I don't want to wear slippers!

Friday finally. Because I am the only foreigner in my school, and because I try not to go out much on the weeknights, it usually happens that I am with only Koreans all week long. When friday rolls around, I start to feel noticeably edgy and worn out from all the cultural differences. This friday it doesn't help that I'm also PMSing and feel quite dangerously on the edge of anger and/or tears every 15 minutes. During such times it is really better that I stay home alone, which is yet another reason why I am hoping to work from home someday in the near future. A self-employed woman is never her co-worker's worst nightmare. Hasten the day!

I'm supposed to wear slippers at school, but sometimes I don't because I forget to change my shoes or the slippers just don't work well with the rest of what I'm wearing or I just don't feel like it. Today my co-teacher says to me, "Don't you have other shoes you can wear at school." I reply, "Why, yes, I do." He says, "Why don't you wear them?" I say, "Because my pants are too long and I need to wear tall shoes today." He says, "You should have shoes that you wear only inside the school." I asked him why, and he told me that it's because we are trying to keep the floor clean. Already feeling quite edgy, I said, "The floor is filthy, and no one cleans it. The entire school is filthy. Every day I go home and hop in the shower because of all the dirt. Why should I have to wear slippers inside when it's already trashed?" He replies, "Because you must wear different shoes inside." This just doesn't make any sense. Maybe it makes sense to the eastern mind, but I don't know how. It seems to me that they don't care about the reason, just as long as well all do the same thing. Same. Same. Same. Someone rescue me! I need to go home and go to bed. ... by way of the Pacific ocean.

Let me mention one cheerful thing, so no one freaks out and thinks that I'm only critical ;o) I don't have to go to school for the better part of the first week in May. The students are having midterms, and I'm not involved in their grading or their paperwork. To tell you the truth, I think I'm kind of here for show, mainly to promote interest in English. The other teachers discourage me from giving homework or making the students work too hard. The reason is because they students never do the homework, and then it makes them look bad. Everyone here is all about trying to protect each other from looking bad. They filmed a short video with me in it, talking to a group of students gathered around me. They kept nodding their heads, pretending to understand. Then they told me to put on my best teacher face and they shot a bunch of pictures. Sometimes I feel like an animal in a cage. From time to time people will come into my office and just stare at me and point and laugh. Man, if they didn't pay me so well, I'd out of here in a flash.