send me some mad libs

I am standing again. The rug pulled from underneath me in the form of a 13 hour time difference has been put back in place. Mostly. My newly illiterate status will take slightly longer to adjust to and correct.

My general habit of immediately orienting myself in the current location has been shoved aside. Instead, I orient myself to a new occupation, a new life while having the luxury of someone to train me. I am a replacement; the woman whose life I'll be taking over leaves in four days. My life will be my own of course, however, I will assume her job, her home, her telephone, her bills, her clothes, many of her acquaintances...they'll be mine. So, let's just say I'm taking her place in Gimcheon, S. Korea. It feels strange.

DAY 1

4:44 am After being in transit for nearly 20 hours, I am off the plane at Incheon. I take a bus to Seoul where I catch a train to Gimcheon. I arrive in Gimcheon at nearly 11. Angela meets me, and we grab a coffee and glutinous rice donuts at Dunkin' before buying slippers, exchanging money, and taking a taxi home. After a shower, we go to Temple Food (where I will take anyone who visits me) for temple food with vegetarian bibimbap and a variety of amazing kimchi. We leave Temple Food and walk past a row of trees inhabited by enormous spiders on the way to a street where we will catch a taxi. I go to Prime Hagwon with Angela to A.) see where it is B.) maybe meet some co-workers and students and C.) perhaps sit in on a class. Angela opens the door to one classroom to say hello. The students all say hello save one boy, who is very into grimacing and gnashing of teeth at me, with accompanying audio.
I do all of these things. I am exhausted. I go home. I fall asleep at 5 p.m., Angela returns from yoga, I wake up, eat something, and fall asleep again until...

DAY 2

6 a.m. I wake. Mrs. Lee once wrote to me in an e-mail "as soon as early," which I dismissed as a mistake, but it does make sense, if one is in a hurry. 9 a.m. rolls around as Angela and I carry on morning activities. We go to "Bruce" the traditional medicine doctor at the community clinic. He is young and fulfilling military duty. I get acupuncture on my shoulder while Angela chats with Bruce and the nurses. She has a knack for getting through shyness. The day goes on, I go to the school at 4 p.m. to meet Mrs. Lee, chat with her for an hour, then sit in on Angela's classes. The first class screamed at the sight of me.

DAY 3

The kids are excited to see me as I walk up. My name has spread by now, some of them shorten it to "Candi", but not most. It's exciting to have a new person around, especially a new foreign teacher. Maybe glitter stickers will rain from her hands. Maybe she's a former gangster whose birds will follow her forever! Maybe she will hold students upside down by their ankles and teach them American parlour tricks while singing romantic ballad style. Oh, and little animal- shaped erasers will fly out of her mouth like a fountain. Or maybe it will be sour gummy candy.

At night we go to a resturaunt. Chusok rice wine is gifted, entertaining converastion is had, giant kimchi pots line the garden outside. Have I made mention of gardens?
They are everywhere. Pumpkins grow on roofs.

DAY 4

8:10 a.m. We are picked up by Mr. Shil and driven to a middle school in rural Gimcheon. English camp with 13-15 year olds will be my first teaching experience. 45 minutes-break-repeat x 4. It goes so well. We play a game similar to 20 questions, we draw on the chalkboard, we play bingo. Great. They all listen, and contrary to a comment made the previous night "middle schoolers? they're evil." These kids were such fun. so much fun. Also I ate some kind of sugared pre-packaged hamburger.

Evening brings Jon Stewart via the internet. Nighttime brings a trip to Gumi, introductions to new friends, shabu shabu, and the Waygook Grill (foreigner bar). It is Angela's going away party and three of us: Angela, Myoung He, and I leave together on a train for Gimcheon.

Day 5

I wake up, I walk, I read, I blog. I wonder how long it will take before I can remember how to tell a taxi driver where I need to go in Hangul (Korean language). Perhaps finding discounted electronics will not be as simple as I thought. I want someone to send me some mad libs.