typhoon

There's a storm coming. Typhoon Bolaven is set to wreak havoc on Korea from the early hours of the morning until sometime tomorrow night. We're set to get a whole lot of rain and a whole lot of wind. My school has already cancelled classes tomorrow. I went to the supermarket after work to make sure I had enough food for tomorrow, assuming I won't be able to leave my apartment. My boss told me I should tape newspaper to my windows so that they won't break, or something. That's not going to happen though.

Now here comes the part where I use this upcoming storm as a metaphor for my own life. In previous years, as I neared the end of a contract it felt as though I was being pulled there unwillingly. Of course I wanted to go home to see friends and family, but aside from that there wasn't much else for me to do. It felt like I had no choice but to come back. This year, having abhorred my job for so long, I wonder if perhaps it's time to close the book on my time year. I feel burnt out. The allure has worn off and all I see is another year of disinterested kids and blank stares.

After my first year I kind of thought that 3 years would be the right amount of time to spend here. Three years felt like a beginning, middle, and end. Now that I'm nearly at the end of year 3, going back home for good kinda feels like it felt to come here in the first place. I can work here. I have attachments here. I have things here. Korea has its nails in me.

expenses

Hello friends. As is wont to happen, I've gone too long without posting. It's time to play catch up.

olympics

Here's an update on my last post. I told my bosses that I wasn't okay with their plan to rip me off. I said that I thought it'd be best if they released me from my contract and replaced me with a Korean at a cheaper wage. I said that on a Friday. On Monday they came to me and said that they would honor the contract as it was. I guess you just have to play hardball with these folks. That being said, my pay for this month is two days late and counting.

It's the Olympics now, as I'm sure you know. Watching the Olympics in a different country is, well, different. For one, they don't give a damn about how the USA is doing here, so I don't get to see many American events. What I do get to see is what Koreans are good at. So, it's been a lot of judo, table tennis, and fencing. 

Koreans are already extremely nationalistic and insecure. They are insecure because they are surrounded by China and Japan, who get much more attention than they do. So anytime they do something good on a big stage, it's a big deal. My students are always quick to alert me of a Korean who won a gold medal.

Only gold seems to matter here. If a Korean wins a gold medal, they are rewarded by their country. They receive 1 million KRW, about $900, every month for the rest of their lives. Unfortunately, that reward does not increase exponentially with each gold medal. So if Michael Phelps was a Korean, he wouldn't get 18 million a month, he'd still just get the 1.

Silver and bronze medalists, on the other hand, get jack shit.