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
Friday, August 27, 2010
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
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
No biggie.
See You on The Dark Side
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
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
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
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Vanity...
Today I ponder one of life' s age old mysteries:
Who the hell puts a mirror in an office full of female Korean twenty-somethings?
See you on the Dark Side
Who the hell puts a mirror in an office full of female Korean twenty-somethings?
See you on the Dark Side
Saturday, July 17, 2010
Damn it.
You know when you're perusing your favorite social networking site and you run into the picture of that girl who liked you in high school and you kinda had your choice but you went for her friend instead?
Shit.
On a positive note:
Favorite quote of the day:
"If the child is mutant, you must abort"
That is all.
See you on the Dark Side
Shit.
On a positive note:
Favorite quote of the day:
"If the child is mutant, you must abort"
That is all.
See you on the Dark Side
Monday, June 28, 2010
Not Sleeping
I always have trouble sleeping on Sunday nights. I suppose it's a combination of the late nights and the later mornings. With my schedule I'm pretty exhausted by the end of the week which results in being lazy in the a.m. on Saturday and Sunday, if I see the a.m. at all. So, instead of sleeping I am sitting at my computer writing a blog, listening to Hooverphonic and drinking coffee. This has led me to one irrefutable conclusion:
I need a day job.
I could totally get used to this whole waking up and having time to ease into my day with some decent tunes and coffee gig. As it is I wake up around 5:45 which gives me just enough time to get ready and get to work a little early and get off at 10 p.m. just in time to go home and go straight to sleep. Granted, I have 9 hours in between class blocks to do a bunch of crap, but split shifts suck any way you slice it.
Now there are a couple of ways I could go about achieving this lofty and lucrative goal.
1. Stick it out until February and then beg off of my contract a little early, giving notice so I can get my release letter. This would allow me to POSSIBLY get a university job, which is kinda the Holy Grail here. Daytime hours, comparable pay and 14 weeks of vacation, plus still teaching "adults".
2. Stick it out until the end of the contract in March, take a little vacation and then come back and apply for an after school program (which requires at last a year of experience). Better pay than University and still only teaching 6 hours per day but only 2 weeks vacation.
3. Give notice as soon as I have round trip airfare fly back Stateside and start the whole E-2 process again, thereby restarting my 9 month newbie penalty over again but armed with the knowledge of how the system works and a better grip on what kind of job to look for.
I feel it's fairly obvious which one is the best option.
Don't get me wrong, I'm really comfortable here in Suwon. I fee like I'm getting somewhere by being here even though I have no idea where that somewhere is. I very much enjoy the life here with only a few exceptions, but those exceptions are in no way Korea-specific.
I guess loneliness has set in a bit and my family is going through some bullshit right now. At the risk of sounding like a whiner, making friends here is hard. The language barrier has been getting in the way of really getting to know Koreans and expats are both scarce and stand-offish, which is understandable since it seems like you're always saying goodbye to someone. Add to that an inability to have a social life any time other than Saturday and Sunday and pretty constant exhaustion due to my work schedule and you have a recipe for hermitude, which I am already inclined toward and need no help with.
I don't know, maybe it's the heat. Maybe I'm just getting worn out. Maybe I'm just a Grouchy Bitch. Probably that last one.
See You on the Dark Side
I need a day job.
I could totally get used to this whole waking up and having time to ease into my day with some decent tunes and coffee gig. As it is I wake up around 5:45 which gives me just enough time to get ready and get to work a little early and get off at 10 p.m. just in time to go home and go straight to sleep. Granted, I have 9 hours in between class blocks to do a bunch of crap, but split shifts suck any way you slice it.
Now there are a couple of ways I could go about achieving this lofty and lucrative goal.
1. Stick it out until February and then beg off of my contract a little early, giving notice so I can get my release letter. This would allow me to POSSIBLY get a university job, which is kinda the Holy Grail here. Daytime hours, comparable pay and 14 weeks of vacation, plus still teaching "adults".
2. Stick it out until the end of the contract in March, take a little vacation and then come back and apply for an after school program (which requires at last a year of experience). Better pay than University and still only teaching 6 hours per day but only 2 weeks vacation.
3. Give notice as soon as I have round trip airfare fly back Stateside and start the whole E-2 process again, thereby restarting my 9 month newbie penalty over again but armed with the knowledge of how the system works and a better grip on what kind of job to look for.
I feel it's fairly obvious which one is the best option.
Don't get me wrong, I'm really comfortable here in Suwon. I fee like I'm getting somewhere by being here even though I have no idea where that somewhere is. I very much enjoy the life here with only a few exceptions, but those exceptions are in no way Korea-specific.
I guess loneliness has set in a bit and my family is going through some bullshit right now. At the risk of sounding like a whiner, making friends here is hard. The language barrier has been getting in the way of really getting to know Koreans and expats are both scarce and stand-offish, which is understandable since it seems like you're always saying goodbye to someone. Add to that an inability to have a social life any time other than Saturday and Sunday and pretty constant exhaustion due to my work schedule and you have a recipe for hermitude, which I am already inclined toward and need no help with.
I don't know, maybe it's the heat. Maybe I'm just getting worn out. Maybe I'm just a Grouchy Bitch. Probably that last one.
See You on the Dark Side
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
O Frabjous Day...
"Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!"
He took his vorpal sword in hand:
Long time the manxome foe he sought --
So rested he by the Tumtum tree,
And stood awhile in thought.
And, as in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it came!
One, two! One, two! And through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.
"And, has thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!'
He chortled in his joy.
-Lewis Carroll
If you've been wondering what I've been doing these last few days, here's an update:
Skipping with glee.
That's right, I am the happiest bottle of whiskey on the shelf right now. Not so long ago I recieved a hastily penned note from the administration of my school stating that in order to prepare for my intensive summer classes I needed to prepare 7 weeks of lesson plans in the space of about 12 days. For those of you who don't know, my hakwon usually only has class from 6:30 am until about noon and then from 6pm until 10pm of which I work about 7 hours leaving me the afternoons to get errands done, catch up on precious precious sleep and generally have no fun whatsoever. However, during the summer and winter "breaks" they open up the school in the afternoons for university students to come and study away what little vacation time they have. And who is to teach these courses? Why the people who are already working split shifts of course. So you can imagine my ire at the prospect of spending my free time prepping work for a wide range of skill levels (there is no prep time built into our paid working time mind you) and then spending the two hottest of months teaching 10 hours per day on no sleep.
And now you're wondering about the happy.
I have been spared my children. The whimsical gods of fate and fortune have seen fit to once again reward my faith by stripping me of any additional duties this summer. now I may have to work a few extra hours in the morning and evening to cover for the teachers who are not as favored as I and are being forced into teaching intensives, but no afternoons for me, Huzzah! There was dancing involved, but so enraptured was I that I forgot to turn on my webcam and record the festivities. Now it remains unspecified, but since I will not be teaching those classes I see no reason to actually prepare for them.
Who says procrastination doesn't pay off.
See You on the Dark Side
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!"
He took his vorpal sword in hand:
Long time the manxome foe he sought --
So rested he by the Tumtum tree,
And stood awhile in thought.
And, as in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it came!
One, two! One, two! And through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.
"And, has thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!'
He chortled in his joy.
-Lewis Carroll
If you've been wondering what I've been doing these last few days, here's an update:
Skipping with glee.
That's right, I am the happiest bottle of whiskey on the shelf right now. Not so long ago I recieved a hastily penned note from the administration of my school stating that in order to prepare for my intensive summer classes I needed to prepare 7 weeks of lesson plans in the space of about 12 days. For those of you who don't know, my hakwon usually only has class from 6:30 am until about noon and then from 6pm until 10pm of which I work about 7 hours leaving me the afternoons to get errands done, catch up on precious precious sleep and generally have no fun whatsoever. However, during the summer and winter "breaks" they open up the school in the afternoons for university students to come and study away what little vacation time they have. And who is to teach these courses? Why the people who are already working split shifts of course. So you can imagine my ire at the prospect of spending my free time prepping work for a wide range of skill levels (there is no prep time built into our paid working time mind you) and then spending the two hottest of months teaching 10 hours per day on no sleep.
And now you're wondering about the happy.
I have been spared my children. The whimsical gods of fate and fortune have seen fit to once again reward my faith by stripping me of any additional duties this summer. now I may have to work a few extra hours in the morning and evening to cover for the teachers who are not as favored as I and are being forced into teaching intensives, but no afternoons for me, Huzzah! There was dancing involved, but so enraptured was I that I forgot to turn on my webcam and record the festivities. Now it remains unspecified, but since I will not be teaching those classes I see no reason to actually prepare for them.
Who says procrastination doesn't pay off.
See You on the Dark Side
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