heating wars

I've been apart of an ongoing war within the school the past few weeks that got extra ridiculous this morning.  An interesting fact about Korean schools is that they are only partially heated, and the same goes for AC in the summer. For some reason my school has appointed the copy machine guy at my school as the heating czar.  I don't have a clue what his name is, but for the sake of simplicity I'll give him a western name for this blog.  So, Frank is the heating czar.  I can't communicate with Frank, but from his body language it would seem that he doesn't much like foreigners.  I don't deal with Frank outside of my heating and cooling needs, and the occasional fix in my room.   Frank checks my lights and heat use every day multiple times.  if I leave for more than a few minutes I'm expected to turn off my heat, which seem absolutely absurd, but I comply since that is easier than explaining why I think it's ridiculous.  I'm not sure if I forgot to turn off my heat during lunch or while I was teaching in a different class, but it seems like I pissed Frank off a little extra recently.  Frank, as heating czar, has the ability to control my room's heating... and I know when he adjusts the heat or turns it on/off because it makes a certain noise each time he touches it.

Today, I came to school per usual and turned my heat on as I walked into my room.  No more than 5 seconds later I heard the him turn my heating off.  I thought it was a mistake so I turned it back on... and bam, 2 seconds later he turned it off!  For him to respond that quickly to my turning the heat on would imply that he watched me enter the building and waited at the controls to turn the heat off as soon as I turned it on...  I thought it was funny so I shared this with my co-teachers, but they didn't think it was funny.  They tried turning it on only to find Frank turning it off immediately.  Finally, we called down to the office and shared our displeasure with them.  Finally, Scrooge (Frank) turned my heat back on at a lower than usual temperature and locked the controls so that I can't adjust them.  I don't much care since I prefer a lower temperature than my co-teacher, but I'm sure he's enjoying the thought of winning the heating war.  

Regardless, it's Friday and I don't give a shit if my room is hot or cold.  Tonight is the opening of a new bar in Suwon that everyone is excited for.  It's called Sam Ryan's, and there is the same bar in Seoul that everyone goes to on the weekends to watch sports from back home.  They have a ton of big screens showing sports, and customers can request any game they want.  They also have the cheapest beer and the best western food in town.  Their ribs special will be a staple in my weekly routine, I'm sure.  

 

Happy Holidays to everyone

keith