An invitation to craziness...

Well, things appear to be changing once again.

It seems the director of my school is leaving at the end of the month. She's apparently got another job lined up at a bigger school in Ulsan and wants to take Cathy and me with her. This offer, of course, is pending the continuance of late payments of salary that the school has steadily supplied for us. It would take a lot to dislodge me before my contract is up, though. While the late payments and poor accomodations suck, I'm pretty fond of Milyang and moreso of Laura. So to pull me off to another city, even though it is only an hour bus ride away, would take a guarantee of equal or better pay that would arrive on time, all the time, a much nicer apartment, and a contract that would end at the same time as Laura's at the end of July. Likely, this is not to be and I'll struggle through my contract here, but it is good to know there are options out there should the late-pay situation get worse and become a no-pay situation. I'm not sure who's going to be our new director, likely the owner will take over. I'm also not sure what will happen with Cathy. I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if she left for Ulsan seeing as she hasn't been paid in two months. I seriously would be completely incapable of teaching everyone by myself, so the hiring of another teacher would be essential for the school to survive, but how can you hire people when you already can't afford to pay the employees you have? And here I thought things were stabilizing...

Other school things are changing as well. I will begin taking a bus out to Bugok three days a week to teach the doctors. This is because my director has been driving me there and, well, she's leaving. This really isn't that big a deal other than the fact that at the bus station in Bugok, when we stopped to investigate the bus times, we were accosted by a rather angry man who seemed to hate me on sight. Actually, accosted is a pretty mild term to describe the encounter. This man, who by the looks of it hangs out at the bus station frequently, immediately started yelling things at me as we entered the building. He got right up to us, kept yelling, took a full on swing at me while completely ignoring my director who had interposed her slight five-foot-nothing frame between us. I had no idea what to do. My director seemed only mildly concerned by this guy and led me across the room to check the schedule. He followed, his white robe and long hair flowing behind him (seriously), and proceeded to whack me across the back of the head with a roll of paper, all the while yellling more. Having seen the bus times, we left. He didn't follow us outside. I am more than a little concerned that he will be there again every time I show up at the Bugok station. Not such a great welcoming committee they have there.

And now, the final change... I turn 30 on Sunday. I hereby am inviting you all to join me in celebrating this with bowling and drinking on Saturday night (keep in mind that Saturday night here is early Saturday morning in Canada). I realize it's short notice, but I will cover your food and accomodations (spare room or heated floor). Airfare not included, but you should be able to find some good last minute deals to Seoul, I'm sure. I expect you all to be there. I'll give you more specific directions by email when you let me know what time your flight arrives.

See you all soon!

Guy