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.

Steph and Ric are Going to Korea!

WE HAVE TEACHING JOBS IN SOUTH KOREA AND WE'RE GOING IN 5 WEEKS!!!!!

We got our teaching certificates, we are now qualified EFL teachers. After applying to Footprints recruiting and getting no where, Ric and I took matters into our own hands and applied to an agent in Korea. The agent, Doyle, is a bit odd, his emails are rather suspect, but we've spoken to the teachers we are replacing and everything sounds legit. Within a week of contacting Doyle we'd had interviews and been sent a contract.

We're going to teach English in a private school called Wonderland, in Cheonan, a city in the north west of South Korea

I've handed in my notice and have only got 10 days left of work. That way I'll have three weeks holiday before starting in South Korea.

The whole process of applying is complicated, lots of documents are needed and they have to be notarized and apostiled and sent to Korea.

Fingers crossed we'll get everything sorted in time!

Dubrovnik, Croatia

Holidays with Meat and Pea!

We haven't been away together for two years (it took that long to recover after Amsterdam) so this holiday was much anticipated. Its also our last trip together before I buggar off to the other side of the world again.

We got off to a good start by drinking wine in the airport and almost missing our flight. We played "I'm thinking of a person, who am I?" on the plane, which lead to us giving Stace a geography lesson about the "ethnic majorities" in the Caribean, which Stacey thought was in Africa.

We made friends with the driver of the shuttle bus from the airport and he let us sit on the very front pull-downs seats. He gave me the microphone to sing along to Whitney Houston and let me announce the stops.

Our hostel was in Pile, 5 minutes away from the old town. Its called Villa Garden but I think Villa Allotment would be better suited. The room was noisy and had no curtains but it was clean and the shower was decent.

Our First Night

We got to the hostel for 7 and were out for just after 8. We had a slap up meal and one of the best steaks I've ever tasted at a fancy restaurant called Dominos. At the end of the meal the waiter brought us traditional Croatian shots, Travarica, a disgustingly strong grappa that nearly made me spew my steak back onto my plate as soon as it made contact with my taste buds.

We went to some bars and sat outside drinking cocktails listenin to the live music, then went in a very smoky, not-very-Irish rock bar where we met some Croatians who got us trying yet another 'traditional' Croatian shot, Medica, which is made from honey and was slightly more palatable.

The Croatians, Senia, a crazy girl that kept flicking her pony tail at us, and her two pals, took us to a club called Capitana and we had an amazing night dancing to rock music. The evening ended with Stacey doing yoga down a little back ally and me bent double with stomach cramps, probably from the traditional poison and all the laughing!

Walking the Walls

After a restful 4 hours sleep we were woken by the hostel owner shouting outside our door and the sun blinding us through the curtainless window. We had a lovely breakfast in the sunshine and a wander around the town. The old town is a big walled city with really narrow streets and terracota roofs. We did the walk of the city walls which had beautiful views of the town and the surrounding coastline. It took most of the afternoon and we took it at a nice chilled pace.

The Night with the CIA Loser Agent

After a lovely sunset meal overlooking the sea we were sat enjoying a quiet drink when a middle aged man called Andy came over and started making small talk and telling us horrendous jokes in a terrible Scottish accent. He was the kind of a guy that gives Americans their bad rep for being annoying self centered idiots. He started showing us his homeland security badge and telling us how to take out a man using two moves. He's going to take Jen to the olympics and she's going to meet Scotland Yard. We'll never know if the badge was real or not but the man was crackers. Two Turkish boys joined us, they were tour guides and told us all about Dubrovnik. We went around a few bars with our new band of merry men and then left them for a quiet drink on our own on our way home. But... there's no such thing as a quiet drink on our own, we attract weirdos like flies to shit. Our quiet drink was disturbed by a lanky Russian with ferret-like features who smelt like sardines. Alex was his name, he owned the bar and merrily kept topping up our glasses with free Amaretto ("Alex present"). His English was about as good as my Russian and he kept telling us his wife was a lesbian and he was gay. Random night.

Lopud

On Monday we got the bus to the port then got on a boat to the island of Lopud. There are over 1000 little islands off the coast of Dubrovnik; Lopud is one of thee bigger ones with a population of 260. Once we got to the island we had to get to the other side, where the beach was. We chose what in hindsight, was not the fastest route. We climbed hundreds of steps up a mountain in the blistering heat. It was worth it though, the view from the top was lovely and there was no one else there. It was really peaceful. It took a while but we finally made it to the beach. The sea was crystal clear and the sand was golden. We spent the day there, had a picnic, and swam in the sea. It was like our own paradise until a swarm of Americans and started running around screaming. We found a much easier route back to the boat through the forrest.

Monday Night

We left the beach with third degree burns and went out for tea to a restaurant that had good food and terrible service. I had cevapcipci, a traditional Croatian dish. It was little kofta-like sausages made from beef. They were very tasty.

Later, we were sat drinking wine outside one of the bars when we saw our Turkish friends again, minus the awful American. The five of us went for drinks and then went dancing to a club called Fuego, a "latino" club that played awful (non-latino) music.

Famous Pants

On our last day we had long leisurely lunch by the port. We ordered far too much food and couldn't finish it. I was wearing my big multi coloured happy pants that I'd worn on the first night. To my surprise, as I crossed the street in front of hundreds of tourists, a pair of knickers fell out of the bottom on my pants! The same ones I had worn on the first night. I must have left them in there and walked around with them in my pants all day! Embarassing.

We took a cable car up a mountain. As we waited, a 30-strong crowd of Asian tourists gathered round me, staring and laughing. I soon realised why, as one cheeky woman asked if she could take a picture of my trousers! Of course, I obliged.

At the top of the mountain Jen fell asleep and Stacey whimpered in the corner in the shade. I went exploring. The views were lovely and it was very peaceful.

It was a gorgeous holiday, I really like Dubrovnik, although I think four days there is enough as its a small place.

Martha Tilston, Birmingham

My birthday present off Ric was to go and watch Martha Tilston play at the Kitchen Garden Cafe in Birmingham. Her albums were the sound track to many a sleepless night spent on buses in South America and her songs hold many happy memories for us.

We got the train down and eventually found our hotel, that was in fact a pub, called the Moseley Arms. We were greeted by a very matter-of-fact brum woman who told us we had to have a twin, even though we'd booked a double room.

Birmingham seems to be centered around the Bull Ring shopping centre, its the main attraction, along with a technological out-of-space themed Selfridges building. We mooched about and saw the "famous landmark" bull.

Birmingham has a very interesting mix of buildings and super modern architecture. Although by far the nicest area is around the canals, the "heart" of the Uk's canal network. It was sunny and there were lots of nice bars on the water front. We had some drinks in a place called the Malt House and then went to the Chinese Quarter for a slap up chinky dinner.

The actual gig was in a cafe/restaurant/shop/garden centre and about 100 people were crammed into a little room on an assortment of garden furniture. We managed to get seats of the second row. The venue was lovely, bit weird, as everything was for sale and there were potatoes for sale outside, but it had a wholesome, homely feel.

The supporting act was a really dry humoured lad called Chris Cleavley who was good and made me laugh. 

Martha Tilston's set actually blew me away, her voice is so amazing. She played some new stuff that I hadn't heard, and was chatty and laid back, making jokes with the audience. I really love her songs because they tell stories, they feel personal rather than the standard generic lyrics that make up most pop music. Even better, she introduced each song saying what it meant and how she came to write it.

The absolute highlight though was when she played Artifical. Its one of mine and Ric's favourites, I love it because its about working in an office, and how it can be totally unmotivating and soul destroying doing something that means nothing to you, just to pay the bills. Turns out that song is actually about temping, and Martha herself was a temp. She asked the audience and when I said that I was a temp she dedicated the song to me!

Unfortunately the quiet little pub we were booked into turned into some kinda of 16year old's mosher disco and uninspiring base was blasted at us through the floorboards until 3am! So we didn't get very much sleep. 

On the whole though it was a bloody lovely trip.

18 + 6

I recently turned 24, I have a grown up job, I pay bills, my friends are getting married and my little brother has a baby. Does that make me a grown up?

Naaaah.

Jake is the most gorgeous child I have ever seen. He has grown two little teeth (front, bottom), learnt to roll over and has started eating real food. His smile is pure innocence. I love him.

England is awful as ever. Current scams include Tesco making unemployed teenagers work as slaves; they have this "agreement" with the dole office where kids go and work in Tesco and only get their dole money (£50/week), its exploitation. They also have these apprenticeships which are basically an excuse to pay way under minimum wage (£3/hr!) I think its disgusting. There's massive unemployment problems in the country and multimillion companies like Tesco are taking advantage of the situation, using it as an excuse to pay a pittance. The other scandal is the Tories trying to privatise the NHS with these new reforms that they're conveniently not consulting doctors and hospitals about. There's a lot of secrecy around the reforms that I think makes me suspicious.

Mum and Dad seem to be happy in Spain, they say they're not bored but they ring us a lot and they've started decorating their new house! Sometimes I miss them because there was more order at home under my mum's reign, and things got fixed when they broke when dad was here. But generally speaking living with Gaz, Amy and Jake is much more pleasent than I anticipated. In fact, Gaz is much more of a grown up than me now he's a daddy himself, and has takin on the moaning and grumpiness like a natural!

2012

2011 was a pretty damn good year.

I started it was an au pair in the south of France and ended it as an Editor working in Bolton.

I went to Spain, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Argentina, Brasil, France and Germany.

I met a wonderful man on the other side of the world and we fell in love.

My gorgous nephew was born. And my parents retired and moved to Spain. Meaning my entire family dynamics changed while I was away and in 2012 I will be living with my brother, his girlfriend, their baby and a bloke from Yorkshire who I met in Peru.

So if 2012 if half as good as 2011 I'll be very pleased.

Plans for the year are endless and unplanned. Me and Ric want to go away yet, probably to Asia, but we don't know when or where or even how, although I'm hoping it will be sooner than later!

Baby Jake is going to be christened and I'm going to be his Godmother.

And I'm wokring a full time Monday - Friday job in the UK for the first time in my life! And quite enjoying having plus figures entering my bank account for a change!

Hopefully there won't be an apocolypse like the crazy people keep predicting, but if there is, at least I can say I've lived an excitinglife.

Happy New Year.

CHAPTER III : Welcome Home

I got back home on the 6th of October, my Dads birthday. Surprising everyone with my homecoming went well, Amy was gobsmacked, my Dad was delighted when he got in from work to find me singing Happy Birthday, my Mum was adamant she knew I was coming home and Gaz was unfazed as always.

Since then Amy gave birth to Jake, my gorgeous nephew and Godson. My parents retired and moved to Spain. I got acquainted with Huddersfield and life went back to normal.

Not having a job for the first time in my life has had it's highs and lows. The Job Center is up there with the most soul destroying of places I've ever been to. When I had my initial interview the woman spoke to me like I was something she'd trodden in, but I still had the last laugh when I told her my degree title and she entered it into her computer as "Modren Forin Languages and Translation and Interperetation" and I had to slowly spell out the words for her. That wiped the smug smile on the self righteous cow's face. Since then I've applied for hundreds of jobs, I've had a few interviews and I'm getting royally fed up with the whole affair. It's a depressing feeling when you send of 15 CVs and don't hear a thing back.

However, the bright side is that I also have a boyfriend who in unemployed and a sister-in-law at home with a baby so I've plenty of people to keep me company whilst I watch Jeremy Kyle. In the meantime I'm making the most of my lie ins, cuddles with Jake (and occasionally Ric) and centering my day around that all important wander up to the co-op. It's not a lifestyle choice, and I'm skint on my arse, but it's not too bad really.

END OF CHAPTER II : Salvador

The end of the road. Finally I'm at my final destination before I head back to the joys of family life, eternal rain and minimum wage in Manchester.

I flew from Belo Horizonte to Salvador on a low cost airline that wasn't really that low cost but now I'm in the final leg of my trip I've decided no more long overnight buses. I'm treating myself. Plus 24 hours on a bus seems unbearable now Ric's not here.

The flight went well and arrived on time at 12.30am. Not wanting to roam the streets of Salvador in the middle of the night looking for a hostel, I set up my camp (sleeping bag, ear plugs, eye mask and inflatable pillow) in Salvador airport and tried my best to get some sleep.

The next morning I awoke and took the 90 minute unairconditioned local bus to Barra. It seems to take forever, was stuffy and airless. Barra is the 'nice' area of Salvador, where the nice beaches are. I found Albergue do Porto, a hostel that had been recommended to me by some girls I met in Rio. Its a really nice hostel actually, only 1 block away from the beach on opposite a supemarket and a chinese take away! What more could a girl want?!

Salvador's old town is know as Pelorinho, built up on a hill overlooking the bay. Cobbled streets, colourful buildings and little winding streets full of bar and restaurants. It would be wonderful if it weren't for the masses of beggars, street children, pickpockets and pushy street vendors. But then again this is Brasil. I visited a museum dedicated to past leaders of Brasil, a beautiful building where I read a history of Brasil since the Portuguese invaded. There's also a lift that the city is extremely proud of, that takes you from the upper lever of the old town down to sea level. Its nothing special, just a shabby lift with bad brakes: it makes you stomache lurch when it starts and stops. In the evening the streets are filled with live music and lively crowds. Had an enjoyable evening sitting out in the balmy weather, listening to an accoustic set accompanied by a cold beer and a shot of rum that almost came back up as soon as id swallowed it!

Salvador is the first place that African slaves were brought to by the Portuguese and for this reason the people here are considered the blackest in all of Brasil. This also means there's a lot of culture here, such as a guy I was walking along the beach with a huge box of eggs balanced on his head!

There are fortresses, towers and lighthouses on every bit of land jutting out along the coast. These were built by the Portuguese to protect them from Spanish, French and English would-be invaders.

My general mood in Salvador hasn't been great as I'm now counting the days until I go home. I just want to relax, I'm not interested in visiting everything, socialising with other travellers or going out partying. I've spent 90% of my time on the beach with my head in a book. The other 10% having early nights or pining for Ric over skype. Its been a nice quiet end to 6 hectic months.

Salvador scores very poorly on my list of favourite places for one sole reason: the men. The men here are the most leacherous, pervy, creepy, annoying species of men I have ever had the misfortune of meeting. You can't walk two yards down the road without "hey beautiful", "what is your name" (pronounced 'na-may' in a terrible portuguese accent.) But by far the worst thing, the thing that grates on me down to the depths of my soul is the noise they make trying to get your attention. They'll stand above you on the pavement behind the beach making a sound that is a cross between "pssssst" and a kissing sound. Its the kind of noise you might make to a dog to get its attention and it makes my blood boil. They'll do it until you look up. I've avoided going out on my own because its that annoying. On the beach today some creep sat right next to me chatting shite in portuguese, he even tried getting on my towel with me. He only left after I repeatedly shouted 'ciao' at him and shooed him away.

Salvador is beautiful but unfortunately is also dirty, full of homeless people, beggars and cockroaches.

Luckily I've met some really nice people in the hostel, such as Mitch a 19 year old dutch boy with a high camp voice that made him sound like a gay Arnold Schwartzeneger. And Gaby the sex mad pregnant receptionist. Also the arrogant Italian man who declared "I speak English but I do not like it, I will speak to you slowly in French because if I spoke normally you would not understand" - jerk!

Rio de Janeiro

Rio is absolutely amazing. I could live here. Its got stunning beaches, mountains, lakes, and is a huge big city - the best of all worlds!

Went to Christ the Redeemer, Rio's signature tourist attraction. Its 30m high, one metre for each year that Jesus lived and sits on top of a mountain overlooking the coast. The views were incredible. Jam packed with tourists.

Have been to various beaches, Copacabana, Ipanema, Barra. Went to a massive lake just a few blocks back from Ipanema beach. The beaches are amazing, golden sand and the seas warm, although really rough, the waves are huge and knocked me over everytime I went in.

I'm staying in the neighborhood of Copacabana, its really nice, loads of shops, restauants and parks. Its safe too, the south areas of Rio are safer than the north. The hostel is El Misti House. Its alright, 12 beds in a tiny room and it could do with a tv area for hangover days! Met some weeeiiird characters here; this girl called Anna who's been here a month and has been learning about Brasilian culture by sleeping with as many men as possible. She's got an awful west country accent and is a complete drama queen, so annoying. There's another girl from Sweden who isn't my favourite person either she doesn't like "tourists" and only goes out with local people, not sure why she's staying in a hostel full of gringos to be honest. And an American called Amy who's the most terrified person I've met in 6 months of travelling. She won't leave the hostel on her own and is flying from place to place because she's too scared to get the bus. I don't get why she bothered to leave the safety of Texas to be honest. Met some cool people too though, thankfully!

We went to the Lapa steps, a massive staircase of tiled steps that a crazy Chilean has been tiling for 21years, and its still not finished. They're a mossaic of tiles from all over the world, some he collected on his travels and some people have sent him. Its really beautiful. We met the artist, a 60 something year old with a big moustache.

In the same neighborhood we also went to the cathedral, its a really modern one, shaped like a cone and inside the stained glass windows are huge. Its really nice, an unusual building.

I want to live in Rio.

Belo Horizonte - a reunion with Ciaran

Out of the blue I found out that my friend Ciaran had randomly moved to Brasil. So with only 2 days notice I turned up at his doorstep having not seen each other for 2 and a half years since we were both living in Nantes.

Belo Horizonte is another big city full of sky scrapers and lots of traffic, a bit like Sao Paulo but nicer, less touristy and the people are friendlier. Its the capital of the state of Minas Gerais.

As far as the city goes there's not much to say, lots of bars, shops and cafes. Its hilly, and the weather is fantastic, it was 35 degrees when I got here. Not that much fun when there's no beach though.

The people are cheese fanatics. The state Minas Gerais has its own cheese and (apparently) it goes with everything. Never eaten so much cheese in my life!

The weekend has centered around drinking, as to be expected with an Irishman, and the bars here are really good, always full with a young crowd, good music and the drinks are cheap.

The highlight was going to Ciaran's Brasilian girlfriends's family home for a typical Sunday dinner. It was intensive Brasilian culture. There was enough food to feed an army; salads, fried chicken, lasagne, meats and of course, tons and tons of fried cheese! I'm surprised Brasilian women aren't obese with the amount of cheese they eat. The food was great and so was the entertainment. Lala, Ciaran's girlfriend, was subjected to standard parental humiliation, telling us embarassing stories from when she was little etc. Her Dad is a madman, he kept poking me to get my attention, which I found very annoying! And her Mum was lovely. I tried very hard to speak Portuguese. The whole family shout instead of speaking, getting louder and louder to make themselves heard above one another. I met the drug dealer cousin and her 9 year old cousin who was the coolest dude I have ever met and even tried it on flirting with me. It was a really fun day.

We went out to a place called Pedro Leopard, about an hour outside the city, to Ciaran's friend's family home. It was a stunning house, beautiful, massive and furnished like a rappers house off an episode of Cribs. The sound system was better than that of most nightclubs. We spent the day there in the swimming pool, drinking vodka and eating home cooked Brasilian food. It was awesome. Around the town there were hills covered in trees and a massive forest fire had started because it was so hot and dry. The entire town was covered in smoke and the whole mountain was on fire, insane. In Europe people would be trying to put the fire out, but this is Brasil...

We went up to the outer limit of BH, high up the mountains. We had a picnic lunch whilst looking out over a panoramioc view of the city, and with the trees still burning away behind us!

I've learnt that people here don't like the promiscuous 'cariocas' - the girls from Rio. And that Brasilian people speak really really loudly!