I was greeted by my Korean Co-teacher at the Daegu High School where all the rest of us had been dropped off by our buses after a 3 hour long bus ride from Jeonju. It felt like I was heading to my very first day of Kindergarten, not knowing who or what lie ahead was a bit nerve wracking to say the least!
The son understood me and set me up on the computer, and my co-teacher headed out the door to play some tennis (which I have come to learn he does almost every night after work.) So then it was just me, the wife and 2 sons left to "hang out." I hopped on the computer and onto Facebook and Gmail and began type away until I looked to my right and left and I had one son looking over each shoulder in curiosity and interest as to what I was typing. GREAT!! I smile at them and start to write an email (a pretend one) to show that I'm really not that interesting, and then I think, ehh what the heck, they probably can't even understand what I'm typing anyways, so I continue on. They lost interest pretty quickly so my plan worked. I am absolutely exhausted by this point, so I ask "where to sleep?" The wife directs me down the hall and into her 12 year old son's bedroom. The door opens, and there is a twin sized little bed, a fan, "boy things" all over, and glow in the dark stickers of stars and planets all over the wall. I laugh to myself, thank her, shut the door and dive into bed. I will never forget my very first night in Korea...
The very next day my co-teacher took me to buy all new furniture, bedding, kitchen ware and everything else to fill my apartment and they paid for it all! The other man who was with my co-teacher when they first picked me up at the high school (the head of administration) handed me an envelope the next day. It was a typed out letter in English of how he was sorry he did not have good English the day before but he will "study" and "learn" it so we have have "many conversations." He said that he was sorry if I felt uncomfortable, but he was very happy to have me at his school and said he will help me get settled in with anything I may need. They have turned into to be some of the nicest people I have met in my life. Just like I learned when I was little, never judge a book by it's cover :)
I looked around and saw everyone else being greeted by their Korean co-teachers. And then I hear the name of my middle school called and there was my co-teacher. He was a shorter man who had a serious look on his face. I thought oh no, here we go. I got a mean one! Just my luck. He nodded at me and directed me to follow him out. I smiled and mumbled, "anyungaseo," my best attempt to say hello in Korean which we learned at orientation and followed closely behind him. He was with another man from the school who was the head of administration. He smiled at me and I smiled back. I never have been one to like long silences so I uttered the only thing that came to mind "wow, it's really hot out!." They both looked at me with a blank stare. "OH NO!" I thought, I got the co-teachers who know ZERO English. This is going to be a LOOONG year.
In the car I began talking about anything that I thought they may know of or have heard of. I was in the backseat, and both of them in the front. Their ears perked up when I said I was from New York. Turns out one of my co-teachers knew more English than he first let on, which I learned is just part of Korean culture, they are a bit shy until you speak to them and get comfortable with them. If you don't talk they think you don't like them. Well sure enough i'm blabbing away about America, New York, how many sisters I have, my name, and basically anything that came to mind. It loosened them right up and even the other man was able to say "wonderful personality" and "pretty name." It was enough for me!
After about a 15 minute car ride, we had made it to the middle school. Well, now I know how celebrities, or I mean aliens feel when they arrive places. ALL EYES ON YOU. It was literally like I had 10 heads, but in a good way. So many smiles and attempts to say "hello" that it made it very easy to already feel comfortable at my school. I attempted to say hello in Korean again and did a bow a few times to anyone I passed. One teacher came over to me and said, "I excited to study English with you." I met a few more teachers, but by then most had already gone home since it was the end of the day. There were no students at the school since it was around 5 p.m. so I wasn't going to make my real "debut" until the following day. I had learned that I was the first "Native English speaking teacher" they have ever had at their school, and I would be the only American at my school for the next year. Quite an adventure to take on to say the least! This was the case for many of my friends placed in Daegu as well. The plus side is, they have noone to compare you to :)
After we left the school, the next stop was to bring me to my new apartment. My new home for the next year...AH!
Luckily my apartment is about 3 minutes from school. I literally live two streets away which makes it very convenient.
As we pull up, I get a good look at the building and it looks new and modern, and my only fear was I hope it's clean!! It's a 5 story walk up, as I head upstairs the 2 Korean men follow with my 2 massive suitcases and the door to my apartment opens. My heart stops hoping, wishing and praying it is everything I had hoped it would be and more. Hoping it is not like some of the horror stories I heard about from past English teachers at orientation. Well the clean part was perfection, it was spotless. But, I literally mean SPOTLESS. There was NOT A PIECE OF FURNITURE IN SIGHT! Ha, yup, my apartment wasn't exactly "ready." After a long day of traveling and 9 days at orientation living out of a suitcase I just wanted to unpack, get situated and go to bed! Well that was far from the plan on my first night.
As we pull up, I get a good look at the building and it looks new and modern, and my only fear was I hope it's clean!! It's a 5 story walk up, as I head upstairs the 2 Korean men follow with my 2 massive suitcases and the door to my apartment opens. My heart stops hoping, wishing and praying it is everything I had hoped it would be and more. Hoping it is not like some of the horror stories I heard about from past English teachers at orientation. Well the clean part was perfection, it was spotless. But, I literally mean SPOTLESS. There was NOT A PIECE OF FURNITURE IN SIGHT! Ha, yup, my apartment wasn't exactly "ready." After a long day of traveling and 9 days at orientation living out of a suitcase I just wanted to unpack, get situated and go to bed! Well that was far from the plan on my first night.
My co-teacher said, "Sheila, we bring furniture sooner than later." A phrase I have come to hear very often, but have grown to like because it turns out they do actually mean sooner than later!! It usually happens very soon. In a panic, with no working phone, no access to internet and no way of contacting Alex or any of my other friends from orientation, I say "where do I sleep?" They didn't quite seem to understand that part so I made a hand gesture and put my head down and said, "where do I sleep tonight?" They thought about it for a second then my co-teacher said,
"You come to my house?"
Oh God I thought, for all I know he could be posing as my co-teacher and actually may murder me. I'm dramatic as always, I know.
So I say,
"Maybe I go to friend's house?" Not actually knowing of anyway I would even find out where they live since we all went our seperate ways with our co-teachers a few hours ago. He must have seen the panicked look on my face cause he then says,
"I have wife and kids, you come with me."
There was no other option and I had no energy left, so I figured, sure what else am I gonna do?! He told me, "pack small bag." That's the point when I wished I had actually packed and organized my stuff that morning at orientation when we were leaving instead of throwing everything I had brought into one big pile and zipping it shut. There was a look of horror on their faces when I opened my suitcases and had socks bras and random items of clothing flying everywhere. I grabbed a dress, a toothbrush and anything else I could find, and threw it in a "small bag" and we headed out the door. Little did I know that was just the beginning of the adventure.
"You come to my house?"
Oh God I thought, for all I know he could be posing as my co-teacher and actually may murder me. I'm dramatic as always, I know.
So I say,
"Maybe I go to friend's house?" Not actually knowing of anyway I would even find out where they live since we all went our seperate ways with our co-teachers a few hours ago. He must have seen the panicked look on my face cause he then says,
"I have wife and kids, you come with me."
There was no other option and I had no energy left, so I figured, sure what else am I gonna do?! He told me, "pack small bag." That's the point when I wished I had actually packed and organized my stuff that morning at orientation when we were leaving instead of throwing everything I had brought into one big pile and zipping it shut. There was a look of horror on their faces when I opened my suitcases and had socks bras and random items of clothing flying everywhere. I grabbed a dress, a toothbrush and anything else I could find, and threw it in a "small bag" and we headed out the door. Little did I know that was just the beginning of the adventure.
We stopped at this place called E-mart. It's like a Wal-mart here in Korea. Everyone stared at me in the place like I was profusely bleeding from my head or something, but I have come to known they will always stare and Koreans are just very curious or interested about you. It's a good thing. Especially on the subway, some older women literally stand 2 inches away from my face and just stare. At first I would slowly move backwards, but now I'm getting used to it.
We had to get 2 passport sized photos taken of me so I could apply for my alien registration card the next day. That in itself was a process. The Korean woman working at E-mart who was taking my photo did not think I should smile in my picture. She was unable to say this so she finally said "NO TEETH!" Ha, so I look like a masked murderer who just escaped from prison in my photo ID that I will have with me the next year. Awesome!
It took about 20 minutes for them to develop the photo so my co-teacher told me" "wander around store, while we wait." So, I wandered off, up and down the aisles, thinking in my head "OMG, I am in Korea in an E-mart and I have no idea where I am going, what I am doing, or what even will happen in the next 5 minutes, what do I do?!"
God must have answered my prayers because all of the sudden I turned down an aisle and saw my friend Melissa, from orientation shopping with her co-teacher for things for her new apartment. (Well, well, isn't she lucky!) I don't know what came over me, but I had never been so happy to see an English speaking American in my life. I ran over and jumped and hugged her. I must have terrified her co-teacher the way I rambled on about my apartment not being ready and how happy I was to see her etc. She was already getting sheets and pots and pans for her apartment! I couldn't believe how different our experiences had been already!
God must have answered my prayers because all of the sudden I turned down an aisle and saw my friend Melissa, from orientation shopping with her co-teacher for things for her new apartment. (Well, well, isn't she lucky!) I don't know what came over me, but I had never been so happy to see an English speaking American in my life. I ran over and jumped and hugged her. I must have terrified her co-teacher the way I rambled on about my apartment not being ready and how happy I was to see her etc. She was already getting sheets and pots and pans for her apartment! I couldn't believe how different our experiences had been already!
Anyways, after a few minutes of rambling away, I could see her co-teacher wanted to get things moving again, so even though I didn't want to part ways, we said our goodbyes and planned to meet up the following day, somehow, somewhere! That was the breath of fresh air that I needed!
I headed back down to where I had left my co-teacher and we picked up my photos and off we went. In the car we attempted to make the best attempt at a conversation that we could have with broken English and me knowing zero Korean. At one point he said, "I take you outback?" I thought, "Oh God, this is when I get murdered," he is taking me "out back." Unsure of exactly how to respond to that, I said, "umm no no, I'm okay." He then firmly said, "No we go Outback." I literally did not know what to say or do. He got on his phone with someone after that and had a quick little convo and hung up. I thought, oh great, we are meeting more people "outback." Well at least there will be others to witness this...
Turns out he was taking me to "Outback Steakhouse" with his family since he knew it had American food. His phone call was with his older son and we were stopping at his house to pick them up first. Talk about freaking myself out for no reason! As I said, Koreans are so very kind and welcoming and always want to make sure you feel comfortable and are okay, and this was just an example of it. His sons got in the car. One was 17 and the other 12. I forgot to mention I had been sitting in the back seat this entire time. I didn't know if it was okay for me to sit shot gun so I played it safe. If only a camera could have captured me in the back seat and my Korean co-teacher in the front like a cab driver. His older son sat up front and his younger son in back with me. They too had broken English but I was able to ask them their names and ages and a few more questions. The younger son kept glancing over at me and I would turn and smile and he would quickly look away. The 4 of us then headed into Outback Steak house. My co-teacher told me his wife was "exercising," and she does not like the expensive prices at Outback Steak house so she would stay home.
Dinner itself should have been filmed because there are no words to really describe it! I did my best to make conversation with 3 other Koreans who did not really understand English. I told them the food was good or made random noises about the food just to fill the silence at times. At one point in the meal my co-teacher burped loudly which I thankfully was already warned about at orientation. Koreans burp out loud in public and spit on the street very often so I tried my best to not think twice about it. His older son nudged him and said something Korean to him after this and he smiled and asked me "is that rude in American?" I reassured him it was Okay, since I did not want to offend him! I thought about "belching" myself but I just couldn't get myself to do it. I pictured all those long years my mother taught me manners and I just smiled instead. It was quite hilarious though to experience a different culture's manners.
There were about 10 big American guys sitting in Outback Steakhouse at a table over from us. They were from the U.S. army, there is a station here in Daegu. I wanted to run to their table and tell them about my last few hours even though they were complete strangers. I felt like I knew them because we all spoke English, but instead I just said hi, nodded, and watched them stare with question on their faces as we finished up dinner and I walked out of the restaurant with 3 Koreans, all male. HA!
There were about 10 big American guys sitting in Outback Steakhouse at a table over from us. They were from the U.S. army, there is a station here in Daegu. I wanted to run to their table and tell them about my last few hours even though they were complete strangers. I felt like I knew them because we all spoke English, but instead I just said hi, nodded, and watched them stare with question on their faces as we finished up dinner and I walked out of the restaurant with 3 Koreans, all male. HA!
We headed to their "house" after dinner which turned out to be a nice apartment on the 20th floor of an apartment building. It is VERY important to never wear your shoes inside especially in a house in Korea so thank God I remembered that on the way in. His wife knew absolutely no English but was very smiley and kind and gave me some kind of tea or drink that was very strong. To this day, I am still not exactly sure what I drank, but I got it down none the less. After I finished, I asked, "E-mail??" So I could e-mail my friends and family and tell them about how my day had turned out!
The son understood me and set me up on the computer, and my co-teacher headed out the door to play some tennis (which I have come to learn he does almost every night after work.) So then it was just me, the wife and 2 sons left to "hang out." I hopped on the computer and onto Facebook and Gmail and began type away until I looked to my right and left and I had one son looking over each shoulder in curiosity and interest as to what I was typing. GREAT!! I smile at them and start to write an email (a pretend one) to show that I'm really not that interesting, and then I think, ehh what the heck, they probably can't even understand what I'm typing anyways, so I continue on. They lost interest pretty quickly so my plan worked. I am absolutely exhausted by this point, so I ask "where to sleep?" The wife directs me down the hall and into her 12 year old son's bedroom. The door opens, and there is a twin sized little bed, a fan, "boy things" all over, and glow in the dark stickers of stars and planets all over the wall. I laugh to myself, thank her, shut the door and dive into bed. I will never forget my very first night in Korea...
The very next day my co-teacher took me to buy all new furniture, bedding, kitchen ware and everything else to fill my apartment and they paid for it all! The other man who was with my co-teacher when they first picked me up at the high school (the head of administration) handed me an envelope the next day. It was a typed out letter in English of how he was sorry he did not have good English the day before but he will "study" and "learn" it so we have have "many conversations." He said that he was sorry if I felt uncomfortable, but he was very happy to have me at his school and said he will help me get settled in with anything I may need. They have turned into to be some of the nicest people I have met in my life. Just like I learned when I was little, never judge a book by it's cover :)
RSS Feed