Thumbs down Korea

Unfortunately, after a good weekend, we've had a couple pretty annoying days, directly related to the school we're at.  First, on Monday Ben and Ashley left, so there was a new schedule for me and Brady, taking over their classes.  Classes start at 2:00, so we got to school at 12:00 to prepare, but the schedule wasn't ready.  I kept asking, every half hour or so.  We had an idea of what we were supposed to be teaching, so we prepared what we could.  We finally got our schedules at 1:35, and I saw that I had a class of five-year-olds at 2:00.  So then I had to hunt down the class calendar from the Korean teacher (because that tells what you're supposed to do every day.)  I was supposed to do an Art Activity.  I managed to throw something together in 20 minutes, but it was frustrating.  The whole day we were scrambling, and I don't know why they put off making the schedule till the last minute.  Or why I have to ask to get it.  Don't they know that we need schedules??

Then that night we were going out for dinner with the prize money we won in the dance competition.  Brady and I didn't get a say in when or how we'd spend the money; the Korean teachers decided on their own.  So, we went out for dinner, and it was pretty good.  Throughout dinner they speak Korean to each other, even though we don't speak Korean, and everyone at the table speaks at least some English.  Then dinner was over but they kept talking, in Korean, for almost two hours.  Brady, Pam and I were sitting there getting very very bored.  The manager of the school, Michelle was there, and I think in Korea it's considered rude to leave before the boss leaves, so we had to stay.  Although I would say that speaking in a language a third of the table doesn't speak for two hours qualifies as rude.  Although it's good that we were there, because when they did speak English it was to tell us that we have to work on Friday morning, which we had thought we had off, and Saturday.  The new kindergarten classes are starting, and they have an opening ceremony, and we have to go to be the white faces of the school.  One of the school's ceremony is Friday morning, and the other is all day Saturday.  Grrr.

We were supposed to have our mornings off all this week because there is no kindergarten until next week, but  they told us that we had to come in at 10:30 yesterday morning to learn the new kindergarten songs.  We finally got around to singing them at 11:15.  Then I worked from 2:00-6:00, as was on my schedule.  But then at 6:00 this kid Hayden, who I had tutored before, was at the school.  He wasn't on my schedule, but I asked Michelle, and she said I tutor him every Tuesday and Thursday, from 6:00-7:00.  So the schedule that took forever to get was wrong.  Awesome.

Then this morning, which we thought we had totally free, Michelle calls us at 9:30 to say that Brady has to go to an opening ceremony at 11:30.  There are three total ceremonies, for the three different kindergartens.  The one this morning is at Wooridle, which I don't teach at, so I don't have to go, but Brady does.  It's just been a frustrating week.  And we can express that we're frustrated when individual things happen, but things don't change overall.  I don't know if they just don't realize that we need more information than they're giving us, or if they really don't know what's going on either.  We're hoping that things calm down now that Ben and Ashley are gone and we've got our new schedules, and after next week when the new kindergarten classes start.