You watched him on hidden cameras to say he doesn't smile enough?!

High-scoring words of the late night:

ATOMICS (1120 points) - against Marlene K. [5W, two 4W]
MUSIC (200 points) - against Jan A. [two 4W]


After I got back from my walk, Corey told me some CRAZY news:

[01:35:05] mrptptpt: I just went to 7-11 all by myself, like a big boy
[01:35:22] AlenaBrolxFlami: good timing - I just got back from a walk myself (1:35 AM here)
[01:35:41] mrptptpt: you're out walking at 1:30?
[01:36:15] AlenaBrolxFlami: I got this idea at 12:15 after I ate something, so yes...
[01:37:26] mrptptpt: well, I went out walking in a scary foreign land with no translator or map (well, I'm sort of creating a map as I go on my handy dandy walking GPS)
[01:37:35] mrptptpt: Jane's at work
[01:38:53] mrptptpt: she forced me to go pay for a parking ticket for her at 7-11 today. she wants me to be less shy, so she's trying to get me to talk to people, despite not speaking the same language as them.......
[01:40:32] AlenaBrolxFlami: you got a walking GPS? that sounds like it could be handy
[01:42:17] mrptptpt: yes. this way, I have a little arrow that tells me which direction Jane's house is wherever we are. it tells me where my house is, too... but to walk there, it's over 7000 miles!
[01:43:15] AlenaBrolxFlami: haha!
[01:43:18] mrptptpt: it's not a normal GPS with maps and stuff. it's like for hiking. you mark your campsite and go wander off wherever all day, and then you tell it you want to go back, and it shows you which direction to go. it also draws a line where you've been walking, if you want to retrace your path
[01:43:32] AlenaBrolxFlami: sounds practical
[01:44:02] mrptptpt: not really. it was $100, and I kinda thought I had a job to pay for that. apparently, this is not the case
[01:45:10] AlenaBrolxFlami: what?! I thought you had stuff lined up last time you went!
[01:47:02] mrptptpt: I DID....... but the school I had a job at is apparently full of a bunch of assholes or crazy people or something. they told me to leave at like 4 PM on the first day because I "don't smile enough," and my personality doesn't fit with the school.. oh, and we didn't REALLY hire you (despite giving me a job offer with the salary and benefits laid out, and them calling me repeatedly to make sure I was coming back) ... we just gave you a chance to see if we like you (oh, you mean the teaching demo I did, which you liked?)
[01:48:47] mrptptpt: maybe I shouldn't say "a bunch of assholes" ... the teachers all seemed fine, but apparently, the principal lady had it out for me for some unknown reason. she tried to get a teacher to get rid of me, but I made her come out and talk to me. she was a broken record, though... and wouldn't give me a straight answer about anything. then she just kind of left, and nobody came back to talk to me or whatever, so I had to call Jane (luckily, I brought her mom's cell phone, as mine doesn't get service over here) and get her to leave work to come get me
[01:49:52] AlenaBrolxFlami: what the hell? that's CRAZY! principal lady sounds like a bitch
[01:49:58] mrptptpt: while I was waiting for Jane, the principal lady came back to tell me to leave, since they don't want any parents or students to come and see me waiting in the lobby... I told her I was just waiting for my ride, and I'd be gone soon. then I think she went off to go get security or something, but Jane walked in right about then... and in Chinese, she didn't get much farther than me trying to get an answer out of her
[01:51:00] mrptptpt: so... I've spent like $2000 to come back here and work there for a year, and now I don't have an income here. I definitely didn't do anything wrong, because my whole day was watching other foreign teachers teach their classes
[01:51:08] mrptptpt: I didn't even have a chance to do anything wrong or right
[01:51:51] AlenaBrolxFlami: when did this happen?! and do your parents know?
[01:52:06] mrptptpt: Monday, the first day of work
[01:52:43] mrptptpt: everything seemed fine... but apparently, they were watching me on hidden cameras (seriously, one of the foreign teachers pointed it out to me when she had her back turned to it) ... and decided I don't smile enough
[01:54:02] mrptptpt: I actually made a point of smiling at everyone all day, and the few interactions I had with the kids had them all laughing and happy.. and after I was informed about the cameras, I did my best to look bright and alert while watching classes.. I'm still a bit jet-lagged and fall asleep pretty early, so I did plenty of yawning in some of the first classes.. still, I wasn't teaching anyone... I was just watching to see how things work
[01:54:23] mrptptpt: my parents said they're glad I'm not working for people like that, and to stick with it and find something else
[01:56:48] AlenaBrolxFlami: yeah, that's what I'd say too - you're there already... these people sound like they have some kind of issue
[01:57:28] AlenaBrolxFlami: what you did seems fine to me... smiling all day, and making the kids laugh and be happy? that would score points in my book if I were the evaluators
[02:13:04] mrptptpt: Firefox restarted, so I probably missed things
[02:13:31] mrptptpt: I have you open in Chrome now to hopefully avoid that.. Firefox barely works on my laptop these days
[02:21:59] AlenaBrolxFlami: *pastes last two messages*
[02:26:05] mrptptpt: well, I can start looking for other places. there's another one that apparently hires almost anyone, and is a chain school known to not screw people over... though people have a lot of complaints about the rules, and how they run things and stuff
[02:30:49] AlenaBrolxFlami: what sort of complaints do they have?
[02:34:58] mrptptpt: they try to not pay you for any office time preparing your lessons and grading and that kind of stuff, I think. it looks like all businesses here are kind of like that, though... they want to get you to work as many hours as humanly possible, and pay you for as few of those as they can get away with
[02:35:48] mrptptpt: and it's quantity over quality. if you do a job in one hour, perfectly, you won't be praised for your efficiency over the idiot that takes 5 hours... you'll be yelled at for being lazy for 4 hours
[02:36:48] mrptptpt: they warned me when I had a free period for lesson planning at Well (the evil school) to always look busy, because even though I didn't have to work for that time, they'd put me to work if I didn't look busy enough
[02:39:50] AlenaBrolxFlami: yikes... doesn't sound good, but also does sound kinda Asian
[02:41:15] mrptptpt: I think it's probably fairly Asian here, yes :P
[02:42:27] mrptptpt: oh, there was a foreign teacher from Vancouver there who almost immediately asked if I like hockey :P
[02:43:06] AlenaBrolxFlami: hahaha... so what did you say?
[02:48:32] mrptptpt: not really? :P then he asked if I follow the Avalanche, even though I just said I don't pay attention to hockey. I also hate typing "hockey" because I almost always type "hocket" and have to go back and fix it. I don't normally mix up t's and y's, so I don't know why that happens so much with "hockey" (did it AGAIN right there)
[02:52:42] AlenaBrolxFlami: I hate when that happens to me... usually happens when I'm really tired, or typing fast, like on Sunday afternoon after lunch (had 5 hours' sleep)
[02:56:06] mrptptpt: potato
[03:03:03] mrptptpt: dinner time here... Jane was SUPPOSED to be back about now, but she's not
[03:03:29] mrptptpt: so now I have to beat her up or something today
[03:07:33] AlenaBrolxFlami: that's terrible
[03:08:01] AlenaBrolxFlami: anyway... I need to go to bed, and the computer is bugging me about automatic updates, which it'll do in about 14 minutes anyway... so bye!