Packing Tips

So right now we are waiting for the email to tell us when we are headed to South Korea and exactly which school in Daegu we are going to be placed in. I can't wait to find out, but in the mean time I'm trying to think about packing.

The Arrival Store is something I found myself and had several other people refer me to as well. They have various packages that can be ready for you when you get to Korea, so you don't have to find the stores that sell the things you need right when you get off the plane. They have all kinds of things from bedding to carpets to towels. The prices don't seem extravagant either. In addition, you can get a cell phone through them, and you parents could send you care packages with food from home through them as well. It looks pretty great. I haven't decided yet whether I'm going to take them up on it or not, but we'll see.

Here is what the things I have seen so far say about what to pack for Korea:

- If you are a larger person (height or weight) you need to bring shirts, pants, and shoes to fit you. In the case of ladies, that means bras too.

- water purifier

- deodorant!!!! and lots of it. Because it's apparently a legitimate thing that Asian people don't smell and have no use for deodorant. This means that it's only the foreigners who are looking for deodorant. You can find deodorant apparently, but it's like a black market, very expensive item.

- clothes for warm and cold weather

- professional clothes for teaching

- your shade of cosmetics

- board games, if you like them

- comfort food from home

- spices and vanilla extract are apparently hard to find

-vitamins (they are less potent in Korea than they are in the US apparently)

- Gifts for your recruiter (if you went through that method), co-teacher(s), head teacher, vice principal, and principal. Make sure that the gifts are hierarchical, meaning that the principal gets the most important/expensive gift descending to the co-teacher or co-teachers. Some suggestions include wine or other alcohol from your home country, food stuffs particular to your country like candy or maple syrup. I've even heard of getting the vice principal big containers of vitamins like from Costco because Korean vitamins aren't as strong as North American ones. I'm probably going to go with a basket of candies from the US for the co-teachers because I don't know how many there will be. Then I'll get alcohol for the vice principal and principal. I haven't finalized though. I'll let you know when I figure it out.

I'll post more to this as things start to take shape, and I actually start packing!