Just another dumb wayguk (foreigner) in a sea of intellectually superior Koreans....

Well, well, we meet again. Though it has been some time since we last spoke. My fault there, as I've been pretty lazy and there really hasn't been anything of note to discuss with everyone. I've been here long enough that I've slipped into a routine with most of my days. Get up, try to teach these poor children something, anything at all, become frustrated about something ridiculous/idiotic that my co-teacher did, try and not fall asleep out of boredom, go home and try and forget about whatever happened today just in time to start again tomorrow. Wash. Rinse. Repeat. I figure the days wouldn't be so monotonous if I didn't have something to be looking forward too, but I do, so the next several weeks are going to be quite painful to get through. Thankfully I have Friday nights at Bobo's with the foreigners and some sort of trip/get together over the weekend to clear my head and regain my sanity for a few hours or days.

Winter break is nearing, so each foreign has dealt with or is in the process of dealing with the clusterfuck that is vacation negotiations. In theory, it would be a very simple process, as we foreign teachers are provided with 20 paid vacation days, 25 for those in rural/bumfuck middle of nowhere schools, and we are only allowed to use them over winter and summer break. Those are the only rules laid down about vacation, that they must be used only during breaks. Each school usually has winter English camps for about 2 weeks during the break, but since the break lasts from Christmas to the start of March, it should be no problem, right? Just tell us when the winter camp is, and we can schedule are vacation around those two weeks. Or let us decide when we are going on vacation, then schedule the camps around that. That's all there is to it. Easy as pie (god damn it, I miss pie...). But since we live in Korea, and not in some country that operates through communication and common sense, it becomes a logistical nightmare. Take my example, for instance. I asked the other teachers back in October when the semester ends and when the winter camp is scheduled for, as I have a guest coming to visit and she needs to buy her ticket. I was informed that the semester ends on December 26th, but that I should wait for my co-teacher to come back before having her get a ticket, as the other teachers didn't know when the english camp is supposed to take place. Since the co-teacher wasn't coming back for another month, I couldn't wait until December, as the prices would be way too high, and had Alyse buy the ticket. Since there was no set date for the camps that anyone knew of, I assumed that the camp had yet to be scheduled and could be fit in around my vacation time. That was until the regular co-teacher came back about a week ago and worked her magic. On her first full day back on the job, she asked me when my friend was coming to visit, as the news of this had spread around the school...I guess. I told her that the ticket was booked for December 29th through the 14th of January. She then responded that those days don't work out, as the English camp is scheduled to begin on Monday Jan 5th. She quickly followed that up with the beautiful question, "Didn't you know that camps started on the 5th?". Thud. Thud. Thud. That is the sound of me beating my head against a wall over the absolute idiocy of that statement. How could I possibly know when the camps started? You never told me. Fuck, the other Korean teachers had no idea about this shit and there isn't even a language barrier there. When I explained that the ticket was already purchased and that she couldn't change her ticket around because of the money that would cost and that school starts right away after she leaves, thus making it impossible to move around the dates, she dropped let another wonder on me. She then started claiming that I can't even take that long of a vacation because I'm only allowed to use 10 days of vacation in winter and 10 during the summer. Where does that demand come from, I asked. Why, it's in the contract, she says. Thud. Thud. Thud. There I go again bashing my head against a wall, this time till my brain starts spilling out. Lady, I have read the contract front to back, forwards, backwards, with a blacklight, in case of hidden text, etc. Well, she says, just go home and read the contract again over the weekend, then we can discuss this again on Monday (subtext translation: You're just a dumb foreigner (wayguk is Korean for foreigner), how could you possibly understand this contract as well as me, a Korean). Well, these demands were blatant lies, as there is nothing stated like that in the contract. Though, to the Koreans, it seems that the contract is not really a set of rules, more like guidelines (yeah, I know I just stole that from Pirates of the Caribbean, I'm appalled too). This is best demonstrated from a direct quote by a Korean co-teacher to another foreign teacher here in town: "Just because it says it in the contract, doesn't actually mean you get it". Thud. Thud. Thud. Man, I gotta stop hitting my head against the wall here, as its bound to cause brain damage. The contract is set up to clearly state was is guaranteed and what have you. They most certainly hold us up to the very letter of the contract when it benefits them.

Another interesting let's take advantage of the foreigners cuz they don't know any better, took place last Thursday. The English speakers decided to have a meeting at the library to discuss teaching strategies, etc. without our Korean handlers so we could talk freely and openly about stuff. After the meeting when we tried to re-reserve the same room in the library for the next week, we were issued two demands. 1: Give the library a mission statement, listing our reasons for needing the room. 2: One of us has to "volunteer" to teach a group of 8 year olds every Sunday afternoon at the library. Now, 1 seems like a fairly unshady demand, although we wanna keep our meetings off the books, as we don't want the Koreans getting word of the meetings and shutting them down, under the guise that the foreigners are unionizing or some shit like that. 2, however, is an enormous load of dogshit. Last time I checked, you weren't conscripted into duty in order to just use a library. We assume it's just some small bureaucratic peon who wants to increase his standing at our expense. This stuff is getting really old, and its not gonna stop anything soon, not until Korea cools down about teaching English. I just feel so dirty and used. They could have at least called...