Another big fun-time rant
I am so ANGRY right now. My boss is so fucking ridiculous it's unreal.
Over the weekend, I brought home a CD from work that went with the magazine I teach (TIME for Kids). This was because the magazine comes with this weird software CD that's mostly in Korean, so I wanted to play with it and figure it out before I tried explaining it to the kids. Monday rolls around, and I've walked halfway to work before I realize that I accidentally left the CD in my computer. I figured it wasn't a big deal because I am the only one that teaches with the book, and they didn't need it today anyway. So I figured I could bring it in on Tuesday.
Flash forward to about 2:45, about 45 minutes before my first class of the day is to start. One of my fellow teachers/my boss' personal minion is rifling around in my stack of my already prepared materials for the day. She's looking for the TIME CD. "Oh, sorry," I say apologetically. "I accidentally left it at home. But they don't need it today." It was an honest mistake, I really don't think it was unreasonable of me to expect that it wouldn't be a huge deal. But the minion needed the CD case so she could make a fucking COVER for it. The original CD came in a regular paper sleeve. The day that it came in, my boss threw it into an empty CD case from an old CD and gave it to me. But now the minion was making a fucking title sleeve for it or some shit. "Oh, maybe I can just use another case," she says, and goes to consult my boss. As if this were a problem that seriously requires boss-consulting. I can hear the two of them talking in the next room. Apparently my boss is angry with me. I'm NEVER supposed to take materials home, even though the other teachers do it all the fucking time. It's not like I'm going to run off with a goddamn TIME magazine CD that's in Korean. It was a little mistake, and I tried to explain that, but then the minion says, "She wants you to go get it." I'm sure that my facial expression did little to mask the utter contempt I was feeling for both her and my boss. "NOW??" I asked, not even bothering to conceal my disgust. It was about 3:00 by this point.
So let me sum this up for you: I had half an hour to go back to my apartment to get an old crappy CD case so my boss' lackey could make a FUCKING COVER for it. Walking, it takes about 15 minutes one way to get to my apartment. So I took a fucking cab to my apartment (which my boss should have to goddamn pay for). I live kind of on the outskirts of town, so while it's not hard to get a cab TO my apartment, it's practically fucking impossible to hail one in front of my apartment. So I walked. And it was downpouring. My shoes got all wet, and so did my pants, about up to my shins. I didn't even look at my boss when I walked past her desk, because she probably would have died from my eye death rays. I slammed the CD down on the minion's desk. Even though she wasn't there to witness it, it was pretty satisfying. The other teachers looked at me like I was insane. Then I had to five minutes to sit down and relax before my first class. I was sweating like crazy, because I was speed walking the whole way there. Plus I was furious, so that made it even harder to calm down.
Sometimes I amaze myself with my ability to put on my happy face with my students, because even though I was in a crap mood all day, I was my cheery self for the kids. And actually, they made me feel a lot better. I had my absolute favorite class today, and they were a hoot. They always bring me little trinkets and whatnot, which is sweet. Today I got a mechanical pencil, a plastic fan, and a cell phone charm. And my favorite student, even though he's a total little dirtbag, made me laugh so hard. He sits in the back of the room and writes weird notes on the back of his paper and holds them up for me to see. Usually they are things like "Choose me!" and "I am smartest student!" Today he got upset because I wasn't choosing him enough, so he drew a big unhappy face and wrote "My life is so poor." I adore him, because he's a pain, but he's so smart. Today he gave a really good explanation of what the suffix -holic means. I was impressed.
So anyway, I moped around between classes, but my classes were fine. I got myself a milkshake after work and walked home really slowly and calmed down a little. Then I came home and tooled around on the internet for a while. Then my roommate came home. The boss' evil minion? My roommate. And as a roommate, she's a total clean freak. She once "reminded" me to do the dishes because I had a mug sitting in the sink for more than 24 hours. Anyway, she knocked on my door, and had in her hand, my daily report. We have to write a little log of everything we do at work, not a big deal, just a couple of sentences per class. Up until now, all of the teachers wrote them in the morning and turned them in. Now I was told that I'm supposed to write it "at home" every night. Apparently she couldn't tell me this at work, she had to disturb my perfectly nice non-work time to tell me this. But the stupid thing is, I get to work way later than the other Korean teachers. So even if I write it at home, I'm still going to be turning it in at essentially the same time. What a fucking joke. I should "forget" it at home just to be an asshole.
I'm so sick of all this bullshit. I'm sick of not ever being able to escape work. I was supposed to have a single apartment. I didn't mind my last roommate; she was crazy as hell, but we didn't mess with each other. She got fired. I felt sort of bad for her. She didn't even have 24 hours to get out of the apartment. Poor crazy broad. She's better off.
I'm also tired of not ever knowing what's going on. Half of what I know at work is strictly because I'm fairly observant. I'm never actually told anything. At the beginning of August, I got a new class to teach, but nobody ever told me. I just happened to notice that I was on the new class' schedule. I didn't even really have a reason to be looking at all the schedules on the wall, but my spidey sense was tingling and I felt compelled to check it out.
I wish I could quit, but I would have to put in a month's notice anyway, and I've only got three months left. Plus I would lose out on my completion bonus and airfare home. I'm sure my boss hates me, but I really don't give a damn. Amazingly, this hasn't turned me off of Korea. I still want to stay for another year, but this time I will be smarter about what I'm looking for, and will be picky about my contract. I got stiffed out of 4 vacation days, because we had a "5 day" holiday, but the 5 days included Saturday and Sunday (This happened twice...winter and summer break). So they were actually three day holidays.
ARGH
Over the weekend, I brought home a CD from work that went with the magazine I teach (TIME for Kids). This was because the magazine comes with this weird software CD that's mostly in Korean, so I wanted to play with it and figure it out before I tried explaining it to the kids. Monday rolls around, and I've walked halfway to work before I realize that I accidentally left the CD in my computer. I figured it wasn't a big deal because I am the only one that teaches with the book, and they didn't need it today anyway. So I figured I could bring it in on Tuesday.
Flash forward to about 2:45, about 45 minutes before my first class of the day is to start. One of my fellow teachers/my boss' personal minion is rifling around in my stack of my already prepared materials for the day. She's looking for the TIME CD. "Oh, sorry," I say apologetically. "I accidentally left it at home. But they don't need it today." It was an honest mistake, I really don't think it was unreasonable of me to expect that it wouldn't be a huge deal. But the minion needed the CD case so she could make a fucking COVER for it. The original CD came in a regular paper sleeve. The day that it came in, my boss threw it into an empty CD case from an old CD and gave it to me. But now the minion was making a fucking title sleeve for it or some shit. "Oh, maybe I can just use another case," she says, and goes to consult my boss. As if this were a problem that seriously requires boss-consulting. I can hear the two of them talking in the next room. Apparently my boss is angry with me. I'm NEVER supposed to take materials home, even though the other teachers do it all the fucking time. It's not like I'm going to run off with a goddamn TIME magazine CD that's in Korean. It was a little mistake, and I tried to explain that, but then the minion says, "She wants you to go get it." I'm sure that my facial expression did little to mask the utter contempt I was feeling for both her and my boss. "NOW??" I asked, not even bothering to conceal my disgust. It was about 3:00 by this point.
So let me sum this up for you: I had half an hour to go back to my apartment to get an old crappy CD case so my boss' lackey could make a FUCKING COVER for it. Walking, it takes about 15 minutes one way to get to my apartment. So I took a fucking cab to my apartment (which my boss should have to goddamn pay for). I live kind of on the outskirts of town, so while it's not hard to get a cab TO my apartment, it's practically fucking impossible to hail one in front of my apartment. So I walked. And it was downpouring. My shoes got all wet, and so did my pants, about up to my shins. I didn't even look at my boss when I walked past her desk, because she probably would have died from my eye death rays. I slammed the CD down on the minion's desk. Even though she wasn't there to witness it, it was pretty satisfying. The other teachers looked at me like I was insane. Then I had to five minutes to sit down and relax before my first class. I was sweating like crazy, because I was speed walking the whole way there. Plus I was furious, so that made it even harder to calm down.
Sometimes I amaze myself with my ability to put on my happy face with my students, because even though I was in a crap mood all day, I was my cheery self for the kids. And actually, they made me feel a lot better. I had my absolute favorite class today, and they were a hoot. They always bring me little trinkets and whatnot, which is sweet. Today I got a mechanical pencil, a plastic fan, and a cell phone charm. And my favorite student, even though he's a total little dirtbag, made me laugh so hard. He sits in the back of the room and writes weird notes on the back of his paper and holds them up for me to see. Usually they are things like "Choose me!" and "I am smartest student!" Today he got upset because I wasn't choosing him enough, so he drew a big unhappy face and wrote "My life is so poor." I adore him, because he's a pain, but he's so smart. Today he gave a really good explanation of what the suffix -holic means. I was impressed.
So anyway, I moped around between classes, but my classes were fine. I got myself a milkshake after work and walked home really slowly and calmed down a little. Then I came home and tooled around on the internet for a while. Then my roommate came home. The boss' evil minion? My roommate. And as a roommate, she's a total clean freak. She once "reminded" me to do the dishes because I had a mug sitting in the sink for more than 24 hours. Anyway, she knocked on my door, and had in her hand, my daily report. We have to write a little log of everything we do at work, not a big deal, just a couple of sentences per class. Up until now, all of the teachers wrote them in the morning and turned them in. Now I was told that I'm supposed to write it "at home" every night. Apparently she couldn't tell me this at work, she had to disturb my perfectly nice non-work time to tell me this. But the stupid thing is, I get to work way later than the other Korean teachers. So even if I write it at home, I'm still going to be turning it in at essentially the same time. What a fucking joke. I should "forget" it at home just to be an asshole.
I'm so sick of all this bullshit. I'm sick of not ever being able to escape work. I was supposed to have a single apartment. I didn't mind my last roommate; she was crazy as hell, but we didn't mess with each other. She got fired. I felt sort of bad for her. She didn't even have 24 hours to get out of the apartment. Poor crazy broad. She's better off.
I'm also tired of not ever knowing what's going on. Half of what I know at work is strictly because I'm fairly observant. I'm never actually told anything. At the beginning of August, I got a new class to teach, but nobody ever told me. I just happened to notice that I was on the new class' schedule. I didn't even really have a reason to be looking at all the schedules on the wall, but my spidey sense was tingling and I felt compelled to check it out.
I wish I could quit, but I would have to put in a month's notice anyway, and I've only got three months left. Plus I would lose out on my completion bonus and airfare home. I'm sure my boss hates me, but I really don't give a damn. Amazingly, this hasn't turned me off of Korea. I still want to stay for another year, but this time I will be smarter about what I'm looking for, and will be picky about my contract. I got stiffed out of 4 vacation days, because we had a "5 day" holiday, but the 5 days included Saturday and Sunday (This happened twice...winter and summer break). So they were actually three day holidays.
ARGH