More than a Bad Hair Day

I knew it was coming.

On Friday I was approached by the officials at Munchang asking me to submit my criminal background check. I reminded them that I had sent this to EPIK back in August and that they already had a copy, but they said I needed to submit another. Next thing I knew, I received an email from Romeo--his school was doing the same thing to him and he didn't have a criminal report with him and couldn't figure out how to get his online.

Then, yesterday, it all came down. For those of you who don't watch the news regularly, a Canadian foreign teacher was recently discovered to be a pedophile in South Korea and was arrested in Thailand earlier this week. It's been in the news for about a week now but has apparently sparked a fire in the government's office of education and now every foreign teacher in Korea is being investigated. So far, over 150 people in the EPIK program alone have been sent home for having fake degrees and the numbers are rising. Some teachers in other programs have also been sent home for bad conduct such as drug use or having pornography on their computers. Unfortunately the actions of these people has resulted in the harassment of good people like myself.

Following my first class yesterday, my co-teacher told me that she needed to verify my university graduation by viewing our school's website. I was a little confused since there is no official way to verify one's education online, and even so, how would she know that I hadn't just created a fake website for that purpose? (Have any of you seen the movie Accepted?) I told her that there are only two ways in America to verify one's education: 1. Their degree, 2. Their transcripts. EPIK has both of mine. In fact, EPIK was supposed to have returned my degree by now but still hasn't. I tried to voice my concern that if they are asking me to verify my education when they have my degree, then I am worried that perhaps they have lost it. There is no other way for me to verify. She kept insisting that I show her this information on the internet to which I could only insist that I can't. I showed her as much as I could, things like my contact info in the alumni directory and my photo with the debate team in the university news section, but she is still worried that this kind of information is not enough. Apparently universities in Korea make one's grades, courses, and graduation information available online to the public and not only was she expecting American universities to do the same, but the office of education was too--and they don't want anything less. She tried to call the office and explain but told me that they only yelled at her and insisted that it is her job to verify my degree. WTF??!!

So all day yesterday I rode the education merry-go-round. By the end of the day I was so pissed off that I couldn't talk to anyone. I understand that they are concerned about the recent scandal and that they don't want anymore like incidents, but they are going about this the wrong way and they are making all of our lives hell because of it. I felt so bad yesterday. When things like this happen, it's hard to even like yourself. In addition, you feel bad because your co-teachers have to deal with these problems too. My co-teacher is completely innocent in this fiasco. The orders to investigate me were given to her from the government, and she now understands that their expectations cannot be met in the way they want. She was pretty pissed off by the end of the day too and I felt bad because my anger came off as though I was angry with her, but of course I'm not. And then again, I am because she can't make this problem go away. I don't want to get into the nature of privacy laws or why we have them in the US but that really is the only way to explain why this information isn't online. God, I'm hating life this week.

After work I met up with Courtney and we went to a concert together. She had the same experience as well as several of our friends in other cities. We are all upset, frustrated, angry, and ready to quit. Courtney even started looking for other jobs yesterday--I'm not quite there yet, but if I don't have my degree returned to me by the end of the month, I might start. This program is ridiculously disorganized, completely unprofessional, and terrible at communication. If this is how bad the government programs are, then I can't imagine what hogwans are like (private schools).

The only redeeming moment of yesterday was hanging out with Courtney at the concert, forgetting all of our frustrations and dancing like maniacs in the crowd. (I like to think that I at least shook a little bit of the stress out of my body!) It was a fun night. The concert was completely free, sponsored by a cell phone company, showing all of Korea's biggest po-stars (at least 15 different artists), and held at the city stadium just blocks from my house. Courtney and I made a few friends too (though they were mostly men shouting "Sexy dance!" at us). lol. Oh, Korean men, you are almost all pervs... It was funny none the less and no matter how immoral it was, at least we felt like someone wanted to see us for a change! Some people actually thought we were drunk, and though we weren't, it was great to see their reactions as we yelled "Soju!" (Korean vodka) over the crowds! The funniest part: I was dancing like a fool on the way out of the stadium and one Korean man literally stopped mid-pace and stared, mouth agape, as I bounced on past him. Twenty or so steps later I turned around to find him still staring at me! lol. Me and Courtney practically crumpled to the ground in hysteria. It was the funnies thing ever.

However, my joy was short lived. I'm back at school now and the madness has resumed. The worst part of it all is that I have no one to talk to about it (besides Courtney). It's in moments like these that I realize how lonely I am. No one speaks English very well and I have practically no friends--save the few people who occasionally want to hang out. When I'm having a bad day, there's no one to call up and talk to or meet at Dunkin Doughnuts to just talk for a couple hours. If companionship could come in a box, I would order it online.