language barriers & technology failure...

TYPICAL DAY IN THE LIFE OF AMANDA:
So, Sunday night I'm in bed a little after midnight, normal time for me. I make sure my alarm is set on my I-touch & off to sleep I go! Wake up naturally (sans alarm sound), look around, get that gut feeling, grab my I-touch to check the time...7:25AM. The school bus arrives at 7:03AM. For some reason my I-touch insisted it was Sunday, March 13th...not sure if it was always on the wrong date or if the "american time change" had something to do with it. They don't do "daylights saving time" in Korea. Regardless of the reason, I was late!!

I completely flip out, throw on some clothes & decide that instead of running around the city for a pay phone I will ask my landlord to borrow her cell phone upstairs. I ring her door, she opens and I use hand signals to communicate the use of a phone. I show her Mr. Jun's number on a piece of paper and mock calling him. She then takes the paper I have, tears off the bottom of it and proceeds to write down her telephone number. While trying to remain calm, I politely tell her no, I need to USE the phone. (INSERT CURSING ABOUT LANGUAGE BARRIERS IN MY HEAD) Finally she understands & hands me her cell phone.

I inform Mr. Jun that my alarm did not go off and he says, "Ok, well you still work for our school today. You take city bus to Do Gae, yes?" His "wording" choices baffle me. I tell the landlady thank you, return to my room, throw on teaching attire, grab my backpack, & head out the door. All the while I'm thinking of the quickest way I could get to the school, which is 40 min away. I run outside and debate on either running to the train station (10 min away) where I know taxis wait, OR risk standing on the corner for awhile trying to flag down an empty taxi. Luckily, I spot a taxi dropping someone off & flag it down. (FYI: you don't wave down taxis, you stick out your arm and bend your hand in a downwards motion...waving towards yourself is like "calling a dog towards you" in their culture).

So, I hop in the taxi, tell him bus terminal, pay 3,200 WON. At the train station I go to the ticket lady and say "English?" To which she shows me the "a little" hand sign. I say, "I need to get to Do Gae Middle High School." She browses a chart for a few minutes then shows me it will not arrive until 8:40AM. Perfect...NOT! School begins at 8:20AM, and of course I had a class to teach first thing Monday morning. This was the same class that missed my lesson last week as well due to technological difficulty! I pay the lady 3,000 WON for the ticket to Do Gae. Bus is cheaper than the taxi, go figure!

I sit around the bus station, call Mr. Jun to tell him what time the bus was arriving, then call my parents using my calling card I won at orientation. I figured they would enjoy my story of the day, lol. I finally board the bus, which showed up 10 minutes late, and arrive at school. To make things even more interesting, the school is running on a slightly different time schedule due to a teacher's meeting that morning. So I run in to make it to my second class in time, only to be told to sit down for a bit because I have 10 minutes until it begins. Phew!

I LOVE MY JOB...TODAY ATLEAST!:
The two classes I was actually able to teach (both middle school) were awesome! They enjoyed my lesson and even participated. If only my high schoolers would do the same! My last class of the day was my conversation class with 9 higher level students. I'm going to LOVE this part of my job! They speak English almost fluently! These were obviously the kids I had in my classes last week who were actually trying to talk to me.

So now we have 50 minutes to just sit and talk about whatever we want! Today we talked about music & movies. They told me they didn't understand the movie "The Social Network" which is the movie about facebook. I told them there wasn't much to understand about it because the story was about the guy "stealing" the idea of facebook from some guys. They said they understood this but the previews hyped them up & the movie let them down, haha. Smart kids! They also asked me a bunch of questions about the movie "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" lol. "Did you see it?" "Is it true?" haha, their imitations of a chainsaw were hilarious! I have another one of these types of classes on Friday with 5 students.

So now I am relaxing in my apartment for the evening. I cannot wait until my foot feels better so I can figure out a jogging path in my neighborhood! I'm going to shower, read some of my book, then maybe work on some poetry. I started a new poem, "swirls of time pass through my mind." It's basically about the rush of excitement & confusion that comes with discovering a new place and completely different culture, "aka", South Korea! Hope to post it soon. Until next time!

P.S. I get my cell phone tomorrow!! Finally, one less thing to stress about!

XOXO,
Amanda