Ignore my last post. I’m staying at Wonderland for another three months.
Two months, actually. I get all of December off.
This was the fourth time the school asked me to extend my contract, with a month off in December. As I mentioned earlier, they originally wanted me to stay a whole year as a supervisor. The school is going to hire a new teacher, so there would be three of us, in anticipation for more students in January. Also, I would have a month of vacation, more pay, my own apartment and fewer classes.
I said no, I’m already at my wit’s end, I’m cold and strung out and I’m fairly certain my parents would fly on over, take me by the hair and drag me back to California. Besides, I’m here for other reasons besides money. I want to live near a university so I can take classes in Korean; I want to live near Busan so I can go to my favorite temple in Gyeongju every weekend. And, uh, I’d like to log in less than ten hours every day.
Then C approached me a new proposition: stay until the school year ends in February, teach fewer classes (about 6 to 8, depending on whether or not we get that many new students) without a decrease in my monthly salary, get a new apartment above the school (as if I don’t spend enough time there!) and get next month off “to travel around Asia.”
The school just fired a Korean teacher, and three months prior another teacher had quit. M completed her contract last month and Shelly just started. So we’re going through all these new teachers, and some of the parents have been complaining. If I leave now it could be the last straw.
Plus, it would look really good to tell prospective employers that my school asked me to stay another year. But most important, the school has been good to me. Yeah, this chain is notorious for screwing teachers over, and this particular school has. But for the most part, it’s treated me well.
More important, C has looked out for me. Maybe this is the Korean mindset seeping in, but I do feel loyal to her. Fortunately, she also leaves in February, so I won’t feel the need to stay any longer. I’m sure the school will ask me again to stay until 2008, but I’ll have a far easier time saying no to the director.
Anyway, one month off. All that free time–what do I do? I’m fairly certain I know the answer, but I have to do a little more research. This weekend will be spent browsing the Lonely Planet sections in Kyobo and What The Book.
I’m kind of stressed from planning everything so close to December, so if you see a short little Asian girl in dirty sneakers, clutching a cup of coffee and mumbling to herself, buy her a cinnamon scone.
man, i read that and all i can think is Must. Escape. Now.
but perhaps that’s just bad memories 🙂
If I went through your first hagwon, I would have pulled a runner too. (By the way, why did you pull the plug on your “Prisoners” site?)
But my school “relaxed” after I quit last spring. Yeah I work like a mad bitch but I have fewer responsibilities.
A part of me wishes I’d left at the end of my contract–which is, believe or not, today. But I reckon I made the right choice. Stupid, but right.
Well, my ownership of the site was expiring last June… I was low on money, and I figured I wouldn’t have to worry about any trouble with them when I was in Korea if it no longer existed, so I just let it expire. Besides, it had been five years – that’s enough.
Ah, I understand. But I really enjoyed that site–I think I read all the entries in one night.