First couple days of class, and one big adventure

My first day of school was pretty basic, I mainly shadowed the other teachers to get a feel of how the classes were taught, and a little bit of how the curriculum was structured.  The school is run by McGraw-Hill. Although the text and additional reading material for the students is great, the structure that our school uses is pretty confusing, and not what is recommended.  However, the school is new, and I'm sure it'll take a while to work out all the kinks and allow everything to run smoothly.  I taught my first class and it was pretty easy.  Pretty sure I'm a pro already.  No education and no experience equals a sweet teacher.  My boss apparently tells the other teachers that she thinks I'm pretty cool, so that's a good first impression. Before I leave work though, I get them to write down my address to give to the cab drivers so I can find my way home.

Before I came to Korea, I was in contact with Brian Mann, who was leaving to go back to Canada a few days after I arrive.  After a little email tag, we arrange to meet at Suwon Station.  I haven't seen much of the city yet, so I have no idea how big it is, and figure that meeting at this place won't be overly difficult.  I decide that since it's only day two in the country, that attempting to figure out the bus schedule may be too much for me at this point, so I take a cab.  Before I leave, I get an alarm clock because I have no way of waking up in the morning without one.  I assume we'll be drinking and attempting to get up without one could be a problem.  I get it at HomePlus, a huge store that has a supermarket, appliances, and clothing.  Its huge, 5 floors.  Following a ten minute cab ride, I arrive at Suwon Station, the only subway station in my city.  I didn't expect the subway station to also be a huge shopping mall, that's 5 floors and packed with people.  Before I left, Brian told me to meet him at the top of the stairs by the escalators, or something along those lines, and if I had trouble to call his girlfriends phone number.  Seems pretty straightforward right?  Well, first off, I get to the front entrance of the place, and there are two big staircases and some escalators, right place? Nope.  Brian is no where in sight. I go into the mall, and of course, there are lots of escalators, so I move around the mall hoping to find a tall, scrawny white man.  No luck. 

I move onto plan B, call Brian's girlfriend.  You figure that in a huge mall, you would see numerous pay phones.  You don't.  Everyone here owns a cell phone.  The only reason I'm calling Soyoung (Brian's girlfriend) is because he lost his phone.  After wandering around the mall, I find a pay phone and call her.  Instead of a ringing noise, the play music while you wait for the other person to pick up the phone, so I figure that I called the wrong number.  She picks up, I'm shocked because I thought I definitely called the wrong number. Shes not with Brian, but tells me that he's out in front of the mall, where I already was.  I go back outside, and to my amazement, there he is.  We talk for a bit, then go down to the subway to find Soyoung. 

We decide to go and have supper, and eat sumgyupsal (pork that you fry on a grill built in the table) and drink a bunch of soju and wine. I forget my alarm clock there, but luckily I remember and we go pack to the restaurant and pick it up.  Shocking that no one would steal an alarm clock.  After supper, we hit up a pub, do some more drinking.  Following that, we go to a noraebang (a karaoke house).  You get your own pimped up room with tv and karaoke machine, and give er.  There are tons of these in Korea, and surprisingly they're all busy. At this point, I've obviously had a bit to drink because I'm not much of a singer.  We sing and drink some more and then we leave. 

Soyoung tells me that the address I have written down isn't a street address, but the area I live in.  They say to pick a place the cab driver knows near your place and get him to drop you off there.  I choose Homeplus.  He drops me off there, and since I had only been there once, and was sober when I did, I get pretty lost, and wander the streets of my area for about 4 hours.  Everything looks the same, so I keep thinking my apartment is on a specific street, I walk down it, check it out, and find out that its not my street.  At last, around 7am, I make it home, extremely relieved and still holding my alarm clock.  I grab a quick shower, and decide to lay down for a bit before school starts at 9.  I attempt to set my alarm clock and then dose off.  I wake up to a ringing at my door.  Its my coworker, and its 1030.  I bought a fucking alarm, put in a lot of effort to keep it with me all night, and couldn't set it properly. We go to school, and surprisingly my boss is happy that I came back and didn't run away as opposed to being mad that I was late.  I think its because she thought I was pretty cool.  The day seems like it lasts forever.  I'm not hungover, but incredibly tired and my legs feel like a ran a marathon.  Thankfully, it's Friday, and Kristin comes on Saturday.  I don't think I'll have any more of these adventures once she arrives.