You know when sometimes you just want to curl up and bawl?

Yesterday at 6 pm, I was ready and fully planning to go back to my apartment and cry for at least half an hour curled up in fetal position on my pink comforter. Then, a wonderful thing happened--one of my coworkers took me out for dinner and a beer.

When I came to Dongtan, I was under the impression that the "co-teachers" I'd been promised were going to be in the classroom along with me and that I would have two days of training before starting to work. Not so, on either count. One of the other teachers' contracts ended last week, and she made up her mind to leave. I met Emily, this teacher, last Saturday, when she took me out for a night to the outlying area of Seoul, and she told me about her contract and reasons for wanting to leave and that it had ended badly because the school wanted her to stay longer--the information I didn't get, though, was how much her fully justifiable actions were going to affect me. Instead of receiving two days of training from and then taking over for another teacher named Micky, whose contract is also ending and who has a normal amount of classes and a total of one co-teacher to work with, I was thrown immediately and rather mercilessly to the wolves of Emily's overloaded class schedule and plethora of co-teachers. I taught six full class periods--by myself--the very first day, for five different groups of students, a couple of which contained the brattiest little snots I have ever come across (okay, admittedly, I was new and overwhelmed, so they were really testing me and I really had no way of coping--and a couple of the classes' students were pretty good). I followed someone else's lesson plans as I went along, over half the time not knowing if I was using the right textbook or knowing for sure that I couldn't even find the stupid thing. I ended up with stacks of textbooks and papers on my desk that loomed dangerously close to eye level, and still the Korean teachers wouldn't quit throwing more at me. I tried. I froze up. I failed. I honestly considered breaking the contract in flight for the States. I had one saving grace, in the person of one of my co-workers, a Tennesseean (correct term? I doubt it) named Milindi. She constantly checked up on me, answered as many questions as I could cohere from my short-circuiting brain, brought me worksheets and books I needed for the day, and took me out after work.

Today was infinitely better. Emily came back in for a day to help me and do some training, the kids were incomparably easier to control and teach, the lessons came together, and I even had some fun. I have embarked on the voyage of writing lesson plans, devising clever visual aides and disciplinary measures, and grading homework, and I only hope I will find my sea legs before long, because this kind of open water makes and has made me ill for quite some time. I thought that I had a frantic life back in the US--I am dismayed to tell you it pales in comparison to this Korean existence. The terrible, yet hilarious, reason behind the mayhem here (according to an American co-worker) is that Koreans are hopelessly disorganized. I hate to say it, but it makes me laugh pretty hard to imagine the reason behind their urgent clip and rapid-fire speech to be an obligation to fix the things they weren't able to do right ahead of time or the first time around.

More facts about South Korea: they recycle EVERYthing, and what's left for garbage has to be sorted into food and non-food, each of which goes into its own special kind of bag you must buy. No substitutes. And I have yet to see an outdoor garbage can in Dongtan.

This morning, on the walk to work, I saw a Korean granny wearing a pants suit and heels riding a 3'-tall bike with training wheels. That picture would have been worth a thousand words.

Link to the second photo album is http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2037537&id=1306823245&l=67fa3361e1

First week

Where to begin? This week I've been "resting" at the suggestion of the Korean government--foreign teachers (that's what I and my ilk are called here) all take a week of rest before starting work, so I've been trying to keep myself occupied. Mom, you were right--I got bored real fast.

Dongtan (pronounced Doong-tahn) is about forty minutes outside of Seoul, the capital. My nearby area is quiet, except for two construction sites and a main highway two blocks away. For anyone from the Monmouth area, it's more or less like living a few blocks from 99, plus construction sounds. There is a roadside garden next to my high-rise apartment building (about eight floors), which apparently is the normal thing for any land that's not developed. Apartments are tiny in Korea, and mine is no exception--I don't even have an oven. (For pictures of EVERYthing, go to the link below--it's my Facebook page.) The school supplied what little furniture fits in my room, meaning a bed (the mattress is attached to the 10" legs), bedframe, small table, and two chairs. The combo washing machine/dryer is hilarious--it sings a little electronic song when it's all done working. The outlets are, of course, a different configuration than in the States, as is the voltage (250). Upon testing these outlets, I discovered with a bang that my power strip could not handle that many volts (applaud me for not checking the strip's voltage capabilities before switching it on), but another day or so later I was going nuts from my laptop's nearly-dead battery, and so, acting upon the information that at least one other American's computer handles the voltage just fine, I plugged mine in and--whew. No bang. It's working fine, and the husband of my school's director (a very nice man named Mr. Lee; the director is Esther, also very nice) took me to the right store to get a voltage adapter for my speakers. I'm currently bumming off some neighbor's wireless, so in case anyone was wondering, it is possible, although a little challenging, to get a fairly normal computer setup in Korea.

My first full day here, I was terrified of going out the door, but I did go down to the basement to drop off my recycling (they recycle EVERYthing here--in fact, a person is hard put to find trash cans outside the house). The second day, I made it about five blocks from my apartment when I decided that was probably enough; it was okay to go back home. Esther then drove me to do a few errands, so I saw more of Dongtan that way. The third day, I did a couple more five-block walks, but in different directions. Later that afternoon, Mr. Lee picked me up and drove me all around, showing me bus stops, doing some more errands (voltage adapter), showing me Byeongjeom (a neighboring town), etc. He pointed out Wonderland (my school), and we both decided that it's probably not far enough from my apartment to warrant a bus ride. The fourth day, I got completely fed up with it and walked all the way to downtown Dongtan in search of Wonderland. I left at 9:30, intending to be out until 3:00, when I needed to be back at my apartment for someone to install a screen on my window. Well, I got lost. Kind of. Thank God I know how to tell north from south and east from west when the sun's out, so I at least knew I was going southeast. After walking forever, stopping at a Paris Baguette for some food, and seeing a few cool things, I stumbled onto Central Park, where I intend to go again, then found a cute little boutique. The store owner came out to speak to me, and it turns out she spoke English (and German). We struck up a conversation, and upon my casually asking her if she knew where Wonderland was, she got on the phone to track down the school's phone number, and then got ahold of the school and then put me on the phone with one of the other foreign teachers and then took the phone back and told whoever was on the other end of the line at that point to send someone to pick me up. Ack! No! That's not was I was wanting! Too bad--I had to go outside and wait. After ten minutes, no one had showed up, so I went back into the store to show her my address (written in Korean) and ask her if she knew which general direction I needed to go to get there (I guessed northwest). No, she got back on the phone and asked them to come pick me up. I went back outside. Someone did, indeed, pick me up, and she (Hannah) took me to the school (three blocks east of Paris Baguette). At the school, I met Jackie, who was very smilingly paranoid about my safety (I think the rather erroneous words "I got completely lost" set her off) because I'm new and I don't have a cell phone and it's easy to get lost and hard to find anyone who can give directions in English, and politely commanded me to stay in or near my apartment--until I'm not new? She then sentenced me to a car ride back to my apartment with the apologetic Hannah, and it was on that ride that I realized I had made my very first turn about two blocks too soon. That was yesterday, and today I marched right back out my door and straight to Wonderland, this time without missing it by a mere three blocks. I also did some shopping, which proved harder than I thought it would be, because 75% of the establishments in the downtown area are food places! So many places to eat, so few menus I can read. Dressing rooms: tiny, like 3'x3', and the mirror is on the outside of the door. I had to keep going in and out to look at what I was trying on--but maybe that's just what crazy foreigners do.

I have eaten kimchi! I have a bag of pre-made kimchi dumplings (also called mundu) in my fridge, and I had a sample of something that tasted a lot better than those at E-Mart, "Number one store in Korea." A side note: the carts at E-Mart (and probably other department stores) are CRAZY: you have to pay 100 Won (about a penny) to unlock one from the next one in line, and all four of the wheels are on casters. I don't think I ever thought casters were a bad idea before, but I do after using a cart that pulled me in wide arcs around any corner I tried to turn and wouldn't go straight the rest of the time. A lot of the fruits and vegetables are familiar to me: peaches, plums, bell peppers, leeks, garlic, etc. However, there are different mushrooms, and I bought some kind of citrus fruit today which I haven't tried yet and whose identity I don't know.

Craziest fact I've learned so far about this place: Dongtan is one year old. They started building everything three years before it became a city. Hence, why all the trees are supported with poles. Ergo, there was probably nothing here half a decade ago. Here's some blank space for you to wrap your head around that:















And with that, I conclude my first-ever blog post, leaving you with only the URL to a photo album of Dongtan on my Facebook account (or the option to just click on the photo of the traditional Korean building at the top of the page, which is hyperlinked to said photo album).



http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2036352&id=1306823245&l=a6684fd38d