Customs, Communication, and Carrying Boxes
So I am all hyper and excited because I HAVE MY BOXES! Expect plenty of footnotes aka bracketed clarifications (like this) in this entry...
We have been 'negotiating' with Mr. Chang of Molax Shipping for the last two weeks via email and phone. He originally sent us an email saying our sixteen boxes from Canada had arrived (but not where) and we owed money on them (but not how much). In the course of determining this so-crucial information we exchanged various emails, phone calls, proxy phone calls (where we give up on communicating in poor Korean (on my side) and poor English (on his) and ask for the phone to be passed to 'my assistant'. Darling Jisu (no, that's not her name, despite the fact that I append the epithet to every mention of her. Her NAME is Jisu, and she sweetly and cheerfully takes care of all kinds of requests from the eight foreign teachers ranging from 2000 photocopies to translating artsy poetry) was a huge help in that last case.
Upon determining that we owed about two hundred in port fees, gasoline, transport from Pusan to Shingal (a suburb of Yongin!), and various administrative expenses, we were able to send Molax their money by direct deposit, fax the deposit slip Proof of Payment, get back a receipt by fast courier, and take that receipt into Shingal Customs... all on the same day! The Customs Office, amazingly, is about thirty minutes from our place, and we were able to contract (in poor Korean on my side and even less English on theirs) the warehouse roughneck ajusshis (uncles) to forklift our pallet onto a little blue pickup truck and bounce their way back to Myongji with us.
I got to ride with the truck driver, who was somewhat apprehensive about merely following a foreigner in his white Leganza, until I assured him that my husband had been a bus driver back in Canada. Interestingly enough, this produced a much greater impression than my prior announcement that we were English professors - usually the cue for an awed look and the typical breath-suck of respect that such educational status brings! He got us and our boxes home safely and then carted them inside as well (all part of the service, ma'am...)
Of course, I had to open just a few right then and there, and thanks to my meticulous packing list chose the most IMPORTANT ones... like #9, with the SHEETS! Yay, real sheets and pillowcases, at last! And my knife block! (I've been cutting oranges, dicing tomatoes, bisecting bagels, and spreading butter with the same little paring knife for two months now...) And Katherine's books! She's so happy....
(dances around living room singing) I have my boxes, I have my boxes, I have my things....
Lest I seem incredibly shallow, please note that we've been living in a a very 'improv' sort of way for the last, oh, six months or so. Being able to settle in and have a few of the most important tools, craft supplies, household goods, and basic means of living is a very necessary security. And then there's the higher level (on Maslow's pyramid) of sensual and spiritual satisfaction; having my artworks and precious souvenirs and memories around me!
I HAVE MY BOXES!
We have been 'negotiating' with Mr. Chang of Molax Shipping for the last two weeks via email and phone. He originally sent us an email saying our sixteen boxes from Canada had arrived (but not where) and we owed money on them (but not how much). In the course of determining this so-crucial information we exchanged various emails, phone calls, proxy phone calls (where we give up on communicating in poor Korean (on my side) and poor English (on his) and ask for the phone to be passed to 'my assistant'. Darling Jisu (no, that's not her name, despite the fact that I append the epithet to every mention of her. Her NAME is Jisu, and she sweetly and cheerfully takes care of all kinds of requests from the eight foreign teachers ranging from 2000 photocopies to translating artsy poetry) was a huge help in that last case.
Upon determining that we owed about two hundred in port fees, gasoline, transport from Pusan to Shingal (a suburb of Yongin!), and various administrative expenses, we were able to send Molax their money by direct deposit, fax the deposit slip Proof of Payment, get back a receipt by fast courier, and take that receipt into Shingal Customs... all on the same day! The Customs Office, amazingly, is about thirty minutes from our place, and we were able to contract (in poor Korean on my side and even less English on theirs) the warehouse roughneck ajusshis (uncles) to forklift our pallet onto a little blue pickup truck and bounce their way back to Myongji with us.
I got to ride with the truck driver, who was somewhat apprehensive about merely following a foreigner in his white Leganza, until I assured him that my husband had been a bus driver back in Canada. Interestingly enough, this produced a much greater impression than my prior announcement that we were English professors - usually the cue for an awed look and the typical breath-suck of respect that such educational status brings! He got us and our boxes home safely and then carted them inside as well (all part of the service, ma'am...)
Of course, I had to open just a few right then and there, and thanks to my meticulous packing list chose the most IMPORTANT ones... like #9, with the SHEETS! Yay, real sheets and pillowcases, at last! And my knife block! (I've been cutting oranges, dicing tomatoes, bisecting bagels, and spreading butter with the same little paring knife for two months now...) And Katherine's books! She's so happy....
(dances around living room singing) I have my boxes, I have my boxes, I have my things....
Lest I seem incredibly shallow, please note that we've been living in a a very 'improv' sort of way for the last, oh, six months or so. Being able to settle in and have a few of the most important tools, craft supplies, household goods, and basic means of living is a very necessary security. And then there's the higher level (on Maslow's pyramid) of sensual and spiritual satisfaction; having my artworks and precious souvenirs and memories around me!
I HAVE MY BOXES!
posted by Alembyc at
8:34 p.m.
6 Comments
