Same as the Others

4 September 2012

So it’s been a while since I wrote anything new in here.  A lot has happened in the last few days.  We moved into our new apartment in Asan-si, started working at our school, navigated a Korean barbeque restaurant all by ourselves, and slept on the floor on a Korean sleeping mat while waiting for a more western-style bed.  But first things first…

Our co-teacher came to get us from orientation last Thursday.  When the time came for the actual closing ceremony, we were already pretty tired, having sat through two, hour-long lectures and two twenty minute skits from the middle school teachers with no break.  To be fair, the skits were pretty funny, but we were ready to be on our way.  When the ceremony began, my initial thought was, “Oh, this’ll be fast.”  Alas, dear reader, I was sorely mistaken. 

Koreans love ceremonies, and they give a lot of thought, effort, pomp, and circumstance to those particular events.  We all stood in a line on the auditorium stage (in groups of course as 150 native English teachers are way too many people to stand on stage at one time) while the director of education for the province gave each of us certificates in turn.  As the first person received his certificate, the supervisor for the teaching program read his name, the entire certificate as well as the names of each supervisor, director, and otherwise, indicated on the certificate.  As she moved on to the next teacher, taking a deep breath to begin again, the Hubby and I turned to each other, slightly ashen faced.  An unspoken question passed between us.  “Is she going to go through that entire monologue for every. single. person?  All 150 of us?”  I braced myself for the worst, but when I turned back, the supervisor was finishing the introduction of the next teacher.  “Wow,” I thought, “that went much more quickly than the first one.”  Then I listened to the next intro, and figured out why.  After every person’s name, the supervisor was now adding the phrase, “same as the others.”  After every person.  It went something like this.  “John Smith. Same as the others….Susie MacIntosh. Same as the others….Edward Scissorhands. Same as the others…” and so on and so forth.  For 150 people.  At one point, I was giggling so hard under my breath that I was calling attention to myself.  Granted, I had gotten a little slap happy from the fatigue that had accompanied the plethora of seminars from the last few days.

After that part of the ceremony was over, we then sat through two slide shows of pictures throughout the week, one set to Bruno Mars’ song, “Just the Way You Are” and the other to an interesting mix of pop songs and Por ti Volare.  Then after that, two of the Native Teachers, one of whom was the Hubby, had been asked to give a sort of farewell speech.  He did a great job.  Short and sweet.  To experience his overwhelming wit yourself, click here.

Finally, we met with our co-teacher, who drove us to our hotel in our new town - in the middle of rain from the second typhoon barreling down on Korea within a week.  That’s right, ladies and gents, two typhoons in one week.  Luckily, it was just rainy and windy, and the damage was far less than anyone in our province expected.  The hotel itself was very nice, but we were just a little disappointed at not being able to unpack and settle into our new place.  

The lights and A/C turned on via the same remote as the TV.  Still livin' the dream - out of a suitcase :)

That night, our co-teacher took us to dinner, and the reality of Korea began to settle in a bit more - no English on the menu.  Insert <Gasp!> here. If you have ever looked a menu written entirely in Hangeul (Korean), you will know what I am talking about. I'll try to find one to post for you at a later date, so you can share in the oncoming culture shock in which I am sure we are about to be immersed.

Stay tuned for our next episode.