Updating, Updating, Updating

Yeah, since the last few posts were dealing with stuff that happened 4 months ago, I figured it was time to delve into stuff that is actually affecting me at this present time. And once that's done, its just Batizado, Halloween and I'm finally caught up! Wow, this has taken way, way too long to get done.

First off, the weekend exploits. Man, its been crazy couple of weeks. A whirlwind of drinking, partying, whoring and sexing (sometimes with women!!!). It's been nuts. Hahahahah. Man, I'm a terrible liar. I can't even make myself believe the nonsense I just spouted. Ohh well. In actuality, the weekends have been the exact opposite of what I just described. Fine by me, but not much to write about. I at least have been going to areas where some of the craziness I dream about could take place, as Jethro and I normally grab dinner in one of the ritzy nightlife areas. So there is plenty to look at for me, but thats it. Although, that does seem to be more my style. The whole staring from a distance thing. Especially if the female doesn't know I'm watching and I'm hiding behind some sort of tree, building, lightpole, etc....sigh, I am so pathetic.

Otherwise the weekends have been capoeira, capoeira, capoeira. Mostly its been training with the Cordao de Ouro group and they seem to be happy to have me around. But that might be because they enjoy laughing at me when I go in the roda. I guess I make all kinds of noises and weird sounds when I play. Supposedly I even, when Im surprised by something, say the Korean equivalent of "Oh, crap!" or "Ooops" whilst playing. I also am told I have a ridiculous, goofy look on my face when I play too. Which is good, I guess, as I used to have a really tense scowl when I played. I guess that means I'm more relaxed when I play, which is good. Still wish they would stop laughing at me though.....Probably gonna have to start kicking some people in the face to get my cred back. Certainly gonna take quite a few kicks to faces to make up for that time where the instructor stepped on my capoeira pants and pinned me to the ground and then kicked me around for fun. God, I got my ass handed to me that time.

While on the theme of restoring my cred as a hard-ass (hey, don't laugh), a strange development has come about with some of my students. I've had to deal with their mean cat-calls and slander for months now, such as the constant chants of "Eric Bad Boy!!!" or "Eric NOT KIND!!" or "Ms. Eric Teacher" or "전봇대 (telephone pole) teacher"....sob, sob, sob, girls are so mean. Those comments really hurt. Anyways, the abuse from students escalated this week. While watching across the soccer field/playground on the way to the cafeteria, several 4th grade girls (who, I might add, I don't even teach anymore and haven't in 6 months) ran up to me and started hanging on me. Now, one of the girls, I imagine the ringleader, had been harassing me for some time now. When coming back from lunch, she would follow directly behind me, sometimes holding onto my jacket and generally acting as my shadow. And after following me for some time, she would begin shoving in the back to get me to go where she wanted. And she would shove so hard that I swear I must have gotten whiplash. It was positively dreadful. Hey, don't laugh these 10 year olds are really strong!

Anyways, this group of troublemakers had surrounded me and started hanging on my legs to keep me from going anywhere, while others tried to jump on my back or grabbed my jacket hood in an attempt to yank me down. All while this assault was going on, the girls were shouting for me to "Sit down!" in English. So while the girls may be hoodlums and vagabonds, they at least seem to have learned something in English. Hooray. Eventually, with my legs firmly planted on the ground thanks to a child weighing down each one and enough children trying to shove me over, I came crashing down. This was when the girls began their true dastardly deed. Several immediately jumped on me, probably rupturing a lung or bruising a kidney or something. Then the 8 or 10 of them decided they wanted to carry/drag me somewhere so they each grabbed a limb and attempted to carry me off to their headquarters to continue their horrid acts. Unable to lift me, they settled for trying to pry off my shoes and run away with them. They did manage to steal my glasses as well, but they returned those almost immediately. Also unable to get my shoes off, they settled for shoving a chunk of snow/ice down my shirt collar. It was at this point that some older female students (5th grade, I believe) came to my rescue. They offered to serve as my bodyguards, and I quickly accepted. They helped chase off the younger girls and they escorted me back to my classroom. Those girls now serve as my bodyguards and escort across the playground, so those other fiends reappear. And they only charge a small fee of candy. Well worth it I think.

So you see, here at school I also have a problem with restoring my rep as a tough, scary foreigner who is not to be messed with. Getting jumped on and having snow shoved down one's shirt by 4th grade girls has a way of eroding said cred. Perhaps I will have to get severe and start throwing children through windows or something if they try to hang on me. yeah, that would probably work. Good thinking Wallin.

And yes, all of the preceding events did in fact take place....I have a strange relationship with my students. And in case you needed any more evidence to prove that children do strange things, well here it is.

The other event at school has been the drama over my ticket home. That all started last week when my co-teacher came up to me and asked whether or not I get my plane ticket home paid for by the district office. For the record, the contracts state that the district office must pay for it (well, technically they pay some set fee of about 1,200 dollars and its up to me to find the ticket). My co-teacher knew this policy, as I'm not the first teacher at this school, and thus was confused when she received an official memo from the district office stating that I would not receive plane fare. I was confused and outraged, as this kind of run around/disobeying of the contract BS has nagged me for my entire time here. I had hoped that this drama was done for good when I moved to this school, but sadly no. I immediately contacted the teacher rep/middleman to the district office and she said that the memo was mistaken and that I would receive the cash. Several days later we received an explanation from the office. I had forgotten about the special addendum thingy the district made me sign because I did the weird almost 6 months thingy before this. In it it explicitly says that they will not pay my plane fare home but will instead give a 2,000 dollar extension bonus that teachers normally get when they extend their contract after the first year. So in the end, I make a little bit more cash out of it. Good.

However, I still have to get the cash. And at that point I still hadn't. Well, turns out that my present school had changed secretaries during the period of my arrival and they had forgotten about that money I was owed and hadn't set aside enough in their budget. So I guess the school had to go crawling back to the district office to ask for the additional money. Embarrassing, but the district office obliged and now I have my flight money. I just don't know when I will be able to go home. See, my contract ends on Monday February 28th, and the previous week (Monday the 2lst through Friday the 25th) we have off from school. Well, at that point, I will still have 5-7 days of paid vacation left with no other times in which to use them, so I've been floating the idea of using my vacation that last week and then just going home early, like on Saturday the 19th, instead of the 29th or whenever my contract is actually up. I asked the co-teacher and she saw nothing wrong with the scenario and just had to get permission from our principal and vice-principal, who seem to be pretty decent guys and seem to like me well enough. So I'm in, right? Well, maybe not. The next day the co-teacher said she read something in a guidebook (what?) that says I'm not allowed or not supposed to do that, so I probably won't be able to. But she still hasn't talked to the principal or vice-principal, so that might not be the case. Argdlggalskdjlfksj. I just wanna buy my ticket as soon as possible, before it gets outrageously expensive. Currently Delta has a ticket for 1,063 bucks that would fly me straight to Detroit from Seoul, layover for an hour, then jump to Green Bay on the 19th, which all sounds wonderful to me, as I would get in to Green Bay on a Saturday night, making it very easy for the parents to pick me up, and I'd be in in plenty of time to rest up and make the big capoeira workshops in Minneapolis the next weekend. But if I have to wait till the end of my contract to leave? Bye, bye capoeira workshops with Mestre. Boo. Here's hoping it all plays out.