late again...

well, there go any plans i might have had for the weekend. i was planning a trip to teongyeong with kat, chris, and angela but decided earlier this week that i wasn't feeling up to it. good thing i cancelled before. i didn't get paid again.

i spoke to the guy from the provincial office of education and he told me that there is a new supervisor in gimhae. she forgot to pay us. when i asked what would happen if i forgot to go to school, he told me i would be fired. but this woman is allowed to forget to pay me. WTF??!?!?! this is the third, maybe fourth (i'll have to check) time that this has happened now. every time i tell them the same thing - you must pay me on time, i have a contract and you are breaking it. they don't ever seem to get the message. i'm so angry right now and there is nothing i can do. nothing.

anyway, i told the guy that if i wasn't paid by monday at four that i was going to the labour board. i guess i can do my research over the weekend since i have nothing else to do now. i can always take money from my canadian accounts, if i feel like paying upwards of 20$ in fees, which i don't. why should i have to pay for their mistake? it's the same thing every time, and they just never have an answer for that one. the crazy part is that it's such a simple thing to do. i don't know why they can't just set it up to pay me every month. you can go to any bank machine in korea and transfer money to another korean account, so why can't they just do that? Answer: it's the end of the week and now there isn't time. it's always one story after another. how can the koreans expect to continue to attract foreigners to their schools if the ability to pay on time is ignored. i've said it before and i'll say it again, anyone who wants to teach in korea, don't come to the gimhae public school system.

162 days til i can say goodbye to this crap.

international banking crisis

if you've been following this blog over the last six months, you will have read all about the banking issues i had when i first arrived. things got much better after i found a great banker at the bank down the street. JJ spoke excellent (for a korean) english and kept all my information for me, making things so easy for me that i guess i got kind of 'soft'. i forgot to write about this last month - what with the million and one posts about seoul - but JJ was transferred. far away. today it hit me like a ton of bricks.

i transfer money home once a month. i go to my bank, withdraw cash, and bring it to JJ, who, exchanges it and transfers it for me. last month i walked into the bank popped my head around to where his desk is - all ready to tell him about my trip to seoul - but he wasn't there. i thought that since i was there earlier than usual that maybe he was on lunch. so i left, intended on returning in an hour or so, but i had nothing else to do, so i walked back in to pay my bills with the regular teller.

when it was finally my turn i paid my bills and tried to ask her about JJ. was he on lunch? or was it possible that the man sitting at his desk was just replacing him for the day? well, the 'new guy' (who was the guy who used to sit next to JJ) recognized me and brought me over to his (JJ's) desk and said, "mr. jin go".

"what?" i asked.
"mr. jin go," he repeated.
just as the tears were welling up in my eyes the 'new guy' passed me the phone, it was JJ.
"hello?" i heard him say.
"hi."
"oh, long time no see," he said.
"i know, but i only come once a month, you know that."
"i'm sorry," he said, "i had to leave that place."
"what do you mean? where are you?" i asked.
"i am in seomyeon now."
"oh, well, that's good for you. it is much closer to your home." i tried to sound happy.
"yes, it is good for me, but not for you."

today i really realized just how 'not good' it is. i had to go in to make my transfers again and the 'new guy' just doesn't know what he's doing. he had to call JJ again - at his new branch - to find out what i wanted/needed. then he spent the next hour doing what JJ always did in about twenty minutes. not to mention that he barely speaks english and isn't very nice. he was talking about me with the guy who sits next to him. i don't (obviously) know what they were saying, but there were a lot of funny looks, laughter, and "canada" being thrown around. it sucked.

it was just one little thing that made life here a bit easier - JJ, my awesome banking guy. plus he made going to the bank kind of fun, since we'd chat and he'd get me coffee and snacks, and give me presents like calendars and clocks. it seems like i'll be talking to him on the phone once a month regardless, since the new guy doesn't know what he's doing and has to call JJ every time i'm there... like today. but it just isn't the same.

more importantly, i hope that he did everything correctly and that the money will be in my account in the next few days like it usually is... who knows what he did, since he didn't do the same thing that JJ always did... with my luck, my money will probably get stuck somewhere in cyberspace... (knock on wood).

:(

international banking...continued

ok, so i was getting to the part about the cute banker...but TOTALLY got side-tracked on that last post... yesterday i got paid, on time, though not quite in full as far as i can tell... i've got the dork working on it for me now... should be hearing about it next month - if i'm lucky. point is, i DID get paid, and on time to boot!

so i got off work early to head to my "bank" where i withdrew a million won. this is one of the strangest things that i do on a regular basis... the maching at my bank will only let me take out 700,000 at a time, so i have to make two withdrawals and then take the hundred bills i have to the bill counting machine to make sure i haven't been ripped off. yes, 100 bills! the largest common bill here in korea is the 10,000 won note... so, a million won, is 100 of these puppies.

anyway, i take my money stuff it in a paper bag (supplied by the bank), then stuff it in my purse, and walk out. i'm always a little paranoid about this, thinking that someone is going to mug me, but i only have to walk a block. though now that i've posted this here, i think i'll get them to transfer it electronically...i'll have to figure that one out... anyway, i take my money to JJ my wonder banker and he takes care of everything for me. he always gets me a great exchange rate, and never charges me for the wire transfer....

of course, there was that time that he totally screwed up the western union transfer for my bro, so now he owes me... at least that's what the korean english teacher who sits next to me says... so i finally gave him my number yesterday, we'll try and go out for some pizza soon. but he works until 9pm every night and lives in busan - and hour and a half on the bus. maybe he'll drive his car one day... anyway, he called me last night just to chat, and it was all right - though i did find out he doesn't like drinking beer - or alcohol at all for that matter... wonder if he's maybe really religious... gets ya thinking anyway. i don't think i'm going to pursue the matter really, but it's nice having a friend at the bank.

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...

prezzies, banks, shoes and more...

my first (and only) Chuseok present! one of the teachers at school gave me this gift pack of Dove products! sweet! i won't have to buy soap for the next year! haha... i really wasn't expecting anything from anyone so it was really nice to be remembered... not that my "co-teacher" did anything for me (other than make my day frustrating as hell). i figured that if anyone would do anything it would be him, but it was another teacher, whose name i don't even know! she doesn't even speak english! but she's been extremely kind to me since day one. she's given me a box of green tea, a pair of shoes to wear instead of the sandals that jay gave me on my first day - have i mentioned the shoe thing yet? see below. anyway, it was really nice to get a prezzie. i'll have to get her something now and give it to her after the holidays.

so we were still in mid-terms at school today, so i had no class, but i had to sit at my desk all morning trying to look busy - i.e. emailing, surfing the net. i actually worked on a lesson plan for a while, i had most of it done, but it needed some polishing according to Jay. could he tell me what he wanted? no. of course not. we had made plans on friday to work on our "demo class" today after school. the demo class is next thursday, basically it means that a bunch of big-wigs from the board of education and some other english teachers from the area are going to be watching our class... so it has to be good. we had agreed last week that the lesson will revolve around halloween and that was it. he told me to figure something out, even though it's supposed to be "team teaching". so i planned a whole lesson and gave him a copy on friday and we agreed to discuss it today. BUT, after waiting all morning, and then expecting to get to work, he comes to my desk and says "did you eat lunch?" well, obviously i hadn't... he saw me sitting there all morning, so what gives? anyway, then he's like, "ok, i'm off to lunch, go eat, and i'll meet you back here at 2." well, i may have over-reacted a little, but i was like "what do you mean? i thought we were working on the lesson. it'll only take about ten minutes to go over, so let's get it done with."
Jay: no, no, i'm hungry, we'll do it later.
Liz: i'd rather get it done with, i have to go to the bank, and leaving school to eat lunch will take me too long.
Jay: well, i think it will take longer than ten minutes... blah blah blah.
(it came out later that he also made plans to go play tennis with someone at 2...argh... i told him that he needs to communicate these things with me... if i didn't ask Jo (teacher next me) all kinds of things, i'd be in the dark 95% of the time.)

finally, he made me go for lunch with him and two other teachers, and then he dropped me off at the bank (more on that later) and now he's coming over to my apartment at 5 to work on it. which just pisses me off... he doesn't like my lesson plan because it isn't in the format that he wants, but he never told me what format to use, or gave me any kind of guidelines... he just told me to come up with something! ARGH! anyway, we'll see.

so i finally made it to the bank, and there is money on its way to my account in canada, but i still think it's going to be late for my auto payments. i'm kind of screwed, i think. i'll keep my fingers crossed and hope that the time difference will make it all work out... but this week is full of holidays, so they don't count as business days, so i could be screwed. we'll see. the guy at the bank J.J. was super nice and quite chatty, his english is probably the best i've heard from a korean (other than an english teacher). i don't know if he was asking me out on a date, or just to do something, but he did ask if he could call me. of course, i still don't have a phone, so i told him i'd call him when i got one. it'll be good practice for his english and maybe i can pick up a little korean from him...

so the shoe thing. people don't wear shoes in the house here, at all. and they have a pair of slippers for the bathroom and when you go to school you have to wear your "school shoes". the kids all have these weird slipper things, and lots of the teachers wear beach sandals.. i have a pair of loafers that i got at payless right before leaving canada, and they are what i wear every day. but on my first day, i didn't have them, cause i didn't know, so jay gave me these men's beach sandals... and the nice teacher who gave me the present today, lent me a pair of shoes on the first day so i wouldn't have to wear men's shoes. it was funny. but that's just how nice she's been... she also gave me a mug to have my tea in. very sweet, especially since she can't even talk to me!

so another day, another dollar - and lots of money on its way home - a potential date with a cute korean (never thought i'd say that, but some of them are really good looking) and then six days off to do as i please... things are definitely looking up. :)