…for a post about my weekend?
Well, it started with no hot water on Friday. Called my real estate agent and she was basically non-responsive. Texted my landlord directly on Saturday and he came over. Then I got a text from the realtor saying my gas had been cut off because I hadn’t paid the bill in three months. What the fuck? Every month I take everything from the mailbox and carry it to Woori bank and pay everything via wire transfer. So, if I hadn’t paid my bill it was because I hadn’t gotten one. Well, communication is definitely a barrier for me I admit. My realtor said I should go to an ATM and pay my gas bill. I’m like how the fuck do I do that? Finally she said she’d pay it and I could put the money in her account on Monday. She also made a point of mentioning that she was on her day off on Saturday. Bottom line, she paid the bill (W530,000 for 3 months apparently) and my gas was back on Saturday night. Which is good, because fat men need to shower! I put W580,000 in my realtor’s account today (the extra W50,000 for my guilt about her trouble). But still, if the gas company isn’t mailing me a bill I guess I’ll have the same problem next month. Well, I’ll worry about that later.
Had another bad experience on Friday with a Chinese girl but that’s a story for another time.
On Saturday I did my Namsam hike.
A waterfall on Namsam…
Which was enough to to reach my weekly goal of 100,000+ steps.
Steppin’ out
After my hike, I went to Haebangchon for a dart tourney at Phillies. Took 3rd, and my share of the winnings was W18,000. Also had the high out good for W30,000 towards my bar tab. Which actually totaled exactly W30,000. So that’s a win!
Later that day I met up with my friends Sonya and Sung Ha for dinner at Tabom Brazil. Sung Ha is moving to Toronto later this month so it was my farewell treat. They seemed to enjoy it.
Had a great walk on the Han River on Sunday…
Made it to the Hangang bridge, the farthest I’ve gone in that direction…
Along the way I saw:
real flowers….
…fake flowers…
A tunnel…
…of sorts…
what the hell is this? Oh, me drunk at the aforementioned dart tourney on Saturday…
Donald Turmp is towering over the political scene, even here in Korea…
…apparently..
Sunday afternoon was the end of the season tourney for the Seoul Sunday Singles League. I didn’t place, but I was given this trophy and a bottle of Mongolian vodka for my hard work in keeping the league viable…
Kamsamnida!
It was a great tourney. One person thought I had played favorites by cheering for a particular player. Fact of the matter is I don’t care who wins or loses, I just appreciate a well played game. Rather than say something to me, she called me out on Facebook which hurt my feelings some. I apologized with a private message, but didn’t receive the dignity of a response. Oh well.
I tried something new in the crockpot A chicken. Came out dry as sawdust. Gonna need to work on getting it right next time.
Took the day off work today. I needed to clear my head It was beautiful outside so I did an 2.5 hour trek around Namasn.
It’s late. I’m tired. And drunk.
Goodnight.
UPDATE: The person I upset at the dart match sent me a message apologizing for the FB post. I reiterated my sincere sorrow for having made her feel bad during the match. She’s says we’re good, and that is good.
Is it possible you’ve now paid your gas bill twice? Is there a way for you to verify that you paid the bill only once? Can you go to the bank with a Korean-speaking friend (and your paperwork) to clear the air?
Kevin, I always keep my receipts. I don’t think I’ve ever gotten a gas bill delivered to the house. So I don’t think I’ve paid twice. My realtor is supposed to serve as my “Korean speaking friend”. I can’t seem to make her understand that the gas company needs to actually bill me if they want to be paid. I’ll give it a month and see what happens I guess…
Gotcha. When you get your mail, look for a document that says “도시가스” in the header (“do-shi-gah-seu”). This means “city gas,” and it’s the heading on pretty much any gas bill. Meantime, you might want to ask your realtor to call the city-gas people to verify that they’re sending their bills to the correct address.
Paying via ATM isn’t easy if (1) you’re unfamiliar with the process, and (2) you’re unfamiliar with the language. I was lucky enough to have a Korean bank staffer in Daegu teach me the procedure. I used my phone’s video camera to record him has he went step by step, after which I practiced, practiced, and practiced some more. Learned a good bit of Korean vocabulary that way. It’s not that hard once you’ve got the procedure down pat, but the learning curve is a bitch. Another wrinkle: I wouldn’t mind teaching you the ATM procedure, but I’ve only ever done it in Korean. Ironically, I might get lost if I try to do it in English!
Yeah, I don’t see anything like that on my receipts. I’ll just have to monitor the mailbox and have the realtor call if I don’t see something come in…
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