One down, fourteen to go.

Well, the first full week of the semester is over. As per usual, it was hectic, exhausting, and I caught a cold. Right on time. You could set your watch by my spring colds. Because the institute is two teachers short, this semester is going to be busier than normal. I'm already working 9 hours a week overtime, and three more hours will be added next week. The pressure would be eased somewhat if one of the teachers working with us, a useless lump whom I'll call by his office nickname "Twitch", would step up to the plate and help out a bit.

The immediate problem stems from the fact that the two teachers hired to replace the ones leaving, quit before working a single day. One of them decided to quit a day before the semester started leaving the CLEC office staff scrambling to cover the classes. While there certainly was a great deal of bitching about the extra hours everyone was going to have to work, the majority of the teachers recognized the problem and took the overtime in stride (the amount of money to be made working bunches of overtime usually calming other worries). All except for Twitch (Twitch is the guy, if you read the post from last fall, who felt so much pressure working thirteen hours a week, came down with hysterical blindness and couldn't teach for three days). First, he complained that he had to work on Mondays. Then he weaseled out of a two-day-a-week night class by pawning it off on another teacher. Finally, with absolutely no other teachers available to work the final class that needed to be covered, he flat out refused to take the class. I'm not sure whether or not the institute had to cancel the class, with its corresponding loss of revenue, or not, but it showed his true colors.

Everyone in the office is working between 35 and 40 hours a week (this is A LOT for a university gig in Korea). Twitch is working 23 hours and still complaining that he's working too much. He's been smart enough not to complain about his schedule within my hearing because if he does, he's going to get an earful he won't soon forget. I'm already finding it difficult to keep a civil tongue when I see him in the office. Hopefully, if I ignore him long enough, he'll just go away. It's pretty much guaranteed that, if he actually makes it through this semester, will not be re-hired for next year.

Anyway, enough of that.

It's Saturday morning. It seems to be shaping up into a pretty gloomy day. The light outside is the same now at 9 am as it was at 6:30 when it first started getting light. It's cloudy and smells like rain. I didn't go out last night because of my cold, so I woke up around 6 am this morning. Granted, I do feel better this morning than I have in the past couple of days, so I actually might get some school work done (ha, yeah, right). However, I think the day is going to revolve mostly around books, music, and World of Warcraft; maybe a little Kart Rider thrown in to shake things up.