Writing report cards sucks. Writing report cards whilst finding fun music and drinking beer sucks a little less. But it still sucks.

I got my Christmas present today. Got it myself. Went to Yongsan electronics market all on my own, and I was neither haggled nor lost. I've wanted one for more than 15 months, and for some reason, today was the day. I've even made my first playlist.

Watching "Lost in Translation" a day and half after deciding not to go to Tokyo and two weeks before going home was probably not the smartest thing I ever did. I'll be locked in my room in my underwear looking out the window if you need me.

Top score is now 70%. My questions are so very tricksey...

Well, I'm not going to Japan this weekend. I had to make my decision yesterday, and I wasn't comfortable with the idea of having no money at all when I return to Canada... so it's another disappointment directly related to working here. Sigh.

I am an enigma. Or am I?

Think you know everything about me? Take the "How Well Do You Know Barb?" quiz I created on Tickle and see how you score.

Top score so far is 55% (and three of you should have known better). Ok, so the favourite author question is a little difficult... but the rest. Come on, where have you guys been?

Talk about a bad day. Apart from a nice msn conversation this afternoon, it's been nothing but negative.

The first email I opened today told me that in spite of my repeat business to his company, my travel agent will not give me a better deal on my trip to Tokyo. I imagine that there's only so much he can do in any circumstance, but I was hoping he would break with his usual air/hotel policy, and let me use the cheaper hostel options I know to be available.

Let's not even talk about the second email I opened and responded to in the cheeriest manner possible.

Then I managed to annoy the person I least like to annoy in my life.

Then I had some self doubt. That's been happening too much lately.

Anyway, I went back to work a little early this afternoon, as I had some homework to correct, hoping that the bright shiney faces of my kids would cheer me up. Instead I found a barely legible note on my desk, demanding that I confirm the speaking abilities of my students for their placement in classes next term by 4:00 p.m. It was 4:40, and the information about the students (apart from their names, miraculously) and the classes was written in Korean. The teacher I'm supposed to use as a translator between myself and the almost entirely useless administrator responsible for the foreign teacher classes was no where to be found, and the useless administrator was in a meeting. So I ignored it and went to my first class, which was interrupted by useless at half past 5, who came to in to say "give" and thrust a stack of papers into my hands. Nest, I got to do my favourite thing - distribute papers to my students and then explain to them that they can't ask me any questions because I can't read Korean, and their parents will have to call the school instead. And they wonder why the numbers of students fluctuates so much!

The same process was repeated in my next two classes, with only the middle school one being slightly bearable. My kids keep asking who will be teaching them, and I have to tell them I don't know. Today, my favourite student in my youngest class asked me if I would be teaching any of the possible classes she would be going into. I told her I would not be, but I didn't tell her why. I'm trying to wait until Monday... but may end up coming clean tomorrow. The head teacher told me not to tell anyone until the last day, but I only have 3 more classes with one group of middle school kids, and if I wait until their last day to tell them, they won't have time to give me any messages or write down their addresses or anything. And it's just plain rude not to give them notice.

The lowliness of my day continued after my last class finished. I decided to correct a stack of homework before I went home tonight, something I think I've done only once or twice this semester. After I had been sitting at my desk for a few minutes, the head teacher came to me and told me he had something to talk to me about. Apparently, even though the director said he would two weeks ago, he has decided not to pay me before my afternoon shift starts on my last day of work. He has decided to pay me at 10 p.m. after I've taught my last classes. He doesn't care that I wanted to transfer the money home before the banks closed. And he doesn't care that I won't have time to take care of any of my personal business that requires money in advance (i.e. posting any of my personal belongings home, buying last minute souvenirs). Well then why, I asked, did he agree to it before?????? The head teacher could tell me nothing more than that the director is unable to pay me before the end of my teaching. To which I inquired as to whether or not the director was actually going to pay me on the 2nd, and asked what recourse I would have if he didn't. What if he doesn't pay me until the 10th? What if he doesn't pay me at all? There were, of course, no answers.

Now I have to make a difficult decision. I can only just barely afford to go to Japan. I can get there fine, and I can even sleep somewhere comfortable, and I can afford a sushi meal and a cheesy souvenir or two. There are lots of free things to do in Tokyo, and some of them are even in walking distance of other attractions, so I can save on the subway fare. But I can't afford to go to Japan if I'm not going to get my last paycheque from my school. And having been screwed over the last time I trusted an employer to keep his or her word in this country, I'm not sure I'm willing to risk being broke for 10 days in Ottawa and 30 days in Calgary for a weekend of fun in Japan. It would have to be pretty fun to be worth all of this worry.

Thoughts? Advice?

Work days remaining: 8.5

Days until flight to Canada: 15

Days until trip to Tokyo: 3

I had a pretty interesting weekend. Twas one of those bittersweet moments in life- my last real partying weekend in Seoul. I say this assuming I'm going to spend all of my money in Japan next weekend, so my very last days in Korea will likely be spent packing, wishing I could afford one last club night. But most of this past weekend was money well spent with good friends.

Two of my favourite people left Korea on Sunday. Rhoni headed to Thailand and ought to be in Cambodia by now, and Al should be happily settling back into his life in England. One of the hard parts about the expat life is seeing your friends leave, wondering when/if you'll ever run into them again. But we had a pretty good last weekend together, and so very many laughs over the last few months.

Al came into Seoul on Friday night, and somehow managed to get me to go to Limelight with him. When I arrived it became clear that there was some sort of Miss Limelight talent/raunchy dancing contest going on, which was tolerable if only because the winner was a friend of a friend. I did happen to meet the three most beautiful women I've ever seen there - models from Brazil. Stunningly beautiful ladies (I believe a friend who shall remain nameless attempted to make a go for one of them and was brutally rebuffed, but that's just hearsay). After a while I headed over to Bricx for a few drinks, chatted with some interesting people, and promised a few would-be suitors that I would bring my single friends back the next night. I may or may not have made drunken phone calls to a Canadian boy who was hung over at work...

On Saturday I met up with Ryan and Stella for about an hour and a half. I emptied most of the contents of my cupboards into Ryan's backpack, as I shan't be needing 10s of packets of instant sauces, taco mixes and gravies over the course of the next two weeks. After that I took myself for a Valentines Day coffee and bagel at my favourite western cafe. I had some time to kill before I was meant to meet Rhoni at the train station, so I picked up a copy of "The Great Gatsby", somehow having missed reading it up until now (classics are incredibly cheap to buy in Korea), and was a good third of the way through it when Al decided to come meet me for a bite to eat, and then accompanied to meet Rhoni. We had to wait for 2 other friends to arrive (there had been a time-telling mishap which had resulted in a missed train), so Al left us there with an intention to meet up at Bricx later in the evening. After a quick creepy-less stop at my apartment, my three Valentines and I were out for Rhoni's last night in Korea.

We went to Bricx where a "lock and key party" was in the works. When women arrived at the bar, they were presented with a lock. Men had to buy a set of keys, and then wander around the bar, trying to find the corresponding lock. None of us wanted to participate very badly, but the owner Soo Jin insisted that we take locks. We had a few unsuccessful Americans come to try out their keys, before the gentlemen at the table next to us came over to try (three Americans, all in the airforce, all computer guys, not pilots). Rhoni's lock was the first one to open, and then mine. It was lame, but kind of funny, especially since the guys weren't really trying to pick us up (a refreshing change from the usual behavior of men in Itaewan). Mind you they did try to convince us to go to a club with them, so maybe I've become naive...

We stayed at Bricx for quite a while, but Al didn't appear. Around 2 a.m. (I think) we met up with a Korean friend from Gumi, and went for some street food. After a few more beers with my new ajuma friend in one of the cheap food restaurants, we went back to my apartment for an hour and a half of sleep before Rhoni had to make her way to the airport. We managed to fit all 4 of us girls in my bed, and would have been comfortable too if it weren't for Toby's crazy cat pouncing on us every 2 minutes. We were awoken around 6 a.m. by a rather grumpy boyfriend of mine who wondered why I didn't have someone in this hemisphere to act as a wake up call. We wandered out of my apartment and found a cab, and set off for the airport limousine bus stop. As we neared our destination, I noticed the airport bus in front of us, so we got the cabbie to speed up. We overtook the bus about a block in front of the stop, jumped out, grabbed Rhoni's things, flagged down the bus, and hardly had time to give her one last hug before she got on. None of us like long good byes, but that one happened too fast. We were all in tears (especially Rebecca) as we watched the bus drive away.

Us three remaining ladies went back to my place where we slept in a more sprawled out fashion for a few more hours. The other two girls had to be up by 11 ish to make it to their Sumo date with the boys from Gumi. They got conned into taking two extra tickets by crazy Nick the night before. When they called to find out exactly where they were meeting, however, they were informed of another extra ticket, which I was pressured into taking. 30,000 won and 2 hours later, I found myself in the midst of an arena in East Seoul for my first ever Sumo tournament. The surroundings weren't too exciting, and neither was the first hour of ceremony, warm ups, and demonstrations (except for the first 5 of the 30 minutes that child sumo wrestlers went for adult sumo wrestlers in groups of two), but it got better once the real fighting began. It's amazing how agile a 200kg man can be.

After sumo, Amanda, Rebecca and I left the Gumi boys and headed out for dinner. We decided to go to this great little Indian/Nepalese restaurant that Toby and I found by accident one day. Only when we go there, we discovered it was under renovation. We were unbelievably disappointed, but the owner recommended that we go to a place called Himalaya down the street instead, which was a little more expensive, but about as good. It was just missing the sweet Nepalese lady who works at the other one. After dinner, I accompanied the girls to Insadong, where I bought my first ever mixture of incense and a burner. I've never had cause to use incense before, but it was only 2000 won, so I figured I would try it out. I also bought something for Toby's birthday, but I can't tell you what it is on here. He's going to think he knows what it is, but he won't.

I said a sad goodbye to the girls around 8:30 and headed home. I don't imagine I'll see them again for quite some time as they both want to travel for a while, but at least they are fellow Canadians and will someday end up back home. And that sums up the weekend.

Success! The other teachers are going to take my shift next Friday. I'm going to Japan.

Sweet. My travel agent just emailed me to confirm that he got me off the waitinglist and onto a return flight from Seoul to Tokyo. Now I just need to get him to give me a better deal on the hotel, and I'm going to Japan! That is if I can negotiate a switch of Friday work days with my colleagues.

If you recall, I had decided any travel outside of Korea was out of the question due to financial uncertainties upon my return to Canada. However, after receiving my exciting new proposal the other day, I decided to cost out a weekend in Tokyo again. And even though I can't really afford to, I decided to go for it. So I'm going for it.

Tokyo will be my second city in Japan, and my fourth big city in Asia that I've been to in the past year. Fifth if you include Seoul. The others were Bangkok in April, Osaka in June and July, and Beijing at Christmas. I was seriously considering going back to Beijing as stuff is cheap in China, but there's just something about Japan. It must have been Kill Bill or something.

If I have to hear ONE more stubby, short, greasy Korean guy say that a woman's role is the pursuit of beauty I'm going to scream!

Normally, I try to subtly turn the idea of women as objects or second class citizens here around on my students, but today I was entirely without tact. The student is named David, and he's a fairly smart guy. He studied economics in university, and he actually seems to understand what he learned (unlike the vast majority of Korean students who only memorize and regurgitate). He's trying to get into graduate school in the US, and I've helped him with his applications a little. So anyway, today in one breath he told us, a classroom filled with 7 women, that our role is the pursuit of beauty. He then turned around, and in the next breath told us that women who are trained and educated are doing a disservice to their nation by not using their skills in the workforce. So I wrote his two comments on the board and tried to point out his hypocrisy in words that all the other ladies would understand. Not a good teaching moment for me, but at least he thought about his attitudes for a few minutes.

I once had a student named John tell me that when he gets married he wants his wife to work. Most Korean women gradually become housewives after marriage. Some wait until they have kids, but it's very uncommon for women to stay in careers after their weddings. As my student is studying to become an accountant, I thought he would have some rational financial viewpoint about two incomes, less pressure on the man to be the breadwinner, self worth and satisfaction from having her own goals. Nope. Why does he want her to work? So that she'll do her hair and wear makeup every day. 11 work days left... 10 adult classes to go.

It must be said that neither John nor David have girlfriends. Surprised?

McDonald's coffee again this morning. I feel dirty. Cat kept me up until after 4 a.m. I don't think I ever want to care for a kitten again. Bring on the lazy 8 year old cats with nothing but love and affection, please.

Got a job offer yesterday. Well, a job proposal. Got the salary proposal today. Not going to say no to flexible hours, independent self-directed work, the best boss ever, and $18 an hour. Pending the details, it looks like I'll be in Calgary for a few months after all.

I did one of those things I try not to do this morning. For the first time this year, I went to McDonald's. Terrible, really, but it's the only place with reasonably priced regular coffee around here. For 1100 won I get a 10 ounce cup of the stuff, whereas everywhere else charges more than 3000 (1100 won is $1.26 CAD and 3000 is $3.43 - prices in Canada are going to kill me after this, I know). I needed a bigger caffeine jolt than my regular 100 won shots of instant coffee from the machine at work today, as I was up half the night with an unruly cat while lewd acts occurred in the living room.

Creepy just hit the all time high on the creep-o-meter.

Just talked to Thomas. No extra cash for me. But he did say the director will pay me on the last day of work. Mind you they said they would pay Toby before he left too. I guess I just won't teach my classes till my money is in my account. Too bad about the lack of extra pay or airfare. i wasn't expecting it, but I had just begun considering popping over to Beijing to go shopping one more time... sigh.

I brought up the aforementioned plan with head-teacher-Thomas yesterday. It was brief, it was concise. He said he would take it to the boss. Today, I asked him if he had any news for me, and he said he would tell me tomorrow. After more than a year in Korea I have yet to learn if that's a good sign, a bad sign, or if it has absolutely no significance whatsoever. I guess I'll wait and see. I'm not exactly stressing about the outcome, as I don't think I have much chance of getting any extra money from the school, and even if they say they'll pay my salary early they're sure to be later than I'll need them to be... anyway. The disturbing part about the conversation with good old Thomas was that he told me that I should wait until the last day of classes to tell my students that I'm leaving. I'm not exactly comfortable with that. I think they deserve more notice than that. Some of the parents will be angry that the school didn't tell them ahead of time, and some of the students may only be staying at this institute because they like their teacher (not to sound full of myself or anything), so it's really not fair for them to wait until the last day. I think I'm going to tell them early... or find a way for them to find out. I care more about the kids than the phone calls the school is going to get.

Tonight they were also interviewing a couple of foreign teachers, and funnily enough, one was a guy from Calgary. I'm surprised to see that they're looking for a man. I was certain they would try to find a woman to replace me, but Thomas told me yesterday that they are looking for a man.

Nothing much else to say, other than I've developed a nice little sore throat in time for the weekend.

So here's the plan. I have yet to suss out the details of my leaving the school early with the head teacher. It's Tuesday, and I should talk to him before Thursday if I have any hope of an answer by Monday. I need to find out what the details of my salary will be, when I will be paid, and whether or not the school will give me anything for my bonus (supposed to be given to a teacher who completes a year contract) or my airfare (one way due to the teacher after each six months of teaching).

When Toby left, they kind of kept a chunk of his cash for "taxes". There is some (I think bogus) tax that this collects every year, even though we pay 5% of our salary into it every month. 5% is the maximum tax rate on foreigners working in Korea. So I want the school to deduct the extra taxes off this month's pay instead of my last pay so that I'm here to argue if I think it's unfair. I also want to ask if they will pay me any portion of my bonus or my airfare, even though it's pretty clear in my contract that I'm not eligible. The last (and most important) thing that I'm looking for, is to have my date of payment moved up from March 10th (by which time I will be in Ottawa celebrating Toby's birthday - no I didn't get the date wrong, I'm working with time zones) to March 1st.

So here's my strategy. I ask for the tax thing to happen directly. It shouldn't be too much of a big deal, especially since they just calculated Toby's a few weeks ago. Then, I will ask to be paid early. Then I will tell the head teacher that I would like to talk about receiving half of my bonus. If not my bonus, then my airfare. I fully expect the response to be that they will do the taxes off the last cheque, that they won't give me any part of my bonus or airfare (which I guess I don't technically qualify for), but that since they're saying no to the other two, they'll pay me early. Not on March 1st, but before the banks close on March 2 (the 1st is a holiday). So lets see how close I come. The head teacher doesn't look too too busy now...

In other news, great work to the folks at CASA. They've been working for years on getting some movement on more than just student loan reform, and the Prime Minister seems to be delivering. Congratulations! I can't wait to see those parental contributions details. How many years of student leaders have been asking about that?????