Mok Mok Mokpo Goodbye

I'm typing this on my computer that is already feeling better having been unhooked from that crappy Hanaro cable internet and rehooked to the Seogang College service, which I get for free! The only bug I've found to this point is that I can't use Scrabulous on Facebook. ?????

The past week has been a memorable one. Monday, (Aug. 18), after work I just walked in the door of my large, two-bedroom, but haunted, Mokpo apartment and the phone rang. It was my new supervisor, (old friend), Jung. He asked me for the exact date of my move. I told him I'd be doing that during the last week of August as I had told him way back in May (?). He said, "But you have to work then." And so began the panic that was this past week. I remember the first word I said to Jung. A word I'd never used around him before. "FUCK!"

You see, when I am handed a contract that is dated Sept. 1, I think I'm going to start Sept. 1. And when I am answering questions about when I'll be finishing my other contract and NOT told there will be any conflict, I assume there won't be any conflict. I was told by Jung that he expected me to remember from 3 years ago when I taught here before that we start one week earlier than other schools. Eye roll.

So I had to choose whether to quit immediately and inconvenience 9 students for 9 hours at Mokpo U., a school I had taught at for 6 months, or stay on at Mokpo U. for the remainder of the week and start my new contract at Seogang College, where I'd worked for a year before, a week late inconveniencing 150 students for about 60 hours. Seogang also treated me better than Mokpo, gave me more holidays, paid me way more, allowed me to teach at camps for extra dough and gave me a dorm room free from succubi and incubi. It was a no-brainer. I called my Mokpo supervisor and told her I had to go to quit. Then I packed a bag and went to Gwangju.

I picked up my criminal record check from my new college and took it to Seoul on Tuesday to get it notarized. I had to wait till Wednesday because the Canadian Embassy is only open from 8:30-11:30 and I couldn't get there early enough on Tuesday. I also had to get a blood test done for AIDS and a urine test for drugs. I figured I'd do that while in I Tae Won at the clinic there. I found out that it would take a week so decided to wait till I got back to Gwangju. Wednesday afternoon I told Jung that we should go to the immigration office and apply for my visa before I got my blood/urine tests because they were needed for my alien card renewal, not for the visa. My alien card is still good till Feb. so I could work Monday without the blood/urine test. But I couldn't work without applying for the visa. He was reluctant to say the least. But he drove me down there and although it was an angry afternoon we got it done. So I'm cleared to work Monday and after I get the body fluid tests I'll hand in all the paperwork and they'll start making me legal for another year.

Jung called a hospital in Gwangju that could do acceptable blood and urine tests and they said the results would be in in a day. I couldn't go on the Wednesday so I went the next day and got the tests done. They said the results would be in on Monday. That's 4 days, not 1. Closer to the week I predicted. But with that all done I went back to Mokpo and packed up all my stuff Thursday afternoon and Friday. Then Saturday morning I trucked it all to Gwangju and spent the whole afternoon Saturday unpacking and arranging. Not easy to fit a two bedroom apartment full of stuff into a dorm room. Plus I had to leave room for a new dresser and a big fridge. I think I've done it though.

Today is Sunday and I'm waiting for a call from another Mokpo teacher. I'm going to give her the attendance from some of my summer classes that I mistakenly took with me in the move. Plus I'm going to look around for a cheap fridge. I have a friend who can get me a good one from Samsung cuz he works there, but I'll have to wait two weeks. That's too long. I'll probly have a fridge by the end of the day. I already have the dresser. THAT was a story!

I found a perfect dresser for my room and it was only 100 bucks. Great deal! So I bought it and hopped into the delivery truck with the driver. All the way to the college he was asking me why I don't have a wife or girlfriend. It got more and more personal until finally he was making gestures about penis and vagina size and finally he asked me how big my Johnson was and REACHED OVER to grab a handful!!! TWICE! Poor guy. So lonely he wanted a gay relationship with someone he couldn't even talk to.

Anyway, there are a couple things that have me thinking. First of all, why are there any hospitals in Korea where blood and urine tests aren't acceptable? If they can screw THAT up so regularly that the government doesn't allow their tests on legal documents, what else do they screw up regularly? And rather than let people pay money to go to hospitals that screw things up regularly, shouldn't they just close them down? I'm not sure though, maybe Korean don't mind a doctor who may or may NOT know what the hell he's, (or she's), doing. I've been to one of these places. My bargain basement doctor told me that men can't get breast cancer.

The second concern I have is that as I was leaving immigration on Wednesday afternoon the worker told me to get the fluid tests AND a physical exam. That's the kind of thing the tribulation office tends to do. They are constantly adding new and completely unnecessary missions for foreigners to complete in order to gain the privelege of working in Korea. I had rubber glove prostate test nightmares Wednesday night before going into the hospital Thursday for the tests but when I got there they asked if I had eaten breakfast. Two pieces of pizza and some of Kasia's best water cooler coffee qualified. (Her coffee maker broke that morning). So I couldn't get the physical. OH DARN!!! But I'm worried that they will hold up my application because of that. I'm also worried that even though I've asked several times about pictures and they've told me I don't need any, they'll ask me Monday, "Where are your pictures?"

However, I've already got a little more jump in my step being back in Gwangju where I belong and with just a little luck, immigration will just take my papers on Monday and do their job without teasing me any more.

Anyway, I have to finish unpacking, buy a fridge, load that fridge up and maybe plan a couple of lessons for tomorrow. I'm a Gwangjuian again. Gwangjuite? Gwangjuer. Gwangjui? Whatever.