Our First Day!

Oh and what a day it was! After being dropped off at our apartments last night we were instructed to show up to work today at 12:00 noon. Now this almost seemed possible last night as we were told that the school was 'straight down' from where we are staying. Unfortunately, arriving at night after 40 or so hours of traveling makes it rather difficult to remember the final route you were driven the night before!

Anyways, we set out at 11:00am to find the DYB headquarters, located a mere 10 min. walk from our apartments. Headed 'straight down' we managed to conquer one small hill before running into a dead end, indicating to us that we were clearly headed in the wrong direction. From our starting point we figured we could either have gone straight, left, or right so having given up on the first option we set out for the second.

Coming to a bridge that neither of us remembered suggested that left might not be correct either; so we turned to the right. We walked another 15 minutes or so, the majority of which was spent making up ground we had already covered, in the opposite direction. Finally, at 12:15pm, a quarter of an hour after we were supposed to show up for our work orientation, we concluded that there was no way we could possibly find the school on foot; so we returned home!

Logging on to the magical world wide web we immediately made contact with my parents, for the first time, via Skype. Explaining our situation we figured out that they could contact Scot, our recruiter and Korea Oracle, and let him know our trouble. My mom put in a call to Scot (thanks Nellen!) who immediately logged onto Skype to reassure us that we'd be okay!

Within minutes he had contacted the school, informed them of our situation and let us know that a car was on the way! As promised, we were picked up five minutes later outside my door. As embarrassed as we were it was funny to see Mr. Lee's (the school's director) concern. It sounded as though he was worried that he had bought us a ticket over here only to have us bail out the next day!

At the DYB headquarters we went over our contract again and signed a final copy (my first employment agreement other than shaking hands with Randy in St. Thomas and promising him that I would try to learn how to wait tables)! It was explained to us that the school we are to be working at is a ways away but that they would cover cab fare to and fro for the first week, until we are relocated to our 'permanent' residences closer by.

Yumi, Mr. Lee's secretary, showed us to a taxi and sent us off in the right direction. At our branch of DYB, a middle school, we met with Joseph and his secretary, Sunny. The second Sunny that we were introduced to in fact as last night we bought a fried corn dog on the street from a Sunny who refused to let us pay as it was our first Korean meal!

We observed a few classes and were given schedules on which our name and classes are written in Korean! Watching a class actually relieved some of my initial anxiety as we learned we will be co-teaching with a Korean teacher and not simply thrown into a classroom alone come Monday!We met two English blokes, one of whom finished his contract today and the other who is only a month in. We were also introduced to a good majority of the 14 female Korean teachers we will be working with. While I remember a portion of their names, connecting them to faces come Monday will be quite entertaining!

I would tell more about the school except that I'm exhausted and really don't know all that much! The facilities look immaculate and the children seem extremely polite, albeit rather shy! Time to go find dinner. . .no idea how, where, or what but worst comes to worst there's a Subway down the street; I think we'll be able to avoid it though!

While our contract doesn't actually start until Monday, today's 8+ hour adventure clearly counts as Day 1; can't wait to see what Day 2, our first day off, holds!