Co-worker issues, new phone, and business trip?

So…this week has been all over the place it feels.

Monday I was flying solo, with no co-teacher. She’s pregnant and wasn’t feeling well. I can understand that. Plus it was fine since I only had 6th graders and they are pretty well-behaved. Though I had to raise my voice in the second class and they were all O.o and stayed quiet for the rest of the time.

I’m normally very quiet, so raising my voice is something I hate doing. But they are much better now. ^_^ We went through more than they needed to do and still had time left over. So we watched a movie and they still had an extra 20 minutes. I was like whatever sometimes we leave early anyways so that’s what I did with the second class.

But the teacher that teaches them decided she wanted to tell me in the hall “Here…in Korea…it’s not normal. They have extra 20 minutes. Extra 10 ok, but 20 no.”

I’m like “What are you trying to say? It’s never like that in America at least where I’m from, you start ON time and end when it says you are going to end. But here it’s never on time and we (me and my co-teacher) always leave early because they are done with their lessons and we were told that’s fine. I’ve never had this problem before and you know that. There’s but so much you can push on kids in a foreign language.”

She was trying to make it seem like I wasn’t doing my job when I had to explain to her that I did more than my job required for that class. I got out the book and told her “Ok we were on lesson 3 they were suppose to finish through lesson 4 today, but instead they finished through lesson 6. They completed an extra 2 lessons and still finished early. I drilled them, they wrote sentences, they even played games with the words (I didn’t tell her we even watched some of a movie). I can’t do anymore when it’s not on the schedule for it. Plus Mrs. M isn’t here. I don’t know what else she had planned for them because I didn’t even know what happened to her this morning until later. And I can’t start another chapter that soon.”

Took 20 minutes (the 20 minutes the kids had extra) to explain this to her. Then she’s all “OOOOOOOHHHHH I see. You taught them more than they needed for today and M isn’t here….oh….*turns red* omg I’m so sorry.”

I’m like -.- I don’t like you…I didn’t like her from the beginning really. It was just something funny about her and now I see. I mean the vice principal and Principal had no problem in me finishing early, so I’m not understanding why she wanted to try to cause problems.

Last I check she didn’t hire me, she doesn’t pay me, and she can’t tell me what to do at all. She has nothing to do with me besides being a co-worker. I don’t care if you are older and I’m a foreigner. I know I don’t talk often but I’m not going to be looked down upon like I’m not doing my job when I’m doing it better than you running around the school talking nonsense. You don’t know me, so don’t start with me. >.< Gahh…I’m upset thinking about it now. *sigh* I just hope nothing else like that happens in the future.

Even the principal walked by and asked me what was going on. I told her and she looked upset at the teacher and dragged her into her office. All I heard was yelling and the teacher coming out to apologize again. At least I know the principal doesn’t side with her Korean teachers when they are in the wrong. Could’ve been the opposite. >.<

Anyways off that topic…yesterday~! Co-teacher came back, which I was happy about. I got a period off too because she needed to make up a class. Works for me as long as I’m still getting paid. ^_^ Then she told me cell phone/furniture guy/guy that owns my apartment called her about a phone. I saw him Monday afternoon and he asked if I got one yet. He speaks limited English but it’s decent.

So yesterday after work we went to the phone place. Took like 2 hours because people were going into the furniture store too. Go figure. Anyways, they had a phone set aside for me because we talked to his…brother(?) last week about it but it’s expensive since it’s a new smart phone and we know that they split up the phone price to include it with the monthly fee. With me being here for only a year (at the moment) it should be more expensive. Filled out paper work where my name became an issue again since they needed all of it on the papers. The lady activating it was freaking out. I’m like “It’s not that bad….-.-“ It’s really not, it’s only 25 letters long I know a lot of people that have last names almost as long as my name.

We got that straightened out and phone activated. In between all that he was asking questions about me. I’ve come to the point that I think everyone is just super curious about why I’m here to even teach when they start asking a ton of questions. I’ll accept it like that. My co-teacher went to explain and answer his questions though this time she translated everything he said unlike with the banker guy…So something is still up with that conversation.

I asked when the payment would be due and how much it would be a month. Which makes sense, I have to know. Guess what? 55,000 won+VAT=59,000 won for 180 minutes and 2G of data a month. Somehow that’s including the phone? I’m not seeing it…because that’s the normal price for service. My phone costs quite a bit that I totally wouldn’t be able to pay upfront and even if they spread it out 12 or 24 months my bill should be more than 59,000 won/month. It should’ve been pushing 80,000 won/month for 2 years and over 100,000 won/month for just a year.

EDIT!- I just found the paper from the other night in the phone bag. hehe. So…my bill is going to be little over 59,000 won but under 60,000 won and that’s including my phone and VAT. Coming to find out I got a HUGE discount. Like way more than half off my phone and even a discount on my plan. Totally amazing. *mind blown*

Then he asked if I would have dinner with him. I’m like O.o eh…yeah sure whatever. Who am I to turn down the guy that didn’t even charge me for my phone at the moment? As a foreigner I’m lucky not having to put a down payment on it…and it’s not included in my bill (yet?). Heck I’m lucky not being forced into a prepaid phone too. I don’t know what he did but alright. So he ordered some food and I got him to include my co-teacher. She’s pregnant and did all that hard work of making sure I got a good price. I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t have gotten it especially at that price if I didn’t have her, she deserved a free meal and more.

Korean bonding time. He asked even more questions and she was answering him. Then she mentioned how it seems everyone wants to talk to me but they are way too shy because of their English. They are embarrassed by it. I’m a shy person so it’s like “ooo I don’t know Korean and I doubt they want to talk to me.” While they are like “I want to talk to her but my English is embarrassing.” See the problem? Me too.

We ate. I swear so much food. Got the phone finish set up and I was walking out by 7:30 with a brand new phone. He’s ordering me a case that should be here…tomorrow or Friday, so woo~.

And today I’m supposed to meet the parents of my students…Scary. But I think it will be ok. Then after that, a BUSINESS TRIP! Well I’m going with my co-teacher to sit in on an open class. She told the vice principal and principal that it will help me learn some other things. Which is true. Sometimes you don’t think of things until you see it or something similar. Maybe I’ll meet some more people that speak English. *hopes* I know I need to learn Korean. At least some basic stuff…again *sigh* I’m going to try though. ^_^

Until next time~!