It turns out I won’t be getting internet
access or a cell phone until next week which means it’s impossible for me to contact
anyone or be contacted. So that’s rough.
I took my first shower this
morning. It was also rough.
There isn’t really a shower, as I mentioned before. Korean bathrooms most commonly feature just a
showerhead attached somewhere to the wall, and the bathroom floors gradually
slope in toward the center of the room, where there is a drain. The entire bathroom gets soaking wet when you
take a shower, so your clothes and towel have to be left outside. The added bonus in my shower is that no one
has showed me how to turn on the water heater, so it was awkward and freezing.
Last night after I finished unpacking I was in
my pajamas in bed, reading, when the phone thing announcing someone at my door
went off. It was Allison and Jeremy, a few of my fellow teachers,
who don’t live in this building. Apparently they’re the only ones
that don’t live in this building. When I got to my room there was a
note from Holly, who used to live here, letting me know she’d moved across the
hall, and that also across the hall (next door to her) was Anna. Holly
also left me cookies and some toiletries, which was really nice of her. Anyway,
I talked to Allison and Jeremy for a little bit, and they invited me to come
out with all the teachers for karaoke and a few drinks, but I’d been up for 24
straight hours and was about to crash, so I declined. Then the other
teachers came back from wherever they were and I met all of them
too. I like everyone so far. They told me that there are four
other brand new teachers starting this month. I think I’m going to
get along with everyone really well. I asked them if anyone would
help me go over the lesson plan/ curriculum because I have no idea what I’m
doing and they were pretty shocked that I was getting thrown in head first with
no support. So Jeremy, who had the same thing happen when he first
started there, offered to ask Julia if he and I could combine our classes just
for Monday, so that I could observe and get eased into the process a bit
more. He only has six kids in his class, and I don’t think there are
many more than that in mine. So everything seems like it’s going
fairly well. They said they would still come over today to help me,
and just hang out and get to know each other.
I need to go grocery shopping today, and
apparently the market is just around the corner, but if they come by when I’m
not home they have no way of contacting me so they said they’d just see me
Monday. However, I’m not entirely sure I want to chance missing
them, so I think I’ll stay home until they come by. They said it would
be in the afternoon, so I might leave in a minute and just grab some essentials
like fruit, veggies, and whatever else I can find that I might be able to eat/
cook. They also said they all meet at this French bakery down the
street to take a cab to work together, and since I have no idea where my work
is, I think that is a good idea. Also, French bakery denotes bread,
which I like.
Alright, I’m going to go down the street and
try to buy some food. Wish me luck.
Update: Apparently I wasn’t wished enough luck
because nothing was open at nine in the morning on a Sunday. When I came back, I couldn’t figure out the
security lock on my door and had thus locked myself out of my apartment. I ended up having to wake up Holly and her
husband so they could help me get in. Oops.
The doors are pretty interesting though, because I have no key. There is simply a sliding panel on the door
with a keypad underneath. There’s a four
number code to be typed in, and when finished you slide the panel shut again
and the door unlocks. I’m sure it’ll be
really convenient later, mostly because once you understand how to work it (I
wasn’t sliding the panel down immediately after typing in the code) it’s pretty
impossible to lock yourself out. Since I
used to forget my keys and get locked out in college all the time, this should
be good for me.
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