We've only just begun

Well, after 5 months of waiting and attempting to enjoy a "vacation" which consisted of returning back to the US after two years and moving to a new unfamiliar city I'm finally back at work.  I have to say that besides the general sense of being overwhelmed from all the new information it feels good to be back at it.
First impression from this initial two weeks has been about a 7 on a scale of 1-10.  The school founder is a pretty inspirational guy who is one of those people who, after you hear his life story, makes you realize that you haven't really done shit in yours.  But hey, a little humility is good sometimes. Plus he's been at this for almost 20 years, so it makes me feel like there is some security job wise as I gradually watch the workers my age lose everything they'd earned and been promised in the shit storm that is the US economy right now.  One of the annoying things that drops my initial impressions down from a 10 is peoples sense of time.  On the first day of orientation we were all told in no uncertain terms that being "on time" meant being late and being early meant being on time.  OK, fair enough.  I get the concept and live by it anyway.  Then the next day, when everything is supposed to start at 8:45, it starts at 9:10.  I mean, come on dude. The next day? I understand the concept that the people at the top of the pyramid can decide to live by the rules they dictate for others or not.  However, when setting the tone for a group of brand new employees, some of which are just starting their first structured employment experience, I think it's important to set the tone at the top.  Especially as a teacher.  We're in the business of modeling and setting examples, That's 80% of the gig.
So after a few days of "professional development" which even though I enterred it with fairly low expectations ended up being certainly the best I had participated in to this stage we broke off into our respective schools.  I assumed there would be about 80 teachers where i work but it ends up being only about 25.  The interesting part of it is that out of those 25, 8 have something to do with with student behavior or specialization.  There's a social worker, a psychologist, a counselor, a behavior specialist, 3 special ed teachers  and me, the ESL guy. That is a whole hell of a lot of specialization for a small group.  from what I understand there were more classes last year like art, music and languages, but the kids went bonkers and started doing things like smearing feces on the walls and punching the crap out of each other so a decision was made to push resources into more student management areas. The PE teacher keeps fucking with me telling me it's "fucking crazy" on the 3rd floor where I am, but I can;t imagine it's any worse then 9C at Sarasas last year.   I mean they weren't wiping feces on the walls but their outright disdain for me and anything spoken in English was palpable. And they were huge.  The oldest kids this year are grade 4-5.  Maybe annoying but they're at least small and in general, understand basic English.
I intially thought that being in a distinct minority group (there are overall 3 males and 2 white people on staff) might feel funny, but it's really been a non issue.  It's makes me feel good that even if people have their prejudices they are coming at things with an open mind.  The fucking yahoo idiots currently screaming about a community center possibly being built by a moderate muslim cleric in NYC near "ground zero" would be smart to take notice of how to deal with people you don't share total common ground with.
All signs point to me being left to my own devises this year.  That puts me in the good position that I can set things up the way I want to without really being bothered by anybody.  It looks like I'm already charming my way into the hearts of a few of the higher ups, so that's always a good thing.  I have high hopes at this stage, but next week will certainly give a me a little bit more of a true taste of whats to come.