Children's Day...the Aftermath

Okay, so "Children's Day" took it out of us. Wanda died. I really felt as though we'd been thrown to the wolves--they KNEW it would be huge but didn't hire additional staff, expecting us to just deal with it. All of the frustrations with their lack of planning, organization, efficiency or logic had been slowly driving me crazy, and that day made me angry. They gave out "mission" sheets to all the kids without telling us, so we couldn't tell them where the specially created sites were to get each task checked off. We had no idea what was going on in terms of special events and were useless in that arena, too.

When I got out to the main street I was trapped for 90 minutes straight taking photos, and probably averaged 2 a minute. In order to take any kind of break, I had to RUN to my room and pretend not to hear people calling at me, then repeat the process. NO language beyond "Hello" and "Say 'cheese.'" All they wanted was photos, and EVERYONE wanted one...and this happened to anyone "performing" on the street. I was exhausted and pissed off.

The trolley wasn't running, which was a good thing because children will die under it one day, but apparently it was out of commission because EV didn't pay the project manager (they were unhappy with it, despite having chosen the cheapest of the cheap options), so he removed some important something or other that makes the thing go. It still isn't running now, almost two weeks later. The guys they hired to drive the thing still come to work and just hang out.

Families swarmed everywhere all day, including our housing buildings and courtyards, which are marked "Private." Visitors had already been ignoring them, but EV didn't see fit to do anything about it--and they still haven't. Balconies have been climbed, windows peeked into, bikes found on the opposite side of campus. Fortunately, my building is one of the least affected.

Anyway...thank goodness that Don and Double D came up that night to help me throw the Cinco de Mayo party (and we really did the throwing...the "host" brought some tequila and sangria and left really early after too much of both. People were pretty psyched for the Coronas and limes the guys had brought, as they're pricey and hard to come by here. It was definitely a rockin' fiesta! Things got broken, therefore I know it's so.

We woke up to morning-after frathouse stench, but while I was at work the boys cleaned the place from top to bottom. Now THOSE are friends! Happily, it was a rainy day so the park was pretty empty...since we were all running on empty after the fiasco of Children's Day. I got to show the guys some of the classrooms/museums and we had good fun noting all the construction gaffes that are going to be major problems in the near future. They don't tamp the ground before laying bricks, so we already have sinkholes everywhere. Nor are any of the 'level' areas at all canted, so stair landings, etc. are flooded after any rainfall. Some people had some leaking or flooding after a recent rainstorm (I was spared), which doesn't bode well for the rainy season to come... It should be entertaining.

Saturday night I joined them at a local establisment off campus, several pitchers in, after my last class. We had spaghetti and listened to a guy sing and play guitar along with a background recording: "live" music. We headed back to EV for one of Anne's "underground" parties, which was sparsely attended after a week of a series of parties and difficult workdays. We left there, I went home, and Don and Double D went back to the restaurant for more singing and drinking until the wee hours.

Sunday was gorgeous and we had lots of people around, so the guys got to witness the weekend scene. We had pizza at our EV Italian restaurant, they saw the Russian marching band/country dancers, and then they took off for Osan. I made it through the day and went for a run before an EV BBQ...yet another party--oy! I hung out for a good while but still got to bed at a reasonable hour, for once.

Monday (day off) I slept in and puttered before heading out for a long bike ride. 45 minutes in, I hit a wet patch of pavement, which turned out not to be water, but whatever sticky black stuff gets spread out before laying on new pavement. No cones, flags, or people to steer anyone around. So, I stopped and got a roll of TP from a restaurant (as Don says, they're WAY behind on their napkin technology in Korea) and spent an hour doing my best to clean the goo from the tires--otherwise EVERYTHING sticks to them, gets stuck in the tire and eventually, if not immediately, causes a flat...and/or gets spit up into the components and all over the frame and me. Somehow, I got home without flatting, but had to spend another hour and a half at home cleaning the tires and picking the junk off the frame and parts. Bummer.

Tuesday (day off) I was all psyched to go on a long run, but my neighbor, Elana, was in her 3rd day of GI (not military guy) hell and really needed medical attention, so we spent the day going to the local clinic and then the hospital (both places were fine, and the doctors spoke all the English we needed. It seems that anyone who goes to the hospital here gets an i.v. She definitely needed one, but it was pretty odd to see so many people admitted and stuck. Hmmm.).

I made it back in time for a "town hall" meeting with our Dir. of Education, and it was basically him asking for us to be patient. It only pissed us off more, though, because we've heard it too many times before and our reserves of patience are gone, and they're doing nothing to refuel the tank. Grrr.

Wednesday night Anne and I went to Heyri to meet with the owners of the new black box theatre, who are interested in having us work with them. Anne came to me because we need to handle the opportunity carefully; not all the performers here are of the caliber or sophistication to participate, and the numbers we will be able to use will be small. The women were lovely, and we think we'll be able to present a one-hour performance in English there sometime this summer, plus participate in a new piece to be written by one of the women, in the style of a traditional Korean theatre form. If it happens, it will be my saving grace here, as I'm starving creatively right now. Even the teaching is unsatisfying, because the place is run so poorly that we aren't getting the support we need to teach well. Sigh. My fingers are crossed that working with Heyri will buoy me up through the whole ordeal.

At the end of the meeting, they even opened their gallery (below one woman's home) for a private viewing of the current exhibition by British artist Alison Lapper. Very cool, and very nice of them. Anne and I hit the pub afterwards to start discussing the possibilities for the one-hour project over a beer. I've since spent a lot of time researching, picking brains, ordering plays and asking mom to mail some from my library at home.

Thursday was a better day--some classes were empty and I was able to use the time to research...and play hide and seek in one of the museums--and I also took time for myself that night. Friday was mellow, too, and after work I hit the gym continued a sweaty venting session with a friend over Chinese food at an EV restaurant. We're both considering the possibility of leaving before the year is out and contemplating how long it might take them to get their act together.

Saturday was crazy busy, complete with the usual over-booked classes of inappropriately hugely age-ranged kidlets; things we've been asking to have changed from day one. I also had to do 4 teacher evaluations, as I'd been reprimanded for not handing them in yet. Of course, I've only been scheduled to do them at times when I was already scheduled to teach, or the evaluee didn't actually have a class, or had a class but without students. Geez, I'm so irresponsible.

So, it was a nonstop day of annoyances (like seeing FOUR teachers in a simple, one-classroom class, when we're BEGGING for a third in the multi-room museums with tons of activities and huge classes...or like a co-teacher dividing a class by age so that she had 10 kids and I had 22--I'd run there from an eval and she'd already done it; I didn't realize the disparity until it was too late), and at the end I ran to the gym, got pizza with another girl when the gym closed, then hid in my room...to PACK.

Sunday I went for a run, got through my four classes, then BOLTED to go to Don's (it took 4 hours to go about 60 miles...and of course on the bus was a student and grandmother from my last class, who chatted me up, and then on the subway my LEAST favorite EVer, with the teacher who'd mis-divided the class the day before spotted me and plunked down next to me. I made nice, then put in the earbuds...thank GOD for the ipod! The woman to my left mistook me for her pillow for most of the 1-hour ride...on the second subway I stood for the first half hour, moved away from an old Korean dude who'd clearly had more soju than he could handle--not an uncommon sight--then got a seat next to a cellyeller...which apparently does exist here) to pick up my paper ticket to VIETNAM!

Yep, I'm going to see pal-since-junior-high Ben and his wife Sandra in Hanoi for a week! The planning happened pretty last-minute (totally out of character for me), but with Don and Ben's help, I'm off! Yippee! I'm leaving in a few minutes, and I'm hoping for an upgrade, 'cuz it's my birthday :>) I had a fun run this morning, along tree-lined streets (which I've been missing, as EV is in farmland, and the trees are all on the mountainsides), bicycle paths (cushy for running) and on trails. Got good and lost on the way home, as I was being adventurously roundabout, but with the help of a couple of taxi drivers, found my way to a familiar landmark.

A MUCH-needed escape from EV...perhaps all the problems will be solved between now and when I return. Hah! Thank goodness for the fabulous people there and the fascinating culture surrounding us.