No, this isn't a food post. It's about me, and what I'm starting to do.
My boss is kind of begging me to stay. Not outright "arms around my knees a-pleadin' and a-cryin' - but nonetheless in her own Korean way she's made it clear she doesn't want me to go. I think that's nice. It's probably not that she thinks I'm a FANTASTIC teacher, but more so the kids like me and everyone's used to me and getting a new teacher looks like it's going to be difficult. Another of our franchised schools has been without a teacher for three weeks now, and the director there isn't sure when they're going to be able to secure one. She told my boss, "Don't let her (me) go!!"
So I'm a-waverin' and a-wafflin'.
I did get a bigger carrier for Kamikaze. It's big. I brought it home and left it open in the hopes he wouldn't feel threatened and would explore it. The first night he stayed as far away from it as possible, but last night he ventured while I was watching. I think he'd been in earlier in the day, as when I came home he was lying with his two front paws inside. However, watching him go in I realized it's not big enough. The depth and height are okay, but he needs more width. The carrier is 16 inches across, and after measuring him and calculating according to this site I see that I need about another 6 inches. He can't turn around in the one I've got, and he must be able to in order to fly. There ARE carriers that are suitable, but whether I'll be able to find one in Korea, I don't know! I have people looking now. Basically, I need a carrier for a bulldog. He's built like a bulldog. I should've taken care of this ages ago. I'm an idiot for waiting to sort it out for as long as I have.
Anyways. I'm thinking about all sort of possibilities. All the regular schools have holidays in August, so maybe there's a teacher somewhere that has no real plans, but is interested in making some money and wants to come down here and sub for me while I make the trip home. It's a thought, and I might do some fishing around to see if that's feasible. Alternately, I MIGHT be able to get an okay on a two week holiday, but I don't know. If my boss finds herself with no other alternatives she may okay it. Otherwise I could just wash my hands of everything, buy a snuggly and smush Kamikaze into it and try to pass him off as a very fat hairy baby.
It might help push me into action if I got some persuasive "Hey man, get your ass home PRONTO, it's been two and a half years and we MISS you, dammit!" kind of e-mails or phone calls. But there's only been silence on my end.
I went to school this morning with eyelids that looked like fat pink leeches. My co-workers noticed it as soon as they looked at my face. That's what you get for watching a Korean tear-jerker DVD at 4 in the morning. I was bawling, and not entirely because of the film, but just,...because. After three or four hours of being awake my eyes finally settled down, but I had a tension headache all day. Nevertheless, I rented another so sad movie tonight - Kid With Cancer (not the real title, but it might as well be) but (thankfully?) it quit playing about half way through. Otherwise I'd be crying into my t-shirt again right about now.
Jeepney creepney
16 hours ago
3 comments:
I think the Kid With Cancer movie is "Annyeong Hyeong," or "Hyeong Annyeong" or something like that. It translates, "Bye, Big Brother!" which is almost enough to choke me up right there. I'm pretty emotional about my own brothers, whom I love deeply. Can't bring myself to watch that film.
Films and plays about terminal illness are depressing enough as it is, wouldn't you say? If you really want to read or watch something incredible, find a play called "W;t" (pronounced "Wit"), by Georgetown University grad (yay! Go, Hoyas!) Margaret Edson, who got the Pulitzer for her effort.
"W;t" is about a strong-willed, 50-something English professor who specializes in the poetry of John Done. She has Stage 4 ovarian cancer, and the play is basically her ruminations until she dies. I saw the production at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, with TV star Judith Light in the lead role.
Do you know Judith Light? She was the star of that sitcom "Who's the Boss?" along with Tony Danza. Don't know whether that ever played in Canada. She's a great stage actress, as it turns out, and my brother David and I had second-row seats, so we were right there in the action. I was blubbering like a-- well, like a woman-- by the end of the play.
Anyway, I read the play before I saw it performed, and the script is powerful all by itself. It's also a difficult script from an acting point of view: the play is carried almost entirely by one person for two hours-- and it's almost ALL dialogue. There are other characters, but they're peripheral: Edson wants us to see what it's like for a powerful personality to reckon with her own mortality.
I understand that an HBO production of the play was filmed some years back, with the always-amazing Emma Thompson in the lead role. I've yet to get my hands on that version of the play, but hope to. Someday.
Anyway... such plays and films can be cathartic, and I expect you're in need of a little catharsis, what with all this life-changing stuff happening. So bawl away, muchacha!
Kevin
Hey Kevin,
Actually, I just watched that HBO version a few weeks ago, on TV here! I'd seen it before, and Emma Thompson does a wonderful job in it. I hope you get a chance to watch it.
I think "Terms of Endearment" is one of the all-time best terminal illness movies, and always worth a good bawl. I wish it was on right now, as a matter of fact!
(Don't know if "Who's the Boss" played in Canada? - ha!) Yo, Angela!!
Did I really write "John Done"?
Sheesh.
Kevin
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