Chapter 6 Part 1

After unloading our bags into the room, we headed over to the school for orientation--I had to start on the coming Monday...it was Friday.  Next came to learn...EVERYTHING.  Where was Emart (a Wal-mart equivalent)? Transportation system?  Communicating?  How to get back home?  Etc...?

E-mart...or as they say it E-martuh

Luckily, the owner of the school met us that afternoon to bring us to Emart.  It was quite funny because he doesn't speak much English.  He kept throwing everything in the basket.  It turns out he was paying for it as a "Welcome to Korea" present.  Can't complain with that.  We greatly appreciated it.

We got back home and crashed.  We were so tired.  I can't really remember what we did that weekend but I think we walked around the area.  Let's skip to Monday morning...off I went to school.  I was able to meet everyone and then just sat at my desk without a clue of what to do.  It got closer to class time and I was still lost.  I couldn't observe the previous teacher because they were no longer there so I was on my own.  I was told to pick up where they left off (and still had to figure out that part too). What fun....notice the sarcasm.

Chapter 5 Part 4

After giving the ultimatum of paying for our trip home, she called the school director to explain the situation then handed the phone to me.  On the phone, I had to re-answer the same questions as mentioned above and give her the same final answer too.  Finally they allowed us to bring our stuff in the room while the lady and I trekked up to the school to have, what I was sure was, the conversation a third time.  And I was right.  We sat down in the office and it began.  The director informed me to wait a while so she could figure out what to do.  I'd say this was definitely a rough start and agitating to an already sleep deprived psychotic like me.  However, they were apologetic which helped stay calm even though I didn't and will never understand their reasoning for things, especially the dog.  I guess this would be a good time to mention that if they like dogs, it's only the small ones and that most people are afraid of dogs (yes even the small dogs---it's pretty hilarious).  Why--"because it's their custom."  hahahahaha.  Sorry I shouldn't laugh.  I know we probably have some crazy customs too but this one??? Anyway, back to waiting.

After what seemed like forever, I was called back into the office.  "We've got good news and bad news. Good news: We found you an apartment and it's much bigger.  Bad news:  It's with another branch of the school in a different city."  Great, we'll take it!  Off we went once again, back to the apartment to load up and head over to our new city, Suwon.  We pulled up, unloaded, and were told 1. there wasn't an elevator and 2. we were on the 4th floor.  I felt so sorry for Shane having to lug our extremely heavy bags up those stairs and kinda dreaded the notion that we would have to take them everyday...kinda a deterrent at times.  But we made it upstairs, walked into the room and was pleasantly surprised with it.  It was much larger than the first place and had a big screen tv mounted to the wall...that in itself would make everything better (along with the awesomeness that the school was a couple minute walk away). 

Chapter 5 Part 3

We made it to our destination and waited for one of the school employees to come meet us at the apartment to let us in.  We knew the space was gonna be small but it was SMALLLLLLLL.  Luckily we didn't stay there but that's a story for later.  The lady arrived and so did the owner of the building who then freaked out over Honey.  They said they weren't expecting her and she couldn't stay there.  However, we told them and told them and told them (and told them that we told them previously)...."our dog is coming with us.  She is a medium sized to large dog."  This is the response we got, "we were expecting a medium sized dog."---who then go on to hold up their hands to show what 'medium-sized' is---it is the equivalent to the size of a poodle.  Really?  Really?  That's your medium-sized.  

After repeatedly telling us we couldn't stay there, they ask what we were going to do.  We told them they needed to find another apartment for us which was met with a NO they wouldn't do that.  Next question they asked, "How are you going to fix this?"  How are WE going to fix it...WE’RE not going to fix it.  YOU are.  It's YOUR mistake not ours.  We did our part and told you everything beforehand and we were given the ok.  Question #3:  "Can you get rid of the dog or send her back to one of your friends?"  I think if we were in America, the simple look of 'are you stupid' would have gotten the point through but we weren't so we had to go through the process of explaining to them that NOOOO we aren't getting rid of her and YESSSSS she's staying with us no matter what.  Question#4:  just question number 3 repeated a few more times.  Our final answer:  Buy us a plane ticket back to America and yes you're paying for everything and yes we're leaving now.