Today was one of the most frustrating days since I've been here. I've had my fair share of not being able to communicate well in other countries, but it was never as bad as this. We finally received our alien registration cards and were able to open our bank accounts. We had already talked to Scarlet about going to the bank during lunch time to set up our accounts and transfer money back home to pay some bills.
So...... after I finished teaching Ocean class (my kinders), I went to the front desk to put their attendance folder up. There was a man standing behind the desk that I had never seen. He spoke some English and informed me he was Cinderella's little brother. We chatted a bit and then I left to get lunch with Anna. We came back at 12:30 to meet Scarlet, as we had planned. Well all of a sudden, this guy was taking us to the bank. We tried to find out about Scarlet, but weren't getting any answers. I guess that should have been a sign that things were going to be bad.
This guy could speak some English. He would have been helpful to travel around the city with, but this was too important for him to be helping us with. First of all he didn't seem to know how to do the whole bank thing to begin with. We went in and he was just walking around asking what to do. Even Anna and I knew we needed to take a number from the machine when you walk in the door. It took forever for him to understand that we needed to send money home. And he just seemed to make everything more confusing than it should have been. When we were supposed to create a pin number (same 4 digits like in the US) he was telling us to put in our passport numbers. It was just absolutely a nightmare. I could tell you all of the things, but you don't want to read it all.
So I kept asking him how much money was going into the account. We needed to know because we didn't know what our pay was after taxes and utilities. He had no idea. Later we found out that the secretary at the school was going to put the money in later after she had our account numbers. Finally, Cinderella came looking for us because we were late showing up to teach. She told us that in one hour our money would be in there. Later we found out that wasn't true and we aren't going to get the money put in until tomorrow. This is after we asked them to transfer the money of course.... but by the end of this thing, Anna and I are almost in tears.
Who knows if we have a bank account, or money, or anything at this point....it was just ridiculous. I think we do because we got bank cards and stuff. But we'll see what happens tomorrow I guess.
The night did get a little better though. We went to our favorite Korean restaurant where the menu is completely in Korean and there are no pictures on the menu for us to point at. But we know how to order our favorite dish, so we can do it easily. We really wanted this Korean miso soup that we love, but we weren't sure what it was called. I was thinking about calling the waiter over to ask, but before that could happen- this guy just brought a bowl over to our table! For free! It was awesome! There's no way they heard us talking about it or anything because no one was around us. But it definitely made our night better!
Last Friday night we went to the hospital to visit the driver that just had surgery. We never figured out exactly what kind of cancer he has, but his surgery was successful. He won't be back at the school for a while because the recovery time is about six months. He's the nicest guy! I really hope he can come back to the school!
I was trying to post a video, but it's not working. So I'll try again later and also post some more pictures from school!
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