The Beginning

So, when last we left our hero (that would be me) he (that is, I) had finished up the first evening, and was ready for the first day at school, and the first full day in Korea.

A person from my school said she would come by to pick me up at 7:50 am, so I set my alarm for 7:00 am. I'd had to do the math from San Francisco and adjust my phones clock manually since my phone couldn't connect to a network in Korea to figure out the time automatically. Unfortunately I did the math wrong, and was off by an hour. Fortunately, I was an hour ahead of actual time instead of behind, so when my alarm went off at 7am the next morning, it was actually 6am, and not 8am.

Of course I didn't realize this right away, oh no. I thought it was 7, so I woke up, brushed my teeth, took a shower, got dressed, and went outside to wait for the girl who had left me the note. When I got outside my phone read 7:48. 22 minutes later, I was starting to worry something had gone wrong. Had I missed a direction? Was I supposed to meet her somewhere else? What's going on?

I walk into the lobby, and I'm about to ask to use the phone so I can call her and find out, when I see the clock on the wall. It read 7:15. My phone said 8:15. Well that would be the problem.

Fast forward one hour. Karen and I are getting on the subway. She had come exactly on time to take me to school. She was just another foreign teacher who lived in the same neighborhood as my motel. Apparently I had arrived during summer intensives, so the hours were different from normal. 8:30 am every day until 6:00 pm. Luckily it was the last week of those hours, and the schedule would return to the normal 2-10 that I had been told about the following week. She explained all this to me on the way to the subway.

The subway system here, for the record, is incredible. It's fast, efficient, clean, easy to use, and very cheap. I absolutely love it, but I will go into detail about it at a later time.

The school is a very nice facility on the third floor of a building with a number of different offices and companies working out of it. It is clean, and new looking, painted with bright pretty colors. We walk in and head strait to the teachers office, which is a large room comprised primarily of 14 computer stations/desks situated at two long tables. Karen shows me were I will sit for the day, and walks off to start her preparations for class.

I set my stuff down and before long a girl named Victoria walks in and asks me to come with her. We go into an office, we sit, and she gives me the run down. Victoria is the head foreign teacher at the school, which doesn't make her my boss exactly, but it means that any instructions/assignments, as well as complaints with my performance from the supervisor or director, will come through her. It also means that she is my go to person for any issues or questions that I have either about my job or life in Korea.

Then she gives me the situation. This is great. Apparently I'm here to replace a guy named Tristian, and his last day today (Today as of then, Thursday, august 18). Which means instead of the standard week of observation and training, I get one day, and then will be responsible for a full teaching schedule the very next day.

This was mildly stressful. I'm a fairly quick learner, but one day was not enough time to comprehend all of the various details involved with this job. So I spent the day watching, I asked a ton of questions, and by the time I left that night, I had a somewhat vague idea of how maybe the basic concept of teaching here sort of works. *Sigh*

So far my experience in Korea has been very pass or fail, sink or swim. Meaning, very often little to no explanation, direction, or help is given regarding just about everything. Mostly you're just told what needs to happen, and then left up to your own devices to make it happen, and it either happens or it doesn't. This has been one of my biggest sources of stress since coming here, but also one of my biggest sources of pride, because so far, I've made sure that everything that I need to happen, has.

So the next day I wake up, check my phone to see how long I have until the alarm goes off, and find that my phone has died. Fuck. I go down to the lobby, check the clock, it's 5:30. I cant go back to sleep, because I might not wake up, so I take a quick walk, find a 7/11 (those are really big here for some reason) and get some breakfast. I take a shower, get dressed, play angry birds for a while, and go down to the lobby again to check the time. It's now 7.

Today I have to get all my luggage to the school as well, because I'm moving into my apartment after the day is over. So I manage to communicate to the front desk that I need a taxi, and he calls one for me. I go up and grab my luggage, and manage to carry all four bags at once to the lobby. If you had seen my bags, you would know that this was a feat in and of itself. The cab driver helps me get everything into the car, and then I get in and attempt to explain to him where I'm going. Also no easy feat. I give him the name of the subway station nearest the school, and he's off. When he gets to the subway station I use gestures to direct him down another couple of streets. Keep in mind I've only been here once before, I have a terrible sense of direction in general, and I'm not really completely sure where exactly the school is. But, fate is on my side, and somehow, by blind luck, I manage to get him there. He unloads my bags, I pay him, and he leaves.

It's now 7:30. I take the elevator to the third floor, but when the door opens, there's a mettle gate up, and the lights are out. Not open yet. So I go wait in the lobby with my bags for an hour, look over my notes from the day before, and try to get myself mentally prepared.

There's really not a lot I can say about that first day of teaching, mostly because I don't really remember very much. I sort of mentally checked out for the day I suppose. I switched into survival mode, and somehow I made it happen and got through the day. But I remember it being a little nerve racking.

One of the more difficult aspects of this job is stretching the material to fit a 50 minute class. Sometimes the syllabus for the day only gives you 3 pages to cover, but somehow you have to make it last, by adding your own information, activities, etc. You absolutely do not want to run out of material with 20 minutes left in the class, that is a terrible feeling. And I think that only happened to me in one class that day. We played silly games for the rest of the time.

With the day finished, I got my stuff out of the office and into another taxi. A coworker who lives in my same building came along and gave directions this time. She helped me get my stuff into my new apartment and then took off to go get ready. There was a going away get together for the teacher I replaced.

My apartment is small, but very nice. I have a refrigerator and a freezer, a washing machine, a range stove top though no oven, a full bathroom, a desk with a chair, and plenty of storage space. Waiting for me is a big cardboard box. I open it to excitedly find a whole care package of apartment needs. Pot, pan, dish, bowl, mug, cup, spatula, knife, fork, spoon, dish washing fluid, dish scrubber, floor cleaning fluid, floor scrubber, dust pan, pillow, comforter, bed sheets, a bottle of water, and a Snickers bar. I ate the snickers bar while excitedly tearing open the plastic wrapping on everything else. I had a bit of a nesting-gasm going through everything. It was a good moment.

At 9:00 I went down out in front of my apartment to meet everyone for the going away "party" though party isn't quite the word. We had dinner and a few drinks. It was a nice evening.

The neighborhood right around my apartment building is a fabulous place. There's a ton of restaurants, bars, arcades (arcades are still a big deal here in Korea), karaoke joints, clothing and computer stores, all within about a 150 yard radius from my front door. There's, more night life in this tiny little neighborhood than in the entire city of Cleveland, and that is not an exaggeration.

Life here is certainly interesting. But I would be lying if I said that I enjoyed every minute of it. The truth is, living here is very hard. Every day is difficult, and every day has new challenges to be overcome. I've experienced joy and wonder, yes, but I've also experienced short bouts of depression. I haven't settled yet. I'm completely out of my comfort zone every minute of every day, and I have yet to find any sort of feeling of security.

One of the problems is that absolutely nothing is simple here. There's no task that can be approached with the casual attitude of "let me just take care of this real quick" because nothing is ever that easy. First the task must be analyzed, and a general assumption has to be made of where/how can I accomplish this. I then have to determine what the necessary location is and figure out how to get there. Finally, upon arriving, I have to manage to find someone who appears that they can help me, and then somehow communicate my need. It's a major headache.

Garbage bags: sounds simple, right? I just. need. garbage bags. I assume I can get garbage bags at the grocery store, and I know where one of those is. There's one right around the corner, so I go there. I find a lady with a name tag, and say "garbage bags?". She looks at me funny. That's ok, I didn't expect that to work anyway, I was prepared for this. So I take a piece of paper out of my pocket, crumple it up, and with my other hand I mime opening a bag, and then mime putting the crumpled paper into the bag. "Ohhh", she looks concerned, "Umm, you...wait...there. Right back." She walks away and grabs another employee. She says some stuff in Korean to the guy, and he comes over to me. I repeat the motion for garbage bags that I have invented. He also develops a look of concern. He holds up a finger and walks away. He gets yet another employee, says some stuff to her, and she starts walking over. I repeat my gesture, and she nods and repeats it back to me. She speaks some English. "Garbage bags, umm, different here. Have to get in your neighborhood." "Oh, ok. But this is my neighborhood. I live in Cheonho. I just moved here." She laughs. "No no, not here. Convenience store." "Ohhh, ok." So I thank them and leave.

Apparently I need to go to a convenience store. That shouldn't be too difficult. There's tons of those around. So I stop in one, and look around. Don't see any. I go up to the guy behind the counter and repeat my gesture. He crosses his arms to make an "X" which is the gesture here in Korea for "no". Alright, fine. I go to another. Look around, don't see any. Repeat the gesture, crossed arms. Ok. Down the street there's another. Look around, gesture, negative. God damn it! I just need some fucking garbage bags!!

Next convenience store. I make my gesture, and the guy looks confused. I repeat, with more precision, he holds out his hand. I look at him confused, he points to a garbage can behind the counter. "No, no. For my apartment." He makes a "what the fuck is your problem" face, and points to a dumpster just outside. "No, no. I need to purchase. To buy. For home." Finally he gets it, "Ohhh, no no, not here." Face palm. I shrug my shoulders exaggeratedly and say "Where?". He points out the window and says "That way."

So I go outside, and walk, "that way", and see, down some dark ally with little else in it, a small non-chain store with a sign hanging that says "24 Convenience". I assume 24 hour is what they were getting at. I start walking towards it, and as I get closer I begin to get excited. I can see paper towels, and toilet paper, and tissue paper, and all those domestic goodies that few of the other convenience stores have even had. This has to be the place. I walk in. I look around. They have everything one could need for a home. Bug spray, window cleaner, foil, plastic wrap. But....this can't be....I don't see garbage bags. I look again. They have to be here. I tear every inch if the tiny store apart, but I don't see them. I go up to the counter, and I make my gesture for garbage bags. "Not here." I leave with a sigh.

I kept trying, and eventually I did find them. But that story was to illustrate my point that nothing here, and I mean absolutely nothing, is ever simple. It makes it difficult to get motivated to actually do anything, because I know that no matter what it is, it's going to be a hassle at some point or another. And a week and a half into it, it's starting to wear on me a bit. I haven't had a relaxing day. I'm still not really set up with everything I need, and so there's still more things I need to get, which means more things to figure out. And it's kinda fun. I mean it's part of the adventure, it's why I came here. It's certainly growing me into a more independent, self sufficient, determined and capable person. But it's also exhausting. And now, after my first full week here, I'm just tired.

Thanks for bearing with me through the exceptionally long post. I'll try to keep them more manageable in the future.

-Mongoose