The First 5 Days

We've finally arrived in Daegu.  The first week is blurry.  I'll try to recount it as best as I can.

Monday:  Arrival!  I meet my Head Co-Teacher and we drive to my school so I can meet the principal.  We sit in his office for about 45 minutes.  He has a lot to say but whenever Grace (my head co-teacher) translates for me she only asks one single question.  I feel like I'm definitely missing something, but I'm told that the meeting is a success.  Now it's time to go to my apartment.  The streets are narrow and full of bikes, scooters, and kids.  We get lost a few times, but eventually we find the alley that leads me to my home.  The room is just that, a room.  It's very small and very old.  Enter Jin, another co-teacher.  She speaks English very well and after a long discussion with Grace (in Korean) she informs me that I will be moving into a new apartment on Wednesday.  I'm exhausted and hungry and I want to change my clothes so I just smile and nod politely.  Before I have a chance to catch my breath we're out the door and on the road.  Grace and Jin take me shopping for home supplies.  They take care of everything for me, I just push the cart and thank them.  It's getting late and we're all in need of food.  They take me to a Korean restaurant where they watch me use chopsticks with my left hand like I'm inventing fire right in front of their eyes.  Jin tells me that all Koreans are taught to eat and write with their right hands.  I'm now even more of a minority, (my friend Josh is also a southpaw and his co-teacher told him that only 5% of Koreans are lefties).  After dinner, they take me home and let me settle in.  I change my clothes and hit the street.  It's close to 11 but the neighborhood is lively and full of wonderful smells.  There is food being prepared and eaten everywhere.  I wander through Paldal Market for a bit and then I head home and surrender to sleep.

Tuesday:  Jin meets me at my apartment and walks me to school in the morning.  It takes about 3 minutes to walk to school.  Inji Elementary School is located right in the middle of Bisan 5, one of the poorest districts in the city.  Jin informs me that I will not be teaching this morning because of the typhoon that hit late in the night.  I guess I must have slept through it.  The day is quick and uneventful.  I spend most of it alone in my classroom.  By the middle of the afternoon word must have circulated that there was an American in the building.  I begin to notice little heads popping into the room and then disappearing when I turn to their direction.  By the time I leave I'm being surrounded by Korean children.  Every one of them wants a high five.  The other teachers laugh and escort me to the exit and the kids follow me home like I'm one of the Beatles.

Wednesday:  On Wednesday I teach five 5th grade classes.  I introduce myself to the kids and then take their questions.  Here are some of the best questions that I can remember:

1. How tall are you?

2. What's your blood type?

3. Do you speak Korean?

4. Why isn't your girlfriend Korean?

5. Have you had cosmetic surgery?

6. Do you like frogs?

My answers:

1. 175 cm and the crowd goes wild.

2. O+ Apparently this is a good blood type to have.  B is bad.  Go figure.

3. I speak very little Korean and the crowd goes wild.

4. Rather than getting into Caroline's family history I just shrug my shoulders and look confused.

5. No, this is just the way that I look.

6. Sure.  Frogs are fine.

Thursday:  I move into my new apartment.  My old place was a dump compared to this but I was willing to tough it out for as long as I needed to.  The new apartment is literally brand new.  I'm the first occupant and the whole place still smells like wet cement.  I can finally do my laundry. 

Friday:  Downtown Daegu here I come.  I meet up with Caroline and we head to the city center to meet our friends.  The five of us end up wandering around for most of the night trying to find a quiet place to drink a beer or three.  There are people and noise and lights and scooters and cars everywhere.  Somehow we end up sitting in an expat bar for an hour or so.  We also discover a BBQ place at the end of an alley that is cheap even by Korean standards.  All in all it's a successful Friday night.

Wildlife is scarce here in Daegu.  I rarely see anything other than (what I assume to be) feral cats.  No rabbits.  No squirrels.  No rats.  A bird from time to time.  However, on Friday night I was lucky enough to catch a Wild Square-Toed Josh.  These animals are not native to this part of the world, so I quickly captured some footage of this strange creature as it attempted to make some food.