The Good Life

Well well I must apologize to Gwangju after my last update. As you can imagine, I had some post Sweden depression and I wasn't able to fully appreciate the life I live here. Now that time has passed a bit and Sweden is turning into a memory I have plenty to be thankful for and also to write about. Among the most important is my finalized plans for 2011!

So, to recap the last few weeks. I came back to quite the surprise on Thursday morning when my only coworker abruptly quit. I found out that she told the director she was so sick that she couldn't work, which worried the shit out of my boss. However, that was far from the truth. She wasn't happy at iSponge and had actually been bringing me down with her too. She made it seem like this was such a hard job, but in reality, it's the easiest and funnest job I've ever had. I also got blessed with another teacher, one who speaks English, and it has made this job 100 times better.

On my Birthday (the big 25!!) I came to realize this even more as I celebrated with my closest friends who had nothing but bad words to say about their employers. Felicity, also known as the British version of me, had been having an especially hard time at her job. Not only does she work way harder and longer than I do, but she has just a fraction of the vacation and makes about 200 bucks less than me each month. Moments after we met in Korea we had decided whatever we do for our second year, we want to do it together. First it was Japan, then it was Gwangju, then it was Busan or Seoul, and on Tuesday this week we made our final decision!

Since I've come to realize how great my job is here, in comparison to all the first year teachers in Gwangju, I wanted to see what I could get out of a second year. I talked to my boss and explained to her how important I was at iSponge. If she kept me a second year she wouldn't have to pay for a recruiter, she wouldn't have to worry about the "what ifs" of a new teacher, and she wouldn't have to worry about not being able to find a teacher either. Also, she wants two foreigner teachers, and I just happened to know someone looking for an awesome job (Felicity, duh). So after a pretty smooth and effortless talk with my boss I was able to secure a $700 a month raise, an extra 3 days to my vacation (which puts me at 5 and a half weeks) and a brand new 2 bedroom house all for me. This of course comes with the standard round trip airfare and the non-paid time off to go visit Minnesota for 3 weeks during Christmas. Oh, yeah, and the severance pay too. That means on my last day of working this year and next year I'll get a bonus of one months pay. She agreed to hire Felicity on for the same deal too! It's basically like, one of those situations that sounds too good to be true. But she's followed through with everything else, so I don't see why she would stop now. She knows I do a good job and the students/parents love me and shes extra happy that my new coworker will be someone that I know and trust.

In other news, I swear I'm FINALLY going camping on an island this weekend. The rainy season seems to be coming to an end and I bought a new tent after a drunken-rooftop-rain-party mishap. It's pink and I think it has cartoon characters on the outside. It was only 13 bucks, so I'll take it. Also, I have a week off in September where I will be traveling with my girls and Dom's Mom to Jeju island, better known as the Korean Hawaiian islands. I feel as though something bad needs to happen soon because shit is just going too good. Oh well, maybe it's just my turn.

No pictures this post, but I'm sure after this weekend I'll have some gooduns'.