Does anybody know what time it is?? Much less what day it is??

I woke up this morning a few minutes before my workweek alarm of 5:30am. This does sometimes happen, even if I'm not a morning person. I just get up and take a pill which has to be taken an hour before eating.. so, if I happen to wake up at 3:53, 4:43, or another time that is fairly close to the 5:30 alarm time.. I get up without turning on any lights, go to the water dispenser and take my pill and go back to bed. Unless it is fairly close to my usual wake up time- in that case.. I check my email, check my blog to see if anyone has left a comment that I need to reply to/etc.

About 6 am, I stop and take my shower, get dressed, and put my lunch, and anything else that I have stashed on the bench in the foray in my teacher's big bag.. so, I can take everything down the elevator, to the car, and to school.

Everything was fine as usual.. and I stopped using the computer at 5:45 and went back into the bedroom to find clothing for school and then got ready to take a shower. I remembered that I had to leave school as soon as possible so that I could make it to a doctor's office, near my apartment, for a 'blood test' appointment and I needed to wear something where I could easily push up my sleeve above my elbow for the blood test. I couldn't remember the time of my appointment, other than it was after school.. but, when I got to school and had more time, I would check the time on my little pocket calendar.

I started wondering if it was still SUNDAY or was it MONDAY? Was it a workday? Or did I have another day off? And, trust me.. if you are a school teacher.. you must be there before school starts and clearly before the children walk in the door.. it's not easy to just 'be running late' when you are a school teacher.

The more that I thought about it and tried to determine if it was SUNDAY AM or MONDAY AM- I couldn't remember what day it was. I thought about it in my early morning head that wasn't the most alert. Sure, I was tired.. but, I had stayed up late watching a movie and knitting. I had gone out to eat with friends on the weekend, I had gone to the market shopping, I had gone across the street to the Korean grocery store.. to buy some local goodies to include in a birthday package that I wanted to send out on Monday.

It had seemed like it was a short weekend, but on the other hand.. all weekends seem too short. I couldn't remember what day of the week it was, there was nothing to help me remember.. I had no calendar where you tore off the pages each day to reveal a new date.. and if I did.. was I the type of person to do that? My ex-boyfriend used to 'cross off the days' that had passed with a big X on the ending day's little square. *Quick note to myself.. maybe I should start becoming 'a TYPE A personality' like him- because, I'm sure he has never forgotten what day it was in his entire life.


I had not watched tv for the past few nights- so, I couldn't even figure out what day it was by what 'tv shows' were on.


I haven't been attending church lately, so I couldn't use that as a marker for what day it was. I looked outside and only a few lights were on in the two apartment buildings in my apartment complex had lights on.. but, then again.. that is true on a Wednesday as well as a Sunday or a Monday. The local Koreans don't go to work as early as the Americans who live here- so, that wasn't a clue to help me out.


Looking at the clock, I noticed it was now 5:55 am and I try to leave the apartment around 6:30- 6:40am. Then, I remembered that my Korean neighbors across the hallway.. get the newspaper delivered. I knew that the newspaper would be in Korean, but I was hoping that I'd be able to determine the date on the newspaper and hoped that numerals would be used instead of just Korean words for the date. No such luck the newspaper wasn't delivered yet.

*Note to self: buy a watch with the date on it.. my Mickey Mouse is a nice watch.. but, it does nothing to tell you the date.

Then, I had a great idea.. to go to one of the news websites that I check daily. I usually save them for work because- I arrive long before the students start arriving. We have so many 'filters' at work.. and the news websites are allowed at work, so I save checking out the news and events there. I went to cnn.com.. and the date was not listed! Can you believe that? I thought that surely the date would be right up there at the top of the screen like the date on a newspaper is.

It is now almost 6:00 am and the more that I think about it- the more I am afraid that it is actually a Monday morning and not a Sunday morning as I first thought it was.

Darn it.. I can't call anyone because if it is SUNDAY and not MONDAY.. it's too early to call someone at 6 am. We don't have a local time and temperature number to call- well, I'm not saying that there isn't one.. but, it would be in Korean and wouldn't help me if I knew the number.


I finally decided to just go ahead and get dressed and leave the apartment as soon as possible- Even though, I leave for work each morning anywhere from 6:30-6:40am, I won't be late for work if I wait until 7am. The only problem with waiting later to depart for school, is that I'll catch the trains that arrive at the crossing that I have to travel through. There is no specific time, and they arrive anytime from 6:50- 7:15 and as a result the traffic gets congested from all of the delays in crossing. Which causes a problem if you have to cross 6 lanes of traffic in a half of a block.



So, the plan was get dressed for work, take lunch, take the teacher bag, grab all the stuff that I had wanted to mail to my friend for his birthday (wrap it all up after school was over), and get there on time for 'work' in case it is Monday and not Sunday. I was sure that once I got to school- the parking lot would let me know what day of the week it was. If it turned out to be Sunday, I'd just drive back home.


Then, I remembered about the time website that I had told someone about just last week. The location is: worldtime.com You can find out what time it is anywhere in the world. I use it often to know what time it is in the different time zones in the states. AND.. there we go.. the date was on the screen along with the time:



Here are the results:

Korea-South



Time information for selected cities and towns
City/Town Local time Sunrise Sunset
Kwangju 05:58, Sun, 2 Mar 2008 07:01 18:28
Pusan 05:58, Sun, 2 Mar 2008 06:52 18:20
Seoul 05:58, Sun, 2 Mar 2008 07:02 18:27
Taegu 05:58, Sun, 2 Mar 2008 06:54 18:21
Taejon 05:58, Sun, 2 Mar 2008 07:00 18:26


Whew.. now, I know that it is a SUNDAY morning and not a MONDAY morning.. but, now I'm too wide awake and can't go back to sleep.


However:
When the stores open.. I think that I'll go on base and buy a watch with more features than my Mickey Mouse watch has- one with a day of the week, date, time, and get an alarm clock with a date feature on it. In the meantime, I'll think about getting a pen and start marking big X's on my calendar.


Have a good weekend.. at least I'm pretty sure that it is still the weekend.