I didn't get much in the way of details from Michael, but when he came out of school he was smiling and responded "good" when I asked how the day was. There are 7 children in his class with just 1 girl. One other is from the States and 3 from England, and he couldn't remember the others. He liked IPC a lot - international primary curriculum, a class that is topical and is supposed to cover a wide range of subjects (history, math etc. all in one). The first topic is astronomy.
We left the apartment at 7:25 and got to school a few minutes before the 8:45 bell- which someone comes out and rings. The children can basically congregate in the courtyard until the bell. We had to wait about 10 minutes for bus - it might just come about every 12 minutes at that time of day. We were both sitting by 10 minutes into the ride. I read the paper for awhile. He wanted to me to go all the way to his classroom ... no doubt that will change soon.
I took the bus to campus so I would have an idea of time, etc. It was nearly empty (as people get to work and school by 9:00. It was an hour. I had one of Chris' sermons, but it turns out only the first 5 minutes! I went to the department office and met the chair and then they got a key to my office door (sharing with 3 others - no one else was there today). They were not expecting me, so I said I was just fine for the day. I need to be preparing for class. They did send over a keyboard that has English and Korean characters - but Microsoft Office screen is in Korean. One funny meeting was a professor who said, "I have seen you riding your bike at Ulsan Grand Park." There are hardly any non-Koreans there, and a repeat caucasian must be noticeable. A few faculty were very interested that Michael is here with me.
I had sent an e-mail to Professor Kim (Jeong first name), my accounting professor contact who has been so helpful ever since I found out I was coming. He just got back from the States and reached me on my cell phone to say he was coming to the office. I found out he lives within 5 minutes of us and regularly walks/hikes in the park - he offered to show me some of the trails. He showed me around a little more and also took me to lunch. He has English language version of Word in the works for me. He said I only have 8 students enrolled as many are nervous about taking a class from someone who cannot speak Korean - makes sense. But I need a few bodies!! At restaurant Ch/Jung Shik (I wrote it down) is like ordering the daily special. That will come in handy other places. I also met a marketing professor who is from Canada. He is starting his second semester. His wife is Korean and they had been living in Canada for awhile. They have an apartment in the same building as Michael and I are in. His office is across from mine, so I expect to talk to him some more (and I am wondering what kind of enrollments he gets).
I decided to take a cab to pick up Michael - less than 30 minutes. That's going to start to be a good time/money trade off. After school we got on a bus and had seats right away. We stopped at Lotte Mart and he ate a burger at Lotteria - Korean fast food place. I knew he must be very hungry after a long day and not big lunch. Lotteria has bulgogi burgers and other different fast food, but he likes the regular (to us) big burger a lot. Then we did some shopping (including for a few school supplies he wants/needs - pencils mainly) and got home about 5:45. Cool purchases today: individually-wrapped sushi for 400 won each (40 cents) and a gum container that hooks onto car A/C vent and then has a push button to dispense from the bottom - Michael said it acts like an air freshener. Stuff we didn't purchase: there seem to be a lot of boxed set items. I am wondering if it's for gifts for upcoming holiday, but maybe it's a regular thing. Our favorite: 9 spam for 29,000 won. Why is that stuff so popular around the world?!
So ... Wow!! We are tired. But we feel like there was answered prayer today - that's for sure. I have been praying about school, teachers, classmates for months. We both still have a lot to figure out at school and work, but I am very thankful for a good Monday.
No comments:
Post a Comment