That Time I lost my job on Christmas.

It's been literally ages since I've posted on here, but this is big.

So here begins one of my most depressing stories from my time in Korea.

As I had written not so long ago, I have been working for a pre-school academy part time since September. I loved my students and my co-teachers, even if there were some things that were annoying and stressful and not so wonderful about the job. Plus, it gave me a visa and a salary which was/is critical for me to continue living in Korea and studying Korean.

My visa was slated to run until early November of 2012, but it looks like I won’t be using it for quite that long.

On Saturday, Christmas Eve, after two hours of class, our boss came into the office and said she had some news. I had no idea what it could be but kind of hoped for a Christmas gift or bonus of some sort.

But the only gift our boss had for us was one I’d never expected or wanted to hear. Our academy was closing as of that day. There were severe money problems (the sole investor backed out in September and out boss had been making all payments herself since then), and it was impossible to continue. She explained that if we continued to work through January it was possible she wouldn’t be able to pay us our salaries and that she thought it was better to end it right here.

And so, from today, I am jobless.

What this also means is that I have about one month to find a new job before my visa expires. Luckily, I have my full-time student stuff to cover me IF something doesn’t come up. However, if I can’t find part-time work with a visa-sponsoring academy, I am gonna have to quit Sogang after the winter term and probably work full time for another year.

I am just glad that because I am only part-time, my house is not being paid for by my academy. The other native English teacher was full-time and her apartment was paid for by our academy and she has two weeks to find a new house, sign a contract, and completely move out. Not to mention she also has one month to find a job before her contract runs out.

Regardless, though, it was a pretty shitty way to ring in Christmas Eve, that’s for sure.

As a result, I am looking for a new job, and sending lots of e-mails and resumes to lots of different academies. And in case there happens to be a blogger out there who happens to know of something, please reblog and drop me a message if you hear anything.

My Christmas was really great, though. I will post about that soon!