Catching Mr. Kim

It was a pretty typical day for a Monday. Brandon hates me, but whatever. He and Kane were both being bad the entire class, so I kept them after class to clean the classroom--straighten the tables, push the chairs under the tables, erase the board, and pick up trash from the floor. It took all of 2 minutes. As he was finishing up, Brandon felt the need to say "fuck you" for the fourth and fifth times this evening. Even though not necessarily directed at me, it still annoyed me so I dragged him in to see Kara after class. Yes, dragged. I took hold of the back of his backpack and used it to propel him down the hall and to Kara. She saw us coming and I could see the "Oh no!" look on her face. (She can't do anything with Brandon, either.) I explained the problem and listened to her yell at him about not doing his writing like he's supposed to, bringing a pencil or eraser to class, asked if he was a baby, etc. My Korean is finally getting decent just as I'm about to leave. : ( Then she sent him into the lobby to hold his heavy backpack over his head. Since he missed the bus after his class, I suppose he had to stand there for a whole hour until the next class got out. Maybe someone will get through to him someday.

Joelle . . . I'm glad that name isn't too common, because for the rest of my life whenever I hear it I'll cringe. Today I asked her if Mr. Kim would be in today because I needed to talk with him about the ticket home since it's coming up soon. "When?" she asked in her blunt way. "Chuseok Day," I replied, equally as coarse and to-the-point as possible. "You can't get a ticket then," said in a certain voice. "Well, I already have a ticket, it just needs to be paid for," said in an equally certain voice. It's lucky that we don't have to work together for much longer because if I didn't see the end in sight, I just might break into a yelling match with her. Then she asked me if I knew when Sandra was coming back. "Yeah, sure, sometime during the Chuseok vacation." "But when, exactly? We have to make sure of when she'll be back before you leave." Do not even try to pull that. I've stayed a month past the end of my contract and I'm not staying any longer. Joelle was writing Sandra an email as we were talking. Fine, write an email, but Sandra may very well be on her honeymoon now or too busy preparing to come back to reply. The way foreigners (at least responsible ones like Sandra) work, is that if anything had changed from what was originally set up, ONLY THEN would she have contacted us to let us know about the change. There's no need for her to email saying, "Hi guys, I'll be back when we arranged for me to be back." Who cares when she's coming back to Korea! It just matters when she's coming back to work. I was worried that Joelle would say the ticket couldn't be paid for until after they made sure of when Sandra was coming back--again, don't try it!

A little later I asked Joelle when the tests will be for the advanced kids. Her reply: "at the end of September." Yeah, but WHEN? "Before or after Chuseok?" (So I know how quickly to move through the last little bit of the books and if I need to write the 100 +/- evaluations before the tests or not.) She looked at a calendar, "Next week, maybe." But WHEN? "Is that a yes or a no?" "I have to talk to Mr. Kim." Are you the manager, or is there someone else that I should ask? Pick a date and let us know! Do you have to ask Mr. Kim about every little thing?! Take some initiative and make some decisions on your own!!

Mr. Kim came in around 3 PM. I went into the teachers' room to make a copy of the book for a kid who had forgotten her book and saw him. I asked him if he'd be around later for me to talk with him a little. Over the next several hours he disappeared between classes, or was talking with a parent or on the phone. Finally between the 6 and 7 PM classes I caught him free. I gave him the paper with the info to pay for the plane ticket, telling him that since it was coming up soon, if he could pay for it tomorrow it would be best because the price might go up otherwise. (Throwing in the possibility of having to pay more is always a good way to get prompt action!) Then I mentioned the other important issue right away--a letter of recommendation. "You know, most jobs in the USA want a letter from the last job saying what kind of a worker the person was, etc." I didn't quite get around to asking him to write one when he suggested that I write it and he'd sign it and put his stamp on it. So I'm going to write a letter of recommendation . . . for myself?? Let's see . . . "Beth is the best teacher on the planet; you should pay her oodles of money . . . " This won't necessarily be easy!

As I was heading to my next class I saw Mr. Kim showing the secretary the info about wiring the money, so probably first thing tomorrow it'll be wired. The travel agent contacted me today that he reserved the tickets and as soon as he got the money he'd send them to me. I've got to check with Mom about my American bank info and perhaps Wednesday morning transfer a bunch of money home, and then see if Mr. Kim will pay my severance and last paycheck next week a day or two early so that I can close my account and change the won into dollars at the bank, where I'll get a better rate than the airport. I also need to find out what to do about the keys to the apartment.

The radio/tape/CD player goes to David on Sunday; the Christmas tree/nativity scene/snowman go to Ryan. That leaves some shelves and fans to find a new home for, if possible--no sense my employer getting stuff I've bought (a new teacher won't be moving into my place--they'll be emptying it out).

This has turned into a to-do list for me--sorry. It's hard to think about all of the things that need to be done in the next two weeks! Saturday's the Kyungju trip, Sunday's the going away party (a week early because of the Chuseok holiday), Sunday I'll also say goodbye to John and Octavia and the kids at Bible study, next week might be tests--writing and speaking and the evaluations to write and saying goodbye to my students. The adults want to take me out for lunch--a 3-hour ordeal. It's hard to believe that I've already spent more than 2 years here and now there are only 2 weeks left before I leave, with no definite plan to ever return.

The latest on the North Korean explosion: it was planned? Sounds like an excuse for an accident. If it was indeed planned, why wouldn't they have let their neighbors know, or responded quicker instead of having everyone wonder what it was and preparing for the worst?