Working on Saturday

I go from ups to downs. There are cultural barriers that frustrate me and in my distressed state are enough to make me want to go home. When a boss speaks to me in a way that I find condescending, to having my schedule switched two minutes before my day begins, to the overall relationship of the boss and coworker, I have had my fair share of culture shock. Its times like these we need to sit back and remember a motto that my former boss was always fond of using, "Seek first to understand before being understood". I came across this article last night when I was in the PC Bang looking up solutions to dealing with the Korean Workplace. I stumbled across this website posting of an article written by a gentleman named Kevin Smyth, that couldn't have been a better help to solving my recent mood swing. Like any normal human being, I desperately wanted to be understood and found it offensive that the Koreans weren't doing things the way that I was accustomed to. However, after I learned a bit about the Korean way of thinking in the workplace, I applied it to my situation and it made me think that things weren't so bad. I looked at the situation from their eyes and realized that they were simply doing what their culture has trained them to do. I will definitely talk about this technique I learned when asked in an interview to tell of a time I had a conflict in the workplace.

Anyways, after work, a bunch of the "part-timers" and I went out to eat chicken and beer. It was a good time for me to talk with coworkers and I really like these "part-timers". What have I been doing? Well, read below to find out!

This is a post from my other blog.

Well, this last week I had to work on Saturday, for an event called Market Day. During class, we give out points for participation and the students get to spend their points on prizes, food and games. The event was chaotic but it was nice to see some of my students. After the event, we cleaned up our respective stations and the 2nd in command (the boss wasn't there) tried to tell us that we had to stay and help put the rooms back together. One of my coworkers argued that the part-timers (non-teaching staff) were actually on the clock getting paid to do this. The second-in-command told us that they were busy doing other things. My coworkers countered that we were told that the event was supposed to get over at 1 and that it was already almost 2 and that they had things to do. She tried to deny that she said that, but one of the other coworkers offered to show her the email. In the end, we were free to go. Anyways, afterwards I took a much needed nap and then took the subway for a 2 hour ride to the other side of Seoul. I ended up in Gangdong Office Station to meet Susie. Susie is a fellow Korean Adoptee that went to KIM (Korean Institute of Minnesota) with Leslie and I, back in the day. We walked around and she showed me her place. We exchanged stories on our experiences and compared schools. Her place is pretty nice! And, its clean. Afterwards we went to dinner at this Chinese Restaraunt after giving up on our failed attempt to find Western Food. After dinner, we went to E-Mart, which is sort of like Homeplus. E-Mart is a giant shopping center not unlike our Target or Walmart with multiple (around 6) floors, selling foods, to cosmetics, to home furniture, to electronics, at a discount price. She walked back to her place and I walked back to a subway station. Unfortunately, I didn't realize that the subway closes early on Saturday. I called Eun Ju to ask if I could stay at her place, because I wouldn't be able to get back to Bucheon. So I had to get off at Samsung Station, which is where I was originally located during the week of training. I took a taxi and told him to take me to Shillim Station. He kept driving even though I said, "here is fine". So I got out and went to another taxi. I told this driver to go to the apartment complex that Eun Ju lives in. He had no idea where it was, and of course it didn't show up on his GPS. So Eun Ju gave him some directions and somehow I ended up there. I ended up at her place at about midnight. She and her mom and dog were there. Eun Ju had just gotten done scolding Kerri (the dog) for peeing on the bed that she had set up for herself in her parents room. I thought it was kind of funny, but didn't say anything. Eun Ju's dad came home and me and her and her parents chatted until about 2. Eun Ju's Dad told me to tell you guys that I didn't find my birthparents, but rather made a Korean family where he and his wife are the parents and Eun Ju and Hae-Ri my sisters. Eun Ju said that was strange but the dad thought it was funny. He thought that you guys would think it was funny too. In addition to having an American family and a Korean family, I have an American dog and a Korean dog, lol. When it was time to go to bed, Eun Ju was in her room getting ready and Kerri walked in to pee on her actual bed. I think she smacked him. Now that was funny. Needless to say, I decided to sleep on the floor, in the living room. I turned the fan on and fell asleep.

Eun Ju's grandma lives with her, and she gets up several times in the middle of the night. She checked up on me at least five times, I think. I'd wake up and she'd be looking over me and then she'd walk around and then go back to sleep. She gets up approximately 6 hours earlier than everyone else. Daylight came and as she was walking towards the living room I woke up and she told me to go back to sleep. Except it was hard, when she sat down right next to me on my mattress and turned on the tv, which was blasting for about 6 seconds when she would turn it off to go back in her room. She did that about 3 times every 30 minutes. I woke up and found that the fan was gone. I'm pretty sure that she took it away. Koreans believe that you will die if you leave the fan on while sleeping without any windows. They call it fan death. Anyways, when it was time for me to wake up so I could make my other appointment, Eun Ju's grandma insist that I eat. I don't think she cooks anymore, because she brought out the bread you get from the gas station and made me eat at least 4 slices. She tried to get me to eat the whole bag, but I insisted I was full, so she had a few pieces herself. As I was getting ready, I saw her open the doors to everyone's room to peek inside and then close them. I asked if they had any extra toothbrushes since I couldn't find mine. She looked and couldn't find any so she told me to use her's. Um....I thanked her, went into the bathroom and told myself that if I couldn't find a toothbrush, I'd use my finger. Luckily I did find an extra one that they keep for such occasions. I said goodbye to her and she told me to come visit again. As I walked out across the street to the bus station, I got a call from Eun Ju telling me to come back and have breakfast. I have no idea how they all got up at the same time so fast like that. When I told them about the grandma feeding me bread, they thought it was pretty funny. Eun Ju's mom cooked some cold noodle dish that's good for your health and we all ate. Then I headed for the bus so that I could take the subway to Theresa's place. I met Theresa and her husdband and son at the Shinsege Department Store. It's a mall, whose bottom floor contains such stores as Louis Vuitton, Prada, Gucci, Hermes, etc. all within the same vicinity. We had pizza at one of the restaraunts upstairs. The area where Shinsege is is so much cleaner and nicer than Bucheon. The bathrooms are actually clean and have toilet paper, soap and paper towels. I really miss such luxuries. After lunch, the four of us walked around a park and then went to the bookstore. After browsing around the bookstore, Veronica met up with us. Veronica and I went to Dunkin Donuts to wait for the people who I met 3 weeks ago at the coffee shop, who were the children of her friend. This friend's daughter had a sister in law whose brother in law (or whatever) works at my same company. They had invited me to simply hang out with them.

It was a really nice evening! There is the daughter (whose a 30 something woman) and her husdband and four year old son. There is also her brother (who speaks English) and his wife. The young son gave me a picture that said, "I love you" and "Brother Andrew Good Boy". That was cute and made my day, lol. We drove somewhere to eat at an Italian restaraunt. It was a really nice dinner. Afterwards, we went to the lady's apartment to have coffee and hang out. Seriously, this was probably like the nicest apartment in Korea that I've seen. It was super clean and the bathroom floor wasn't wet. The lady paints/decorates furniture for a living so her place was really unique and beautiful. After the evening I went to Veronica's sister to spend the night. I made it back to Bucheon by taking an express bus.