School Update

Well, the drama continues.

Gloria (the new teacher) has been absent since Monday. Her in-laws were hit head-on by a drunk driver sometime Monday morning and while her m-i-l escaped serious injury except for a backache (I think she's out of the hospital, but don't know for sure) her f-i-l remains in a coma. He may not make it, I'm told.

I hope he'll be okay. I've met Gloria's husband twice, and don't know what to make of him, really. The first time was a couple weeks ago after the Halloween party. The staff went out to have a welcome dinner for Gloria. I was lagging a little behind, but when I arrived to the table where Judy and Gloria were sitting, Gloria announced that she wants a boyfriend. I barked out a loud "HA!" and suggested maybe her husband wouldn't be too keen on that idea. Throughout dinner, her phone would ring and she'd look at it, make a face, and ignore it. I guess her husband finally had enough of being ignored, because suddenly there he was, looking not very happy at all, but bowing apologetically. He and Gloria left the restaurant to argue out on the street. When we finally got tired of waiting for them to come back (we'd finished our meal about 20 minutes before) Judy brought out Gloria's purse to her and the two were not seen again.

Monday morning, Gloria apologized and told me "please forget." I shrugged and said okay.

Last Friday we went out again, sans Judy who was in sunny Jejudo, and without the boss who had other plans. It was fun, and we took the party upstairs from the restaurant to the noraebang, where I rocked out "Gloria," by Laura Brannigan. It suits her far better than the Van Morrison song by the same name, (especially "you don't have answer, leave him hanging on the li-ine, oh-OH-oh, calling Glooooriaaaaaaa.") Then Jane left us, and the two of us went over to another HOF for some more soju. She can drink, that woman.

The husband called, she answered, and told him where we were. Call dropped. Subsequent call-backs were unanswered, and then, just like before, there he was. Glaring at her. Like, only briefly acknowledging me. I went into soothe mode, "Nice to meet you, glad you're here, please sit down, damn - you're a twitchy man, aren't you?" Seriously. His face was alive with tics and twitches, and I don't know if that's his normal look, or if he was just really wound up.

They didn't stay long, but soon after he arrived I excused myself to visit the ladies'. Gloria came crashing in a few moments later and went into the other stall where she made a hell of a lot of noise. Then she was begging me to please hurry. That's all she kept saying, "Please, hurry! Hurry up! Ohhhhh, hurry!" I thought she didn't want Mister Twitch to have to be alone for too long, but as I exited the stall I saw what the deal was. Somehow she had managed to completely unhinge the heavy metal door and it was all askew and pretty much on top of her as she sat on the toilet with her stockings around her ankles! I laughed and retrieved the door off her and shielded her until she could reassemble herself. Ha!

Since then, she's been absent. I don't know why, but I somehow feel like we might never see her again. I remember saying to Judy soon after Gloria started, "She's not going to last." There's no reason for it- just a sense I have.

Judy came in briefly Monday morning - after her 3 day long trip at the end of last week to Jeju to clear up some paperwork. Then she quit. Finito. Done.

So this week we've been without Korean teachers. It's just been me, the boss, and the BOSS. It feels like everything's falling apart.

An update on the tax and pension thing; after two weeks of nothing I finally asked Karen what was up with things. She said "I think I can't."
"You can't what?" I asked.
"I can't pay."
I was dumbfounded.

Apparently she can't make a decision without her husband. Granted, I didn't really expect her to suddenly adopt a British accent and say "Good jod, old girl! You've finally found us out. Here's your reward!" She's not strong enough to say she's going to stick it to me, so I think she wants hubbie there for moral support. Thing is, I get paid Friday. So this is bound to come to a head. If I see a 100,000 won deduction, we're going to have a problem.

We have a problem.
I have a broblem.
There are problems.

But I am a Wild Party.

Oh. And in keeping with the "things are falling apart" theme, my PC at home is broken. I can't spell check here, (at the internet cafe) and I may not be able to update for a couple days at least. Peace to you beasts.