The crosswalk takes two minutes to turn green, but I’m still afraid of getting pummeled by the taxi drivers, who ignore the road signs like sicknesses. It took three flights of stairs to arrive, but everything is in a circle and the walls are painted with the story of the tree and the boy, where the boy spent every season climbing the tree, picking the leaves from the tree, when finally the tree’s time had come, but they made sure not to paint that on the walls. At first I walked around, rooms are labeled by letter and go from A to H. I’ll be in the G class, my domain, my table with eight chairs, a chalkboard, a CD player for listening to English tapes, and a fan. My room has air conditioning, the others don’t seem to. I didn’t, however, start teaching that day, I merely watched the “professionals” or rather, those that have been there for years. Some teachers seem to understand their students completely and expect things from them, but other teachers appear to give up once their questions go unanswered for fifteen seconds. I suppose as one gets older, one gets shyer, and the older kids were much quieter than the children. Maybe they were skittish in my presence, as soon as I entered the room, the teacher will go, “New Teacher, G class” and the kids would go “ooohhhh” as if the mystery revealed was the biggest revelation of the day. They must not call the teachers by their first names, it is merely, “Teacher, how do you say….”, “Teacher, finish!” “Teacher, can I get water?”

Some of the children were particularly interested in me, posing questions such as how old I was and if I was in school. I am the youngest foreign teacher in Jeonju, so I’ve heard. We must not wear jeans unless it is Friday. It is okay if my tattoos show as long as they are not inappropriate. Men must not wear sandals and women must not wear tube tops. There is something about a woman’s shoulders that is too possessing to witness and something about a man’s feet too raunchy to smell. There is free instant coffee, though it is particularly watery. There is a bathroom that is particularly dark, small, and frighteningly unhygienic. The kids use it though, we must expect these things from them.

After work, my boss took me shopping for supplies such as cutlery for my apartment. This is all included. I got a strainer, a pot, a spoon, a fork, and a set of kitchen scissors. He also showed me where all the food was, the imported food, and the best yogurt, but I didn’t have much money on me, so I didn’t get much. Today, I will incorporate myself into the classroom. I will be helping to teach MY students, so a scarier day has never come.