Culture Shock

So I had a case of MAJOR culture shock for the first time on Monday. I went to one of the nursery schools that I hadn't been to yet...it was strange that no one was there to greet me and introduce me at the door, which is what usually happens. That should have been my first clue. I walked in and tried to speak to some teachers, but they didn't seem to know who I was. Then this random teacher character and I went to an office and looked at a calendar and 'discussed' that Thursday would be a better day for me, but then he kept saying something about "how much"...but I didn't know what he meant...how much time? how many students? how much Japanese did I know?I was really confused because an Assistant Language Teacher had always worked at this nursery school and the date had already been set with the principal of the nursery school not two weeks ago. All I knew is that we weren't going anywhere and I could feel that something really wrong. Up until this point, I had never been unable to communicate what I wanted or needed before, but somehow, we couldn't get through to each other no matter how many Japanese charades we played or pictures we drew. At that moment, I experienced a bout with the deadly virus called culture shock.
My stomach dropped, my lungs tightened, my heart beat faster, I could hear the ocean in my ears and I felt like I was absolutely, completely alone in the world. I could feel myself panicking, so I did what any normal person would do, told him hold on and started dialing people in my cell phone.I got ahold of my co-worker and had her listen to what he was saying. I thought he meant "how much time" but he meant "how much do you cost".It turns out that I had the wrong nursery school with the SAME NAME! WTF! Who names schools the same name maybe 10 minutes apart ARGH!?!
I was still reeling from the after-effects of shock in my car...I kept thinking...OMG I couldn't communicate with someone. I couldn't believe it. I felt like someone transported my screaming mind into a comatose patient. Utterly helpless and unconnected. It is an awful, awful feeling. I wonder if that's how babies feel...maybe that explains all the crying since really that's all you can do. Or explode.
I ended up making it to the right school, just in time for the lesson, and I had an hour to wind down and scream an English song on the radio. That helped immensely as did making my Japanese students dance the Monster Mash in my Halloween lesson plan.