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.