Today was definitely a day of red tape, pent up rage, and logistical nightmares. Okay... maybe I am being overdramatic but annoyances plagued me like swarms of bees, intent on pollinating my problems and sucking the nectar from the last strands of my peace. I was reviewing a couple of contracts and had almost settled on accepting one. The problem was that I didn't have a concrete start date. My boss, the manager, and the administrative Korean guy at work (sorry but front desk staff have a high turnover rate here so I never learned his name), all tackled me when I came into work. They were trying to ascertain how I would renew my work visa in the most expeditious fashion. Also, the concept of contract extension came up-- but more in the way a bad plate of nachos comes up when you suffer nausea and indigestion. Mmmm... I miss nachos. The Catch 22 here is that since I am only switching schools and not companies, my company wants me to provide them with the same date that I am waiting for my company to provide me with. That is, the start date. Complicating things are the renewal of my plane ticket so that I can go home for Christmas, and the acquisition of a return ticket from whatever school the roulette wheel settles on. Further complicating things is the fear my director has of trying to find a replacement teacher for me before Christmas (which I agree is a problem).
So... I quickly decided on a school and we called the director there, to discuss a mid-January start date. I won't even start to mention the problems inherent in going over the head of a recruiter and dealing directly with directors. This is the point where I learned that for all the limited information I was able to garner in the last month of searching for a job, I knew less than I suspected. The job does not exist. The teacher I would have replaced is planning on extending himself, all the way to April. My director put in a great word for me with the director of the other school, which has made him excited to hire me. My director is excited that I can stay until April. I am distressed. At this point I have been misinformed. I have been left bereft of satisfactory options. I have to start my job hunt all over again.
In an ironic twist, if I do go to work at this school in April, it will have taken me 8 months to get a 12 month contract. This is more humourous in relation to the fact that I got my present job within 6 days while I was still in Canada. You would think that being closer would make things move more smoothly, huh?
So I had one entertaining point planned for my day. I brought my video camera and taped a few of my classes. Some of my students are real hams and love the limelight. On my way home however, while videotaping the outside of my building, I met with two successive cases of extreme rudeness (racism?). One guy in an optometry shop (I hesitate to call him an optometrist) demanded to know why I was videotaping the building. Just before, another Korean actually did something I read about in a book I picked up while in Canada. Apparently it goes something like this: Koreans are used to crowded streets so psychologically, even when only two people are passing each other on a stretch of pavement (in this case, one that was about 8 metres wide), they instinctively bump into each other. Nope... there was no one else around. He just walked toward me and bumped into my arm while I was trying to pan my video camera around the building. If you doubt me, I have it safely recorded on 8mm.
The middle of my day was pretty good. The beginning and ending weren't. Oh, and I didn't mention this yet; the student who told me that the Chakra concert was on the 9th (I assumed November), corrected himself today to say that it is actually on the 19th (meaning October). In other words-- it's Friday. Glancing at the date, that's tomorrow. I guess I'll have to sit at home and download the videos.
Thursday, October 18, 2001
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