P. Ben May – Words of…Something

After flying back to Korea I was feeling pretty good about myself. I had met another teacher on the plane and was pretty confident in my ability to make it back to my apartment. (Note: My boss wanted me to call when I landed so that she could give me instructions on how to get back.) I walked by a whole line of buses until I found one that said Dongtan. I was feeling pretty good about that. I hopped on and off we went. After an hour or so the driver told me to get off. I did so and I looked around and thought to myself, “Crap, I have no idea where I am.”

I had the address for my school so I figured if I go there I could make it back to my place. I hopped in a cab and handed him the business card with the address. After about 5 min of him talking to me and me shrugging my shoulders and saying thank you, we where off. I figured we were pretty close to where I lived. But as time went on and the meter kept ticking, I realised I was way far away. Finally we got to where the GPS said my desitmation was and I paid the driver and hopped out. I didn’t reconize anything.

I decided to walk over to a gas station and call my boss. I got on the phone with her and after handing the phone back and forth to the gas attendant a couple times she was on her way to pick me up. And then I waited. I there for close to an hour and I figured I was still way off.

Finally my boss pulls up and I hop in the car. She explains to me how worried she was that I didn’t call and I explained that I thought I could make it without bothering her. Then I asked how far my apartment was from there. She points to a building two blocks away and says “There is your apartement.”

I stared at her blankly for a couple minutes and then started smacking my head. I was so close. I just didn’t know it because when you are new here everything looks the same.

So she dropped me off at my apartment and I got settled in. I even did some exploring after that, but I made sure to memorize the land marks before doing so.  It was quite the adventure.