A Rainy Day in Seoul

What's going on in Seoul, you ask? Here is my answer...

Apartment:

So, unfortunately my new roommate ended up canceling our adventures in real estate land without a translator. I ended up going out with my current roommate as a translator for about an hour, but didn’t find anything. All the 2BR apartments in the Kondae area were too small and overpriced. One place that I looked at might have worked size-wise, but it was 2.8 million won per month, which is way out of our price range. Plus, it was old.

But there is a silver lining. New Roommate is going back to the first area we looked, Gunja, today with her boyfriend to check out apartments. And I’m planning to look around Children’s Grand Park this week as well. We figured that if we split up and then passed on the apartments we like to the other, we’ll get more ground covered and have a better idea of the apartments in the area. I’m confident we’ll find something soon and get settled in. I’m already starting to mentally plan how I want to decorate my room. (Crazy, I know. Me decorating… insane…)

Visa Renewal:

I’m FINALLY getting the documents for my visa. After another week of my boss telling me, “Oh, right. We’ll talk about that later,” I finally navigated through the Korean version of the web site explaining how to renew an E7 visa. I printed it off and highlighted the documents the secretary needed to get and handed it to her, motioning at her so that she understand that she needed to get those documents and give them to me. There are a couple of documents that I’ll get, but once she hands over her documents (which should take one maybe two days tops to gather) I’m off to immigration for a 30-minute appointment to get my ARC stamped and hand over my passport for a couple weeks. During which time, my new visa will be stamped in and my passport will be returned and I’m good for one more year in Korea.

Work (or Overwork):

I am currently in the eighth day of a (hopefully) 12-day run at work. I was told on Monday that someone would be starting next Monday to fill the open editor position and I’m hoping this is correct. Otherwise, I’m not sure how many days in a row I’ll be working. It’s more money, yes, but it’s hard to stay positive and sharp when you have no day off to look forward to. Not to mention I’ve been filling up the hours before work with real estate appointments and lunch dates and not sleeping well at night. Oi… I seriously need sleep… and some time to spend getting a few drinks with my friends. Life is too tense right now and I need some relaxation.

Fun Interviews:

Sadly, I’m not sure if I’m still getting my band interviews that I was promised. Band Friend with all the contacts had a falling out with my other friend and now I have no way to contact Band Friend since Other Friend was my link (I don't have Band Friend's phone number). Not to mention, Other Friend was going to be the translator for the interviews and Band Friend now wants to have nothing to do with her. I still don’t understand what the conflict was, but I’m sad that this means no interview with Guckkasten at the moment, and that our nights of hanging in Hongdae are over. I suppose this means I’ll have to start focusing my efforts on infiltrating YG’s PR department and get on some sort of press list. We’re hoping to cover Tae-yang’s upcoming solo concert at the end of September, but we’re at a loss as to how to get on a press list and get press privileges. So, it is now my job to figure this out, since I’m currently the only writer located in Seoul.

I’m not quite that confident in my skills, but we’ll see how this goes down. I’m just hoping that showing up YG headquarters dressed professionally will be enough to get me a meeting with a press contact (that speaks English, preferably). Though, personal contacts are better… I should sweep through my personal network and see if anyone I know can help me first…

Oi… I seriously wish I could take a nap… it’s only been one hour at work so far and I’m fading fast… stupid eight days of working in a row…

Nothing Much Goin' On

I should probably write a thorough report on Jisan, but I don't really have the patience right now. But I promise you, there will be a report. I guess this will just be a preview of some fun stuff that should be coming up soon...

1.) The Apartment Hunt Continues:

My roommate and I are starting up the hunt again tomorrow (FINALLY!). This time we are attempting to go out by ourselves, with no English agent or translator. She is convinced that as long as we write down our perimeters (aka 2-3 BR, spacious living room/kitchen, monthly rent, etc.) on a piece of paper in Korean, we should be okay. And if we find something we like, we can then call in someone to translate and negotiate for us. She seems positive, so I'm going to try and follow her lead. At this point, I'm so ready to get out of my current place that I'll probably agree to anything she likes as longs as it's less than 1.2 million won per month. (Especially since she's pickier than me.)

But this whole experience reeks of funny, have-to-write-it-down-and-share. There will probably be a blog... or a book... about tomorrow very soon. Perhaps I should get a friend to follow us around with a video camera and get everything on tape...

2.) Guckkasten and Filmstar Interviews:

I've been told, nay, promised that I could have interviews with these two bands in the near future. I'm friends with someone in Filmstar who said he would talk to his band and get them to sit down for a video interview for my web site (www.maypang-amin.com). He is also friends with the guitarist in Guckkasten and is planning to ask them if I can interview them as well. Hongdae Friend has said she would translate and another friend has agreed to video and edit the film for the web site, so everything's good. We just need to set up a date and get it done.

3.) HOME!:

So far, everything is go for my trip home for Thanksgiving. I'm currently waiting for the new copy-editor to get hired so I can talk over the schedule with them before informing my boss that I'll be gone for about 12-13 days at the end of November. I'm super excited since it will be two years since I've seen any of my family. And, I get to eat Mom and Gramma's famous Thanksgiving Dinner and see some friends from college and high school that I haven't seen in 3-6 years.

4.) New camera:

I'm in the process of looking for a new digital camera. At first I thought I would get a cheap, used one that I could use until I saved up for a nicer, new one, but I accidentally looked at a really awesome Samsung camera today that I really want. The guy is selling it for 340,000 won (he bought it two weeks ago for about 400,000 or 450,000 won, I think) which is most definitely out of my price range right now, but that hasn't stopped me from seriously considering it. I have about 900,000 won in my moving fund and it's really tempting to pull that out and replace it next month (since I'm working crazy hours the rest of this month) but I'm trying to refrain. There is a possibility he might still have it in 2 weeks when I get paid, but I doubt it. So, I'm just going to have to force myself to be patient and wait just a little bit longer... It will pay off in the end... Besides, my friend is selling her DSLR soon and perhaps I might be able to save up enough and buy that instead...

Anyway, I suppose that's about it for updates/previews/whatever. Hopefully I can get a post up with more meat next time...