ok. so the panic attacks have subsided. all is well for the most part.

clearly privacy means something totally different in korea. when hannah lived here, her classes were videotaped. in almost every contract i've seen, there has been a clause that your director has keys for your apartment and can inspect it at any time. so when yong-tak came in to work yesterday and said "oh, i saw you were looking mark's post on eslcafe.com" it explained why monster came home the night before and said, out of the fucking blue...

"sean, if you are worried about getting paid on time, don't worry. i will pay you on time. we like you, the students love you, we are happy you are here".

of course i'm freaked. why would he know? yong tak came in to work the day after he said that and i was convinced he was examining the history of the school computer... had i forgotten to clear it? is he snooping or running some spy software? he's usually in the school 2 hours after i am.

what happened? here's what happened. i had printed the post up for bill, and he left it on his coffee table. yong-tak read it, and since bill's situation is as precarious as mine, bill just said "i don't know what that's about, sean found it on some website... it sounds CRAZY!!!" which is exactly what i said when yong-tak... and then monster confronted me about it. monster even printed the damn thing up and said "oh, i read it, and i just think it is funny". i made it clear with the guy... "well it makes me a little nervous to read something like this, but i deal with you. if you fuck with my pay, i take action. if you don't, then mark is wrong about you and there's no need to worry.

so...

here's what's up for those of you who are worrying about me.

1. i am poised to get the fuck out of dodge. i can pack my shit in 10 minutes. all my important, hard to replace documents, i.e. reference letters, passport, etc. are somewhere else where monster can't get his grubby kimchi-covered mitts all over it.
2. i have the financial means to do this. i'm fine, money-wise. (i also have one new pair of PANTS thanks to my jedi father).
3. my first payday is tomorrow (thursday jan. 29). if he waffles on paying me, i will say "WHEN can you pay me?" because, shitbag or not, things do happen, and it's a small school. but he gets one chance. i will make it abundantly clear that it looks really bad for him to be not paying me with what mark has said about him, and that i am a million miles from home, and it's just unacceptable. if he misses the second date, i bail. i leave him in the proverbial lurch, because at this point very few recruiters will work with him. nobody in town will...
4. like princess leia, i have powerful friends. if i bail and monster threatens me with visa shit, my recruiters, who know korean law as well as he does, will do him like he's a boston choirboy.

so, that's it in a nutshell. he knows that i know. he knows i'm on my guard and knows that i could leave andong in a heartbeat and (since i haven't signed a contract yet) there's nothing that can be done about it legally.

so, really, i'm in a good place. i do feel like i'm the one steering this ship. i don't mind working for someone with a shady past and questionable business ethics... as long as i get paid. i mean shit, i worked for ace window cleaners for 6 years.

so stop worrying already. the idea of bailing is appealling-i like adventure! i have options in taiwan and japan. also, wonny and the girls have said they'd place me in a different korean job in days. if i stay here, monster is sort of in check. he will pay me, or he knows i will leave. i don't really want to leave, i truly dig some of the students. and andong is nice. it's like a korean kelowna. or calgary.

what else? some of the andong foreigners eat pig intestine last night. i watched. i drank beer. i needed a beer at the sight of that shit.

korea is north america's cultural dumping-ground. the movies on TV here suck. i watched TOP GUN the other night and was surprised at how haute couture it was in comparison to some of the dreck i've been watching.

what are you reading? i was going to read the fountainhead by ayn rand and see what has got republicans and socialists in such a tizzy... i haven't seen so many people at odds since duran duran was a band... too bad my copy was missing the first 17 pages. damn used book stores. all of them are run by pinkos.

so i switched to "the forty days of musa dagh", a story about armenian resistance to turkish genocide in WW1. it's good. just another historical novel... but good. it helps me understand my good pal aram... only he isn't running around chasing goats. perhaps he should be.

you can all send me literature. i have to go to seoul to buy books. there are no english language books in andong. send me something you think has literary merit.

music? thin lizzy. themselves. the darkness. integrity. fugazi. slayer. nothing really new there.