Sans Casa

Yesterday was my last day at work. I "trained" my replacement, and he's a seemingly good guy. Should be good with the kids, so that makes me happy. They didn't end up letting me say goodbye, and I got a bit bummed especially when I was high-fiving them at the end of the day saying "see you later" - as opposed to my usual "see you tomorrow." And then, a student who had been in Japan for the previous week returned with a gift and a note: "Mark teacher: I love you. You'r a good teacher. You'r so a good teacher. I love you. Wendy K." That bummed me out a touch, too. But, goldfish memories, so they'll forget about me within a couple weeks. One kid does know, since I told his father about what happened when I bumped into him on a field trip over a month ago. He was educated at Berkeley, Cornell, and then got his PhD from Wharton in econ. So, I decided to tell him what was going on. "So, obviously education is important to you..." He seemed a little embarrassed: "Wow. It's not like Korea's a third-world country. Why are they treating you like this?" He then offered to find me a lawyer, which I haven't needed. Anyway, I went out to dinner with the family Monday night, and talked to his kid. I think the school is telling the parents that I "got sick and went home." At any rate, I'm going to stay in touch with this kid, perhaps auxiliary tutoring or baby-sitting. So, he'll eventually tell all his buddies that I'm still around.

I'm off to be homeless. Things to do in the next few hours. Clean, finish packing, get paid in full, drop off key, find train station, hop to Busan, figure out the subway system and find the hostel. I've booked four nights at a hostel in Busan. I'll figure out my next move from there. In all likelihood, Jeju Island (Korean owned between Kr and Japan; somewhat tropical) and Japan - where I have to get a new visa.

While I'm dropping off my key, I plan on actually saying goodbye to those adorable monkeys.