Kimchi, not for me

My work, due to miscommunication (a term which, loosely translated, means "stupidity" and/or "the pigheaded inability to listen"), paid me less than half my paycheck. They then, ever so graciously, offered to pay me the missing amount at the end of my contract next February. Umm... no. When I objected to this, I was given the lame line, "Well, it's really not a lot of money." Umm... 1.6 million won is roughly 1600 US dollars. For a company with 30 million US dollars in profit last year, it's not a lot of money. But for me, yeah...it's a lot of money. After that didn't work, my boss said, "Well no one intended to do it." At which point I responded, cheeks all red and blotchy from anger/frustration and tears in my eyes also due to frustration, "You know, even if no one intended to do it, it still has an impact on my life. The fact that it is accidental in no way removes the consequences." And then I left. I seriously considered not going back, ever. But that was just the frustration. The news of the seriously challenged paycheck came immediately after receiving word that I would not be able to get a company cell phone as previously promised because the Labor Union would be angry. The other teacher as well as his wife have one, but they already have theirs. I don't understand the reasoning, especially since by "company cell phone" it is simply the physical phone and a reduced-rate plan. It's not like they pay the bill. I would pay the bill. But now no.

Then today a taxi I was riding in was rear-ended by a bus. It wasn't severe at all, but startled me bad and, in a thoroughly not surprising and nearly hilarious turn of events, hit my head on both the headrest and the door. It wasn't the hit that startled me, just turning and seeing a massive blue bus far closer to me than it should have been, and realizing that things very easily could have been MUCH worse. It was only bad enough that the taxi driver yelled at the bus driver some and gave him some dirty looks. (Though they don't handle accidents here the same way we do back home.) It's horribly ironic because I was just reading about how South Korea has one of the highest traffic fatality rates, and thinking to myself, "Hmm, I don't even know if I've ever seen an accident in all the time I've been here." And then I was very nearly in one. Hate when that happens.

But now I'm up blogging when I should be sleeping simply because of how thoroughly I am dreading going to work tomorrow. I know that there is no such thing as a perfect job (or perfect anything, on this side of heaven) and so it's not like I have these hyper unrealistic expectations. My last job drove me batty on occasion, but was NOTHING compared to this. I would be more than happy for a job I enjoyed that I didn't absolutely dread going to (and by dread, I mean sick in the pit of my stomach dread). Ah well. Isn't this part of the beauty of being an adult? That even when you hate what you do, you keep on doing it, because that's what adults do. Perhaps that's cynical. But I'm tired of qualifying everything I say in a futile attempt to make sure everyone and their dog understands what I mean. So I'm just going to let it stand. And on that chipper note, off to bed.