An Update

Well, my life is going pretty poorly at the moment. I have no job, I have no house, and apparently I'm in Korea illegally right now. I have to take my boss to court to get my last month's paycheque. It's really frustrating.

I don't like sharing an apartment, much less a bed. I want the money my boss owes me and in order to get it I need to sue him which I found out yesterday could take as long as 2-3 months. I really don't want to take another job in Korea but I may be forced to since it's the only way for me to get my own apartment. I'm living off my savings right now which isn't fun either.

In addition to this, I may be an illegal alien. Because my school didn't cancel my visa, I figured I was fine as far as immigration went. I guess I may have been wrong about that and that I should've gone to immigration to cancel the visa myself. Apparently, I could be fined some huge amount for staying here on a working visa while not working. I guess I'd been too busy feeling frustrated, depressed, angry, and lonely to bother going to a government office where no one can understand what I can say to ask about my immigration status.

I don't know where these problems keep coming from. I've also recently realized just how homeless I am. I have no place of my own right now and really I don't have a room to call my own anywhere in the world. I suppose I have one at my parent's house. I've never been to my parent's house though since they moved after I left. So there's a bedroom there but one of my sisters is living there now so it really doesn't make that much sense. My room in name only. Plus, they will be moving in May so it's really not much of a room anyway. I don't usually feel this way but right now I'm really envious of people whose parents have lived in the same house forever and whose bedrooms are basically the same as they left them when they moved out.

My parents by the way will likely be moving to Mumbai, India (formerly Bombay). It's pretty exciting really but just comes at a strange time for me. I guess their house isn't really my home and I'd much rather visit them in a strange city as opposed to one where I've become a stranger. Edmonton is such a distant thing for me. I mean I know it and there are many familiar things but it was never really my home. I'd always lived in Beaumont which has become hugely popular and has so many new developments and renovations that it's really not familiar to me. I guess I really just feel lost. I don't know where I should be or what I should be doing.

There's just nothing familiar about anything in my life right now. I'm staying in the apartment of some guy I barely know. My good friend is gone and I had very few of those here. I've seen his girlfriend, who has assumed the position of best friend in Korea, a few times. She and a few businesses are really the only things that are familiar to me. A little sad that I count my kimbap lady as a good friend of mine considering we've never really had a conversation given she doesn't speak English.

I really just want a place that's familiar to me and I can go there to be alone. That's all I want. I can't do that where I am now given that it's not my apartment and am completely reliant on others for everything at the moment. I've stayed at a few jjimjilbangs which was better than staying here actually since even though they've been full of Koreans they've pretty much left me alone aside from the odd, well not that uncommon, "waygook/miguk saram" (foreigner/American) that I hear there. Hotels are expensive and motels are dirty and not that cheap either.It's not really even the point. I can't feel sorry for myself in a new place. I really just need something.

For those of you who don't know, jjimjilbangs are pretty much 24 hour saunas. You go there and put on an orange shirt and orange shorts and go sit in dry saunas and can sleep on a hard floor for the night. It's kind of surreal since you are wearing the exact same thing as everyone else. It feels like a huge sleepover for you and hundreds of Korean strangers. I don't think many people go alone, usually family and couples. Anyways, they are cheap ($6-8).

I'm going to meet some lawyer with Young Mi, my friend's Korean girlfriend, tomorrow afternoon. Hopefully, he'll be able to tell me what I should do or give me a better time frame. We don't even know who he is. He just called Young Mi and told her he wanted to meet to go over my case. He's either been assigned by the courts or else is Young Mi's boss' friend. Or in a glimpse at where my mind has gone, some kind of Win School operative sent to take my evidence and burn it. Mind you, last year on my way to the immigration office (when my boss cancelled my visa the proper way), I had images of him driving me to some remote area and butchering me.

I really almost feel like giving up. I've fighting with my boss since the beginning of September really and now that I basically have nothing going on here it feels strange to stay. I really just can't let my boss keep that money after everything. I can't let him win but my victory seems so distant.

Uncertainty Abounds

I'm not sure the last time I wrote. I could look it up I guess but I'm a bit lazy. Anyways, since then a lot has happened. Nothing really exciting, well not in a good way at least, but definitely life-altering.

On October 30th, at the end of the day, I see a note on my desk. The vice-director is not happy with me. I didn't teach the class she told me to teach at 3:25. I had told her the Wednesday before that I wouldn't teach them since my contract says I start work at 4. The note tells me she wants to see me before I leave. It's 10:05. The vice-director is busy talking to the assistant teachers, giving them directions. I wait until 10:25 and then I make towards the door. The vice-director stops me and tells me she needs to see me. I blurt out that I wasn't going to wait forever. I decide to give her 5 more minutes. Finally, at 10:28, she is ready to speak to me. She leads me into the little conference room, hands me a letter, and says "There are no words."

I know what the letter says already. I run into the assistant teachers on the way out. They confirm what I thought, that the vice-director was just telling them the same things again and again. I really can't believe that the vice-director was so immature as to make me wait for no reason except to inflate her ego and make herself feel powerful.

Within the envelope is a formal notice. I've been fired. I'd been expecting it. I'd gone to the labour board to sort out a few things in my contract like the tax rate, not being paid overtime, and a few other pieces of nonsense. After going the first time, the labour board said they would call the school and try to resolve things that way. Following this I get a letter. The letter says that they don't owe me anything and also that I'm a terrible teacher and should only ask for things once I'm doing "perfect teaching." So, a thinly veiled threat not to take things further or I'll be canned. I could've really cared less about my job. I was planning on quitting the end of November anyway. I took things further. I went back to the labour board to file a formal complaint. It was a Thursday. I'm sure they drafted my notice over the weekend since there wasn't even mention of me not teaching the first class on Monday. There was, however, mention of me not going to work on a Saturday when I had already told them I wouldn't work any more Saturdays.

That's really not the worst part though. They gave me only 7 days notice since the scheduled labour board mediation was in 8. They really didn't want to go to that meeting. I stayed in my apartment until the day of the meeting and refused to leave since even by the worthless contract they owed me 15 days. The meeting comes and Young Mi decides to come with me (the labour inspection speaks no English). My boss shows up 45 minutes late telling everyone what an important, rich, respectable person he was. He decides that he's not going to give me my last month's pay since I betrayed him by taking him to the labour board and also that I should repay him for the airfare and recruiting fees (even though the contract says I only need to pay him for that if I break the contract). Also, he says he's going to charge me rent for the apartment 40,000 won a day. There's no way my apartment is worth 1.2 million won a month.

So now, I'm unemployed and homeless in Korea and am owed something like 3 million won. Luckily, my boss hasn't cancelled my visa so I don't have to leave the country or anything. He has until the 24th of this month to pay me. If he doesn't, then I need to take him to court. So until I get my money, I am stuck in Korea just waiting it out.

Then there are a few other things to make me feel all the more uncertain about life and everything. Aside from having no job, no home, and being involved in a labour dispute, my parents may be moving to India if my dad accepts a job there, my best friend in Korea is leaving this weekend, I don't know where I'm going after Korea, and the younger brother of a good friend of mine (who I'd met)died accidentally. Uncertainty indeed.