CFA Proctoring - Sunday June 8, 2008

Ok, 5:45AM, we get up. I have had about 8 and 1/2 hours of sleep in the past two nights combined...

Amy and Lindsey break off because their buildings are near the Anam station, while Britney's and my buildings are near the Korean Uni station. I was at the Business building. Jeremy and Rosie were also at that building. Rosie was a hall monitor and Jeremy was a proctor.

SO the sweet part about my job today is that I'm the announcer...meaning I don't have to proctor. I read the announcements at the beginning of the test and then hung out with Rosie and her hallway patrol partner. We nicknamed him Jin, which is his last name. He is in his last semester at Seoul University and was accepted to MIT for next year. Needless to say, this kid is quite brilliant. He was fun to talk to. We all went to get breakfast together and when we weren't doing our independent jobs, we stood around talking. Our supervisor was adorable and so nice! Occasionally she would see us standing around talking and have us head up to the different floors to look around...I became an unofficial hall monitor until I had to return to my little room to give a 30 min and a 15 min warning for the ending of the test. We finished the first half of the test around noon, but we had to wait until the second portion of the test started at 2:00PM before we could go eat lunch. My job was the same in the second half as in the first half except I also helped Rosie check IDs and forms as the test takers were coming back in from lunch. They took their sweet time coming in, t00. You know how it is when you're doing that last minute cramming for a test...you don't want anyone bothering you, especially proctors who aren't even taking the ridiculously hard test and who only want you to get in and sit down so the test isn't delayed.

One of our Fulbright friends was taking the level 2 test and while I still have no idea what the different levels really equate to, I do know that each test is painfully expensive. $900.

We finished the second half of the test at 5:00PM, and our supervisor let Rosie, Jeremy, and I go almost immediately. Rosie and Jeremy had to catch buses home and I was going to be at least 40 minutes late to a meeting that started right as the test was finishing.

I had to get to Haebangchon which is next to Itaewon and find Nicole's apartment. She so graciously offered to let us have our Sharing House meeting at her place. She's on board for the educational packet project and I believe one other thing, but she's not really up for guiding tours which is totally fine. We are happy to have her helping with the packets, especially with her art and women studies background. We figured that we are going to break up the packet currently by subjects which I found semi-complicated on my part. I can help fairly extensively with an elementary education portion of the educational packet, but here I was being asked to choose a specific subject to combine the "Comfort Women" into. So, I chose the idea of art as a healing therapy for traumatic events...some how incorporating that into a school curriculum. After getting there about an hour late, I stayed for about an hour before the meeting ended. I was tempted to go to Curry Town with Angela and Annie, but I was exhausted and it was definitely time for me to go home.

When I got to the bus station, I was informed that there wouldn't be another bus for over an hour. I suppose I'm used to this concept, however, today I was particularly cranky at the thought of waiting for a bus for an hour after 10 hours of "proctoring" and a meeting. I apparently very obviously was annoyed at this situation because a very nice Korean man called me back over to go back to the window. Apparently someone had turned in a ticket for a bus 15 minutes earlier, but it was 2,000 Won more, so I just stuck with my ticket. I thanked the man, but I think he felt a little embarrassed for calling me back. I really did appreciate it, I was just in a crappy mood.

So, I got home around 10:45PM or so. I went to bed after catching up with some email and whatnot.

Long but good weekend!^^