Dear Mama.... Love from Korea (I Have Internet!!)

October 20, 2013

It was here all along…now life can begin! I HAVE INTERNET!!!!

So, I know I haven't written in a couple of weeks but, as you can guess, I discovered I have internet. Now I am sucked back into watching K-Dramas and surfing the web. Here is my long overdue update on life in Korea so far. Well, the day I got my ARC card was also the day I got my first bill but it was for internet. I was a little confused about it because I thought I did not have internet. My co-teacher never said that I had internet when I asked her about it. I assumed I would have WiFi if I had internet, but that's what I get for assuming. The previous English teacher left me some instructions and notes about the school and the apartment, which were really helpful so far. I decided to look back over it and realized that she wrote "all you have to do is plug in the internet and you're good to go." I sat thinking and thinking and thinking. "Why would they send a bill for the internet if there is no internet service and what did she mean by all I have to do is plug it in?" Finally, I started unplugging and plugging in different cords that were in this little black box (that looked like a modem) into my computer and Voila…Magic! I had internet all along and didn't know it. When Monday came, I brought the bill to school and suggested to my co-teachers that they should communicate with each other so everyone knows that the school provides internet for the English Teacher's apartment because some other co-teachers knew about it but my head co-teacher did not. They handled the bill and told me what the monthly cost would be to keep the internet. So one thing was off my list. Check!

That Sunday that I found out I had internet had been such a bad and unsuccessful day that, at the end of the day when I discovered I had internet, it made everything better. The list of problems included:

1. I pulled too hard on the window shade chain and the whole thing fell half way down,
2. Having to drag my laptop to the coffee shop up the street to use the internet and sitting in there for 5 hours to do my work,
3. Trying to set up internet banking, which didn't work because I have a Mac,
4. Trying to buy a coat online, but they don' t let you pay with a credit card (you have to transfer the money from your bank account using internet banking),
5. Shopping at the department store for a wool coat but all the coats are too small for me, and
6. Trying to set up my new printer but it doesn't work with a Mac because they only have drivers for Windows.

Discovering I had internet made all those clouds clear away.

Eventually some of these problems were solved…slowly…one by one, except for being able to use my printer and fixing the window shade. I also still have a lingering phone service issue but patience is a virtue! Two things I have learned is that it's a PC world here and Macs are not very welcome…Sorry Mac…and how lacking my co-teacher has been, therefore, I definitely have to rely more on myself to figure things out.