First Day of the Semester

Today was the first day of the new semester. I met Hwang as per usual at 7:30, by which time the weather was already abysmal--it's rainy and hot, and the rain is hot. Even though I used an umbrella, I was drenched by the time we arrived at school. I thought Georgia was hot and humid in August, but there's really no comparison.

I cooled my classroom as quickly as possible and tried to cool off and dry myself before first period. I had confirmed that today we would run the regular Monday schedule: I teach 1, 3, 6 and 7. By 9:00, my first period had failed to show, I had texted a couple of co-workers to find out what the deal was, and just concluded that they had homeroom meetings, what with the new semester beginning and all.

A reasonable assumption, but wrong. The class began to trickle in just before 2nd period--an hour late! Well, not exactly, as my schedule had changed, but no one let me know. Now, from listening to friends and bloggers, this is a pretty common occurence in the Korean system (last minute changes and no communication--I've got a doozy on that that I'll post up later) but my school is generally pretty good on this front. Which makes it all the more annoying when they don't come through for me.

But at least it gave me an extra hour to cool down and dry off before having to deal with students.