Criminal Background Check - South Korea and United States

Well I've recently interviewed and was offered a position with a teaching agency that functions like a substitute teaching agency in the States. The nice thing about this agency is that it works hard to find you teaching spots beyond just individual sick days to fill in with longer term assignments. And many of the teachers who have begun as temporary teachers have ended up being offered full time positions from the schools they worked at.  I was pretty excited to get this offer about a week ago on the same day I interviewed with them. They even had a few teaching positions they thought would fit me well as an ESL teacher. Now in order to work with children here in the UK you have to do a criminal background check. For those from the UK that is easy enough they simply have to fill out some paperwork and pay a fee and the government will run the necessary check and send the information to the company. Where this can get complicated is that they require a similar background check from any country that you have lived in for over six months in the past five years. So for me that includes the States and South Korea. My time in China ended in just under six months so I don’t have to deal with them.

So last week I began the task of figuring out how to get criminal background checks from Korea and the States. I was more worried about getting if from Korea than America since as an American I just figured it would be easier.

In order to get the background check from Korea I found out I had to go to the South Korean Embassy in downtown London near Buckingham Palace. I had to fill out a form that they must then officially stamp, provide them copies of my passport and visa to Korea, submit a passport size photo of myself and prepay a shipping company (in this case DHL) for mailing the results back to me. Now I could do all of those things in the Embassy except the prepaying DHL to send me back my results. What the Embassy was able to do to me was provide me with a Waybill from DHL. A Waybill is an account already set up and ready to be paid for once you provide the necessary information. The Waybill comes with a preexisting code that is already in DHL’s system. With this code you can go online, enter it and it will calculate the costs and allow you to pay for the package being sent to you. Well that is how it is supposed to work. The problem I had with DHL is that you have to go through DHL Korea, which functions separately from DHL UK. So you have to go to the Korean website. Now the website can be translated into English so that is no problem but in order to pay online your computer has to have a specific software plug-in, which I guess is common in Korea. My computer did doesn't have that plug-in so I couldn't pay online. Now I tried to get the plug-in but it wouldn't download onto my computer or at least it wouldn't work properly when I did download it. So in order to pay I have to send them an email with all my credit card information. I hate doing that because it opens one up to being charged a lot more than one should be but I don’t have a lot of options as of now and I’m just going to watch my account carefully and maybe warn my credit card company about it. Once all of that stuff is done you still have to take everything (the form, copies, photo and Waybill) and mail it to the proper office in Korea.

Now the nice thing about Korea is that the service is free so you simply have to pay for shipping both to get the application to Korea and get the results back to the UK. All in all I’m going to end up paying 35 to 40 pounds in shipping costs. That is about 50 to 55 dollars. The shipping cost can, of course, be a lot more if you want to be for next day shipping or things like that. I found that Royal Mail gave by far the best deal for shipping to Korea. It cost me about 8 pounds whereas to get the same package delivered by UPS, FedEx or DHL was going to cost at least 30 pounds for basically the same service. For those who need more information about this service just go to the Korean Embassy’s website and it will have the form you need and all the other information.

With the United States things are a bit more complicated or maybe I should just say they are more expensive. With the States one can get a criminal background check from any individual state and each state has their own rules on how to do that but in this case a single State’s background check is not enough I have to get a federal background check. A federal background check comes from the FBI. To do this the FBI requires the submission of your official fingerprints on their specific form along with their application. Now the fingerprints didn't seem like a big deal until I did some research in the UK and discovered just how expensive fingerprints are to get. In order to get fingerprints from the police in London I would have to wait 2 to 4 weeks for an appointment and pay 72 pounds (almost $110). Through some online research I was able to find a company in London that specializes in doing official fingerprinting for companies and individuals it is called UK Fingerprints. I was able to book an appointment with them this week on Wednesday and while they are cheaper than the police I still have to pay 65 pounds (almost $100) to get them done. Then of course I have to pay for shipping to get this stuff to the FBI and unlike Korea the service is not free. It costs $18 for the FBI to provide this service. So for my official background check from the States I’m going to end up paying somewhere between 130 to 140 dollars. For those needing a federal background check from the States look at the FBI’s website it will give you the details and here is the link to the FBI’s official fingerprint card a person needs to use to get their fingerprints done.

Now both of these requests are going to take a minimum of 2 weeks to get proceed and mailed back to me. So there is no way I will be able to even look for teaching jobs through this agency for at least another 3 weeks probably longer. The big downside to that is that the spring term is drawing towards a close and substitute teaching jobs become a lot more sparse during the summer.  

Oh and to top it off I do still have to get a background check from the UK, which will cost me another 50 pounds (about $75). So all and all it is going to cost me at least 250 dollars to prove it is okay for me to work with children. Now while I completely understand why they require a person to do all of this it is still a pain in the ass to do it all. For anyone else out there going through the same thing good luck.  

Burrito Quest - Nineteen Ten Mexican Kitchen

Well since getting to London one of the things I have missed most about America is the exact same thing I missed when I was in South Korea and China and that is Mexican food, particularly the Mexican food of Southern California. Few things bring me as much pleasure as that of a well prepared, well executed and wonderful tasting burrito. Now it is of little surprise that London is not the place to go if you want the best Mexican food in the word but I can say after only visiting a few restaurants here it far exceeds what one will find in Seoul, Korea or Shenzhen, China.

I decided that as I try out each new restaurant I might as well write about my experience and share my thoughts on each place so that in case any other person who finds themselves in London desiring a good burrito can have at least an idea of what is around.

When it comes to burritos I judge them based on eight categories. First is the quantity of available options on the menu. Second is the quality of the individual ingredients. Third is the ratio of those ingredients in the burrito basically how much of each ingredient is there. Forth is the strength and execution of the wrap does the tortilla tear easily or fall apart in my hand. Fifth is the size of the burrito bigger is usually better. Sixth is the overall taste of the burrito. Seventh is the price of the burrito. I’m willing to pay for quality. Eighth and lastly is what I call the two hour tummy factor. Meaning how does the burrito makes me feel a few hours later because it can be great in your mouth but not so great in your digestive system especially if you are walking home. Now the other variable that is much harder to take into account is that of the individual server who is helping you. Often when a burrito is made it is difficult to know if the ratios of each ingredient given to you are those that the restaurant wants or just those that the server feels like giving. Similarly when it comes to the strength of the wrap it often comes down to the skill and experience of the person wrapping the burrito rather than just the quality of the tortilla. Due to this is can be hard to properly judge a place without going there a few times unless the food is just horrible than what’s the point, right?

Today I am going to review Nineteen Ten Mexican Kitchen. Nineteen Ten is a Mexican restaurant with only one location in London. It is in one of the larger shopping malls called Westfield at Shepards Bush. It’s fairly simply to get to once you are in the mall it is on the first floor near some of the other nicer restaurants in the mall.

The ordering process is fairly simple. Just like Chipotle or Subway one tells the server what they want (burrito, tacos, quesadillas, etc) and then proceeds to follow the server down the line telling that person exactly what one wants on their food. I bought a chicken burrito. I got white rice, black beans, chicken, mild (Pico De Gallo) and medium (Salsa Verde) salsa and cheese.

Now going down the line the first thing I noticed was the small portions that the server was giving me. I had to ask for more rice and more salsa and more cheese and I still felt shorted. The funny thing is I didn't have to ask for more meat. I have found here in London the one ingredient that Mexican restaurants don’t skimp on is meat but I almost always have to beg for more salsa. In the States it is often the other way around since meat is usually the most expensive item and stores want to save money by giving you less of it. But that doesn't seem to be the thought processes here.

When I got to the end of the line the person helping me wrapped my burrito and the wrap looked well done though the overall size of the burrito was a bit small. One of the advantages of a smaller burrito is that it is easier to wrap and thus far less likely to tear open or fall apart in your hands the downside, of course, is that it’s smaller. The main thing I was worried about when I saw the burrito before it was wrapped was just how little salsa I got and how it was placed. It was mostly sitting in the center of the burrito rather than spread out in a line up and down the burrito, which meant that when the burrito was wrapped the salsa would all be pushed together in the middle and there wouldn't be any towards the ends of the burrito.

My first bite consisted of only rice and black beans. Right away I wasn't a big fan of the rice. It was quite dry and a bit hard. The beans were good. My next bite included some chicken but still no cheese or salsa. The chicken was rather bland by itself. It didn't seem to be seasoned in any special way rather it was just plain grilled chicken. After three or four more bites I finally got to the salsa and cheese I was so desperately craving. The mild salsa (Pico De Gallo) tasted mostly like chopped up tomatoes but the medium salsa (Salsa Verde) was very good especially because it was so desperately needed to help bring some moisture to this dry burrito. Just like the salsa the cheese was also mostly restricted to the center of the burrito with little getting to either end. The cheese was just fine mixed with the rice, beans and chicken but it had an odd taste when mixed with the salsa. The tortilla itself was quite good. It was well steamed and wasn't too chewy. And as I guessed based on what I had seen the tortilla was quite strong and didn't tear though of course this was in part due to the smaller size of the burrito and its overall dryness. Wet burritos tear more easily.

So let’s go through all the categories one by one. First is the number of available options. When it came to options Nineteen Ten did quite well. While there was only one type of rice to choose from they did have four salsas, peppers and onions and the other basics like guacamole, lettuce, tomatoes and such. They also had quite a few options as far as what type of food you wanted so beyond just burritos and tacos you could order quesadillas, chili con carne and nachos. Chili and nachos aren't two things I see very often. Now I wouldn't order either but hey someone else might enjoy them a lot. They also served dessert, which I found quite odd but hey it was there.

Second is the quality of the individual ingredients. Here I would say they were below average. Their Salsa Verde and black beans were quite good. But the chicken was bland, the rice was dry and the Pico de Gallo was more tomatoes than salsa. 

Third is the ratio of the ingredients in the burrito. This was probably one of the worst parts of the burrito. It was a very dry burrito because they put so little salsa in the burrito. I order two different salsas and a majority of the burrito was still little more than rice and beans. The blandness of the chicken and dryness of the rice could have been greatly hidden just by pouring more salsa on the burrito. Now whether this was due to the individual server I got or because that is just the ratio the company encourages I don’t know without going back a few more times.

Fourth is the strength and quality of the wrap of the burrito. Here is a place the burrito excelled. The tortilla was well steamed making it easier to stretch, the wrap was nice and tight and throughout the meal the burrito held together without unwanted tears or openings. Again this is in part due to the size and dryness of the burrito but I still give them credit for it.

Fifth is the size of the burrito. As I've mentioned a few times I felt the burrito was a little small and if the restaurant simply fixed their ratio problem I think their size issue would be fixed. It didn't need more meat rather more salsa and cheese, which are things that are not overly expensive and could be added without costing the restaurant too much.

Sixth is the overall taste. Here I would have to rate the burrito below average though that could fluctuate greatly based on when I had last had a burrito and where it was from. In this case I had eaten a burrito the day before that was fairly good so that didn't help the cause of Nineteen Ten’s burrito. Had I not had a burrito in a month this one would have surely tasted better even if it wasn't. If you put this restaurant in Shenzhen I would have been eating their two or three times a week at least.

Seventh is the price. The burrito’s price was fine. It cost 6.25 pounds, which is pretty much the average cost for this type of burrito. I haven’t paid less than six or more than seven pounds for a burrito so I have no complaints here.

Eighth and last is how it makes me feel a few hours later. In this case I was sad to find that after an hour or so of walking around the mall my stomach was not feeling the best. Now I didn't have to run to the restroom or anything but I was uncomfortable for 15 or 20 minutes. And in case you are wondering if the walking around affected this let me just tell you I always go walking after I eat my burritos. I don’t have a car and most of the places I go require a lot of travel from home so walking around the mall after I ate is nothing I wouldn't have been doing after eating any other burrito.

So overall I would rank this burrito a 5 out of 10 but with lots of potential for improvement. Basically if you are in London and haven't had Mexican food in awhile Nineteen Ten will provide a decent burrito that can offer a short fix until you can get yourself to a better place whether that be back home or somewhere else in the city.  

My First Bite

Priya's Quesadilla 

Nineteen Ten in Westfield Shopping Center

Other Burrito Blogs
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London Walker - Buckingham Palace

I have been living in London since November 2012. During that time I have been exploring the city to varying degrees by numerous means. Whether it be by car, tube or foot I have seen a lot of Western and Central London. The East and South sides of London are still quite foreign to me. My favorite means of transport is walking. I have walked through much of the city and been able to take some photographs during that time. Now I want to begin sharing some of the places I have visited.

I am going to begin with Buckingham Palace. Last week was the first time I saw the Palace in person. I actually found it somewhat by accident in that I was not looking to go there rather I was looking for the South Korean Embassy here in London. Why I was looking for the Korean Embassy is another story. But I did find the embassy and after I left I began walking up the street and soon found myself on a road called Buckingham Gate. I walked up the road and before I knew it I found myself standing on the south side of the palace though at first I didn't really know what building I was looking at. It wasn't until I walked around towards the front of the building that I saw the signs listing what it was. There was also fair sized crowd in the front of the building and more people approaching it from the east down the main road called The Mall, which comes directly from Trafalgar Square to the Palace.

I found out that the palace has been the official residence of the British monarchs in London since 1837. The building remains functional and is used by the monarchy for its administrative duties. The buildings gates were closed so it was not possible to get very close to it so I have no idea what the inside of the building looks like except though pictures online. But the gates themselves were fun to look at in and of themselves. They were quite detailed and adorned with gold. 

In front of the building there is a large statue and fountain called the Victoria Memorial. As one could guess it is a statue of Queen Victoria. She is seated facing northeast towards The Mall, the main road to the Palace. There are two bronze statues on each side of her. One is the angel of justice and the other is the angel of truth. The fountain surrounds the memorial and has stone carvings in it including mermaids, mermen and a hippogriff. The fountain was functional as water poured out the sides of the memorial. There were also a few more statues around the memorial but I did not discover who they were or what they represented though I’m sure one could look it up online.

The Palace is almost completely surrounded by parks. Green Park lies to the north while St. James Park lies to the east and the Palace Gardens are behind (West) the building. It is only to the South, the direction I original came from where the Palace is approached by other city buildings. When I left I walked through Green Park. Green Park is a small park with a few paths and wonderfully large trees. It also has large fields of grass and cloth chairs laid out for anyone to use and relax in.

So if you’re in London definitely talk a walk to the Palace. It’s a great site that my pictures do little justice to.

Buckingham Gate Road

Buckingham Palace

Victoria Memorial

The Mall

Gate to Green Park

Green Park

Lockout - Movie Review

Lockout is a movie starring Guy Pearce and Maggie Grace. Pearce plays an ex-CIA operative named Snow. He is falsely accused of espionage and treason against the United States.  Grace plays Emilie Warnock the idealistic daughter of the president.

The story is set in 2079. The United States has built a prison in space called MS-1. It is used to house the most dangerous criminals. The prisoners are placed in stasis rather than in a cell. Some allege that the prisoners are being used as test animals in order to figure out if and how stasis can be used for long term space travel and they want the station shut down.  Emilie Warnock, the president’s daughter, fears inhuman things are being done to the prisoners. So she goes to visit the prison to see how the prisoners are being treated and research how stasis affects the human mind.  While she is in the prison there is a prison break (shock!) due to one foolish bodyguard’s decision to sneak a gun into the prison to protect Emilie. Whoops, who could have guessed that would go wrong?   

On earth Snow has been captured and is being interrogated for his believed role in espionage and treason against the US. Snow maintains his innocence while the CIA leader threatens to send him to MS-1 as a prisoner. During this time the president’s daughter is captured and now he will do anything and use anyone to get her back. And who do you think the best man for the job is? Yes that’s right it’s Snow. At first Snow refuses to go but he soon finds out that the one person who can help clear his name is being held prisoner on MS-1. Truly, how unpredictable is that?

Once Snow is in the prison his job is supposed to be to save the president’s daughter but he is truly more interested in finding the man who can prove his innocence. This of course leads to a lot of friction between him and Emilie but don’t worry that changes as they spend more time together. During this time all the prisoners in the station are trying to find Emilie to use her as their main bargaining chip to get off the prison. To make matters worse after a failed attack by the marines in space ships to get onto into the prison MS-1 is now falling into orbit and will soon hit the Eastern coast of the US somewhere near D.C. The government then decides there is no option but to blow up the station. This means Snow is on the clock not just to save Emilie and find the prisoner who can save him but to get off the station before the government destroys it.

So I watched the whole thing and yes it is as cheesy as it sounds and it is as cheesy as it looks. If you want to see how it looks take a look at the trailer here. You can tell how formulaic the movie is going to be just by the trailer. They actually say, “there’s only one man who can get her (Emilie) out…Snow. He’s the best there is but he’s a lose canon.” I mean come on, a lose canon. Who says that anymore?  

Now the question is would I recommend this movie? And the answer is yes, of course I would. If you are like me and just like cheesy movies that don’t require a lot of thinking and lend themselves to a lot of laughter, at the expensive of the movie rather than due to the intention of the writers then this is a “good” movie for you to watch. Now, if you need movies that provide you with intellectual depth, moral quandaries, strong emotional connections or Oscar worthy acting then this is not the movie for you. This movie is a fairly formulaic action movie. It provides lots of explosions, high speed chases, fighting and small moral issues to think about but nothing that will take away from the hero of the story, Snow. It is a fairly short movie only about an hour and a half and it doesn’t feel like the story is dragging along at any point so that is another plus for the movie. If you watch this you’ll get an hour and half off from thinking and hopefully have a few laughs again not because the writers or director wanted you to laugh but because the writers and the director made a movie worthy of laughing at. 

Our Trip to Brighton

Yesterday Priya and I went to Brighton. Brighton is a coastal town directly south of London. We used the national rail line to go there and it only took about an hour from the train station, which was nice.

Now this last week had been the first truly sunny and warm week here in London. It was finally spring. So when Priya and I were getting ready we simply got dressed as if the weather would be the same as it had been all week. Unfortunately we soon discovered that was not to be the case. The sun disappeared, the wind picked up and the temperature dropped. By the time we got to the station to get on the train both Priya and I were wishing we had brought another layer of clothing for ourselves.

We got to Brighton just around noon and both Priya and I were hungry so as we left the station our first mission was to find a place to eat lunch. As we walked along we saw various types of restaurants but we decided we wanted something hot to eat because we were both quite cold. We found a Japanese noodle shop that looked promising so we went in. They gave us a table and we examined the menu. While we were looking at the menu a few other couples came in and got seats. We both figured out pretty quickly what we wanted but the waitress seemed to be oblivious to us being there. The restaurant wasn't particularly busy but I thought she might just have some other things on her mind. But while we waited she took the orders of the people who came after us and no matter how much I tried to get her attention, visually (I’m not one to yell out) she never came over. Finally the food of the people after us got delivered to them and we just gave up on the hopes of being served and we left the restaurant. We ended up at a burger restaurant that was quite crowded but hey we got served so it worked out.

After lunch we went back outside. It had just been raining so all the sidewalks were wet and the wind had really picked up making it brutally cold. We began to explore the streets around us and they were filled with numerous local shops with all sorts of strange stuff. Now as we were shopping it got to the point where Priya was so cold she wanted to buy a sweatshirt or sweater so she could have another layer to try and keep warm so we began to browse. After a long and arduous search we ended up finding a nice, inexpensive hoodie to buy and while it certainly didn't work as well as a true winter coat would have it did provide at least a little more warmth for Priya and caused me to be a little jealous of her new purchase.

It was only now after getting this new hoodie that we finally decided to go to the beach. As we got closer and closer to the beach each street became more and more like a wind tunnel as the gusts of wind got stronger and stronger. Finally we broke out onto the beach and could see the ocean. The beach appeared fairly dark compared to most of the beaches I've been to and once we got to the beach I found out why. The beach was made of stones not sand. Now Priya had told me before we got there that the beach was made of rocks not sand but it wasn't until I saw it that the large difference that made became clear. A beach made of rocks is not a place you find people lying on towels or playing volleyball rather there were just a few people walking around mostly near the water to watch the waves and throw rocks into the ocean. Sand beaches can often be difficult to walk across especially with shoes because of the unevenness and fluidity of the surface that changed as you stepped on it. Now a beach made of rocks presents those same challenges but then it adds a hardness that really leads to one getting sore feet fairly quickly. Walking on a rocky beach is a true workout for the calves and the soles of ones feet.

We got off the beach and walked down a large pier that went out over the water. The pier is one of the spots for tourists to visit though overall there wasn't much to do there. There were a few buildings that were basically just arcades for children as well as a few for adults with gambling games. Then at the very end of the pier there was a few carnival type rides such as a merry-go-round, spinning cars and some fairly small roller coasters. Most of the rides were closed because they didn't open until the night. Priya and I just walked to the end of the pier, looked out into the sea and then turned around and went back.

As we walked away from the beach we passed by the Royal Pavilion and the Art Museum. We didn't go inside the Pavilion because it cost money and we didn't feel like paying just to see inside the building though the building is quite lovely from the outside.  At this point we were starting to think about eating again not simply because we were hungry but also because we wanted to actually be able to get into a restaurant. The streets were getting quite crowded and the restaurants were soon to follow. During our previous walking around we had passed an interesting Mexican restaurant and we both thought it looked like a fun place to try. We got there just before 6 pm and the restaurant was already full and they said they wouldn't have any seats available until 9:30 pm. It looked like there was a pretty large party going on in the restaurant so I guess those people had taken over most of the place. So we left a little sad but more certain that we should find somewhere to eat sooner rather than later. We ended up going to an Italian restaurant. We picked it because it was the same restaurant we went to on the day of our wedding and we both knew we liked it.

After dinner both Priya and I were quite stuffed. It had been awhile since either of us had two large and rich meals in one day. With the burgers from lunch and the pasta at dinner neither of us was overly eager to go exploring the city any longer. Also the sun was setting and it was only getting colder. So we decided that we were going to go back to the train station and try and trade in our tickets back to London for an earlier trip. We weren't scheduled to depart until 9:50 pm and it was only 7:30 pm.

As we approached the train station we suddenly heard a loud commotion near us and when we looked over across the street there was a large crowd of men pouring out of a pub into the street and they were fighting.  Now it wasn't the kind of fight where just a few guys were circling around and taking some off balanced swings at each other while the rest of the crowd cheers them on rather it was an all out brawl. There were guys throwing beer bottles at each other, picking up chairs and large pieces of wood to smash against one another, violent kicking each other especially any person that hit the ground and all sorts of other scary stuff. I really couldn't believe what I was seeing it was one of those scenes where you couldn't help but look but the more you watch the more your stomach turned at what you saw. It didn't take long before I actually became worried we might get hurt because the brawl began to expand outward. The beer bottles were being thrown further and further as the men spread out to the point where they almost hit people all the way down the street who had nothing to do with the fight. Obviously neither of us wanted to get caught too close to the fight especially if they suddenly started tossing bottles our direction so we decided to move away. As we left numerous police cars began to show up. At this point most of the men scattered and started running away but some got grabbed by the police as they tried to end the fight. It really was scary to see how violently these men were going at each other.  I really had no clue what could have caused such a mêlée to occur but Priya thinks it was probably about nothing more than a football game. But looking at those men’s eyes and how they were going at each other it was just hard to believe that sports could be the cause of the fight but I’m still new here so what do I know.

Once we got to the station we found out that sadly our tickets could not be exchanged for an earlier ride so we found ourselves at the station with about two hours before our train was set to leave and nowhere else we really wanted to go. So we just ended up hanging out in the station for two hours and then got on our train and headed home. Once we got to our train station in London we had to take the subway back home, which took almost another hour so we got home just before midnight.

Looking back at the day I’m glad we went and I really liked getting to spend a day alone with Priya but at the same time the weather made the day a little less enjoyable than either of us would have thought it would be. We've included some pictures of the trip here so here’s a look at Brighton