Jeju by Daybreak

When I woke up I knew it was early.  Surprisingly I felt refreshed.  I peered out of my curtains to find snow blowing sideways in the parking lot behind the building I now lived in.  It was swirling around in the air violently as the wind whipped it into tornado like gusts.  Not exactly what I had imagined to wake up to.  I checked the time.  It was 7:30am.  I decided to lay down  a bit longer not knowing exactly what the day would consist of.  I thought I was supposed to start teaching.  I imagined an orientation of some kind with the other teachers followed by sitting in on some other teachers class to observe. 


 I managed to fall back asleep until around 9am.  I lazily figured out the water heater, turned it on and took a shower.  It felt amazing.  This time when I opened the curtains the sun was out and the snow was gone but the palms told me that the wind was still prevalent.  I could feel the cold through the sliding glass doors.  

After I showered I put on some clothes and decided to walk to the end of the block and check out the corner market that I noticed during the cab ride the night before.  I put on pants and a jacket.  I pulled a beanie over my noggin.  As I walked up the street towards the corner store, the blue sky peppered with clouds revealed a glimpse of Mt. Halla off in the near distance.  It was beautiful.  


When I reached the storefront I opened the sliding glass door and stepped inside with no real clue what I was looking for.  I had cashed some travelers checks in Seattle and exchanged them for Korean Won and I was prepared to make my first purchase with my new currency.  The old Korean shopkeep said something to me, a greeting I imagine and I mumbled some apology for my ignorance that he most likely didn't understand.  Looking around at the cramped store I balked.  I wanted to be quick I suppose and none of the weird packaged items looked like anything I might try under the pressure, so I bought a few Korean beers and a bottle of Hallasan Soju, the local kind made here in Jeju and some instant noodles.  I fumbled with the money and maintained a look that no doubt appeared as dopey as I felt.  He held up four fingers and the transaction was made in a truly awkward fashion.  

I walked back to my apartment and went inside.  I checked the time.  It seemed it was getting on in the late morning and I was starting to wonder if I was going to get scooped up for work or not.  I figured if nobody showed then my day was free.  I waited around maybe a half hour or so when finally I heard a knock at the door.  It was my boss.  It was a good thing I cut my taste test short and brushed my teeth after sampling two of the domestic beers and chased it with the cereal that my boss had provided for me.  For some reason I was certain I wasn't going to teach my first day.  I later found out that I was wrong.


My boss took me to an incredible lunch.  We ate for an hour and towards the latter part of that hour he kept asking me "have you had enough?"... I didn't get the hint because there was so much food still left.  Eventually I understood.  He said he had to pick up his daughter.  We grabbed his child and he said to her "this is the new teacher".  She seemed less than impressed, said nothing and we were on our way to the hagwon.  


When we arrived, I saw my school for the first time.  It is on the second floor of an office building.  There were a few foreign teachers waiting for the meeting and the bosses.  The meeting went like this:  "This is the new teacher from America... he is going to teach this class and this... here is the schedule... o.k. break."


We all dispersed to our respective classrooms and whammo... I'm a teacher.  I was given my books and a room and no co-teacher to speak of and I was on my way in the world of foreign education.  


Thrown to the wolves, as little as they were, I tried my best to introduce myself and start my first class.  I got eaten alive.  Some of them were climbing off of the walls and no sense of order was even possible.  The rest of the day went as chaotic as the beginning.  I winged it for my first five classes teaching in this life.  Somehow, without enough time to take a damage assessment it was over.  WTF happened?  I was at a loss about any sort of structure or knowledge about the books and where we were supposed to be in them at all. My nerves were shot and I was aching for some sort of direction.