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I'm starting to wonder how Harry is ever going to get Slughorn to confide his dark secret to him.
Was tough to go to school today. Still felt very weak, body aching, and unable to really speak without both croaking and squeaking.

School was quite ordinary. Didn't get a heartwarming sense of 'where were you teacher', except from a couple of students. I asked the kids who taught in my place yesterday and they said, without exception, the director. I asked 'what he taught' and they said he read them a religious story, in Korean. Now he can speak a bit of English, and the parents he cares so much about, are paying for their kids to learn English....couldn't help chuckling at that information. I brought it up later at our meeting, where I accused him of scamming the parents, taking their money and not doing what the school's supposed to be doing: get the kids to learn English (see below).

The meeting this evening was a real triumph. Curiously, last night I happened to download Tony Robbins (Lessons in Mastery) and found myself listening to it this morning, dreary eyed, in the bus.
I only listened to a piece, but I think it gave me a boost for the whole day. It was about identity, and that control over one's own self, what goes on inside us, is the power we have over ourselves and our world. What goes on beyond that is far less important.
I also read my diary, from 2002, and realised to what extent I'd come to Korea with a really positive attitude, and lots of enthusiasm, and just how, over a period of time, I had to deal with a lot of weirdos and assholes, both koreans and foreigners. Mostly in the hagwons. I really think these jobs attract a strange, insecure, and not entirely rational, subset of society. And hey, I'm the first to admit, I'm part of this group whether I like it or not. I don't like it, of course, which is why very soon I'll no longer be identifiable as part of it.

It was good to play the director at his own game, and wear him out, even though I was tired, I was sick and I was unhappy. I feel a much clearer sense of purpose, a much more certain sense of what I'm doing, than I felt on Thursday, when I started feeling a sense of appreciation for having a job in the first place. I think that was an attempt to stay in a comfort zone. I think being ill, it's easier to feel like that's the best thing.

I still feel feverish and icky, but felt pretty happy after work. Must have showed on my face 'cos more than one Korean girl caught my eye and some smiled at me, one girl even said, "Hello."
I called Corneli from Sandpresso and she came over (from having a shower) to hear my story - I'd called her just before my meeting.
Then she ran off for chicken at Allalie, and I bumped into Andrea and Liz. We had a long conversation that took us all the way in and out of the Nike store. We made plans to maybe go bowling on Sunday.

So I'm in a good place, mentally. I've defended myself in these situations before, and won. I got scammed out of money at Farmovs and after a meeting they paid me out in full. I took a company that fired me to the Labor Board in South Africa and got a R5 000 payout (a lawyer later said I could have got R10 000). And so on and so forth. But it's also true, that I've not always won, and it's important to pick your fights. I picked this one, and came out on top, and it's a feather in my cap after six months here. People teach you how to treat them, and you teach them how to treat you. It seems I have learnt something here after all.