Some men interpret nine memos

My last few posts have been a touch frantic and hasty. A few people have sent emails asking if I'm coming home. Hell no I'm not coming home. I'm too stubborn to leave Seoul, even. I'm legally in the right here. I've been teaching eleven classes with no breaks. Most days, even going to the bathroom is kind of a big deal. This is saying nothing about being able to plan for classes. If in fact I want to be a professional teacher, which is what I'm saying right now, I especially want to be doing a decent job in the classroom. Instead, I'm exhausted after five kindergarten hours, and I'm grumpier in my afternoon classes than I'm comfortable with.

Also, the lack of breaks and heaps of classes violate my contract, so I tried to negotiate for a break. Then, I was threatened with deportation and accused of "complaining too much." So, I'll be staying in this somewhat uncomfortable situation until 20 October. Luckily, a week of that is vacation - Korean Thanksgiving - so I have some time to relax, see new things, and look for a new job. I'm also bargaining for visa release papers, which I'll receive next week. Actually, I'll refuse to come to work unless I receive those papers I'm promised.

To be honest, the whole situation sucks. I'm only hanging around this long because on principle I can't leave the kindergarten kids without a teacher. I had a really good week teaching kindergarten. It took a couple weeks to figure out how six year olds act, but I've picked up a lot of tricks to make it work. Namely, stickers. Give stickers as bribes and take them away if you have to - taking a sticker away will probably make a kid cry, apparently. Anyway, I feel bad stranding the kids. A lot of them brought me gifts last week - lots of drawings, tea, and a copy of Freakonomics - and they are excited as hell in the mornings when they first see me. Luckily, little kids of goldfish memories, but I'll still be bummed to leave them.

I'll be very, very appreciative of a good employer when I find one. I will only, however, take a job at a public school or at a university. The owner, the one who threatened me with deportation, will only grunt at me now. It's so much better this way.

I spent yesterday morning in the hospital. I was told to get tested for pneumonia, just in case. I don't have it, which is good. An American doctor - the hospital is somehow affiliated with Johns Hopkins - told me that I've got some super germ that no longer has a cell wall. This slime is usually carried by kids, and it developed after decades of abuse of antibiotics in Korea - or something like that. Then I explaining my high blood pressure by telling him about my work environment. He laughed - it's so typical an experience for a first job in Korea. The best jobs are obtained once you're already here, but I didn't quite have the balls to get on a plane here with no job. Anyway, I should be healthy in time for Korean Thanksgiving, which is in a week.