My experience this school year is different from last year in many ways but none more impactful than the departure of my friend, the old math teacher, who sat beside me for one year at my main school but switched to another school this year. He took me out for lunch numerous times, invited me to attend the 4H Club at school, which he was leading, and helped me integrate into the school in ways that were only possible by having someone take me under their wing.
We had intended to meet occasionally this year but rising COVID-19 cases and our busy schedules have hampered those plans. We texted back and forth every so often, but I hadn't seen him in person since last March.
Somewhat randomly, I sent him a text message with a photo of the new cafe built next to the school. Strangely, but true to his character, his response was one of concern: "Derek. How is your condition? Is there a problem?" Once I assured him that I was fine, he said he wanted to meet and proposed a time on Monday evening after work.
His school is about 20 minutes away from my boys' school, so we arranged that I would travel to his school via subway and have dinner after work. Anytime I have to go somewhere new, I get a little nervous, but the directions on Google Maps seemed to be straight-forwarded enough. I was confident I could make it there, eventually.
Monday at school, I had several classes and didn't check my phone. When I finally got back to my desk, a teacher with whom I hadn't shared my plans seemed to know all about my dinner plans that night. She asked about my teacher-friend, if he was native or Korean, what subjects he taught, and why I was meeting with him. A little weird, I thought, but she said that another teacher at the school knew my teacher-friend and told her the details. Okay, I'm sure there was some miscommunication going on, but if my friend knew a teacher at the boys' school, there's nothing too odd about that.
The next thing I know, my friend texts me with a change of plan. He would now pick me up at the boys' school so I didn't have to take the subway to his location. No problem. School ended at 4:30pm and I assume that I'd find him in the parking lot.
Instead, 4:20pm roles around. I'm having a last-minute discussion with a teacher before I leave. And what do I see? My teacher-friend standing in the middle of the staff room. I greet him and ask him to wait a few minutes. Leaving early isn't something that I can pull off at a heavily regulated workplace. Yet, when I sat back down at my desk, the teacher said I could leave five minutes early because "she's the boss." It's important to note that she is not actually the boss. I've never been allowed or encouraged to leave early from this school before. The whole situation smelt fishy. I didn't know what was going on.
Leaving the school in my friend's car, I learned that he had called my school and requested that I be allowed to leave one hour early to meet with him. He didn't mention that this was for dinner and I think he implied it was work-related or that I was going to help him in some way. Also, he made this request without asking me and without informing me.
It also seemed that my boys' school, probably the vice-principal or principal, considered this request without ever informing me about it at all. They denied this request for reasons that, according to my friend, had to do with "Corona". Meeting an hour earlier would have been more convenient for my friend, but he lamented that "private" schools are too rigid with their rules.
Once he picked me up at school, we moved on to other things, but the evening continued on its weird path.
My friend wanted to go to a restaurant near his school, so we drove in that direction. The restaurant wouldn't open until 5pm, so we'd have some time to kill. He took me to his school to hang out for a while. It didn't make much sense, by the time we worked our way through traffic it was almost 5pm anyway. But I went to his school and sat in the nearly empty staff room and chatted for a while. There was another teacher there who had transferred from my school last year, and she was happy but very surprised to see me at her new school. Anyway, we sat around at school then departed for the restaurant at 5:30pm. He plucked a few cherry tomatoes from the school garden for me on the way out.
It was a short five-minute drive to the restaurant from the school. We parked and stepped out of the car only to see a sign in the window: "Closed 3 days for summer vacation."
My friend apologized profusely for not verifying that the restaurant would be open. We again got into his car and this time drove towards my home. We went to a restaurant next to my main school that we had visited together many times before. He had Korean noodles and I had a pork and cheese cutlet. We shared an order of steamed pork dumplings, and he paid for everything.
It was a nice evening, but what should have been a simple dinner with my friend ended up having a lot of behind the scenes weirdness that I still don't totally comprehend. I was happy to see my friend, in any event.
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