Insider

Suprise, Suprise!
Last night BK invited me to his Chuseok celebrations, so I will be staying at his house tonight and then going with him and his family to a mountain.

I am so excited but also of course nervous to be spending so much time with his family. Hopefully though I won't make too many mistakes.

:)

Follow Up

So I thought I would just follow up with an update about my previous post.

For one I haven't heard it from my supervisors (yet...?). Also the coworker seems not as upset now but we are not really speaking to each other. I guess that means another dropped out of the possibility of being friendly with me. But the job goes on and I must continue with it seeing as it does bring in an income and experience.

In other news I have been working on retrieving my documents for when I plan on switching schools. One of which is a Criminal Background Check, which is tricky to get if you live in Korea. This is so because you have to get it from your home country. So to do this I need to send the FBI some documents one of which is a fingerprint card. I have the fingerprint card but would like a professional finger printer to put my fingerprints on it, so I don't end up wasting my time. I heard that this can be achieved by visiting a major police station in my area. So hopefully it will work. BK and I are going to go to one next week during my vacation.

Speaking of which, Korea is going to have its Chuseok holiday! This gives me Monday and Tuesday off. Since BK will have to go to a mountain and do his yearly rituals I will be without him for 2 days of this vacation. So I am up for a lone trek to a museum or just do a little shopping...who knows. But not having to work sounds lovely.

Tales from the Hagwon

Today was yet another day when I received a parent complaint. Yet this one came entirely unexpected.

I teach a class that we just finished a book and so everyone got a new book. Not all the students received their book on time, but eventually they all did. This change of book set me up for the problem that occurred later on.

Today, I conducted the class as usual. The students keep their books at school and before class they go and get them from a room. As class started today it seemed they were confused about who's book was who and so checked for their name. To me it looked like they worked it out and so I moved on in the class.

But one girl Lucy confused her mom. It turned out her book was really at home. But Lucy in class was using the absent boys book... I did not know this.

So kid goes home, Mom asks how did you learn if the book was at home... kid was probably confused... and so Mom calls school and speaks to my Korean co teacher.

Co teacher than asks me what happened.

I explain to her that the kid had a book. We then figure out that she had the absent boys book.

But then things turned ugly.

The Korean co teacher obviously became upset and asked me questions like:

• Why don't you tell me anything?
• Are you angry at me?
  
• Why didn't you write their names on the book?

This last question I feel shows the whole problem here. Because I didn't write their names on their books they got them mixed up.

She wanted an explanation but all I could say was that I didn't do it, that I made a mistake. She had a hard time believing this, as if it is impossible for me to make mistakes.

The real issue here is this:

1. I didn't put their names on their new books.
2. I didn't tell my co teacher we started a new book.
3. I work at a school where if a parent complains then that means you have opened the gates of hell.

The amazing thing is this:

• When I was confronted I feel I responded in a professional and calm manner. I gave my explanations, over and over again despite being asked many times. I tried to explain to the best of my ability. I offered an apology and I said it wouldn't happen again.
• Therefore I believe that I have changed my attitude when dealing with this kind of crap at my school.

The next problem will be:

• I am going to hear about this from my supervisors sooner or later. They are going to ask me Why and I will tell them but they won't be satisfied. Following this they will explain to me the importance of putting names on the book and keeping up communication with my coworkers.
• But instead of reacting angrily I will be professional and say "yes, I can". Also I will take a notebook and write down their words.

My only hope is that they would see that overall I am trying to get this job done right. But ya know there are so many variables that I find it virtually impossible to be perfect all the time.

Anyways needed to get that off my chest...

On My Own

BK has been busy with family affairs lately so that has left me to my own devices on one of the days on the weekend. This is a kind of good and bad situation because on the one hand I am able to get out on my own and learn how to get around without him, but at the same time I end up missing him.

However, I think he has taught me enough about how things work here that I can get by on my own.

So this last week at work I was told that they are now going to enforce the dress code more strictly. This dress code includes formal wear, no hoodies and to look professional. As much as this made angry steam rise up in me, I knew it would be easier to comply than to go against it. So this weekend I needed to go out and stock up on a few formal wear necessesities. I have some nice dress shirts (collar shirts) that I took with me from home, so all I really needed were more dress pants and maybe one or two more shirts. Besides the seasons are going to be changing soon to fall and winter, so I didn't want to buy a lot.

My choice of shopping district was Myeongdong. Known for its name brand shops and the store Migliore (a trendy clothing shop). I mostly wanted to go there because I heard there was a GAP store and thought to myself, might as well!

If you are going to go out shopping I would suggest getting an early start because these shopping districts become extremely congested after about 1pm.

When I got there my first stop was the GAP. The prices here are really steep, so if you have a high budget than go for it. I just bought one pair of pants and figured I would get the rest at the cheaper store Migliore.

This shop was like Doota, where you have an open space and several floors where people sell clothing in a flea-market like style. I think Migliore has better quality and fashion taste than Doota and the styles are more consistent. But you are still faced with the fact that each booth is run by a young woman or older ahjumma. And therefore if you ask how much you may not understand the response.

Generally speaking though I found out that if you pay by cash they give you about a 10% discount. The things I bought ranged from 25,000 Won to 40,000 Won.

Haggling is difficult if you don't know the language. I also managed to piss off one seller because I asked her how much many times and I think she got frustrated.

Anyways I saw a lot fall and winter fashions that I think I will go back and get. First I need to make sure my bank account stays pretty fat.

After my shopping adventure I was hungry and in search of food that a single gal could eat. I found a sandwhich shop and orderd a "club sandwhich".
By "club" they must of meant every thing a sandwhich could own, for example this sandwhich had jalapenos and peanut butter right on the same layer. And no I wasn't too fond of that combination.

After lunch I walked around the side streets and took a look at other shops. There was a cool shoe store and also a nice watch store.

Also I heard from the blog Annalog that a Forever 21 is coming to Seoul. Indeed it is and it hasn't opened yet. Hopefully soon!

So it was great to get what I need but in general I didn't feel like spending more money so I headed back home.

I would say that if you have saved up the cash and need to update your wardrobe definetly come out to Myeondong for shopping.

Clear head

Hmm sometimes on rare occasions it seems I feel a sense of clear headed-ness. If you are like me (human) then you experience the busyness of thoughts that pace through your head. Thinking and planning that crosses your mind become so commonplace that sometimes you just want to tell your own head to shut-up.

So despite that I taught from 10am to 7:30pm today, my mind feels at ease. As if I went through the day just going through an exercise motion I was familiar with.

Anyways, I just mean to say although life here isn't exactly the way I want it to be (work hours, workplace) I seem to still find peace in myself now and then.

Of course whenever I feel this way I immediately think about how long it will last. But then I just put that thought behind me and try to relish the moment.

;)

5 months To Go

It is decision time here at Foreign/er and we have come to our conclusion. After trying it out with two public school recruiters and getting basically the same message, I have resigned myself to stay at my current job till the end of January.

Trying to switch to a public school right now seems to be a challenge because I am told that the hiring has been completed. I suppose I could go commando and try to get a public school job myself by contacting the schools, but I don't have the time nor the willingness to be a stressed out monster.

So it is that I will wait till the hiring season peaks up again for public schools, at which time I will have more options and will have all my documents in order.

In the meantime this means working at my current job. Let me just say that it isn't the worst place to be and thankfully I believe it could be worse.

The way I see it is that the place I work for will never change (that is getting parent complaints, being led around in the dark about procedures). The only person or thing I can change is myself and my attitude. So now I will try to not let the frustrations of the job become personal issues for me.

Despite there is the possibility that I could receive more parent complaints and be on the chopping block again, I feel that if I pay attention to what needs to be done and not the drama then perhaps there will be an even playing field.

Anyways, now to just let this chaos calm down and get back to my life.

Hey I don't start work till 1pm anyways!!