Cheonan Football Stadium

After our cringeworthy swimming expedition we thought we'd have a look around the rest of the sports complex and see if there were any sports that didn't involve swimming caps and public hair.

The volleyball team is called the Sky Walkers and they have a pretty decent stadium, there were also tennis courts and squash courts. The most important part (for Ric) was of course the football stadium. As we approached we realised that there was absolutely no security and that the gates to the stadium were in fact open! We walked through the stands, past offices and laundry rooms and a kitchen (?) and then found ourselves a gate that opened onto the actual pitch. Now I'd like to point out that this isn't Sunday league I'm talking about, its a professional team with a massive stadium! We even went on the pitch and I had a nice sit down while Ric practiced his diving skills!

More like ballet if you ask me...

Footprints Recruiting - Review

My boyfriend and I applied to teach in South Korea with Footprints Recruiting. Their website boasted wonderful reviews, excellent service, a world famous reputation and a company represented as an experienced and dedicated team of well travelled professionals.

Unfortunately the service we received was abysmal. When we first signed up and applied to Footprints they were pretty quick to respond and Skype interviews were arranged the same week. The interviews went great and the friendly guy on the phone gushed about the "personal co-ordinator" who would guide us through our EPIC application and be there to answer all of our questions. We were thrilled, especially as the EPIC programme is pretty complicated with regards to the quantity of information and documents that you are required to send over to Korea.

That Skype call was the last personalised communication we received from Footprints. In the two months that followed we applied for positions in the EPIC programme and awaited a response from Footprints. Nothing.

After a couple of weeks we sent a follow up email requesting confirmation that Footprints had received our EPIC applications. Nothing.

We posted questions on the forums. No answer. [update: we received a reply 5 months later, when we were already in Korea teaching!]

We did receive numerous generic, unrelated emails that began "Hi everyone!"

When we finally received a relevant response from Footprints (two months later), we were told that we could not apply for EPIC as a couple, and that we would have to apply separately and risk being placed at opposite ends of the country. This was a lie, the EPIC programme does accept people applying as a couple, in fact it is encouraged. I believe that Footprints had neglected our application until it was too late to apply.

Footprints suggested an alternative public schools programme in Korea, but could not guarantee that we would be able to apply as a couple.

By that stage we'd lost all faith. 4 months had passed since we first contacted Footprints and were weren't a single step closer to going to Korea. We'd wasted so much time applying to Footprints, applying for EPIC, sending emails, posting on forums, gathering our documents... it was very discouraging. We decided to look for a job through a private recruiter, and started our search on Craigslist.

We sent one email, to one recruiter; a Korean man named Doyle Kim. Within minutes he'd replied with a job opening for two people. He arranged phone interviews for the next day and once we'd done them he had our contracts sent over just 4 days later.  By then end of the week we'd accepted the jobs and were ready to send our documents over to Korea.

Footprints Recruiting are unorganised, unhelpful, unprofessional, a massive disappointment and a waste of time.