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.

Chapter 5 Part 2

Excited to see the new place, so many questions ran through my head.  Would we like it?  Is it clean?  Are there lots of people?  What's the food like?  The list continued (and for those of you who know me, you know that list went on forever) but it didn't really matter I guess since we were gonna be there for at least 1 year.  We'd make it work no matter what.

We arrived on March 18 at around 6am (march 17-- 4pm Louisiana time) and to our surprise, the airport was dead.  Hardly anybody there...nice to not have to fight through crowds of people.  The process was such a breeze from getting through immigration to getting Honey checked in and through customs.  We were over and done in such a short time and didn't have to pay any fees to customs for Honey.  Awesome!  

The taxi driver was waiting for us with Shane's name on a sign rather than mine...weird since it was me being the teacher.  It was cold outside and in the taxi...he didn't have on the heat but luckily my coat kept me quite warm.  Off we went, heading to Dongtan, Korea.  Fighting to keep my eyes open proved to be difficult.  I was so tired due to lack of sleep for a couple days.  In the moments of being able to focus (mostly when Shane called my name to look at something), we knew we were gonna like this place.  It was clean.  That was probably the major factor that determined it all.  So many buildings...so much stuff. 

Chapter 5 Part 1

The semester was coming to a close and we couldn’t wait to get out of there.  Quite frankly, I was tortured at the thought of possibly having to stay in Thailand another semester but would have did what we had to do.  

The question then became, “Where do we go now?”  We definitely didn’t want to stay but didn’t know where else we could go…then came the opportunity we were looking for.

Korea!! We only had a couple week notice from the time the whole mention of it came up to the time we had to be there.  So once again, we were left scrambling to get things packed and on a plane to a new life.  Luckily, we didn't have much stuff so it was easy (if you don't count the stressing over every detail that I did, then yes easy).

Many thanks to the friends who drove us to the airport.  It was most helpful and appreciated.  We arrived at the airport mid afternoon (1pm or so) because we had to get the paperwork for Honey updated.  And another long wait began as our flight wasn't until around 11 that night.  I did crossword puzzles for a while but most of the time was spent twiddling our thumbs, staring into space, what to do, what to do, what to do.  Nothing...nothing what so ever.  

Bangkok Airport

Check-in time arrived and it was a hassle because of Honey and our oversized baggage.  We ended up paying a butt load of money for fees...fees which don't really even make sense but whatever.  We waited in the security screening line, got through, headed for the gate and eagerly hoped on the plane.  It was a (I believe) 5 hour nonstop flight. 

Goodbye Thailand