Lincoln International School Shames Honest Abe

So I don't know if I've ever written it on here before or not, but the place I had my hopes pinned on, the international school where I was finally going to live my dream of teaching high school English instead of ESL, its name is Lincoln International School. I guess now I should say, "was." YUP! My luck remains perfectly intact! This morning I received news that the major investor, (to parenthetically state the unparenthetical, a CHINESE guy), was sentenced to 3 years in prison. So the place is going to shut down completely at the end of the month.

Which leaves me with a criminal record check, pristinely unused and 5.5 months old. They're only good for 6 months here. Right. I have two weeks to find a job. The whole time I was waiting here in Icheon, living on campus, BEGGING these knuckleheads to give me a contract and get my E-2 visa started, I was noticing jobs that were okay, but nothing that would have been nearly as lucrative, enjoyable, healthy, and in all other ways GOOD for me. So I didn't put out resumes really even though Lincoln International High School took its sweet time in getting organized. I was told repeatedly, "Don't worry. Don't worry."

The incredible truth is that I've been hearing that now for almost two years! First from Wall Street. "Don't worry, we'll have your business visa changed to a work visa soon." Then when they got their visa privileges taken away, I heard it from Matthew at English Today on a bi-weekly basis. "Don't worry, I'll get you your work visa soon." Then when I gave up because it became obvious Matthew wasn't really putting much effort into it, I signed with Wall Street again after their visa privileges got reinstated. For SEVEN MONTHS John there was saying to me, "Don't worry, the work visa will be another week or so." Four months in Indonesia and then I had to move to Korea where he continued promising the work visa for another 3 months. By the time Wall Street actually acquired a work visa for me and invited me back to work, I had found this job at Linconln International High School. It was July. And immediately John, (a new John), started saying things like, "Don't worry, you'll have a contract soon." You see I needed a contract to negotiate my work visa. Time went by and I was taking hours here and there where I could find them, but mostly living off the generosity of friends while waiting and desperately pleading with anyone who would listen to me to PLEASE get me a damn work visa! This is what lead to everyone saying, "Don't worry. Don't worry."

And I realize worrying doesn't help. But I think if I HAD worried a bit more and/or taken the advice of all my friends here who were telling me to just get out while I can, I wouldn't be this deep in the hole. I may have been able to find alternate employment. I might actually HAVE a work visa and a job by now! But I was hoping for this, a much better job than anything I had had or seen before or since.

Now I have to take the first thing that comes along. The same situation I was in when Wall Street gave me the boot. About a month to find a job. So I put out 20 resumes today at jobs like teaching kindergarten 8 hours a day, Monday to Saturday, 5 days of vacation for 2.1 million Won plus housing allowance. That's about the worst deal you can come by here in Korea. But I gotta take anything I can get right now. I've been sliding deeper and deeper into debt waiting for the impossible, an honest school owner in Korea. Even worse, I was waiting for an honest CHINESE school owner in Korea! I didn't know I was waiting for his sentencing to be passed. Sentencing for what, I am not sure, but it's gotta be business fraud of some kind. Believe it or not this is not even the first time the school I work for has had its ownder thrown in the clink! Back when I worked for Pagoda, the owner, Mr. Go, a devout Christian who was constantly pressuring students and teachers to do what Jesus would do, got busted doing something Jesus would never do. It was tax evasion. Mr. Go was not "rendering unto Caesar that which was Caesar's." I think he was in prison for a couple of years.

Then the wife of Mr. Go, who I always called Mrs. Go, herself a devout Christian always pressuring students and teachers at Pagoda to do what Jesus does, hired a hit man to kill one of Mr. Go's relatives. I'm not making this up!

Why oh WHY can't these people just do business properly and legally? There is ALWAYS some scheme involved and every single place I've worked I have had to do the old act. "I see what you're doing. It's not nearly as clever as you think it is. But I'll be a nice guy, or a stupid guy, knowing full well you see no distinction between the two, and fake like I don't know exactly what you are up to and think you are a scumbag for doing it." Those forced smiles and clammy handshakes upon signing contracts full of obvious holes. I can only stand it because in most cases, the deal is still a good one even after the requisite ass raping. And it is required to quell the insecurities of the employer, make him feel superior and make him feel like a good businessman. Because, after all, if you just get what you earn, you're not doing business right. You have to cheat! Get as much as you can without actually earning it. THAT'S business. Right? Well, no! To me that's just cheating and these assholes who do it DESERVE to be put in jail.

So they go there for 2 or 3 years while the entire staffs of their abandoned schools are the ones suffering. Not to mention the students and the parents of the students.

If I had been hired in September, when I was told I'd be hired, I could have done a camp or two and made this school some money. And made mySELF some money! Then I wouldn't be broke and jobless like I am now. AGAIN! And maybe this place would have enough money to give the workers more than the wages they have earned. I'm only getting paid for the hours I've worked and because they were not on the books, but I was substituting for another teacher, they're free to pay me whatever the hell they want. One of the other reasons they took forever to come up with a contract, no doubt.

I don't give a shit if someone from Korean Immigration reads this either. It's not like I'm TRYING to work illegally! When I first got here I applied for and was interviewed for several camp positions. I had to turn down or be turned down for 3 of them because I could not get the proper work visa. One of them actually suggested I work WITHOUT the visa and I said no. Another camp that wanted me was cancelled due to the MERS scare. Yeah, that's the kind of roll I'M on!

I've been here so long that I did something that I've never heard of anyone doing before: I renewed my 6-month visitor visa. You should have seen the immigration worker at the airport! She gave me the weirdest look! NOOOObody stays in Korea for that long! I mean there are a few sites worth seeing and some spectacular food, but six months will cover it all. Heck 3 months would do you. So she grilled me about what I was doing in Korea and of course I couldn't tell her I was working or looking for work so I just said I was visiting friends. Then she made me give names of friends and she looked them up on her screen. SHe was positive I was working illegally. So now I KNOW if I had actually received a contract from Lincoln International School, the second I went into immigration they would not only know I was working, they'd know WHERE I was working and they'd have paid the school a little visit. I'd have been deported and the school would've been fined. Or shut down. But I guess we've been spared all that unpleasantness.

That's me. Always looking on the bright side. The thing is I wasn't actually working. The actual new course was supposed to start today. I was suposed to have a textbook and a new course. Of course I wasn't expecting much notice but I was in the classroom at 8:20 this morning, with students, with an ESL lesson prepared just in case, not knowing what the hell was going on when I was called and told to go to the principal's office. I thought I'd be told that I was going to take John's classes. He's the guy who interviewed me way back in July. He lives in Seoul and travels over an hour both ways to teach his classes everyday. He doesn't like doing it and I was getting hours just filling in for him when he couldn't or wouldn't come to work. Yeah. I LIVE on campus. They convinced me to move to the school even after I told them I'd only do it if I got a contract. They assured me I'd get a contract and, of course, told me not to worry. I moved in over a month ago and, alas, still no contract. And I guess there'll never be one because despite what Jesus, or Honest Abe Lincoln would do if one of them owned an international high school, it's enough to admire them without any attempts at emulation.

I received no payment for the time I spent basically "on call" or "on retainer" here. None. When I went to Japan to renew my visitor's visa the school bought the ticket. They said it was their responsibility and they'd pay the penalty. But guess who paid hotel and food. If they'd signed me when they told me they were going to, I never would have had to GO to Japan. I guess they feel that living on campus and getting free cafeteria food was payment enough. It actually kept me here in the middle of nowhere so I couldn't take any short-term under the table work in Seoul, and I was handy for filling in around here. Exactly what they wanted. In fact I had to move everything myself AND clean up my own place!

So let's crunch the numbers. I think I've been living on about a million Won a month. That's about a thou. My salary here was going to be 3 million a month when I started working. So I have spent about 3 million of my own money and forfeited 6 million in salary. That's 9 million I am in the hole because of these bastards. And who knows how long I'll be finding another job? I am seriously thinking of just looking around campus here for the most valuable things I can find and taking them to a pawn shop. Two problems with that strategy: 1. I have no way of transporting the stuff out of here let alone doing it sneakily, and 2. Korea doesn't have pawn shops. I know I'm taking all the books I can find.

REVENGE!!!

Aaahhh hooo hooo hooo sniff sniff.