Moved In

The Education Office Official
We visited the Education office in Jeonju to sign the contract and the official informed us that according to the contract, the school didn't have to provide an apartment...the education office only has to provide me with a small housing allowance every month. This would be fine except that in order to rent an apartment in Korea, one must put down key money, a lump sum something like a damage deposit, only much larger. We didn't have $5000 kicking around for the necessary key money so I asked the official where he thought we'd be finding such a large amount. He blushed and mumbled something about borrowing it from my wife's "auntie". He then assured us that he could do no more for us and maybe we should ask the principal for the key money.

"Auntie"
The "auntie" the official spoke of is my former employer who had been posing as my wife's auntie in order to help us out. She did us many "favors" which we didn't ask for and may have caused more trouble than anything. She offered us one of her apartments for us to live in which was very nice, however as we dealt with her over the next week we realized that she wanted certain favors in return, such as having my wife work at her private school. We realized in the that we didn't want to be owing anyone favors so we didn't take that apartment in the end. My wife still felt indebted to her so she is working at the school but at least doesn't feel like she has to work there all year.

The Principal
When we walked into the school we were told point blank (through a low-ranking school official) that the principal would not be providing us key money. We managed to get a meeting with the principal and he seemed annoyed that we didn't simply listen to his lackey and leave. When we discussed our options with him, he revealed that there was a new apartment complex being built and would be finished in the summer. When we enquired about getting an apartment there, he asked us if we'd move then and when we answered "yes" he rolled his eyes as if to imply that we'd never be happy. The whole experience was quite degrading as it seemed as if we were begging for money and he treated us as a lender might treat an untrustworthy borrower.

At this point we were getting desperate as our options had run out. At this time, "auntie's" apartment seemed to be our only option, other than liquidating some of our assets in Canada to pay for key money. Fortunately, my mother-in-law was able to acquire some money (she won't tell us where) to lend us and we were able to get an apartment on our own after a couple days of searching for a clean place we could afford. We will pay her back at the first opportunity.

So now we have a nice place, a little bigger than our previous place and is in a good location. In the end, we pay a little less that what the education office pays for my rent, so we get to pocket a little bit in return for our efforts. In the end it seems that the cause of our problems was a mish-mash of beaurocrats who either had no power or no will to take responsibility for anything. Tied to that is the lack of compassion and understanding by anyone except for my wife's parents and possibly "auntie" although her motives are still unknown.

The School Administrator
That was just to get our place. In order to get our furniture, we had almost as difficult time again, being stuck between the education office and the school/principal. Fortunately for us, the administrator took pity on us and actually did something. He took it on himself and even though he may not get his money back, he offered to pay for our furnishings if the education office did not. His help was a huge and unforseen blessing for us. We had slept on our floor one night and with his intervention we didn't have to spend any more.