Well, it's been a new day for me. I started back to work after a 5 day holiday this morning. No one came to my 10 a.m. class (quiet hurrah!) so I got to spend the hour chatting with Robbie, whom I rarely hear from these days. I also got to agonize over how to break the news that I want to leave Korea four months early for an extra hour.

I decided about a week and a half ago that today was the day to tell them. When I went into work, the teacher who serves as a translator between the foreign teachers and the administrators told me that one of the administrators would be observing some of my classes today. Groan. That seems to only happen here when negative comments have been made (or perhaps I am being overly suspicious. I often imagine sinister dealings. I believe they call it paranoia in some circles...

I taught for a couple of hours, and then ran out to buy some dinner on my break. In the ten minutes I was out of the school I practiced my speech to the head teacher over and over again. We both have an hour break at 4:00 p.m. so I figured that would be the least confrontational time to talk to him. When I got back to the school, the head teacher saw my face when I walked into the teachers room and immediately asked me what was wrong. I didn't realize I had become completely incapable of concealing my feelings. The rehearsed speech flew right out of my head, and I stammered for a minute. Then I told him that my family had asked me to come back to Canada (my rehearsed line for homesickness nicely crafted into sentiment that should be easy to understand as Korean parents are telling their children what to do well into adulthood), and that I was unhappy teaching. He took the news well, as he is a pretty nice guy, but there is some concern about what the director's reaction will be. Apparently I'm facing a typical case of bad timing.

At a staff meeting of the Korean teachers today, the director circulated a flyer that advertised a big new
school opening down the street from us in March, and the director is very very worried about
losing students to them. As a result, teachers will begin checking up on teaching again, to make sure
everyone is behaving properly. Thus Julia is in my classes this week... So with all of this in mind, Thomas said the
director is likely to see my leaving as a further threat to his business. He asked me several times if I
had made up my mind, and I told him I had. He said he would talk to the director and that he didn't know
anything about my contract, so he couldn't answer any questions I may have yet.

I told the teachers that I'm closest to about my decision. Three of them are also leaving at the end of this term.

After work (which was rather uneventful today), I talked to Thomas who told me he hadn't told the director yet, but
would do so tomorrow morning, and would then talk to me again at our 4 pm break. When I got home I caught the
end of the golden globes. I think I might be developing a crush on Uma Thurman...

The phone rang a few minutes into it. It was one of the other foreign teachers calling to talk to me about my decision. I had decided to tell the school before I told the other couple I work with because I didn't want them to try to talk me out of it. Not surprisingly, he was calling to ask me if I was leaving because of the water heater. Come on, it would take more than that... Well, he was really calling one more time on behalf of Thomas to be sure I had made up my mind before going to talk the director. I told him I had. I told him that it wasn't about that at all, that everyone at the school had been very good to me. I told him it was because of my family, and that I wasn't happy teaching anymore. He eventually decided to listen to me.

So, I guess I'm waiting until tomorrow to hear the response from the director. In other news, I came home to a
quiet Norco/Miss Puddles (did I mention I want to change her name? gonnnngggg. too traumatic for kitties though I imagine), and an otherwise empty apartment, so it's been a nice evening. Watched an episode of the West Wing. Not one of the best... but Josh was funny...wearing Sam's bad weather sailing gear... tee hee.