What a week…warning this is long ^^;

It’s not even Friday yet.

Tuesday I received my ARC making me a legal resident in Korea where I can stay longer than 90 days. It took less than 2 weeks to get it, not bad. I’ve heard of people waiting longer. On top of that I’m able to get a bank account, internet, cable, a phone, and whatever else I should need. Though there shouldn’t be anything else. *ponders*

So right after school Tuesday Mrs. M (co-teacher) took me to get a bank account. Just so happens there’s mainly Nonghyup around here. Lucky me right? I’ve heard good and bad things about this bank. If there was a KEB around here I would have definitely went but there’s only NH and …some other bank I don’t remember right now that I only saw one branch for around here. Nonghyup, there’s one like each direction I go from my apartment and my school banks with them so that’s where I’m at.

I went through all the lovely paperwork of signing your name. My name is kinda long so signing it over and over I just started making squiggly lines after my first name. Even the lady at the bank said she was afraid of it. It’s not super long but compared to Korean names I think American names and even names from other countries in general tend to be longer. Maybe, but I’ve never seen a really long Korean name.

Then she asked if I wanted a card to go with the account and it’s like nah…I’ll let the money sit there you know? Yes, I would love to have a card, a check card as they call it here.  Not like she gave me any options really. She gave me this pretty blue-green card, but it had no logo or anything. It was a straight up Korean card. Super duper domestic. I did get her to sign me up for online banking. So after we left, my co-teacher decided that we would set up my online banking the next morning so she can help me at school.

The next morning, which was yesterday, we set it up. And she asked me to see if I can access to send money home. I knew from looking at blogs and such that you need to open the account with a main branch, and I wasn’t sure the one we went to was a main branch. Coming to find out it was a local branch and I would never ever be able to send money home with that account.

So….we had to go to a main branch.Thankfully there was one seriously down the street and around the corner. My principal and vice principal told us to go before lunch and get it all set up, don’t even wait until the next day and we went. Not like I had anything to do, it was Wednesday absolutely nothing but an after school class.

We sat down filled out more paper work with a guy. Got the usual shock about my name but this time how to pronounce my first name and that it was very pretty. I’m like “oh…um thanks.” I don’t recall ever having a guy say my name was pretty besides family and close friends. I have females say it a lot when they find out how to actually say it but a random male? Nope.

Then there was more paper work and signing. He got copies of my ARC and passport. Took my previous card and bankbook that I never got to use and destroyed it (I died a little. I paid like $0.90 for that card and never used it). Then he got me set up with another account and transferred the money I put in there the day before (it’ll be weird to open an account with no money in it). After that got another bankbook, seems as if they can choose the color they want to give you and card at will.

So I got a pretty card and bank book. Plum and rose colors, so I like these even more. I like pretty cards and bank books ok? This card is so much better though. At least it gives me comfort seeing something I’m familiar with on the front….Master Card. Way better than seeing absolutely nothing in that corner. It’s a shopping card that gives you discounts from what I can gather on the website and the commercial for it. If anyone knows anything about the #ing card from Nonghyup, let me know! When I saw that I was like O.o oh he was looking out for me right there. Better than the lady before.

After all that I asked about setting up my account so I can transfer money back to the States. Granted, I need to get paid first but it doesn’t hurt to ask, right? He told me and my co-teacher what to bring, which I already have and to come see him when I need it done. I know I will need a banker for the first time but I want it where I can do it online which I know can be done. I don’t want to have to go to the bank every single time just to send money home. -.-

Then we were basically finished, right? Wrong. He decided to switch positions in his chair and I knew this wasn’t just about banking. He asked my co-teacher if I could read Korean or understand it. She told him not very well. Pretty much.

Ok here’s my thing I can read Hangul pretty well, doesn’t mean I know what every word means but I can at least read most of the characters without any problem. Speaking Korean, not so much what I learned last year disappeared because it’s not like I had someone to speak Korean to everyday. Understanding what I hear? I’m a bit better at this, I can pick out words and get the gist of what a person is saying hence how I understood what he was asking my co-teacher.

Now that I have that straightened out, back to the story.

I was wondering why that was even a question. They have a version of their website in English so I can read that, no problem. He speaks English pretty well, you can tell he’s nervous about it when he shouldn’t be. If I can understand what you say without you having to repeat it, I think that’s pretty good. Plus I’ve heard worst when I was helping people with English back home. So, I thought maybe he was asking for a future reference when I go back to get the transferring stuff done since it will more than likely just be me.

Thought that was the end but no, they continued to talk. I’m sitting there waiting to go home because I’m technically done with what I needed to do there. We should have walked out the door like fifteen minutes ago. But no…then while he was talking he kept doing that glance and hope she doesn’t see me looking thing. While I’m like “lalalala I see you lalalala”

I hear them talk about me being American and my age. While he’s asking questions he’s still doing the *continues to look hoping not to get caught* thing. Caught her mentioning that I have been to Korea before, I like Korean food and the music and etc. I’m sitting there like really? Why is all this being said? Then bam! “Is she married?” “No, she’s not.” “REALLY?” I’m like O.o this has NOTHING to do with banking and why is he so excited about that? His boss that wasn’t even paying attention finally looked up.

I must have been having one of my slow days yesterday when I look back on it now.

Anyways, he hands me one of his cards and tells me to call if I have any trouble. I bow, thanking him for his time. Thinking we can finally go I’m about to stand up. Can I? Nope, so I just go back to the previous position of sitting and he’s like “no really, call if you need anything. If someone else answers just ask for me.”

My co-teacher is all *smiles cheesy* “His name is right there and that’s his number. His email is there also.” I’m like O.o “Ok…” I saw his name earlier and numbers are well numbers it’s for the bank, and an email is easy to spot. Not like I have a phone anyways and what would I need to email him about? Exchange rates? Ok maybe…that would be a good question.

By this point he’s already starting to blush. I’m like maybe it’s the heat or dealing with a foreigner. He wasn’t even talking to me most of the time and it wasn’t even hot inside. Plus why would he keep telling me to come see him if he didn’t like speaking English or dealing with a foreigner? He could have told me to see someone else next time or said nothing at all about it and just thank me for coming or whatever. So it couldn’t have been any of that.

Once again for like the fifth or sixth time, he tells me to see him when I need to transfer money home and as an added bonus he’ll give me a discount of the fees that they charge for coming to see him. While I’m thinking just set it up online when I come in and let me decide if I want to pay those fees or not. I’ll have to pay some either way. But ok if he wants to give me a discount who am I to complain? I’ll take it! That’s if he can even give one. I don’t know. Korea has a unique system where they can give discount on things you wouldn’t expect to get it on. Using my card I can get all kind of random stuff. Whatever makes their systems work, ok.

So we finally was able to leave after spending exactly an hour in there. It felt so much longer, maybe because I was tired. My co-teacher decided the entire walk back to the car, car ride, and walking into school to talk about the guy. Even made sure I put his card up well. I was wondering why she was so talkative about this one person compared to other people we dealt with.

It hits me some when she started talking about his name. She went into the meaning of it. His name means something like rising star and it’s strictly Korean no Hanja (Chinese characters) for his name like most Koreans. Meaning that he had to be part of the generation whose parents wanted only Korean names. As she kept going on to explain that it means he is younger than her but a bit older than me, even giving me the range of 24-28/29. See where she was going and what all that stuff from earlier came from?

Yeah took me until I got to my desk to finally put it all together.

Technically going through all that means we have been introduced by a mutual person. Something that a lot of Koreans do in order to become business partners, friends, and etc. In this case the mutual person would be my lovely co-teacher who even though he could speak English, broke the awkwardness of trying to get banking done. Which I thank her because I think some things were probably explained better in Korean when it came to what I wanted done with my account.

So when I see Mr. Star banker guy again, which I have no choice since he’s the closest main branch to me and seems like the only one who spoke English…it shouldn’t be awkward to get my banking done. Which shouldn’t be in the first place, just talking about money and getting it to go to the right places. Whatever as long as I can get what I need done I’m fine.

*sigh* my head hurts. Mom was right, they are trying to get me married off. My co-teacher was working hard obviously doing some match making or at least friend well, acquaintance making. I can’t help but laugh. As my sister will say in that lady’s voice “Ain’t nobody got time for that” Nothing is coming from that. He’s mister banker dude and I’m the foreign chick that needs money transferred monthly and whatever else. Strictly business. But hey it’s always good to have someone you know working at a bank, makes it more friendly.

This post is long, sorry! I’ll end it here.

Next one is coming like right after this one though. hehe. ^^