Orientation Summation

Quarantined until further notice. 

Yep, that's what we were. Confined to lecture halls in the chemistry building, a dirt soccer field and three meals a day in the cafeteria. 

  

It was not unheard of to stand outside the dorms, 

(a gathering place between the boys' side and the girls' side)

slouching down with our purses and sandals. Not dressed up too much. Gathering up the nerve to walk outside into the city to quickly buy Soju at the market, scurrying it away in our bags to drink in our dorm room like the college freshmen we all were over four years ago. 

Apparently, foreigners, the other white meat, are notorious carriers of the swine flu.

Meanwhile, our SMOE guardians lorded over us in green basketball jerseys that sported fake American names like Claudia or Chuck, keeping information locked up in the COORDINATOR'S OFFICE at the end of the hall in the boys' dorm. 

(Funny story. Claudia, the notoriously uppity and self-righteous SMOE coordinator, told Adam Kostecki that his last name sounded like sonofabitch in Korean.)

We ate our Kimchee, but it was all we could do no to stab each other with chopsticks as we grew gaunt from lack of information and last minute changes of plan. On the morning of our departure, there was a list posted of last minute changes in teacher placements. One girl cried. It was a mess.

We did manage a good drunk though. 

 

Lisbeth and andrew and I played cards with Adam (the sonofabitch), Richard (from Richmond), and Philip (Who looks like the Canadian version of Chris King). They drank a liter and a half of Hite and I tried to drink some kind of sweet Soju that tasted like cough syrup. 

And here I am now in Dongdaemun at the Hoegi subway station. An hour and a half away from Lisbeth in Gangseo, forty five minutes away from Andrew in the south, and an hour away from my family in Mok Dong.

I guess I better get to learning how to navigate the subway.

Nerves

The longer I am kooked up at this university in Suwon the more anticipatory and anxious I get. There are several reasons SMOE gives us for our imprisonment. THey include:

1. quarantine for Swine Flu

2. To make sure nothing happens to us until our health insurance kicks in

3. because we are getting paid and we have to do what they say

Swine Flu here inspires near manic-like fear in the masses. We have to take our temperature twice a day. Our trip into Seoul to observe classes in action got canceled because of the Swine Flu (Because we might have it? Because the schools are closed?) Word on the street is that some of our schools haven't opened back up for the school year because of Swine Flu. 

But its not like people are dying. Or even getting sick. But there sure are plenty of people wearing masks.

But we are busting out tonight! We have company and we might break the rules. :-) More on nervousness later...

JETLAGGED

I have arrived in Seoul somewhat triumphantly.

I woke up this morning at 6:30 ready to start the day. (I also woke up at three thirty and five thirty, feeling as if I should have been awake long ago, although I only went to bed at ten).

Early this morning I was glowing: taking a walk around campus, meeting new people, eating breakfast, playing soccer on a dreadful dirt field, showering, TLC with Andrew etc. I started to wane around lunchtime and flagged considerably during the three hours that our whole crew sat through lectures on KOrean history, English teaching in Seoul, and Living in Seoul. By the time they dismissed us for dinner (with an alotment of about 20 minutes to eat) I was ready to pass out. I felt headachy, bodyachy and soul-tired.

LIsbeth and I took a much-needed two hour nap. When that alarm went off, I had to claw my way to the surface of consciousness and shuck the covers with tons of regret. We're hitting up the dominoes across from the cafeteria.

(Side Note: After failing to find the button to allow us entry through a sliding glass door into the dominoes restaurant, we had an interesting conversation with the dominoes guy who told us they didn't have the 'original pepperoni' but that they still had pepperoni. Needless to say, we got cheese)

Now we're waiting for pizza, and I'm thinking about going to find Andrew Dillon who is most likely asleep in his room.

I have been assigned as an Elementary School teacher which is great. I wanted little kids whose respect I didn't have to go through the trouble of earning. After today we will be divided according to our classroom levels to attend lectures. Lisbeth is Middle School. Andrew is highschool. Oh well, at least we'll be forced to make new friends.

Already I've made friends with canadians, a giant south african man and some Tories.

More on the information they gave us during lectures to come. I"ll post some pictures too at some point, as soon as I get this ethernet cable back.

Oh yeah and one more thing. SMOE would never fly in the states. It is one of the most disorganized and communication challenged organizations I have ever encountered. Different students have different information at different times. (Today, Jon Pak, program director, told a group of us to follow him outside and then left us to stand there wondering what to do next until we gradually dispersed.)

The frustrating part is, they had all the information originally and hardly gave the students any. We are still being withheld from information. For example, Jon Pak won't let us have a Q&A session until Friday. LIsbeth and I have deduced that this is so we foreigners can't make demands (such as changing schools/location/etc.) until it is too late.

I hope Lisbeth and Andrew and I get the same district.

I'm going to wander down to dominoes to see if my 'original cheese' pizza is ready yet.

Too excited to sleep straight

Tomorrow I'm leaving!

And I have mixed up feelings. 

I'm half teeth-falling-out anticipation, worried that I have packed too many bags to be reasonable, but left my socks behind lying peacefully in a plastic cubby in my closet.

I'm half wild anticipation, stuffing my soccer cleats in my 70lb. bag in case there's a pick-up soccer game at orientation. (Soccer with some hot Aussies?)

So I'm torn. what else is new?

Pre-plane jitters

I leave for Korea in four days. 

And I have that sort of nervous feeling I imagine a dog has when he's found the perfect spot to go to the bathroom, but realizes other dogs are in the vicinity and he is, therefore, far too vulnerable to allow himself to let go, to release that which he was just moments before preparing to expel. 

It's a light feeling in my gut that leaves me not-so-securely rooted to the ground-floating. I don't know if that's because my body is helping me out, un-attaching itself from the sticky Tennessee clay, or if its the universe or God telling me that I'm making a huge mistake. 

Malia, Go back for the following reasons:

your Grandma is from Cocke co.

you went to college forty-five minutes down the road

you drink the same whiskey every football game

you sing Dolly Parton at Karaoke Night

Those pictures of Jesus in Renaissance paintings have him soft-featured, mouse-haired, and palepalepale. He'd wouldn't mind if I failed to hop on my plane at McGhee Tyson, failed to bounce through Hotlanta and out the other side to bow down to SMOE affiliates with an Anyonghaseo! But my Grandparents at Korean Church worship that white God. He beat out Buddha in Korea after America beat out China---at least partly. So it would appear that God/universe might care about my Korean soul search. 

God and the Universe aside, the bottom line is: when people meet me for the first time they ask, "Where are you from?"

And I say, "Here"

But that's not entirely true, is it? 

I know where I'm from. I know where my home is, I'm just not clear on how to live in it. No wait, I'm clear on how to live in it, (and I do, happily) but I'm not sure that it can't be better living. 

I better finish packing.