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sarbonn
Joined: 14 Oct 2008
Location: Michigan
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 Posted: Fri May 22, 2009 7:41 pm Post subject: The process of the midnight run |
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I'm about to run as a number of you already know. As much as I'd like to stay, working months for free finally became too much of a burden, so I decided it was no longer worth continuing here. Anyway, this isn't to talk about that because that's another issue. I'm trying to make sure that I've covered everything before I leave.
I've read through all of the FAQs and postings on this, but just wanted to make sure that there's nothing I have to do other than hand my ARC in at the gate when I leave. I'm not planning to come back to Korea any time soon, and I've been here over 7 months, which means there's no burden of paying back airfare or anything like that.
Is there anything else to think about before leaving? My bills should be more than covered because my job will essentially owe me three months worth of pay by the time I leave. I bought a plane ticket that runs me through Beijing before going to San Francisco. So, any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.
Aside from that, if I don't end up getting the chance to do so (I'm relinquishing my computer very soon), I just wanted to thank everyone for being really cool posters during the time I shared with you here. Sure, some were dicks, but that's just because that's how they normally are. You know who you are, and no, I don't hold any grudge against the problem children of Dave's. Everyone has his or her purpose. But most of all, people here have been pretty cool and interesting to hold conversations with. Some of the humor is really fresh, and not often do we mention how much it is sometimes appreciated when all we really know of someone is a name behind an unseen persona. |
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Joe666
Joined: 19 Nov 2008
Location: Jesus it's hot down here!
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| Posted: Fri May 22, 2009 8:31 pm Post subject: |
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I have nothing to add to this subject. Sorry sarbon, that s***s. I wish you the best.
I just find it funny/sad that there are multiple postings and even stickies, concrete directions on how to complete a proper "midnight run". |
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okokok
Joined: 27 Aug 2006
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| Posted: Fri May 22, 2009 8:38 pm Post subject: Re: The process of the midnight run |
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| sarbonn wrote: |
I'm about to run as a number of you already know. As much as I'd like to stay, working months for free finally became too much of a burden, so I decided it was no longer worth continuing here. Anyway, this isn't to talk about that because that's another issue. I'm trying to make sure that I've covered everything before I leave.
I've read through all of the FAQs and postings on this, but just wanted to make sure that there's nothing I have to do other than hand my ARC in at the gate when I leave. I'm not planning to come back to Korea any time soon, and I've been here over 7 months, which means there's no burden of paying back airfare or anything like that.
Is there anything else to think about before leaving? My bills should be more than covered because my job will essentially owe me three months worth of pay by the time I leave. I bought a plane ticket that runs me through Beijing before going to San Francisco. So, any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.
Aside from that, if I don't end up getting the chance to do so (I'm relinquishing my computer very soon), I just wanted to thank everyone for being really cool posters during the time I shared with you here. Sure, some were dicks, but that's just because that's how they normally are. You know who you are, and no, I don't hold any grudge against the problem children of Dave's. Everyone has his or her purpose. But most of all, people here have been pretty cool and interesting to hold conversations with. Some of the humor is really fresh, and not often do we mention how much it is sometimes appreciated when all we really know of someone is a name behind an unseen persona. |
Sorry, I haven't really followed your story... but man don't just leave without getting your money. You can get it. By running when they owe you months of salary you're just letting them off the hook. |
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Yu_Bum_suk
Joined: 25 Dec 2004
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| Posted: Fri May 22, 2009 8:43 pm Post subject: |
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| You should be fine, provided of course that you're only in transit in China. Good luch with things - I'm quite sure you've been a lot nicer with your employer than I would have been. |
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sarbonn
Joined: 14 Oct 2008
Location: Michigan
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| Posted: Fri May 22, 2009 9:05 pm Post subject: |
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| Yu_Bum_suk wrote: |
| You should be fine, provided of course that you're only in transit in China. Good luch with things - I'm quite sure you've been a lot nicer with your employer than I would have been. |
Well, she's generally a nice lady. She just got in way over her head, and I understand that. She handled it badly, but I understand that, too. My last actual day of work is going to be tomorrow. I run two debate classes on each day of the weekend, and it's not the fault of the kids that this has happened, and they all are very enthusiastic about our classes, so as my last present to them, I'll run one more class for both of the sections and then I'll leave Wednesday. I'm supposed to work on Monday, but that's not going to happen as that class is with the middle school monsters and I don't feel any ties to them as my main interaction with them has been a group of screaming kids yelling, "We want ice cream."
The ones I feel sorry for are the new teachers who just started, thinking this was going to be a good gig for them. If interested, I wrote a final blog on the that here: http://www.littlesarbonn.com. |
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Yu_Bum_suk
Joined: 25 Dec 2004
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| Posted: Fri May 22, 2009 9:13 pm Post subject: |
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| sarbonn wrote: |
| Yu_Bum_suk wrote: |
| You should be fine, provided of course that you're only in transit in China. Good luch with things - I'm quite sure you've been a lot nicer with your employer than I would have been. |
Well, she's generally a nice lady. She just got in way over her head, and I understand that. She handled it badly, but I understand that, too. My last actual day of work is going to be tomorrow. I run two debate classes on each day of the weekend, and it's not the fault of the kids that this has happened, and they all are very enthusiastic about our classes, so as my last present to them, I'll run one more class for both of the sections and then I'll leave Wednesday. I'm supposed to work on Monday, but that's not going to happen as that class is with the middle school monsters and I don't feel any ties to them as my main interaction with them has been a group of screaming kids yelling, "We want ice cream."
The ones I feel sorry for are the new teachers who just started, thinking this was going to be a good gig for them. If interested, I wrote a final blog on the that here: http://www.littlesarbonn.com. |
You might want to come up with a good reason why you're not at work on Monday. She may seem nice 'nice', but they can become very vindictive in a hurry if they find out you're dumping them. You'll want her to have no suspicion what's happening until you're on the plane.
BTW, when I quite my first job I was the same as you. I threw ice cream and snack parties for my good classes and didn't even bother teaching my bad ones on the last two days of work. |
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David Gerrington
Joined: 20 Jun 2008
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| Posted: Sat May 23, 2009 3:11 am Post subject: |
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Good luck.
Shows perfectly how one-sided the visa system is around here. If you're working in a rubbish job, the only options are to stick it out or go home, hence some Hakwon owners think they can get away with treating us like animals and that they own us along with our Visa. |
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Ruraljuror
Joined: 08 Dec 2007
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| Posted: Sat May 23, 2009 4:59 am Post subject: |
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| The manager asked me today if I'm going to be working on Sunday, realizing I'm probably going to be out of the country almost immediately because of this mess, and I said I would be there. She asked me why, as she couldn't see why I would loyally come in when I know I won't get paid. Well, on Sunday I teach debate to two groups of young kids who really like doing it. The classes are never a chore, and they're always interesting. Otherwise, I'd probably stay in a hotel near the airport and never teach another class here again. It's not because I'm being loyal or anything like that. I just like these kids, and I figure I'll at least give them one last debate class with me before I leave. |
I pulled this from your blog. What an awesome thing to say. You seriously sound like an awesome teacher and a great person. It's obvious why you have had trouble in Korea, as these are not qualities that Korean employers are looking for.
I hope you have better luck in the future, and I hope you haven't been irrevocably soured on Korea. There are a lot of bad jobs, but there are some great ones too. It's pretty much a crapshoot, no matter how much research you do beforehand. I'd love to work with you some day.
Happy Trails! I hope thinking of the expression of your boss's face Monday makes you smile as much as it does for me! |
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sarbonn
Joined: 14 Oct 2008
Location: Michigan
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| Posted: Thu May 28, 2009 8:04 am Post subject: |
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| Ruraljuror wrote: |
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| The manager asked me today if I'm going to be working on Sunday, realizing I'm probably going to be out of the country almost immediately because of this mess, and I said I would be there. She asked me why, as she couldn't see why I would loyally come in when I know I won't get paid. Well, on Sunday I teach debate to two groups of young kids who really like doing it. The classes are never a chore, and they're always interesting. Otherwise, I'd probably stay in a hotel near the airport and never teach another class here again. It's not because I'm being loyal or anything like that. I just like these kids, and I figure I'll at least give them one last debate class with me before I leave. |
I pulled this from your blog. What an awesome thing to say. You seriously sound like an awesome teacher and a great person. It's obvious why you have had trouble in Korea, as these are not qualities that Korean employers are looking for.
I hope you have better luck in the future, and I hope you haven't been irrevocably soured on Korea. There are a lot of bad jobs, but there are some great ones too. It's pretty much a crapshoot, no matter how much research you do beforehand. I'd love to work with you some day.
Happy Trails! I hope thinking of the expression of your boss's face Monday makes you smile as much as it does for me! |
Thank you. That was definitely kind of you to say.
An update for anyone that's interested (or for those voyeurs that just love to know what's going on with everyone else): The midnight run went well, even though it happened at 9:25 am. I had hoped more people would contact me from the Buy and Sell part of the page because I was trying to give away most of my stuff. Unfortunately, most of them contacted me after I was already at the airport sleeping off the night before flying in the morning. The person who mentioned the sauna is seriously thanked as that was a really cool find and I highly recommend it to anyone who is leaving early in the morning the next day. Just keep in mind that people make noise in the sauna all night, but if you can live with that, it's a choice spot to wait out your last moments.
The trip went pretty well. Well, until I got to Beijing. Then things got "interesting". I take prescription drugs and I carry them with me so I don't lose them, in case my luggage gets lost. Well, they pulled them aside and then ran the packages through some drug scanner, and then things just started to go dramatic from there. I think I was interviewed by the entire Chinese immigration department, including their version of Homeland Security. I kept being referred to the next guy up the chain of command as their shoulder rankings started getting more and more filled with diamonds and stars with each new person. I think I was being interviewed by the General of the Entire Freaking Army towards the end there when I realized that two hours had passed already. I had a four hour layover, so I wasn't too worried, yet. However, every time I tried to explain my medical condition, they didn't understand. Nor could they read my prescription paperwork that was in Korean and English. You would have thought one of those people they called would have been a translator, but no, more big wigs in the Chinese government. Finally, realizing that the guy before the last big wig seemed to have everyone's respect, including his boss's, I decided to become his best friend. I was sitting at his desk (all my stuff was laid out on the desk at this time), and I just started talking to him about random things. This caused him to start asking me some direct questions (something no one else really had done). The first important question was: What do you do for a living? I said I was a teacher, and I made a gesture to show that I taught little kids. He smiled and then went back to some paperwork. Anyway, the big boss came back in (I guess he was leading the Chinese Army in maneuvers while he was gone, as he seemed to be the King of China or something like that), and my new "friend" stood up and started having an animated conversation with him in Chinese. At one point, I saw him mimic my description of a little kid that I had done before, which told me he was telling him that I was a teacher of little kids. After that, the King of China smiled at me and said to enjoy my flight, and they let me go.
The rest of the flight was uneventful. I made a friend with a nice woman who was immigrating to the US from China, who kept asking me whether she should move to San Francisco, Los Angeles or New Jersey. I kept wondering why THOSE choices, but I gave her as much help as I could.
My friend picked me up at the airport, and I'm staying with her in her hotel for a few nights and then I'll start getting acclimated with the US again.
I'll probably start dwindling off of posting on these boards as they're not going to be really relevant for me anymore (although I might end up in Japan working for the government eventually), so I just wanted to say thank you to all of you for the company you have kept during the time I was in Korea. Not every post on Dave's has to be negative.
Oh a couple of little tidbits as well.... My former boss started calling me on Tuesday trying to convince me that the new boss was going to "eventually" pay me. This was the guy who didn't pay me previously, telling me the new boss would eventually pay me. I thanked him for his concern, and he kept asking when I was flying, so I kept telling him it was the day after I was leaving, just in case he was going to try to cause problems.
That's about it. Take care all. |
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madoka
Joined: 27 Mar 2008
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| Posted: Thu May 28, 2009 8:48 am Post subject: |
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| Good luck Sarbonn. If you ever are around in southern California, let me know. I'll take you out for some galbi. |
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michaelambling
Joined: 31 Dec 2008
Location: Paradise
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| Posted: Thu May 28, 2009 4:03 pm Post subject: |
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| madoka wrote: |
| Good luck Sarbonn. If you ever are around in southern California, let me know. I'll take you out for some galbi. |
You're an L.A. kyopo. Your posts make a LOT of sense, now.
Sarbonn, you will be missed. I always enjoyed your posts and, although you had difficulties, you were amazingly cool and sympathetic. The world needs more people like you. |
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madoka
Joined: 27 Mar 2008
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| Posted: Thu May 28, 2009 5:54 pm Post subject: |
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| michaelambling wrote: |
You're an L.A. kyopo. Your posts make a LOT of sense, now. |
Uh, no. 
But if it helps you sleep at night, go ahead and picture me how you will. Wylies99 likes to think of me as Christina Lee, part time letter writer to Korean newspapers/sock/mod/recruiter. |
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Pwillig
Joined: 26 Jan 2009
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| Posted: Thu May 28, 2009 6:08 pm Post subject: |
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| Nothing you can do to get your money?! |
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Elric222
Joined: 19 Nov 2008
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| Posted: Thu May 28, 2009 7:56 pm Post subject: |
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Spent some time reading your blog and your posts on this..
Now I feel pretty angry. You sound like an awesome teacher, ten times better than I ever will be. It's a shame Korea is losing good teachers like you when there are so many more idiots coming in every day.
Glad to hear you made it back to the US all fine. |
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Xuanzang
Joined: 10 Apr 2007
Location: Sadang
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| Posted: Thu May 28, 2009 8:53 pm Post subject: |
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she did not have to pay me because she didn't believe I had enough money to afford a plane ticket to leave. Yeah, I'm not kidding. The thought process she was using was that I'm helpless, stuck in Korea, and therefore there's no hurry to actually pay me. So, just because pay is several months behind is not a problem. The wayguk (foreigner) isn't going to leave because he has no way to leaving. Therefore, we can treat him as unfairly as we desire.
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You should name and shame this b****. This is a possible lesson for noobs. Always have some money saved for an exit, if need be. Be like sarbonn. |
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