First Day at Michuhol

I haven't posted in a few days, so this is a continuation of something I was writing on the 21st.

5-21-12

Yesterday, upon checking in to the hotel, the guy that drove me was kind enough to make sure that I was indeed going to be picked up in the morning. He called my contact, Mr. Kim, who told me he could have me there by 1. I told him I needed to be there at 10. He said he would pick me up at 10. I tried to explain to him but I do not think he understood. It was irritating. During yesterday's half sleep I was interrupted by the driver again who told me Mr. Kim would meet me at my room at 9am.

Well, after a delightful skype with Mackenzie and fixing my beard trimmer, he had still not arrived. I tried the room phone but there were no numbers. I could not find a pay phone. I gave up and got a taxi. I pointed to the address and after some initial frustration the taxi driver figured it out. We are currently en route to the school. I have no way of telling my people not to bother picking me up right now. I will be a little late too. This experience has made me realize just how helpless I am. If that driver had not writte down the address for me I would be screwed right now. Even with all the help I have had, I am still taking a taxi.

Update (5-25-12)

The taxi driver ended up taking me to the wrong place. We both recognized that it was wrong I think, but luckily my laptop was available and I had enough forethought to save the webpage with the map to my desktop just in case. I showed it to him and we were once again on our way. When I got there I was told Mr. Kim had been calling for me. Jinny was very worried. Mr. Kim was still looking for me. I told them to let him know I was here. Then, about halfway through my tour, a man interrupted us. He spoke some words in Korean and was looking for the vice principal. What could have been a "Dr. Livingstone, I presume?" moment was shattered by the confusion. It turns out, he was ultimately looking for me. Mr. Kim told me that the one thing Jinny told him to tell me was that I should be aware of eye contact; I should always make good eye contact in Korea. It is very important. I apologized profusely for the mix-up and I am not sure he understood the totality of the confusion, but at least I had made it.

I spent my first morning getting acclimated to the school. I was given a brief orientation and shown a packet of info and my schedule. I only teach 3 or 4 of 7 periods a day. The rest of the day is planning time. This is a lot of planning time! I am not used to having that much available time. I have a fast computer with a huge monitor. Many of the programs on the computer seem fishy, which makes me wonder if the school has a tech guy that monitors that stuff or not.

I sat down with one of my many supervisors and began to fill out paper work. In Korea, oftentimes there is not enough room to sign your whole name so you simply initial on top of where it asks to sign. As for supervisors, there is Sunny, my head teacher; Jin Young, the native teacher coordinator; Jonathan, my co-teacher for Grade 1; and Helen, my co-teacher for Grade 2. Between filling out and signing documents I was given a tour of the offices to meet these people as well as the vice principal and other native teachers. 

When there was time, Jin Young drove me downtown for the medical exam. After belting in, she asked me what my parking ability was like. I told her I could park. This made her happy because she had only been driving for four months. She asked if I had any questions. I was too jet-lagged and overwhelmed to think of anything. I got to know her a little bit and we talked about places to see in the U.S. She said she learned the word "overwhelming" when she went to the Grand Canyon. I told her I would like to learn Korean, she began quizzing me on numbers, since I thought the taxi drive may have ripped me off. I learned very quickly. The system is not hard. I still have trouble pronouncing 7 and 8. 

When we got to the hospital, I learned the word for hospital and we raced around doing the medical tests. The whole thing seemed very bureaucratic. I learned my height and weight in Korean. 6'3" is meaningless to a country of metric users. No, I am 188.4 cm. I knew this information would be valuable in the coming days because no matter what classroom I walk into the students want to know how tall I am and whether or not I play sports. I am also just under 100 kg, which makes it easy to remember. They had me pee in a little cup with hearts on it that said happy time. Something makes me think that cup was designed for a different kind of fluid.

Aside from the check up and getting settled in, I found out upon my first day that Michuhol was hosting the first ever NFL (National Forensics League) tournament in South Korean history. This debate program was previously relegated to mostly North America. I have wanted to get involved in forensics since I first found out about it a few years ago. I decided to take the opportunity and stay after for a training session on how to judge/coach a forensics team. The best part is, I am on the ground floor so the learning curve may be steep for me, but it is for everyone else too. I can take this skill back to the states as well since the rules are the very same.

At the end of the night, I was shown my room in the dormitory. For my first night in Incheon, I stayed alongside the students. The teacher I was replacing had not yet fully moved out of my new apartment. I was warned that in the morning they play K Pop at 6 am to wake the students.