It’s about to be a full two years since I began living and teaching in Seoul. I started my journey by applying to Aclipse. While I am so grateful for my luck finding Aclipse, I am particularly grateful to my recruiter Colette. The reason I am especially grateful to Colette is that she not only helped me find employment at my current branch in Gangnam, Seoul, but that she recommended me as someone to join the Aclipse team.
So a month into working at my branch, Colette reached out saying she had recommended me to join Aclipse as a part of the Aclipse Marketing Team. Shortly afterwards, the marketing manager reached out to me. A month after that, I had made it on the team! From that point forward, I started blogging, posting photos and answering emails from potential teachers. I get to show individuals of similar interests as mine the beauty and enjoyment of living in Seoul. I write blogs to inform like-minded individuals of all there is to do and see in South Korea. More importantly, I get to guide and encourage those who wish to follow a similar path. In fact, I helped out someone that went end up becoming my co-worker! These are things that I never thought I would have the opportunity to do when I started this adventure abroad.
Thanks to knowing I had to get out, see as much as I could and experience all that I could in order to be as helpful to those interested in Korea, I made sure that I would never face any moments of being a home-body! It gave me the incentive I needed to get out to meet locals and assimilate eagerly. Since I started in February 2018, I made the initiative to try at least two new things each month. If one of my two things was outside of Seoul, then it is even better.
The following are my top 5 experiences made while on my endeavor to meet my initiative of experiencing the most I can while here in South Korea.
1. Paragliding in Danyanghttp://blog.aclipse.net/teach-in-korea/paragliding-with-giselle
http://blog.aclipse.net/teach-in-korea/giselles-yeosu-weekend-trip3
3. Bungee Jumping in Gapyeong
http://blog.aclipse.net/teach-in-korea/gapyeong-top-land-bungee-jump-adventure
4.Taen Weekend Trip
http://blog.aclipse.net/teach-in-korea/taean-weekend-trip
5. Semiwon Garden in Yangpyeong
http://blog.aclipse.net/teach-in-korea/giselles-day-trip-out-of-seoul-semiwon-garden-and-dumulmeori
The exciting part for me is that there are more that I would add to this list. It was hard to choose. Even more exciting for me is that my time here in Seoul is not done. I recently extended my contract for the second time. Coming soon is the story of a trip to Japan during fall.
Perhaps sharing your story, your experiences - both the ups and the downs - is something you’d like to get to do as well. The ups are for helping others know why this adventure is worth it. The downs are shared to help others prepare and guide like-minded individuals through the tricky parts of living abroad. I can’t say there are always openings, but if you believe that joining the team would help you in feeling fulfilled, as it does for me, then I hope to have you the team some day, too.
Giselle Moreno is from California, USA where she attended the University of California, Riverside. While a student, she always worked with international students and she decided to teach English abroad upon graduating during her third year of university. It was through the experiences of being an English tutor for international students that she felt really fulfilled. She found it particularly easy to get along with Korean students which is why she decided to pursue a teaching opportunity in Korea. She even attended Yonsei University in Seoul for a semester as a study abroad student and fell in love with the city. She is currently working at ChungDahm Learning’s April Daechi branch located in Gangnam, Seoul.