Peaks and Valleys

Boy Howdy, this place is a ride.

So, you may recall in my last post I mentioned I was the only foreigner left at my hakwon. Turns out that wasn't entirely true. There is also an upper middle-aged (maybe 50? It's rude to ask where I come from) Canadian whose BFF is the owner of my little slice of Purgatory, hence his immunity to the various strains of bullshit that go on. That guy knows how to play the game, although I suppose being in the same age bracket helps lube the social intercourse. Be that as it may, his time here is up in October and then there will be a new wrinkle in time to deal with.

This is of course assuming I still have a job come All Hallows Eve. Call me paranoid (and most do) but my presence has been requested in a one on one meeting with The Big Boss on the first day of the month, 30 days notice from the start of a new term. Add to that the fact that if they wait any longer I don't have to pay them back for my plane ticket, the hiring of two brand spanking new Waegooks, the steady diminution of average student population and my students' observation that no American Male at my school has ever made it longer than 4 months and we have ourselves a bit of a thriller in the writing. This whole situation is also oddly similar to the events leading up to the Mass Foreigner Termination of August 2010.


Now, I will be the first to admit that my theories rarely pan out the way I expect, but in true conspiracist fashion I choose to attribute that to the assumption that even I in all of my vaunted suspicion fail to account for every one of Them and the true power and influence that They possess. I also sometimes miss out on what Their real objectives may be because as we all know there is always a plot twist in the end.


I will leave you with that for now as it's hot and humid and I have to go push a motorcycle up the street. Stupid needy friends.


See You on the Dark Side

Shocker...

Turns out the Super Secret Clandestine Meetings With the Big Boss were just to fire every foreign teacher at my hakwon but me.

No biggie.



See You on The Dark Side

Please Sir, Can I Have Some More?

It's been a wierd week for me so far, and it's only Tuesday.

Fantastic.

I feel like the last kid left at the orphanage after all of the prospective parents take their darling Foundlings to hearth and home. It seems like most of the Blogger community has taken a semi-permanent summer hiatus and gone and left the country, or is preparing to leave as we speak. Now some of you have gone on vacations, for which there is no resentment. If I could get out of here right now, I would be doing the same. Unfortunately, I chose to trade the daily frustration of teaching children for a job which not only requires me to work relatively late AND oppressively early, but also offers little to no vacation at all. So, while all of you lucky buggers are off enjoying your various and sundry multicultural experiences I remain teaching (yes, actually teaching, not sitting around or using half of my day for planning) my 8 hours per day and quietly plotting the demise of key members of my particular teaching community.

Not that I'm complaining (I am) or wishing I were elsewhere (I do), but even with all of my planning, research and vaunted ambitions to become El Teachero Supremo this job has turned out to be much tougher than I expected. Well, not the job itself, that part is actually easy after my fourth cup of coffee in the morning. No, the hard part is something I was hoping to avoid: Office Drama. Usually I am quite capable of avoiding the business of others or simply ignoring people until they go away. However, some events have transpired and information has come my way which makes me wary. First, they tried to rip me off on my last paycheck. I nipped that shit in the bud. Second, the foreigners were blatantly accused of being racist by a korean woman who recently offered the Canadian/Chinese waegook a job as her "Chinese Housekeeper to Cook Clean and Raise My Baby". Third, all of the foreigners are now being called in individually for Super Secret Clandestine Meetings With the Big Boss, who speaks no English and refuses to detail what these Super Secret Clandestine Meetings With the Big Boss are all about. Couple that with having to work until 10pm and then get up at 5:30 am to go back to work and my patience begins to wear thin.

I am not pretty in the morning.

I might be in a bad mood due to the heat.

I might be a little disillusioned due to the recent ugly-head-rearing of the Double Standard

But the money is good for someone in my position, especially the overtime.

I have goals Damn It.

So I'm sticking it out, unless of course they start screwing around with my money again. Thanks for the kick in the ass Mom.


See You on The Dark Side