I went to the bank today to send money home to Canada to pay for my storage. What a demoralizing trip that was! The exchange rate is CRAP! For Korean to Canadian that is. I probably should have sent more money home over the years but I have been waiting for the Korean won to get back to a place where a buck is about 1000 won. When I came here my paycheck of 1.2 million won was worth more than 1800 bucks. Now a paycheck of 2 million won is worth less than 1800 bucks. My pay has been going up over the years but its value has been going down. So the price of storage has been going up in Canadian dollars and WAY up in Korean won. A boot to the groin.
Not only that but as is customary in Korean banks, I had to take the money out of the bank machine in cash, hand it to the teller who put it back into the bank in cash. I asked her to use my card but she couldn't. So I had to get up, go to the cash machine, get the money, come back, give it to her so she could put it back. Good thing there was no line-up or I would have had to take another number and wait for this nonsense. It's happened to me before. A boot to the groin.
Then I bought some American dollars. That was even WORSE! The exchange rate is 1311! And I exchange once here for a crappy rate then have to exchange it in Thailand for another crappy rate. Between the devaluation of the won against the dollar and the crappy exchange rates I'll be forced to agree to, I'm probably losing 20 cents on the dollar. A boot to the groin. And when I told the teller how much I wanted she told me to go to the bank machine and take out the money so she could put it back in. I said, "You know this is crazy." She just giggled. I asked if I could use my card and she said no but then I asked if I could use my bankbook and she said, "Oh we can do that." The bank book had been sitting there in plain view throughout both transactions. And even if it hadn't been, is this something really tough to think to ask for? A boot to the groin.
And I signed a new contract today. With a raise that won't even cover the nosedive the Korean won has taken recently. Still, I'm content since I can't think of anything in Canada I could do where I would get so much time off. With pay. So if I figure how much I'm paid hourly, I'm getting a pretty awesome wage.
HOWEVER, the "dean" of one of the programs I teach for where I work gave me the "new and improved" marks for the students I taught. I have agreed over the years here to give the businesses MY marks and they can do what they want with them to keep students and parents happy and ensure we get MORE students next semester who don't want to work for their grades. I've taught at businesses where they bump up every student's grade to at least 70%. Even the ones who never see the inside of a classroom. I told them I would not do that because in my country it's called academic fraud and it's illegal. But I'm fine with it as long as they don't involve me in it. One business insisted that I sign the phony marks so I did. Homer Simpson. That's one of the answers in my facebook "How well do you know Dave" quiz.
They asked me to do the same thing here. And the marks had all been jacked up to a minimum of 75%. I made it clear to them at interview time that I don't do these things. And this is the first time in my 2 years, (4 semesters), here I've been asked to do it. I refused saying that I'll sign MY grades not someone else's and I also asked why I am being treated differently this year than I have been treated before. This is the one school at which I felt I had been treated well. In my FIRST year here, not this year! I only signed the contract because of the year when I was treated well. So I asked the guy what gives. Why am I being treated worse than ever and he gave some lame-ass excuse that made no sense but you and I both know the answer. Read the last two posts if you don't.
A boot to the groin.
Am I nuts to stay here another year? Is Korea ripe for a recession that will make my savings here worth half of what they are now? Are conditions just going to get worse here for foreigners? What new surprises are in store for me in my third year at Seokang? The answers to these questions and more will be here soon. But before that, I'll try to get these thoughts out of my head by traveling, golfing, swimming, sightseeing and probably drinking like a madman for a month or so. After that things won't look so glum I'm sure.
Next post will probably be written from Thailand.
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