shoop shoop...

Good news, guys, I do, in fact, have internet in the new apartment!

Kind of.

It's pretty damn choppy.

Either way, it exists!

This week has been entirely frustrating.  Things seems to be going slightly better now, though.

So, as we all know, I had to move out of my former crapshack.  This took place on Tuesday.  I spent my weekend packing stuff up and delivering my belongings to the people that have purchased them from me.  Annie and I went to Suncheon on Sunday to give Meaghan my exercise bike.  I'm sad to see it go, it was cute and awesome.

On Monday, I had to go to the insurance office to give the pension people my info so that they will be able to send me my pension savings when I leave the country.  Who doesn't like having two grand basically saved up for you through the whole year?

I know I do!

I also had to go to the telecom company to deal with my interwebz.

This was where the HORRIBLE FRUSTRATION came in.

I am pretty damn sure that the telecom company was trying to fuck me out of money.  For realsies.

I am so glad that my co-teacher was willing to fight for me.

When I set my internet up, I was offered a deal that, if I signed a full year contract, I would have two months of free internet at the end of the contract.  This was great, because I signed my contract a month into my year here, and it would mean that I could leave my internet connected, ask them to cancel it on March 25th, and all would be well.

Right?

WRONG!

When we went in to get all the cancellation details straightened out, they tried to tell us that they supposedly gave the free months in April and May, and that if I tried to cancel my policy, I would have to pay some sort of exorbitant fee.

Uh... no.

Why would they have given me the free months in April and May and not at the end of my contract?

So, my co-teacher made a bunch of phone calls, and basically spent the day going back and forth with the interwebz people.

They kept changing the months that I supposedly had the free months, tried to say that my contract had actually started at the end of April, tried a wholeee bunch of other crap... and then eventually agreed that we were right, after an entire day of arguing.

I am 85% sure that they were trying to eff me out of a whole pile of money!

Seriously, it felt like they tried every damn trick in their book!

So, we FINALLY got the interwebz worked out by the end of the day, and I went home and finished packing and cleaning.

I took a few pictures of my apartment before I went to bed.  After packing, I realized that I had never actually taken pictures of my place!  I had a meant to about a million times, but I never did!

So, for your enjoyment, my previous crapshack... and my packing:

Please note how pink the bathroom is.

How Korean bathrooms work... the whole bathroom is also the shower, note the shower head on the wall between the sink and the toilet.  And, yes, the toilet seat has teddy bears on it.

Notice the corner with the flower wallpaper?  I discovered the reason why it's like that, on Monday night.

Moldity friggin' mold!

Yup.  I thought that I had managed to have a mold free apartment--aside from the part of the ceiling where things kept leaking from when it would rain a lot or when the bit of snow that we had melted, mold grew there--but, nope.  There was mold all up in that corner's business.

Unimpressed.  I had to clean it up with Lysol disinfecting wipes.  I wish that was a joke.

Tuesday was moving day.  I was told that we would be moving in the afternoon, but, as soon as I got to school, my co-teacher was all "let's move!!"

So, we did.

It went pretty smoothly, it's not like I had much stuff.

The problems arose when my landlord tried to fuck me out of one hundred dollars.  And, by tried to, I mean he did.

I distinctly remember having a bill for my utilities posted on my door at the end of March, my first month of being here.  I remember we tried to get his bank info from him, to transfer money to pay for the bills, but it never worked, and we tried three times to correct it, but it never ever worked.  So, I had no choice but to pay for my bills in cash.  After which, he took my paper bill from me.  when I asked for it back, he said "ahneeo" and pointed at his big book o' bills.  He did this every time I asked for my copy back.

Soooo, when we went to give him the keys for my apartment, he told my co-teacher that I owed a month and a half's worth of utilities.  Which, was crap, because I was paid up to the end of January, according to the number of bills that I had paid.  But, of course, because he had kept all the copies of the bills, I had no way to argue with him.

When I told my co-teacher, she told him my side, which resulted at him yelling at me in Korean for ten minutes, and then pulling my male co-teacher, who came up looking for us, into the conversation by telling him for another ten minutes why he was yelling at me.

Pissed off, I went down to the car, and told my co-teachers I would figure something out.  Of course, there was nothing that I could do, and I was forced to pay the stupid bills.  And then pay the bills for this temporary place.

So, all in all, I have paid $200 in bills this month.

Okay, so, we went to move into my new place.  Almost everything had been moved up to my apartment by the time I got there, apparently there was five of us moving things.  Then, I went up to the apartment, and wanted to cry.

There was a horrible smell coming from inside of the apartment.  So horrible, that it made me gag.  It smelled like rotting fish.  I didn't know what to do... there was no way I could stay there for two weeks... I WOULD SMELL LIKE IT!

Luckily, shortly after moving everything in, my co-teacher got a phone call saying that we had to move two doors down.  OH THANK GOODNESS.

Kind of.

My apartment was ridic levels of cold until the heat turned on at 11, then, by morning, luckily, it was slightly warm in my apartment.  Unfortunately, the heat turns off during the day, so, by the time I get home, it's cold... again.

Also, no hot water... neither in the kitchen nor the bathroom.  I couldn't shower last night, so, I asked my co-teacher if I could shower at her place tonight, since she lives in the building beside mine.

And, the stove only works when it is turned up full blast, and then I have to stand and watch the kettle because I'm paranoid that it'll burn the bottom out or melt it or something.

But, at least I have the internet!

Right?

This is my last week at my school, it's been really upsetting, knowing that I'm leaving so soon and that I may never see these people again.  I decided to do something hugely dorky, and I bought them all a farewell gift.  Nothing crazily awesome, just a coffee mug with a lid that they could each use at their desks, and I filled them all with different packets of hot drink mixes.  Dorktacular.

Anyway, last night, we all had one last dinner together, and I wanted to give them their gifts then, because I didn't know when everyone's last day would be.  Right before we all went to leave, I stood up to thank them for making me feel so welcome, and for sharing their lives with me for the past year, etc etc... anyways, as soon as I stood up, I started crying (gawd, I am so lame), and by the end of my little speechy thing, everyone else at the table was crying.

Yup, our last dinner all together, and I made everyone cry.

I AM AWESOME.

Seriously, though, I felt all awkward afterwards.  I blame the glass of wine... and the fact that I'm going to be so sad to leave them all.  They're like my family.

They all kept thanking me for the gift, even though it wasn't anything special, and it made me feel even more ridiculous.

AND THEN, today, when I came into school, the lovely little old art teacher came up to me, and gave me a gift, and got my co-teacher to explain it to me.

His daughter is the number one artist in our province, and is a really famous artist around Korea.  I've been to one of her exhibits, and I even got to meet her, her work is amazing, and I love it so much.  I even saved the booklet from the exhibit as a keepsake.  She is really incredibly talented, just like her father.  And, as a gift, he gave me this amazingly beautiful fan that she hand painted, herself, and signed.

I was blown away, I was seriously speechless.

He got my co-teacher to explain to me that her painting symbolizes long life, success, and happiness.  It is really beautiful, and it is definitely something I will treasure forever.

Here's a picture of it, but, really, the picture doesn't even do it justice:

I can't stop opening it and staring at it!  Seriously, I officially own an original piece of artwork from a well known artist that I truly admire!  I am all kinds of in love.

The rest of the day went exceptionally well, considering how the past few days have been.  The teacher who doesn't speak much English but always wants to talk to me came into the office today, and had a revolving set of co-teachers translate conversation for us.  In the end, I basically agreed to move to the Rocky Mountains with him and become his cowboy co-partner.  So... I guess I won't be going to school anymore, I'm going to be moving into the wilderness with a 70 year old Korean man who doesn't speak any English, aside from really basic stuff...

Basically, his grasp of the English language is on the same level as my grasp of the Korean language.

Should be fun times, guys!

I spent the rest of the day finalizing my plans for my trip to Seoul, and then, when I got home, I got to take a shower!

Not in my own apartment, of course, that would be too convenient.  Nooo, my co-teacher had to give me the number key to her apartment, and I got to shower there.

I really hope I have hot water soon.  This arrangement is really awkward.

Anywhoodles, I am sleepy, so, I am off to bed.

Toodles, my loves <3

Oh, funny little story from the walk I took yesterday with the teachers in my office:

The art teacher turned to my co-teacher and told her to tell me, once again, that he thinks I have lost much weight.  Then he apparently said "I worry that her family will not recognize her when she returns to Canada."

Adorable!

Seriously, I am going to miss everyone here oodles and oodles.