First Day of Work Disaster

It begin with me moving from the beautiful hotel to the female dorms. I am surrounded by people I don't know, again. Also, my key card does not work to let me in the dorms. That's right, I live here and can't get in. Upon my arrival, I promptly forgot how to get into my room. All of these things though are really minor compared to my first day......

I have no idea where I am compared to the rest of campus. Beyond that, I don't even know what my office building is called. It may not have a name. Also, I don't know what my dorm is called. And I didn't know my room number. All of these things are important to getting into an area that is locked to you. Also, I did not know my mentor's name. But, I had a cell phone, given to me on Wednesday. No charger. Up until Thursday night this worked.

Friday morning my phone died. This in and of itself is not terrible, but add to it my need to take a bus to work when there are at least 10 different buses. And the bus routes are in Korean. Not terrible if you're going by numbers. I was looking for a specific one. I was supposed to be at work by 8a. That bus route doesn't begin at the stop I was at until 8am. A little bit of a problem, but not so bad for a first day. I thought if I got into work by 8:15a I'd be okay. Especially since I was new and everything is in Korean and I was doing it alone. By 8:06a the bus had still not shown up. Also, I was supposed to get a call from my mentor at 7:30a, so this was getting a little worrisome. I was off the grid for all I knew.

I returned to the dorms, through security, to ask for my mentor's contact info so I could try getting in touch with her through other means. By 9a I thought I should attempt the bus again. With a mentor or not. Back through security. Arriving back at the Bus stop, a only had to wait a minute before my bus arrived. Seeing the right bus number, I got on. Immediately I knew I'd made the wrong choice. Ten minutes later we arrived at a neighboring campus. Everyone got off the bus. I still hoped the bus would continue going until it got back to my campus. Not so. The bus driver got up. And gestering widely at me, made an x cross his chest. This is the one gesture that translates very well. "End of the line". I got off the bus. B this time I was nearing hysterics. Not only was a horribly late, disconnected.... I was lost with no way to return. At least none in English. Knowing I had to stay close to this area otherwise I'd really be lost, I looked across the street. There was another bus with my bus number. Yay! I thought as I went up to the bus driver, dripping tears. Maybe this was the right bus?


But it will have to wait, bc I have to go