My first day alone

I can barely believe that I'm in Korea. It still feels like I'm half way between dream and the waking world. But I'd better believe it. Humidity and heat make it real enough for me.

I arrived on the 16th in the evening and I was greeted by monsoon-like rain. My dad picked up me, mom and Leon from the airport and we got home in around 1 & 1/2 hour. The amount of rain we got was surreal. It can get much worse but I hadn't seen that much rain in a long, long while. The ride would've been boring had I not stored all my music in my dad's car.

I was very worried about Leon in the beginning of the flight. He had to go for about 13 hours without food, water, or a litter box. He was confined to a small carrier and a dog that did not stop barking for the entire duration of the flight. (I didn't hear it but apparently the dog's voice had gone hoarse according to my mom, as she observed it at the pick up point in Incheon Airport.) Leon was surprisingly calm and when he came home, he went around the house to find a safe spot where he could hide. His mouth was open wide like he was hissing and he hyperventilated. I thought he was having a heart attack and freaked out. He cooled down later that night and in the morning he hopped onto my bed and got some real sleep. He seems to be quite at home now. I'm glad he gets used to a new environment fairly quickly.

On another note, so far it's been pretty boring for me. I got settled in, organized my room, etc. Even though I'm relatively close to Seoul (I live in Pangyo, a suburban town in Kyungki province) it is still half an hour drive from the city centre. By transit it'll be close to an hour. The most I've taken to get to a place from Vancouver was Burnaby and Metrotown had failed to provide me with an appropriate incentive since 2007. I'm used to being able to go to class within 5 minutes by foot, or shopping in half an hour by bus. And not having a proper driver license, I'm pretty much stuck in this place. Not that I would want to drive even if I could drive. Drivers here are just out-right crazy. I will report more on this issue once I start working. I imagine I'll suffer from their horrid practices daily.

Today mom and dad went out golfing and left home 6 am. I'm not kidding; they left that early. For golf. Je ne comprends pas. I couldn't really sleep after 3 so I stayed awake for a bit and got some early morning shut-eye.
I had some errands, though all of them were to be completed in the comforts of my apartment. My parents' real estate agent requested that they mail the apartment key to his house, and as they would be thoroughly occupied today, mom and dad left me in charge of taking care of that matter. I made a couple of phone calls to see which shipping company would be most convenient. They charged me about $80 and they accepted cash only. (Something about a broken machine... I don't know.)
On top of that my parents' beds arrived earlier than expected, and I received the delivery by myself. I felt bad for the assembly guy so I gave him a glass of orange juice and kept the AC on full.
Later on a lady from the apartment management came in and sanitized the drains. I have no idea why apartment owners are not responsible for this kind of thing.

I had hoped that I would have my own cellphone by today, but apparently without a valid foreigner registration ID card, I cannot legally purchase a phone number. I'm still waiting for my documents to be processed so I have to wait till September 1st. My grandma lent me her phone again much to my relief. And she got a new phone. The old one was from 2002 and every time I used it I had to do it in the corner where no one looked; everyone was staring at me like I was a time traveller.
Another bad news is that it is most likely that I won't be able to use my beloved Sony Ericsson X10 because of the compatibility issues. They say it can be done, but I have to go to their service centre and have them reconfigure it. I'm not sure if it can be done all in one day, and the company that is affiliated with Sony Ericsson is SK Telecom -- which is a problem, because my dad wants all three of us to use KT for discounts. (SK Telecom and KT are Korean-equivalents of Telus and Rogers.)
And apparently cellphone plans in Korea are things of a nightmare. They're very convoluted and misleading and if you don't do your research, you can end up being charged for things you didn't want to get. Sigh. I didn't like doing it for my essays and now I have to do one for a goddamn cellphone.