I can't remember, and can't be bothered to check, if I had written yet about the residency card, or ARC (alien resident card). Anyone who is in Korea to live/work must get this card. Without it, you cannot get a SIM card, health insurance... your life is at an utter standstill, and I was still was still waiting on mine.
My first day at work I was told that I needed to go in for step 1 for the ARC, the health check. This is to make sure that us foreigners don't infect and otherwise sully the pure Korean population. I knew that a blood test for communicable diseases would be required. Sara-teacher sweetly offered to go with me to the clinic to get it, particularly as I hadn't used the buses or trains yet, and the directions for this clinic were apparently way wrong. And we couldn't find the name of the clinic anywhere online. In any event, as I've mentioned before, the foreign teachers are expected to help each other with all of this, accompany the new teachers, and take care of ourselves/each other. And because I work at a crappy hagwon, everything must be done before or after 9:30 AM/after 7 or 8 PM, rather than giving you some flexibility/leeway in your schedule to accomplish anything.
Luckily the bus stop across the street goes right to said clinic. Thanks to Sara-teacher bringing her own test and the SLIGHTEST smattering of Korean, she communicated to reception that I needed mine. Thank God Sara was there too, because the few times when they supposedly called my name, I heard nothing remotely that sounded like Jennifer. (I've been told by every other teacher here that at least one Korean accompanies the American teachers because of the language barrier. But ours apparently isn't like most, read: not bad, schools).
First I was surprised to find that I was going to have my chest x-rayed. After that, we went upstairs where they measured my height, weight, oddly my chest measurements, and took my blood pressure. After that I peed in a cup, and finally they drew my blood. The results are available pretty immediately, though you have to go back to get them. It is critically important that you get TWO copies of the test results, one of which MUST be in a sealed envelope-- that one I was to give to June-teacher, the school's owner. The other one I would bring with me to the immigration office for the ARC.
Going to immigration is usually where at least one other teacher accompanies you again, as it's about an hour on public transport, and according to Tausha it's also in Korean, so you need someone who speaks it with you. And when you work at our school, you also need to get there before the office opens so you can get an early number, as again, you have to get this done and still get to work by 9:30, even though the first class isn't 'til 10:30.. Oh, and while the doors open between 8:00 and 8:30, they don't actually start work til 9 AM. If I was going to come after 9:45, I was to call the assistant principal... only of course I can't because I dont't have a SIM card. If there's no wifi, I am incommunicado.
As I may or not have mentioned before, Sara requires a phone call to make sure she's up (though she has lost her 2nd phone in 6 months, has lost her keys 2-3 times, and her ARC card once). I called, and she said she'd be to my place in 15 minutes. BUT she didn't actually show up til 7:45, about 45 minutes late. Naturally, by the time we got there, the doors had already opened and people had tickets. I had 26, which very much meant I was not getting in to see any wizards that day. I can't tell you how unhappy it made me to know that I'd gotten up extra early to go and just have to turn around and leave.
So the next morning I left a bit later than I wanted, at 6:45. There were around 7-8 people already there, but thank God none of the Asian line shoving, so once we were allowed in from the cold, we went single file in the order we'd arrived. More good fortune that the immigration girl helping me spoke English. I had a few heart-stopping moments, like when she extracted the now-unsealed health check, asking me if I'd opened it and telling me it was supposed to be sealed. (One of the many nails in the coffin of Kiara being a fooking idiot, as she'd told me that one didn't need to be.) I feverishly and despairingly imagined having to go back to the clinic AGAIN before 9 to try and communicate I needed ANOTHER sealed copy, and then coming back to immigration before 8 AGAIN. But thank GOD she had mercy on my plight and soul and accepted it. The other freak-out moment was when she told me my passport pics were too big for the application. Again, all I could think was I'd have to go to E-Mart or someplace for pics, and return again. Luckily they have a photo booth that takes the right sized picture there.
Once that was done, she told me to go pay the 30,000 won at the ATM on the other side of the office and come back with the receipt. Naturally, I'm confused because I have cash, so I don't need the ATM. Eventually she somehow gets across that that's where I deposit the payment. I wait in line, frantic about it being about 9:18 and that I am still not quite sure about paying an ATM, even though I used to follow my managers from the Yum-Yum Tree to the ATM to deposit the day's cash. As everything's in Korean, I'm further unable to figure out how this all works. Thankfully a bank woman came and helped. I took it all back, and was on my way to school, knowing that I'd finally done the hard work on the ARC and only had to wait 2-3 weeks for it.
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