AND THE FIGHT GOES ON

I called Planet People (the people who recruited me to Gwangyang) and told them that Kelly lied again and didn’t call me back. I told them that I didn’t want to sit around and do nothing and something needed to be done. Yangjin (from Planet People) told me that they were hoping that Kelly would call them because they didn’t want to negotiate with her by saying that I contacted them full of complaints. I understand that, but I told her that she told me she was calling them first thing Monday morning, and she didn’t. Yangjin said they’d be calling her today.

Ten minutes later she calls me back to tell me that while we were talking, her co-worker who works with Kelly was on the phone with her, listening to her whining. Yangjin said, “if you think I don’t like her, you should see how much my co-worker hates her”. It’s their feeling based on their 8 years experience that these things need to be handled very diplomatically. They can’t show favoritism regardless of how they really feel. They want me to be happy and they’re sorry for placing me there. I don’t blame them because they didn’t really know what she was like.

What she proposed was that I get my salary tomorrow (which Kelly told her co-worker was her intention to pay me on the 10th). She will deduct the plane fare from my salary. Yangjin said once I get my visa cancelled I should sue Kelly for the money. She said I should go back to the school to finish my month’s notice but I said there was no way because I wanted my visa cancellation now. She said they wanted to tell Kelly they have a replacement for me first so that Kelly will do the visa cancellation without a problem. If I understood what she was telling me, they have no intention of actually placing anyone there, just lying about it. They don’t want to be blacklisted (by my writing bad things about them) and they now feel they know what they’re dealing with in Kelly.

She asked me to wait until Friday for my visa cancellation and I said no. She kept emphasizing that they had the experience in dealing with these problems and to trust them. I told her that I do trust them, it’s Kelly I don’t trust. We went back and forth a few times on this and I finally said, “what if I don’t get it on Friday”? She replied that if I didn’t get it on Friday, they would travel to Gwangyang on Monday to get it for me. I said would you put that in writing and she said yes. She sent me an email stating that if it wasn’t received by Friday at 3PM, then they will be here Monday. Sometimes even when you don’t want to bend, you have to.

I’ve decided to put my trust in Planet People because I believe them when they say they have no use for Kelly anymore. I believe them when they say they want me to be happy and not have bad feelings towards Korea. I believe them when they say they feel a responsibility towards me. I believe them because they told me I should sue Kelly over the plane fare. And even without all that, I really don’t have a lot of options. As I’ve written many times, my experiences with Korean people have been quite positive. A lot of foreigners get an “us against them” mentality and I don’t want that. I have to believe Yangjin is honest and will do as she says.

So I went into work for a few hours today (I’m part time until the 19th). I didn’t enjoy it, but so what. It’s only another week and a half. I have this one kid who can’t keep still, runs around, makes strange sounds, and is just a general disruption. I wasn’t in the mood for him today so I grabbed him as he was running around the room, picked him up by the scruff of the next, and planted him in a chair. I told him something like, “if you move one more time I’ll break your neck”. Of course he didn’t understand the words, but he did understand the tone of voice and he was behaved after that. It’s the first time I’ve touched a kid out of annoyance and I’m not very comfortable with it, but it didn’t really bother me. He may have mental problems for all I know, but I have 9 other kids to deal with so I can’t be expending my energy on him.

I don’t have to say how pleased I’ll be when all this is resolved and I have the visa cancellation so the new school can get my new visa. As I said before, worse case scenario is I leave Korea. I could go to China and teach. It’s funny because I really did want to go to China as a first choice, it’s just the money was just such crap. Now my thinking is that I may actually enjoy teaching with the right age group. I have a feeling this will all work out as things usually do, you just have to put up with the crap along the way.

My bronchitis/cold still is here. On Sunday night I was up most of the night hacking away. My 3 days of medicine was long gone so I went to visit the doctor yesterday. She wasn’t in, but there was a replacement doctor there and surprise, surprise, he spoke good English. He said my breathing sounded fine and gave me 3 more days of medicine. He also said to stay away from caffeine and fatty foods like hamburger and pizza. The usual doctor didn’t tell me that. If I was staying in Gwangyang I would have found out where he practices and he’d be my new doctor. I just found it funny that the substitute doctor is the one I needed.

My books from Amazon arrived today and I earned a double DOH!. Two of the books I got from Amazon were books I bought in Seoul on the weekend. I guess next time I order books online I’ll make a list and carry it around with me. Good thing these were only paperbacks or I’d be really upset. Still, that was quite idiotic of me.

I’m considering going to Pusan this weekend. I can visit Gord (who I met getting my visa in Japan) and is here from Ottawa. It means I don’t hang out in Gwangyang and perhaps see some more interesting things. I don’t want to commit now because the way my health is at the moment, a day of walking is just something I would not enjoy. Just 2 more weekends in Gwangyang. It’s hard to believe.

I don’t know if I ever mentioned it but looking back at this whole thing, my first indication that this wouldn’t be good was about 5 minutes after I got here. Kelly and Miss Moon picked me up at the bus station in Suncheon and all Kelly said to me was, “Miss Moon says you’re handsome”. Other than that the two of them talked and I was pretty much ignored. Of course I couldn’t quit 5 minutes after arriving and maybe I had misread the situation, but I guess I didn’t.

I really hate to be vindictive as I like to think I’m beyond that, but I hope that I understood Planet People correctly and they have no intention of actually ever placing a person there. And I will be posting on the job boards once I’m gone to watch out for this school. That isn’t totally vindictive, just some information any prospective sucker should have.