Korea Life Blog - #^%!@! @^%^! ARGH!


I just wrote a long post and just near the end the PC bang computer froze up. I'm not about rewrite it all so I'll just summarize:

1. My letter was approved and will appear in tomorrow's Korea Herald, corrections included. I would have died if they printed Kim Il Sung's name in place of Kim Sun Il who was beheaded in Iraq. There was a few other little mistakes they overlooked too but will be corrected in the second edition of the day. Also, they left off my last name in the first edition by mistake. Brilliant!


2. Our office-tel is finished. Apparently they rushed our apartment for us and we will be the first people to move into the building. I'm not sure if that's good or bad, since there are 100 apartments there. Fortunately modern Korean apartments are virtually sound-proof, but I still imagine it'll be noisy when everyone starts moving, though I'm not sure if they rented many already or not. There are so many new office-tels in the area, they may not have. I can't wait to show you pictures of it. Julie's there now. The sky has finally cleared up and she says the view is amazing. Also, they finished the mini-upstairs and put some kind of nice curtains up for us in the HUGE window. Good thing. As it is, we're moving in with nothing and need to buy just about everything except a washer machine (included in the apartment itself - laudry rooms and coin operated washer machines/dryers don't exist here as far as I know) and a rice cooker.


3. I got the job I wrote about nearby the office-tel. Decent pay: 2.3 Millon per month take home (aprox. US $2000) plus full benefits. Not bad at all for working just 4 or 5 hours a day and living across the street. Wait until you see pictures of the area. Everything you could ever need, from Super Shopping Mart centers to accupuncture, is within the radius of half a mile/kilometer. On the other hand, there's absolutely no nature either. Having lived in the country side for the past year, I can get over that though.

Unfortunately the school can't process my visa in time so I have to leave the country, come back and then they will pay for me to leave again to get the visa next month. Also, I won't start working for at least 3 weeks then I have to wait a month after that for pay. Oh well, from then on things will be fine. To save money, this time I'll probably take a ferry from Busan to Fukuoka, Japan for a night. If so, I'll try to get down to Geoje-do first for a swim and to take a load of photos. Not sure exactly yet though.


4. I forgot.

5. Have a nice day, I'm getting out of this PC room! I've been here way too long.

written by shawn matthews    -|link

Korea Life Blog - Citibank Idiocy


I rarely use my credit card anymore. I keep it mostly for emergencies. Also, I send most of my money to my US bank account and if I were to need cash, I figured I'd use my credit card, then pay it online from my bank account. Today, that situation came up. Julie and I have been pooling our money for the deposit on the brand new office-tel apartment in Song nae we just rented. Also, we need to buy just about everything including a TV, sofa, desk, etc. Julie has a huge list.

The last two times I tried to use my Citibank credit card here left me angry and bitter. Today was no exception. The first time came when I went to buy a computer at Technomart. The card was denied. All the clerks stared at me as if I were a poor buffoon. In their presence I had to call Citibank. After sifting through the menus for an operator, I explained the situation. They blocked my card because I was in a foreign country and the computer was over $1000. I said that's fine, despite the fact I'd been living here and using the card occasionally for the past 3 years. So they unblocked the card and the clerks were happy again and I had a computer.

The next time I tried to use the card was months later at a restaurant. Julie and I ordered something that was more expensive than we though and I didn't bring enough cash with me. No problem, right? Wrong. Card declined. Luckily combined Julie and I could pay the bill. Later I called Citibank and they told me the charge had gone through. Angry I went back to the restaurant. They showed me their credit card records for the day and mine wasn't on there. Without explanation, the charge never did show up on my account.

Now today. I have been using the same Citibank card for the past 7 years, have always paid if off, and therefore have a higher limit than any sane man would use. It goes up automatically every year it seems. I've never called to have them lower it because I thought maybe someday I could use it to pay for a trip into space on a Russian Rocket. Or, more likely, if I were to get deathly injured in a hospital I could use it to pay for soothing Morphine drips.

Anyway, they only let you withdraw a maximum of 300,000 won at a time at the normal cash machines here. So I took the subway all the way into Gwanghwamun and walked a ways to the Citibank, confident I'd go in and walk out with my cash advance. The clerk at the counter spoke little English. "Use ATM, sir."

"But I need 1,000,000 won."

"Use ATM 3 times."

I went back out and used the ATM twice. I got 600,000 won. The third time my card was rejected and I was given some weird code and a phone number to call in the US. Fortunately I had my cell phone on me. Is it only me who literally hates with a passion computer automated operators? I sifted through the menus and got the most annoying and unhelpful woman on the planet.

"Why can't I take more cash out of this machine?" I started.

"Sir, you can only use the ATM three times."

"But I only used it twice."

"That's because you're in a foreign country and our system automatically blocked the card as stolen."

"Jesus, what kind of stupid system is that? Being in a foreign country, I'm more likely to need a cash advance, right? What if there was no phone around to call you?"

"Sir, do not swear at me. Sir, stop swearing."

"I'm not swearing!"

"Sir, yes you are. Now you have to calm down or I can't help you."

The scene reminded me of that in the movie Anger Management when Adam Sandler is on the airplane and he ends up arrested over a minor outburst. I took a breath and waited.

"I'll authorize your account again," the hellish woman went on. You can use the ATM one more time in this 24-hour period. If you need more money you have to go into the bank. You can take as much as your limit in there."

"But I just went in the bank and they can't speak English. They told me to go back outside."

"Sir, they probably can't speak English because you're in a foreign country."

"It's an international Citibank, for crying out loud. I came all the way here because I'm a foreigner and a Citicard holder. The damn ATM receipt is all in English and they gave me your number in the US to call."

"Sir, calm down. I can not help you if you don't calm down. It sounds like the clerk you spoke to doesn't understand well about Citibank credit cards. You have to find a manager."

Exasperated I tried again. I went inside and found a clerk who could speak English this time. She told me the same thing the other guy did, that I have to use the ATM machines. I'm sitting there showing her my ATM receipt that shows a large available cash advance amount. Meanwhile the original clerk who could speak English is standing by and shaking his head no, no, no.

"Just use the ATM machine many times," the woman said.

At this point I started to think of the movie Falling Down in which Michael Douglas plays the part of a man who has a nervous breakdown because of all the BS in the world.

"I can't use it more than three times in 24 hours."

"I'm sorry, sir. We can't help you. You have to use the cash machines." At that point the security guard, an old and ugly ajushi started to look at me funny. I went back out to the cash machine and begrudgingly used it for the 3rd and final time, still short on the total I needed. I can only wait until tomorrow, if I want to take out more but I'm wondering if I'm going to get a fee for each separate cash advance too. I don't even want to. I'll find another way, those morons. Imagine if I wanted to take $5000 off it. What kind of idiot system is this?

I spent the last 20 minutes writing Citibank through my account online a heated letter about the situation. When I hit enter, I was told there's a 20 line limit. I cursed and broke it up into 2 messages. Later I got this reply:

Our system automatically review charges being put through from an area that does not match the address on the account.

The address on your account is a New York address. Please provide us with your current address and telephone numbers.

I did so and asked again how I can take a higher cash advance in the future. I got this final reply:

We appreciate your comments and the time you have taken to provide feedback. We strive to be the best in the business and feedback like yours helps us to improve our service. Rest assured this will be considered in our efforts to provide the best service possible to our customers.

Thank you for using our website.


Wow, what a great help they are. I'm so glad I've been a customer of theirs for so long.

written by shawn matthews    -|link

Korea Life Blog - Letter to the Editor


I wrote up a quick letter which I will send to the two English newspapers in Korea: The Korea Herald and the Korea Times. I've never written to a newspaper before and I didn't bother to read the guidelines so I'm not sure if it'll get published or not. I'll post it here for my American readers:


Two years ago I started a website about living and teaching in Korea. I called it Korea Life Blog. I began by serializing the story of my first experience on the island of Geoje-do. Later I started writing about everyday life in Korea. The site soon grew in content and popularity both among foreigners and Koreans. Before I knew it, I was averaging 1000 hits per day. So many people left comments and e-mails of appreciation, encouraging me to continue. For some, my site was a source of comfort. They too were living and teaching in Korea. Others had been here in the past and were looking for a way to keep in touch. Still others were considering their first trip and used my site as a source of information. Soon, curious as to how foreigners perceive their country, Koreans began stopping by too. Especially interested were gyopos, Koreans born and growing up overseas. Most of them had never been here. They heartfully thanked me for bringing their homeland alive through pictures and commentary. Finally, for some readers there was no connection at all. They stumbled across my site accidentally and found themselves suddenly immerged for the first time in a website about Korea.

All this splendor began to fade last week. Without warning or explanation, the Korean government suddenly blocked access to my website. Most people, including me, didn’t know what happened; the site simply failed to load. Only later did I find the reason why: some barbaric foreigners posted the footage of the Kim Sun Il beheading on their own websites. Since then, access to websites by all foreigners using blog services have systematically been cut off, innocent sites like my own included. In other words censorship is running rampant.

Though I don't believe it was right to post that gruesome footage, I don't believe it is right for innocent websites to be blocked either. That's plain unjustified censorship. What's more alarming is the majority of people don't even know this is happening. With this letter I hope to raise awareness and encourage people to take appropriate action. Only you can stop censorship. Only you can bring Korea Life Blog back to the people. Please take some time and write the Ministry of Information and Communication today.

I ended with the contact information of the office. The letter is probably too long to print, but hopefully it will atleast get the attention of the editor for some possible coverage of what's going on. There's been pretty much nothing about it in the news here.

written by shawn matthews    -|link