Teachers Day and a works night out.
"Teachers Day" (15th May)
As this supposedly 'fun' day approached my hatred for Mr Kim spiraled almost out of control. For weeks the teachers had been going on about Teachers day, which is a holiday here in Korea whereby teachers at public schools don't even have to go to school and kids bring cards or gifts to say thank you to the teachers that help them and are good to them. Well last week Mr Kim announced that he had sent letter home to all parents 'ordering' then not to bring gifts into school! I actually laughed when he told me as I thought it was supposed to be a joke, but when I looked around to see no one else laughing I realised it was real. Why would someone do that? Isn't it up to the parents and if they want their children to bring gifts? It is a day to show appreciation and if their kids like their teachers and if the kid is doing well in school surely it is okay to treat us? Anyway that is Mr Kim for you, to make matters worse he organised a teachers workshop for the Korean teachers after school on 'Teachers day' too. I just can't believe this guy. Just because he doesn't have a life, he thinks no one else has. I wish these people would stand up to him instead of just quiting. He will never learn.
Despite the teachers day scrooge, We still got many beautiful red carnations (the flower of thanks in Korea) Cakes, pastries, fruit, chocolate, teas, vitamin drinks, I also got gift packs of shampoos, body washes, toothpastes etc that I will unfortunately never use. My favourite things however were lovely little hand written cards and pictures (I will keep these as fond memories of my kids). I will also keep my gift of a beautiful silk embroidered scarf from one of my little four year old boys.
I'm sure that for anyone to understand, you would have to work with Mr Kim to empathise and realise what a horrible and intensely awful person he is, but really take my word for it. He will be ingrained forever on mind as someone I hate...Now hate is a harsh word but I do hate him. I spend my days thinking of other words to describe this rat of a man, I can't say that it is a very constructive way to spend my time but I can firmly say Mr Kim is someone that I have intense revulsion against, no empathy whatsoever and is someone who I want to avoid forever. Thinking back to my Psychology degree: According to evolutionary psychologists, hate is a rational reaction to people whose interests consistently conflict with one's own. Hate is an emotion, hence it serves the protective mode of a person. People whose behavior threatens one's own survival interests are to be hated. Ha ha, I would hardly say he threatens my survival but he certainly threatens my stress levels on a daily basis. I know I should spend far less of my time and energy thinking about him!!!
17th May.
To 'thank us' for all our hard work recently Mr Kim invited us to a night out for Sum-gyp-sal. It was actually pretty delicious and as the boss was paying we ordered lots of side dishes and beer and sojo. Brian being Brian was wasted by 8.30 and managed to escape home but the rest of us got dragged off to a Nore-bong. I was adamant not to sing (without my singing partner Dave) but Alyssa, who assured me was very good, dived in and sung the first four very off key songs to get things started, I will never enjoy Cindy Lauper's “Time after time again”. The bus drivers (who we can usually rely on to get drunk and sing hilariously for us all) all went home early and the rest of us were feeling rather shy, tired and we certainly hadn't had enough sojo running through our veins to make us confident enough to sing. A few people braved it and sung Korean songs, all of which sound the same to me, but most of us quietly talked and avoided eye contact with Mr Kim, who was trying to make us sing. Judy, one of my favourite Korean teachers actually made me cry because she was telling me how she would miss me and how hard it will be on the kids. I will miss them all soooo much and it pains me inside that I am lying to them all about my reasons to leave. I know that I had planned this all from the very start but I didn't realise just how hard it would be!
- Posted by emily1183 on 31/05/2007.
- emily1183's site
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