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Picture if you will a poor little fat kid getting his first intercity bus. Its a 5 1/2 hour journey so he brought snacks. He is fat, thats what fat people do. Now picture him walking up to the driver

Yes, I can vouch that Ippy is a real person and a very messy room-mate!  

Ippy doesn't have sex though. He finds it troublesome, or something.

Nothing yet. On monday i find out if i got the job in cheongju. I honestly doubt it though. I asked for feedback at the end of the interview (i always do when i want a job). She said that though im clearly a qualifed and excellent teacher (i may of course be adding my own emphasis here), she is worried that my experience might be a barrier to adapting to their system. Since ive had that one before (hiya AtoZ), i know theres very little you can do to change peoples minds when they decide on something. However, and not to be too complex, but shes likely right :) So were AtoZ. I have lots of will to adapt to systems, but i always end up doing it my way. :)

 

I have two others on the boil. A public school one from last week which i will hear about by the weekend... er... hang on?

And one that i just applied for yesterday... again another long shot since they want someone already in the country. I gave the recruiter a timetable of when i could be ready by... but ps jobs go at a snails pace.

 

Realistically im going to have to take a job next week. My docs have to be in korea and on immigrations desk by the 17th. And that includes the three or four days itll take to send the signed contract as well. Im kinda semi resigned to the prospect that im stuck in thailand for another three or four months if im honest. :) A few days ago and i almost couldnt breath at the thought of it, now... ive still got about a 40,000 baht buffer on the CC. And if i end up somewhere rural i can at least keep up with payments on it and clear a bit of it back. Basically ill know better by the end of next week.

 

No more public school job hunting though. As of next week its solely hagwon factories im applying for. Ill start applying tomorrow evening i reckons. I just cant honestly face looking today. Once the cheongju job falls through then i can ironically relax.

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Its basically entry level job - heavy schedule, low pay, few if any holidays etc. Its hard to explicate it when ALT jobs in japan are worse in a few regards (low pay, no benefits, punitive clauses in contracts, pro rata), so still 1000 times better. But a shit job is still a shit job, :)

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And in other late breaking news. Ive run out of time for a job in korea. Guess i should have chased a hagwon job...

 

And in other later breaking news... unlike in korea where it seemed to be sitting around for a week at a time twiddling thumbs waiting for a job that i 'definitely have' only to realise my application was being submitted to the board of ed (seriously, im still waiting... WAITING... to find out if i have a job i 'definitely have' 3 weeks ago that i was guaranteed id receive the boes final decision 2 weeks ago, which became last weekend, which became this tuesday, which hasnt gotten back to me to tell me of any updates since then), i applied, interviewed and got a job within 15 hours in um...

 

China?

 

Im going to be working in china it turns out. The pay is decent (12,000yuan). I had a friend working there 2 years ago. He said they were spending about 3000 yuan/month without really saving. So looks like ill have savings at least. Its in Tianjin (which is i guess is chinas version of yokohama). Going into this in many ways research free because im sorta looking forward to the shock of it all. Definitely not my first choice. But, ski resorts exist around beijing and further afield, so youll get some new infos :) The two biggest seem to be Nashan and Huaibei? Neither seems 'big' or even 'moderate'. But the season is decent enough - late nov to mid march by the looks of it. So mustnt grumble.

 

Another boon is that ill be teaching middle school. Which means a nice fun job again :) And chinese kids are supposed to be nice. So thats good. Bit of a rollercoaster this life of mine (:

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It all is. And in other mad news, after some 30 [redacted] years on planet earth i finally know my blood type! Im o positive. Yay! Or boo! i always wanted to be ab so i could annoy my japanese friends :(

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  • 4 weeks later...

Update time!

 

After a whole month the docs are with an agent in the UK and ready to be sent to the chinese embassy. Im absolutely broke. Ive just worked it out and assuming a $400 flight to china, $300 for the visa+agent+courier fees to return it to thailand (changes from july 1st this year - THE FIRST IMMIGRATION SHAKE UP IN A DECADE apparently - mean that you can only make the application from the country on your passport so i had to wing it to the UK), that means i'll have just over $300 left on my CC. (i also have 500 promised if i need it from a friend so not too atrocious).

 

Anyways, sent the docs last week and they arrived thursday afternoon. Woohoo! should be gone by the 13th! And not a minute too soon! So off the agent went on Friday morning to get me across the finishing line...

 

Friday: Rejection! Reason? Can you please submit another invitation letter that basically says EXACTLY the same as everything on your current invitation letter but also has a few other pointless pieces of info that you only need for a tourist visa and not a work visa. (First time the agent has heard that one for a Z-Visa - he assumes theyre clearing up the backlog from the national holidays from the 1st-4th october). No matter. Still on course! I didnt even expect to have a friday run, so its a freebie! We get the doc from the school and send it out in time for monday.

 

Monday: Rejection! Reason? Sorry, we arent providing an 'express' (2-3 day processing time instead of 3-4 for normal) visa service today and wont be accepting any applications from people requiring this service. And no, you cannot 'just change it to a normal service because it says on your application that you want the express service and it would be confusing (again, agent is amazed - the backlog must be big!). No matter, its getting annoying but we expected one or two delays. Agent fils out a second version of the second page of the application form (without the tick in the express visa box) to cover all bases.

 

Tuesday: Rejection! Reason? Oh! you're applying from Thailand, and even though we changed the rules forcing you to apply in your home country, im afraid we cant accept any applications for a Chinese Visa from the London embassy from someone living outside the UK! (this is getting absurd now! The agent says its an easy fix and we'll try again tomorrow - i assume he'll just use my UK address). We're now approaching 'issue' territory. Even if they accept it, they will have to also express it if i have any chance of receiving it by Friday (and having it mailed to me by Monday). Its another week of hotel fees! :/

 

Its been a long, miserable and kafka-lite process since i agreed to this stupid thing. Honestly, if this "opportunity" should ever darken your door, "flee! and while fleeing, grab a weapon!"

 

Im thiiiiiiiiiiiiis close to sacking it all in. The process has taken so long that the school holidays in Thailand are nearly over. One more week and the kids go back in a lot of places. My thai visa also expires on the 17th. So theres that... Ill maybe be needing my passport back before then. And of course i just cant eat any more delays - the permit/invitation letter arrived almost 2 weeks later than they said it would, and this whole requirement to send it back to your home country to get the visa added potentially 2 extra weeks of bills and expenses along with agent fees, visa fees, and courier fees.

 

So im giving it until Friday. If they dont accept it by then i have to eat up the $800 or so ive sunk into this last month and grab a job in thailand. God, i hate thailand. I was so excited at the prospect of leaving :(

 

Still, the upside is that i probably have about 4 months of work almost immediately which should bring me back to zero on my CC, ive learned to be very frugal in BKK, and ive learned what mistakes not to make for my next korean application in March (ill start very early and work with the 2 recruiters i actually liked in this cycle).

 

So its Friday or bust!

 

Either im going to china, which means ill clear my debt around january and still get to ride this season.

Or its Thailand, where ill clear my debt around march, have the nice peak season cooler, less-rainy/humid thailand andjust in time to head straight to korea for the start of the next school year.

 

Its never simple... :slap:

 

Ill keep you up to date on the next cockamamie excuse from the chinese embassy as they avoid doing their jobs though. I was gutted last night, but after zero sleep from the worry ive decided to be chilled about everything and just laugh in its stupid fat face! :dance:

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Wednesday: Reje... oh hang on! ACCEPTED!!!

 

Looks like china won. Today i scored two jobs and seem to have a suspicious looking mole suddenly appear on my upper inner arm! its been a trip!

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ganbatta!! :thumbsup: All's well that ends well - though perhaps I should wait until you get there before saying that!!! ;) Look forward to hearing all about your exploits over there. :wave:

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Fortunately for alyou gambaru fans, the agent sent me an email warning me that its not a done deal just because they accepted it. Theyve apparently still been rejecting applications after the processing stage for no reason. He got no bad news yesterday on it he said, but its all down to tonight apparently. So not only will i be on the hoof for the cost of returning it all without a visa, ill have to pay for the application as well (because once they accept it for processing, you pay for the application regardless of the outcome).

Hooray! i mean er... gambarismasu!

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