The Nefarious Mr. Smith

Today marked the start of intensives. Surprisingly, they're a little intense. I'm glad I have a computer at home now because I wouldn't have time to do much at school. But really, I was ready for that.

What I wasn't ready for was a surprise that came after I had been at work for about a half an hour. Smith, the male Korean teacher that started a month ago, came in and sat down at Rose's desk. Thinking he was just taking the desk and nothing more. I laughed.

"Is that your desk now?" I asked, trying to just gently rib him.

"Yeah, I knew I was taking this since I started here, but I had to keep it quiet," he said. I laughed for a second, and then it struck me. He wasn't talking about the desk anymore.

Turns out Smith knew from the time he started that he was coming in to take the place over. None of the foreign teachers knew. Rose didn't know. No one knew but Smith and Mrs. Gu.

Now, it's hard to blame this charade on Smith. He didn't know the terms of his take over when he accepted the position. And Mrs. Gu made him promise not to tell anyone before he took over.

Well, there are good things and bad things about this take over. First the good:

--Smith is a friend. I've known him from before he started at the school. I even remember him telling me about the interview. I met him through a friend a while ago. Oddly, he really hit it off with my roommate more than he and I ever hit it off, though.

--Smith likes me. He's the one that got people to cheer on the elevator for me in "The Teacher's Dinner Fiasco." Same guy.

--The position is filled now. I was worried that no one could fill in for Rose, and I was even more worried that no one would. I thought Mrs. Gu was saving money by eliminating the position. Turns out she was just eliminating Rose. At least we still have someone around to help.

Now for the bads:

--I'm not sure how I feel about one friend taking the position of another. I consider Rose a good friend and Smith an acquaintance, really. It's almost like welcoming Smith would somehow be betraying Rose. It's a weird place to be.

--Smith is good friends with my roommate--you know, the one that I don't get along with very well (and the one that receives a lot of complaints at work). Now, I can hope that Smith will behave professionally, but really, Chris needs to be kept in line at times. I hope Smith keeps him in line and doesn't show any favoritism. I hope he just doesn't let his drinkin' buddy get away with stuff. At this point, though, I have no reason to believe he will.

--Between chatting with him myself and Chris talking about me sometimes (I'm sure), Smith knows me pretty well. Well enough that he could use some stuff against me at work. Smith doesn't seem like the type of guy to do that, but I'm still a little nervous about it.

Anyway, that's my day. Smith's a good guy (I think) and thing's probably will be fine, but I'm nervous for now.

R