Korea the bad, Korea the Great

#1: This weekend some annoying Korean, who I have always said is a pain to be nice to, decided under a storm of drink to take my cell phone along with Saejin's which were sitting at our table. The guy was super drunk and while on his way home called the last number I had dialed which happened to be Joon who was sitting next to me. He saw it was a call from me and because we had by then discovered the phones gone he told the guy to bring the phone back. Drunk head then said he had no idea what we were talking about because this was his phone (even though it was my number dialling Joon's phone.) This is Korea the bad.

Korea the Great is that because my phone is registered under Saejin's name he went into a shop explained what happened and they gave us both loaner phones free of charge. These loaners are used phones but because this is Korea they aren't more than a year old. We can return the phones when ours show up or if they don't we can have the phones for good again for no charge. For me it's no big loss if the guy doesn't return the phone but Saejin's phone is a brand new top of the line model. The drunk who took it is a friend of Chan Young and goes to his bar often so hopefully by this weekend he will of sobered up and hand them back. Unfortunately he isn't answering his phone to admit he screwed up. We will see.

#2: I just got back from immigration and things there were as annoying as always. My Visa expires on Friday but now that I have the Vulnerable Sector Search (VSS) in hand the last piece of my paper work was done. I was told all I had to do was bring it in and I'd get my year long work Visa. I went alone because my supervisor is on holidays and in Korea that means she is busy taking some professional development class. I went there with my certified VSS, passport and ID card and many prayers they would understand what was needed. (Not many of the workers speak English.)

I sat around waiting for my number to be called praying I wouldn't get stuck with one of the older men because their English tends to be the worse. It wasn't my lucky day and I was stuck with the eldest one of the bunch, so in both pidgin Korean and English we set to work on figuring out what we both needed. He insisted I needed a contract but I told him mine was there in the computer and the VSS check was the only missing document needed to make my Visa more than a four month long temporary one. He sat back took in this information, returned to looking at the VSS and then said, "Don't need VSS. You old Criminal check ok. Law change one more time." After four months of stress and wasted money sending and purchasing documents I show up at immigration only to find out my Visa was fine all along. Korea the bad.

After asking him if he was serious and he seeing my annoyance he did the Korean apologetic smile and started printing out stuff and working to avoid a confrontation. He quickly finished up my paper work and gave me a number to wait for my Alien card with my new expiration date to be added. Korea the Great. I get to stay until the end of my contract and am glad the past four months of unknown are behind me.