Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Mo’ technologies, less problems…wait, is that how it is supposed to go?


               It has only taken just over two months of nonsense, fiascos, bureaucracy, and spray paint target on wall and bash your head level headaches, but I finally feel as though I am settled in.  But wait Jack, I thought you said you were already settled in?  Yes that is true, distant voice of the internet, but there were still things missing.  You always feel that there are some basic things that make your day to day life complete.  For those of you in or from the states, it might be something like a car, internet connection, cell phone, and cable TV.  Rachel and I are no different.  This last week after a long series of other headaches we have finally acquired everything that the day to day waygookin (the local word for foreigner) should have. 

                Now first, the head scratching, what the fuck moments... Now Monday  last week started off with another surprise.  Somewhere around 6PM Monday Rachel, John, and myself all got a message from our director, saying that we had to be at a conference  at 10AM that day…yes that was not a typo.  We were supposed to be at a conference, and were told about it 8 hours later.  Now there were two more conferences that we had to go to on that Tuesday and Wednesday.   When I asked about the lack of communication, my boss said that it was because she heard about the conference on Saturday, and since we still didn’t have any kind of phone, she was unable to tell us about it.  Now I don’t mind that we miss a conference, except that it was one about classroom management for the specific group of students that I have the most problems with. 

                Now I was able to use this as a push for getting phones.  Our pay day was upon Rachel and I, and we set out to get new phones.  We made a plan to meet our boss (the vice-director), and go on and get some cell phones.  Now before we did that I thought that I would do a little banking.   Rachel agreed with that idea as we both needed to send money home to pay off bills, loans and so on and so forth.  I started to notice that there was a problem when a second banker came to my teller’s station and they started making a lot of phone calls.  I really knew that something was wrong when Rachel was finished, and it looked like I was nowhere near done.  As it turns out Korea has a law that I was unaware of, where foreigners, like me, can only have one bank account.  With me so far?  Where is the problem you ask?  Well I lived in Korea once before about 4 years ago now, and my passport was still registered to that bank, despite my account being closed before I came back to the states.  Now I was incredibly late for meeting with my boss, and the problem had yet to be corrected. 

                Long story short, Friday we were able to get our phones.  Now I had seen the brand before and was interested in getting something with a little more “wow” factor.  Behold the Galaxy Note, an android phone with 5G service.  I have no idea what some of these numbers mean that are being thrown around, but they sound impressive.  I had heard some horror stories about massive deposits, large fees, and other nonsense causing no end of trouble, but accompanied by one of the head honchos at our school, I had no fear.  Well, as usual that was wrong.  Earlier today, Brandon (the aforementioned head honcho), said that there was in fact a massive deposit and that it needed to be paid now.  Now this wouldn’t normally be a problem, but Rachel and I sent a large amount of money home, remember the entire headache that we went through to transfer cash.  Moreover we spent a lovely weekend shopping around the local foreigner district for some new clothes.  Just between you (entire internet) and me, but Rachel looks absolutely fabulous in this new red dress that she bought.  Now again, guilt is a powerful weapon, and so is the pain and trouble that we keep getting put through.  Brandon, the “honcho”, was understanding enough and kind enough to say that he would cover it until next payday. 

                Now, remember that shopping trip that I talked about?  Well there are some interesting things that happened there.  Some are good, some disappointing, and some have me convinced that something rather unconventionally terrible is going to occur in the near future…stick with me, I’ll explain.  First of all Rachel and I wanted to explore a little and look for a Sunday lunch that was both new, and tasty.  We settled on a British style pub, called The Rose and Crown (I know sounds perfect).  To my amazement there was a delightful selection of American microbrew beers, including Dead Guy ale.  Rachel and I split a massive plate of fried delicious food; I had a tangerine beer with a slice of lemon, and concluded that life was good.  We continued on our journey across Itaewon, looking for nice clothes, including that gorgeous red dress.  Now the disappointing thing is that I am still apparently too fat for Korea.  Well, not really, but I am a larger than average man, and this is an aberration to the Korean size chart.  I did a little research and my shirt size isn’t even stocked on major store shelves.  I did manage to get a very nice red polo shirt from a street vendor, and some new socks that fit.  Granted, I had to pay out the nose for those socks, but they are nice none the less.  The real annoying part is when I went looking for shoes.  I have had my eye on a pair of sandals for a while, but my feet are about 1 and a half sizes too large for the locals to carry in stock.  As I said before, it’s disappointing. 

Now I also mentioned something that provoked unconventional fear and so on and so forth.  This happened on our way back to the apartment.  We were going down the stairs to the subway, when a kid stopped us.  He looked like the scrawny, plays far too much Starcraft away from direct sunlight, allergic to the opposite sex, type of kid.  He was nice enough and asked to take a picture of me.  Not thinking too much about it, I said sure.  Now that wasn’t the part that started to bother me, but it was when he kept on taking pictures, and at multiple angels and light sources, asking me to move to the other side of the stairway.  I asked why he wanted the pictures; his only response was “I like foreigners…”  If you thought that sound creepy and pseudo-stalker like, well yeah, it did to me too.  My mind raced with the possibilities that he might need all of this information.  Sure, he might be some young art student that needs interesting faces, or perhaps he is some sexually repressed digital animator, that needs a more “brutish” looking face to attach to his newest program, “Sadists and Sheep molesters”.  Perhaps in a few months I will be able to Google horse fucker and find my face attached to animations doing unconventional and horrifying things.  Perhaps I am overreacting, but then again maybe I’m not…

OK so much of this is for humor purposes, so don’t worry folks out there in internet land.  Going back to my original point, we have settled in and we have new technology, new clothes, and plans for the near future.  Take care dear readers.  

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