Counting down the days

Two and half weeks left.  12 schooldays at my crappy little hagwon.  16 days until I am done with this place for good!  I’ve already moved about half of my things to my new apartment and just ordered my new bed!  It should be delivered this weekend which means I’ll start sleeping there soon.  Definitely on the weekends; I’ll probably move in for good and commute for the last week.

Last payday at noon they told us we’d be paid by about 6 or 7 pm.  A few hours late but acceptable considering the last one was more than 2 weeks late!   By 9 pm there was a fit of rage texts going around a group chat with our accounts still drearily low.  A new foreigner in the building from 5-6pm was hidden from our view and not allowed to talk to us helped everyone arrive at the realization they just didn’t want us complaining about the pay in front of a new hire.  Plans for how to respond ranged from going straight to the ministry of labor to not going in, having a sit in or flat out quitting.  Fortunately when I woke up at 7am I found out we were paid around midnight.  Things have settled down slightly after our “on time” payday.

No one knows what the delay was about but we’ve been guess it has to do with the sale not going through.  That means our best friend [school owner] is still responsible for paying us.  At least he came through without waiting 2 weeks this time.  For me there’s not much else to worry about.  Even if the next paycheck is late its the last thing he owes me and I’ll be done with this whifferninny.

My coworkers who are owed a severance aren’t so sure things will go smoothly.  We were told that we “don’t have to come in on February 28th,” even though their contracts say they work until the 28th.  When we check our academic calendar the 28th is listed as “vacation” but the Korean teachers have to work and we were told its a required day for anyone staying next year.  Well, none of us are staying so we presume there’ll be new staff and they don’t want us to share our stories.

Then we got to thinking about the severances again.  Technically if we don’t work a full year we aren’t owed severances.  That means I’m obviously not owed one but everyone else is.  After some quick googling we discovered that the law states severance isn’t owed if we work even 1 day too few.  Guess that means everyone will clock in that Friday morning to guarantee severance.

There have been some awkward conversations with the administration, specifically [director] accusing me and others of “leaking information” to the parents.  Funny thing is I actually haven’t told anyone.  I had a student ask me yesterday if I was leaving to which I responded “Teachers aren’t allowed to talk about it.”  One parent asked my coteacher and she let it slip, that sparked the first of these accusations .  The conversations are actually kind of hilarious and I’ll follow up with some of these Korean comedies in a few days.

In other news my new neighborhood rocks!  I’m moving about 40 minutes closer to Bukhansan National Park; we’ve got hundreds of restaurants with everything from Korean to Indian, Thai and more.  I haven’t actually been there for the nightlife yet but it looks promising with dozens of bars, coffee shops and theaters in the area.  Its a short walk to 2 awesome markets and a bit farther to Gyeongbokgung.  I can’t wait to break out my camera help you explore Hyewha with me!