international banking baby

i'm a whiz at banking in korea! well, okay, maybe it's just the cute bank guy - JJ - that makes it so much easier, but after our first meeting a month ago things are going pretty well.

the first time i tried to send money overseas was to my brother to repay him for my flight here. i went to my bank - nonghyup.

anyway, i went in - after getting special permission to leave early from school - eqipped with a sheet of paper that said "i would like a draft in US dollars" written in korean by another teacher. after waiting my turn the teller called my number and i presented my paper to her. she looked at it, looked at me, looked at it again, and then a confused look came over her face. "no US," she said to me. then i looked confused and said "check" - more confusion. this went on for what seemed like forever before i finally gave up - how can a BANK not deal with US money?

as it turns out, nonghyup isn't a real bank...it's a cooperative. in canada this means the same thing, but in korea it means they don't deal with foreign currency at all. what kind of idiot is my co-teacher to open me an account at a bank that doesn't deal in foreign currency? wish i had an answer for you. i just couldn't wrap my head around it, and i needed to get this transfer done. she was telling me to go to another bank, busan bank. well, i was thinking, "where the hell is that?"

i whipped out my map of gimhae and asked her to show me. oh! of course it's only a block away and they'll do my draft for me. great. i was already frustrated - discovering that my bank can't do the one thing that i need to do every month... argh!

so i headed to the busan bank, what choice did i have? i walked in, took a number and sat down. after about ten minutes, my number was called. i walked up to the teller and passed her my note. she shook her head. what?!? she then pointed at some desks in the back and managed to convey to me that i had to go there. oh, well, that's not so bad really... right? yeah... we'll see.

after waiting another ten minutes, the man at the desk came to see me. again, i produced my now withered sheet of paper. he looked at it, looked at me and said, in plain english "oh, we don't do that here." i don't know if it was the rejection, or if it was the frustrations of my first three weeks in korea finally hitting me, but i burst into tears. that's right, balling like a baby. i couldn't control it... that's what makes me think it was the cumulation of weeks of frustration...

anyway, the look on this guys' face was incredible, he didn't know what to do with me. he looked like he wanted to hug me, or throw me out... (more like hug) i tried to explain through the tears that i was told i could do this here, and oh god, what am i going to do now? it's already four thirty and all the other banks are closing... what am i going to do? sob* sob* sigh* sigh*... you get the drift.

well, he passed me some tissues and told me to sit down. by now his colleague had become aware of the balling foreigner and they were on task. that is, they were on the phone, to i don't know who, looking up occasionally to see if i was still sobbing or had myself under control. finally he came back and told me i had to go to the korea exchange bank... but it was too late, all the banks were closed and so i just came home.

my first experience at international banking was horrible. i didn't know what i was going to do... that night i looked into western union to send my bro his cash. guess where you have to go to do that? uh huh, that's right, busan bank.

me and JJ are buddies now. my trip to the bank today was a walk in the park... we even have a little flirtation going on, and he wants to take me out sometime... sometimes being a big baby can be of benefit - it makes people want to help you and take care of you...