No, I'm not Rick Rolling you. That title would be far too obvious, promise.
Gene told Ian that he has decided to leave Yoon's. While I'm disappointed because Ian and I like Gene and he is completely crucial to our sanity as employees, I understand why he is leaving. He is paid very little. So little that it hardly covers the cost of his commute. Driving is expensive in Korea. Gas prices are high and all freeways are toll roads. Gene drives nearly an hour each direction (completely ridiculous when you think about how small Korea is) every single work day. Julia and David treat him like an errand boy, giving him any superfluous task and often asking him to work on weekends. He had to cancel a weekend in Busan with his wife over a holiday because they asked him to work and they didn't tell him until the Thursday before.
He's staying until they find a replacement, which means it could be ages until he actually quits (hence the title of this post). Leave it to Gene to do his quitting on someone else's time table. He's simply too nice. But, I welcome the gradual change, as I'm not looking forward to having someone new be the only buffer between Julia and us.
On a completely unrelated note, I've come to believe that the girls who live across from us are raging alcoholics. I'm not talking Korean standard soju loving alcoholism, here, either. Each week a box of empty soju jugs (the biggest ones available) sits outside their door waiting to be pitched. Tonight, when I walked into our building there was a girl leaning against the side of the elevator, waiting. When the doors opened, I hesitated, thinking she would walk in first. But, as she had difficulty removing herself from the wall, she didn't. She staggered in after me. As the elevator rose, she planted her feet, but her upper body betrayed her by spinning in a slow circle. We exited the elevator and she went to the notorious soju door, tried to open the door herself, but gave up and rang the door bell. Her roommate answered in her skivvies (or very short shorts). This girl was trashed. And it wasn't even 8:30. I'm certainly not being judgmental (at least not purposefully), but I'm perplexed and curious about our neighbors and their lives. After all, the most we see of any of the people on our floor is their garbage before trash day.
Onward to the weekend merry-making.
Good night!
wow, hopefully they remember to turn off burners and such. Have you two mapped your fire escape? I do worry about those things when people live in a apartment building. You have no control what the other tenets do.
ReplyDeleteI am sorry about Gene leaving , I know you like him.