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Week 49 (Jan 29th to Feb 4th) |
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Sunday Jan 29th, Today is Lunar New Year in Korea, which is possibly
the biggest holiday in this country. Everyone travels to see family, it's impossible to get train tickets for this time of year, all the stores and restaurants are closed, and so on. I went to my friend Zac's house for a small party. Again, nice to be in a more intimate environment. Ben made a really good mushroom and tomatoe penne, and there was lots of wine, and champagne for midnight, and lots of movies that we watched in a very schizophrenic manner (starting one
movie, changing our mind and putting in another one--I don't think we made it through one whole movie). It is also nice to know that I don't have to work
tomorrow!
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Monday Jan 30th, No work today due to Lunar New Year! Last year they had almost a full week off, but this year we kind of got screwed-- only one day off! Regardless, I'll takeany time off . . . |
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Tuesday Jan 31st, I had a sit-down with Sue today regarding the details
of the end of my contract. It was an infinitely frustrating experience. I've worked so hard for this school and never complained about any of the ridiculous extra work that I had to do, and now it
looks like I'm going to have to fight to get everything I deserve.
First off, Sue is implying that she doesn't have to give me the money equivalent of my return flight because I'm staying in Korea. She kept on saying "You'll get that with your next visa . . ." Legally
she is obligated to pay for my flight both ways whether I'm going home or not. Then there's some stupid thing to do with a pension plan. Apparently, everyone who works in Korea has to pay into a pension plan. When you return to your home country, you get that money back. In hagwons, apparently the director is supposed to pay half, and
the foreign teacher is supposed to pay the other half, and then the foreign teacher gets ALL of the money back in the end. Sue never told me about any of this. She gave Jason and Evan the option to opt into the pension plan, leading them to believe that it would benefit them, since they would get her money in the end. Then when Jason left, she wanted to take back her part of the money, which she is not legally
entitled to, as far as I know. Since she never gave me the option to opt into the pension plan at all, I didn't even know that I was legally supposed to. Apparently she was paying my whole pension for the
whole time, without ever saying anything to me about it. Now of course, since I'm not leaving Korea, I'm not going to get the money back right now. But Sue is suggesting that I have to pay her back all the pension money now. That seems pretty unfair considering that
I didn't know anything about it until now. I have to research the legalities of it, but there could be a showdown. I'm hurt that all of this is coming up now when I've been a model employee for the entire year.
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Saturday Feb 4th, This morning I took the KTX to Seoul to meet Jae (my
future boss) and the president of my college. The president of the school is very friendly and informal, so I'm happy not to have a typical Korean school director. I also found out that I pretty much have full control over what I teach in my lessons, which is great news, and I'll be directing a choir and some small ensembles as well. Since one of my main focuses is arranging and writing, this is going to be a great opportunity to workshop all of my writing. We also talked about all the details, like my apartment and what not. We actually didn't resolve much, but there's not much we can resolve without immigration's
go-ahead. Jae is going to go to immigration this week with all of my documents, and ask if we can start the application process now instead of at the end of my Wonderland contract. After the meeting, Jae took me out to dinner at a really nice restaurant. Usually in Korean
restaurants, there are about 5 or so side dishes that are shared among your table (things like kimchi, bean sprouts, radish soup, etc.). At this place, everyone got their own individual side dishes! I thought that was pretty cool. Then Jae took me to his gig for the night. It should be pretty easy to get gigs in Seoul, and Jae even encouraged me to take on my own private students in addition to my college students!
I'm really excited about this job!
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