Job/apartment

I'm working a lot from mid-July to mid-August, so probably not too much blogging. I will work approximately 55-60 hours a week.

Also, sometime in the next 6 weeks, I will move into my own apartment. My mom will help support some of the cost since Korean apartment rental system is different. It usually requires a deposit of 3,000-10,000 dollars plus a monthly fee. Most Koreans will put down a larger deposit so they don't have to pay a monthly fee. But, those deposits are any where from 40,000 to 100,000+ dollars. Yeah, ridiculous amount to deposit, but that deposit is returned after you move.

More later...

Cousin's Wedding

On Saturday, my cousin, 준, married 유나. It was held at one of the YMCA's in Seoul. They are equipped to host a couple weddings at one time. Here are a few pics.




Pre-wedding pictures

My Aunt and Uncle

My cousin and his son

Post-wedding pictures

After the wedding, they take all of the parents, family, extended family, and friends pictures.

On Sunday, I went to church and then had lunch with my aunt, 준, 유나, and 한민.

job/cousin

Yeah, yeah, I haven't posted in a while, but it doesn't sound like I'm doing much if I say that I meet friends for dinner/go to get a drink somewhere. I have been working part-time, but also looking for more permanent work.

In the last 5 days, I have had two interviews and one informal one for different jobs such as recruiter, English consultant, and one-on-one English teacher. The last one is with division of Pagoda, my old company, so interview was informal. The other two, I don't know how good my chances are. Obviously, a job is a main concern, but speaking Korean seems to be a forced second concern.

People don't realize that I can speak some basic necessary things to get around the city and to order at restaurants. With this, I am able to do enough, so I don't have total hardship. But, it would be nice to communicate more since I will need it in the future. Unfortunately, I am feeling that people are trying to shove it down my mouth, so it doesn't seem to enjoyable or interesting to study. Hopefully, I will find a greater interest and take more initiative, but for now I will keep looking for a job and be happy with what I have.

I met my cousin today. She has been one of my main communication lines with my mother. She just recently returned from a study abroad to UK, so it was nice to see her again. Also, she had a message from my mom and asked if I had any questions. She knows that it is very difficult for both of us, but hopes that we can have a chance to improve the relationship even with communication problems.

Medicine/other

Yesterday, I met a friend and her boyfriend. She is a half Korean/American. She grew up in Korea during her elem/middle school years, so her Korean is pretty fluent. She had mentioned that she bought allergy medication at the pharmacy in Korea. I asked her if she could help me get some. She said that she takes Zyrtec and that it is available over the counter. We checked a few pharmacies before we found one that had Allegra-D, which is the one that I previously took and like. She found out that Allegra-D and Zyrtec are available OTC, but regular Allegra without a decongestant is only available by prescription. I purchased a month's worth of Allegra-D, but since it's OTC, there is no insurance coverage. A month's supply cost about $50, but if it helps my allergies than it will be well worth it, especially since I don't have to see a doctor to get it.

I worked out again. Yeah, yeah, my workouts are spread out and not too often. My allergies haven't been treating me great, so that hasn't helped. I going with the slowly, but surely route and hope that I can get into a more regular schedule of exercise. I need to lose a lot of weight, but it isn't going to come off over night. I am writing these updates so hopefully, it will keep me motivated.

Just recently I was reminded that when people quit asking, "what you are doing?" or "why are you doing that?" or "have you found a job?", it isn't because they want to make your life difficult, it's because they still care about your life (kinda like when athletic coaches work you hard because you haven't reached your potential). In the last couple of years, this has happened to me a lot, maybe, because I have chosen a very unique career path that isn't normal and I have received a lot of questions. I am starting to realize I should appreciate all of the people that care, but it has been very difficult to let all of those people know that I love them and appreciate their love, generosity, and friendship, even when my life has lots of obstacles that I have encountered or made for myself. One of these days, my life will move from Search/Nomad Mode (job, home, relationship) to normal life mode, but for now, I am just trying to be "happy" with what I am doing.

Gas prices still going up? Currently, prices are probably just under $8/gallon, which make me happy that I take public transportation everywhere.

Korean office adventures

This week, I visited a few different places; Immigration, Shinhan Bank, and health insurance.

Immigration:
I think I did almost everything wrong when going to Immigration to get my address changed for my Korean ID card. FYI: Seoul Immigration office is over one hour away by subway. First, I didn't bring my passport with me, so I didn't have any of that information. Luckily, I remembered my passport number, but I wouldn't have been able to give F-4 visa number or expiration of passport. Next walking from the subway station, I begin to think that I might need have passport-size photos. I just hoped that I wouldn't need them. Also, I live in Gyeonggi-Do, so it is technically outside of Seoul city limits. When I was leaving I saw a sign showing the jurisdiction area of Seoul Immigration and my area was still in the jurisdiction of this office. Overall, the lady working spoke a little English, so it wasn't too bad. At least, I had my old ID card and new address written down. All they did was print my new address on my old ID card.

I have two bank accounts in Korea that I kept open after leaving Korea. The first account was the one I needed for direct deposit of my paycheck. The second one, I opened because I could get a debit card. For foreigners, it is easy to get an ATM card, but debit cards are not allowed with certain banks. When I first came I deposited money in my 2nd account. I decided that I should get deposit some money in my 1st account to get an update on transactions and balance. When I got my bank book back, I was really surprised that there was an extra $1480 in my account from a Pagoda deposit. Later, I learned that Pagoda gave me my tax return. If I was still in SF, I wouldn't have know that it was there. Let's just say that I happy that with having some extra money.

Since I left Korea, I have had adventures with health insurance. Eventually, I signed up for CA health insurance, but there was a lot paperwork and difficulty finding affordable insurance. Also, canceling CA insurance is a big hassle. Yesterday, I looked on the Korean health care website. I was able to find the nearest location to where I live. I wasn't exactly sure where it was because Korean addresses don't really use a numbering system with street names. They use a suburb, suburb subdivision, and building name system. I knew that it was close to my house because the same names were in its address as my address. I eventually found the office. Fortunately, this time I had all of the correct paperwork. I brought my ID card, passport, and old insurance card. The two ladies at the office were able speak a little Konglish, so I was able to get signed up. At least the Korean system doesn't have a long detailed form to fill out. All I had to do was sign up without any medical history information.

How many of you are paying $4.00/gallon at the pump? Well, if you were in Korea you would pay a lot more. I can't read the different types of gas offered at the gas stations, but prices range from $6.00 to $7.85. I would guess unleaded gas would be closer to the high number. Some vehicles use CNG or LPG as alternate fuels. Korea is a small country, but lots of people drive and Seoul is like any other metropolitan area with lots of place spread out. Also, many couples use a car as their personal space for dating, which could be expensive if they drive around much.

cousin/various

On Sunday, I went to my uncle's church again. After church, I met my cousin. He is my uncle's younger son. He lives in Brooklyn and goes to Pratt, which is an art institute. He has a couple years left. Also, he is married with a son. He is home for the summer break. His older brother also lives in Brooklyn.

Tuesday, workout #2

I attempted to run/walk again. I wasn't feeling so good on Monday. I seemed to have some chest congestion/cold that wasn't so good. I definitely had a little difficulty breathing while running. Air pollution isn't as bad in the area I live, but seems to effect my breathing. Or, it could be all of the tree/grass pollens affecting my allergies.

Cell phone

When I first got here, my mom helped me buy a mobile phone with service. In Korea, getting mobile phone service is more challenging than in US. Usually, having a Korean national sign up for you or have business phone is the easiest way without going pre-paid route.

My phone is a new model with a lot of features. Yes, it was expensive, but most phones in Korea are more expensive because most phones get no subsidization from cell providers. My mom paid for it, but I hope to pay for it after I get a job. I could pay for it now, but it isn't the Korean culture way for child to pay for something if parent wants to pay. It is little more acceptable after child gets jobs.

If you can tell by the pic, the whole face is a touch screen. There are only 7 actual buttons on front and side. Some of the nice features that my phone has include Kor-Eng dictionary, subway map, 3Mp camera, video calls, DMB TV service, and some more. Video calls are a little weird because it seems strange to see the person calling in live time with no delay on video feed.

Random

Workout #1

In the last 12 months, I have gained weight. My body is starting to feel, especially my back. Today, I attempted to start an exercise routine. My walk/jog was pretty short since I felt pretty sluggish without exercising for awhile. Hopefully, I can keep a regular routine.

In Korea:

It seems that people are starting to worry about AI, bird flu. I have gone out to eat with some Koreans and they request that we go to places that don't have chicken. I'm not scared, I already went to eat Samgyetang, which is a chicken soup. It is a soup with a small chicken stuffed with rice, also having ginger and type of nut.

Here is a picture of how Koreans move in and out of apartments or offices. They use a elevator attached to the back end of a truck that raises and lowers the platform to the window. I am not exactly sure how high they go, but I have seen them used on 10+ story buildings.

Work:

Next week, I will start working at Pagoda again. To answer your question, nope. I will be working in a non-teaching position. Part of my job last year was working for the TOEIC R&D team. I wrote and edited TOEIC material that they use to make practice books. I will work part-time and will still search for a business job.