that afternoon and pickup my Visa. A few hours later I walked back in and had my Visa in hand after confirming that I matched my passport photo which I got a little humor out of. The lady behind the glass had about 8 passports in front of her ready to hand back and simply grabbed the wrong one to hold up. When she asked if the picture in the passport was me I was staring at a photo of a good looking blonde girl. I know that saying that other races all look alike, but this really stretched the limits. I simply replied 'no' and she had a moments hesitation before she realized that she had picked up the wrong passport. After a few seconds scrambling she got the right one. We went through the exercise again and I was off.
The Visa is just a full-page sticker inside the passport. Nothing extra to carry around.
I did meet some nice people while at the Visa office. One lady was going to be teaching in Seoul for a University and had been doing the teaching english gigs for about 5 years. There were 3 other pieces of fresh meat like me. One from Portland, one from Eugene, and one from Gladstone of all places. The girl from Gladstone was the first person I met. It's a small small world. We shared some advice and knowledge of traveling abroad and then parted. Hopefully I'll run into a few of them later on.
Now I wait to find out my travel arrangements which should be coming fairly quickly. I'm excited yet nervous. I'm not normally a nervous person, but traveling always does it to me. It's out of my comfort zone I suppose. There's only one way to deal with it and that's to jump right in.
It's still hard to imagine that in less than two weeks I will be in another country and not for a short stay.
Cheers!
