Warm up that Desk!

Now begins a very special time of year for public school teachers in Korea: a month-long brain vacation during which we are expected to be at school during normal hours but not really do anything. There are no students at school, no classes to teach or prepare for, no meetings, no lunches, nothing to be responsible for, no nothing. There is no lunch served, and every door is locked except for the doors to my office, and to the currently non-working bathroom. Officially, this excessive time and money wasting policy is called "desk warming," and it's almost universal to (public) foreign English teachers. (Note: Korean teachers do not have to do this. I am currently alone in my office with the secretary, who is only here because she has to lock up after I leave.)

Initially, I couldn't believe this was expected of me: I kept asking, "You REALLY want me to take the two-hour long (round trip) journey every day, just to be at school, alone, all day, and not do anything?!?!" I was almost offended by the idea! How ludicrous! Why couldn't they just NOT PAY me, and I just wouldn't come in?!? Was it really that difficult to obtain some unpaid leave?!?!! I did NOT want to do this; I desperately kept looking for some kind of loophole. After all, a month with no working would mean I could definitely fly home and see my family for a little while!

No matter how I tried to plead my case to my co-teacher, she just couldn't understand how my argument made any sense. Frustration beyond belief eventually subsided, and I accepted my fate with a quiet ambivalence. I did a lot of sighing during this time. Alas, there was no way out of it: apparently, obtaining unpaid leave in Korea means a mountain of paperwork, asking the state for permission, and causes a lot of unnecessary stress for everyone. I was flatly told, "no," followed by a lengthy account of how my predecessor, Caleb, had tried to fight this for months, and ultimately, it caused such a rift between he and the principal that Caleb was not invited to complete another contract with my school.

I thought about it a long while, and I had to remind myself that at my last job, while rubbing down my sore feet after literally dripping sweat, up and down stairs for 10-12 hours a day, I prayed for this kind of opportunity. As such, I've decided to embrace the fact that someone is stupid enough to pay me to eat snacks, sleep, and watch episodes Downton Abbey all day long. I mean, to be quite honest, it's probably what I'd be doing if I weren't working anyway :)

And now.... I think I'll take a nap.
<3M