"The bad day". That's what Emily called it. Kind of funny and cute, but also really quite accurate.
It actually started on the Monday. Michelle Supervisor knocked on my class door shortly before lunch and informed me that there was going to be a meeting in our Directors office at lunch. Impromptu meetings in the boss' office are NEVER a good thing. However, I just assumed that our pay was going to be late.
The meeting was actually with the corporate head-honchos. They told us that our director and his wife had taken off to New Zealand over the weekend, abandoning the school and leaving all of the finances in shambles. He told us that to panic would be the worst thing, that they were trying to work things out. And I believed him. I mean, I was a little nervous about the situation, but really my biggest concern was if we were going to be paid by the weekend since I had planned a trip to Seoul.
Now, I'll skip to Wednesday, May 11th, one day before my 10 month Korea milestone. Since I took Paul's class on Monday I didn't have to come into school until 1:30 that day. When I got to school I asked Andy if they had heard anything. Nothing. So I got my stuff together, and headed to my milestones class. Class went normally, I joked around with my 5 boys, gave stickers, high-fived them as they left yelling "don't forget to study for your spelling test!" down the stairs after them. And then I had a helper period. Right before everyone left for the last class Michelle came into the staff room and told us that there was a mandatory meeting at 5:40. As everyone headed to class someone joked "better make it fun, might be the last one."
What followed was the longest hour and a half that I have ever experienced. Lindsey, Micheal, Emily and I all had helpers, so we sat, going over every possible scenario, hoping for the best. But when we saw our supervisors come out of our director's office in tears, we began to brace ourselves for the worst. I think we all knew what was going to happen, but I for one did not want to believe it. So we waited.
When that 5:40 bell sounded, my heart honestly almost stopped. I was so nervous. Everyone came down from their classes, by this time most knowing that something horrible was about to happen. We all sat, Michelle and Ann stood in front of us. Seconds later they both turned around, went into Michelle's office and we heard sobbing. I looked around, everyone was in shock. We knew what was coming.
About a minute later, Ann and Michelle returned and through gasps and tears Ann said. "I'm sorry to say, but we have to close our school. I'm so sorry, I tried so hard, I tried everything, I'm sorry". Lindsey squeezed my hand, some teachers were crying, a lot had questions. At that moment I couldn't cry, in fact, I could hardly move. Even though I thought this was going to happen it still didn't make sense to me. A million things flooded my mind, but one stood out. I'm not ready. I'm just not ready.
As the story continued to unfold we learned that the debt had been greater then anyone had known or thought. Several staff members hadn't been paid in months. Us foreign teachers were going on 6 weeks without pay. Some had gone as much as 6 months.
As we cleaned out our cubbies it really started to hit me. It made me sad, but it also made me very angry. This was how my amazing adventure was going to end. As Kristin came over and gave me a hug, I finally started to cry.
After we all brought our things home we met up for pizza and beer since, well, we ere unemployed, we didn't have to work the next day. A little while later a camera crew showed up. Apparently our director's disappearance was somewhat of a big scandal. Josh, Andy and Emily all got interviewed for the morning news. I started calling a few people back home, and I started looking at flights home. It turned out my cheapest option was to fly to Vancouver and then book a second separate flight back to Ontario. The flight was Sunday morning. It was then Wednesday night.
That meant 3 more days in Korea. Whoa.
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