NOT QUITE DONE YET

Ugh, it’s always something. Today was to be my last day by mutual agreement. I spoke to the recruiter for my new job and he told me that my apartment wouldn’t be ready until May 22nd and I could start May 23rd. I would have preferred to escape ASAP, but it wasn’t in the cards.

I went to tell Kelly I would be keeping the apartment until May 22nd and she had no problem with that. Then she asked me if I would mind working part-time (3 or 4 classes a day) next week. I’m trying to get along, and the money would be nice, so I said yes. I then asked her if she had filled out my visa cancellation form. She said she was doing it and she would give it to me later.

Well, I fell for that one again. I’m ready to leave and I go into her office to get it. She says she was told she could download it, but she couldn’t find it. Why am I not surprised. She then asked me if I would go to the immigration office on Monday and get one. She will be in Seoul for a few days so I should bring it to the school and Jack or Miss Moon will fill it out and put the school stamp on it. Then I can go back to immigration to turn it in. I said sure but I wasn’t thrilled.

She then tells me that of course I have to reimburse her for the plane fare here because I stayed at the school less than six months. I said that wasn’t in the contract and she said it must be because it’s standard. She then goes into this sob story about how I am leaving and she doesn’t have a replacement yet and she has to tell the parents still and she’ll have to pay plane fare again for the next teaching victim. I told her that I gave one month’s notice as per our contract. I asked her to look at the contract but of course she didn’t have it. Fortunately I had mine on my hotmail account so I pulled it up and showed her it was never mentioned. I have no doubt that it’s standard and it makes sense, but it’s not in my contract. I asked her if she wrote the contract and she said no, the agency did. Whether or not that’s true I’ll never know. I told her that if the agency made the mistake of leaving that out of the contract, then they should reimburse her for the plane fare. She will call them on Monday (it’s a holiday tomorrow) to see what to do. Until she talks to them I’m not getting my visa cancellation but she assures me I’ll have it by Tuesday. And supposedly my monthly salary should be in the bank Monday afternoon.

Once again I felt bad for her. It should have been in the contract. I made her a worse-case scenario offer. I told her she should try and get the agency to pay and if they don’t then I would pay half (about $500). If 6 months is the cut off for reimbursement in normal contracts (which I believe it is) then 3 months is half of that. I’m trying to be fair. I could say, “I WON’T PAY”, but the fact of the matter is that she is holding one month of my salary so in reality she can do what she wants with the money. I think I’ll end up paying half which is better than paying all, and I think it’s fair.

So I’m out of here on May 22nd. I’ll work part-time next week and then the week after I’ll probably go to Japan to get my new visa and hopefully see some of Japan this time. Every day I’m there it seems there is another story. I don’t understand Kelly. I have heard of bad Korean experiences but I’m not sure if it’s Korea, or it’s her. Either way, the sooner I’m gone, the better.

I’m off to Seoul in the morning so that is good. I went to the bus station to get a ticket today for the 1st bus at 6:20AM and they were sold out. So I asked for the next bus which is 8:20AM and it was sold out. The first bus I could get was 9:20. That takes away 3 hours of my time away.

Five weeks and 2 days until my old Texas home. I should have a lot of activity to keep me occupied until then.