Concert, Illness, New Phone, First Week of Classes, and other happenings

Last Saturday my cousin Kyeongju performed at a concert with some other instrumentalists.  She's a vocal studies graduate student at Ewha University.  There were four pianists, two flautists, one cellist, and one vocalist.  She performed the last two selections, a piece from a German opera and one from an Italian opera, and sang beautifully.  I’m so proud of her! 

From L: My cousin Hagyu, my aunt, my cousin Kyeongju, my great aunt, and me

She offered to take me out to a Noraebang (karaoke) place sometime… although I’m not sure if I should take her up on that offer.  I can’t sing to save my life.

Kyeongju and her boyfriend took me out after the concert to eat Samgyetang (蔘鷄湯), one of my favorite Korean dishes.  It’s a type of soup with a small chicken stuffed with rice and ginseng.  I forgot to take a picture, but here’s one I stole from wikipedia:

Samgyetang

 I’ve been sick most of the past week, which has been a little annoying.  Fortunately it’s nothing too serious, just the usual sore throat and sinus problems I’m accustomed too.  I usually have a sore throat for a few days and end up having to blow my nose incessantly for the next few weeks.  I’ve already gone through three boxes of tissues L  I blame it all on the toast lady outside Sogang University.  I went there during the break between classes because I woke up late and wasn’t able to eat breakfast.  I specifically asked her not to butter the bread, but she did it anyway. 

Me: I said I didn’t want any butter.

Toast Lady: That’s not butter.  It’s margarine.

Me (in my head):  Seriously?  Wtf?  They’re the same thing. 

Me: Since I don’t eat butter or margarine, can you toast a new piece of bread?

Toast Lady: I only buttered one side of the bread, the other side is fine.

Me: Really, I can’t eat any margarine. 

Toast Lady: Ok.

Does nothing.

Me: So are you going to change out the bread?

Toast Lady: Yes

Does Nothing

I would have argued for longer or just refused to buy it, but I had to go to class and I was pretty hungry so I just ate it anyway.  That was probably a bad call because within the hour my throat started feeling a little scratchy, and by the next day my throat was hurting really bad.  To the toast ahjumma – I shake my fist at you!

With my nose clogged and my voice all funny, my Korean speaking ability has been rendered essentially incompetent.  I went to the bank yesterday and the teller, while telling me that I had to fill out a form, asked me if I could read any Korean.  Apparently my pronunciation is that bad now :(

I’ve been eating a lot of jook (粥)lately, which is a type of Korean porridge.  It’s excellent for sore throats.  I wish they had this stuff in the U.S.  I also bought some green tea packets at the local supermarket.  The place where I am staying has a hot water dispenser, so I can make tea easily whenever I want to.   

Jook

After a two week long wait, I finally got my 거소 등록증residency card, which enables holders of an F-4 visa (those who were former Korean citizens or have a parent who was a former Korean citizen) to work in Korea, open a bank account, and sign contracts.  Even though I’m only going to be in Korea for 4 months this year, since I’m planning on coming back for at least a year after I graduate, I decided that it would be convenient to have a bank account and a check card.  Apparently there was some confusion when I went to open a bank account.  They said I needed an Alien Registration Card, which I didn’t have because my visa only makes me eligible for a residency card, which is supposed to be much better.  The teller had to call up her bosses and sort it all out, but was finally able to open a bank account for me.  I found it strange that they had never seen or even heard of a residency card before.  I guess the F-4 visa is a relatively new thing (it started 2 years ago, I think?), but I’m surprised that no former citizen or gyopo has ever gone to open a bank account at that branch.  I was pleasantly surprised that my checking account and check card that came with it had no fees.  I repeat – NO fees.  Seriously, why can’t American banks do this?  In America if you don’t have a certain minimum balance and are not a college student, they charge you (or at least Bank of America does) an $8 monthly maintenance fee.  My Bank of America account also charges me a fee if I make more than 3 withdrawals from my savings account in one month.  My Korean bank doesn’t even charge an overdraft fee (it just won’t let you make the payment).  Banks in the U.S. really need to learn from this. 

I was originally going to wire money from my American bank account over, until I realized that it was ridiculously expensive.  The exchange rate is supposed to be 1 USD to about 1080 KRW, but had I wired it over the exchange rate would have dropped to 1 USD : 1010 KRW, plus a $35 fee.  Interestingly, it is actually cheaper to withdrawal the money using a debit card from a Korean ATM and redeposit that money back into one's account (exchange rate 1 USD: 1070 KRW, $5 fee).  So I had to withdrawal $1000 in cash and bring it up to the teller to deposit, which seemed utterly ridiculous.  Doesn’t it cost more to restock an ATM than to tell some foreign bank’s computer that money is on its way?  Hmm…..

Now that I had a bank account, I was able to sign up for a cell phone contract.  I went to the electronics market in Yongsan to look for a phone.  I was originally going to just buy a regular flip phone because smartphones are ridiculously expensive without a contract, and I’m not able to sign a 2-year contract.  However, I ended up finding a place that was selling a used SKY Vega Xpress phone (normally $800 new) for $200.    It looked brand new, and closer inspection of the back casing revealed that it had only been manufactured 5 months ago.  Although I wasn’t originally going to get a smartphone, it seemed like such a good deal that I decided to take it.  I was even able to negotiate the price down to $190 with some extra freebies, making it cheaper than the smartphone I bought in the U.S.  I probably wouldn’t have done it if I was only going to be in Korea for 4 months, but since I’m planning on returning for another year, it seemed like a worthwhile investment.  A bonus is that I can study vocab with a flashcard app I downloaded, and listen to dialogues with the music player.  I signed up for a plan with LG Telecom, which had a very reasonable voice + text + data plan for only $45 a month - much much cheaper than what Verizon charges back at home. 

My new phone!

Classes started last Wednesday and they’ve gone pretty well so far.  Despite being in a KF (Korean Foundation) class again this year, I was a little disappointed.  When I was in a KF class last year, it was an amazing experience because everyone was really friendly and tight-knit (since they had taken Korean class together since Level 2), and we would usually eat lunch together after class everyday.  My Level 5 class doesn’t seem to get along too well, however.  There are 4 Japanese girls and 4 Russian girls, and they usually only talk amongst themselves.  In contrast my Level 4 class was much more diverse (1 person from Austria, China, Canada, Armenia, and 2 from Japan, Russia), and I felt that that forced everyone to talk to everyone else in Korean.  I’m hoping my class will end up getting closer as the term goes on.  Fortunately, my teachers are amazing.  My 말하기/읽기 teacher is 이정화 선생님, and my 쓰기/비디오 수업 teacher is 이춘희 선생님, who is one of the nicest and funniest people I’ve ever met.  I don’t know how Sogang does it – all of the teachers I’ve had there have been nothing short of amazing.  I would even say that the ‘worst’ teachers I’ve had here would probably be on par with some of the best professors at Yale – they’re that good at what they do. 

Next Monday is the Chuseok (秋夕)Holiday, which is basically Korea’s version of Thanksgiving.  During Chuseok, Koreans celebrate the good harvest by going back to their hometowns and sharing a feast with their relatives.  Since we have Monday and Tuesday off from school, I’ll be going back to my aunt’s place in Goyang (where I first stayed when I arrived in Korea) to hopefully enjoy good company and my aunt’s amazing cooking.