A positive bank experience

I feel like every time I post about the bank in Korea or even think about it, I am stressed out and whinging a bit. Last week I spent nearly 2 hours in the bank trying to get money sent to the States automatically every month for college loan repayment. Even if I had spoken fluent Korean I think it would have been a nightmare. In order to not have to fill out customs form every time I had to open a new account, just for overseas remittances, fill out paper work for that, fill out customs sheets, fill out withdrawal forms to have the money taken out of my regular account the day I get paid, put into the new account and THEN sent overseas. I did all of this with a lot of gestures, broken Korean and a couple of phone calls to my supervisor asking her to translate when we ran into a problem that couldn't be acted out/communicated at our level of Korean and English. I wanted to tear my hair out. After two hours all of the paperwork STILL wasn't completed and I had a class that was going to start in 15 minutes. However, the only day of the week I can come to the bank before it closes is Monday. After a few minutes of pointing at the calender we established that I would come in again the following Monday, today. I made sure I was well caffeinated, had a water bottle, and a translator on standby at the office.

I needn't have worried. When I came in, the woman recognized me, had all of the paperwork ready for me AND a different employee ready to translate. The whole thing only took 5 minutes. I was so grateful I could have kissed them both. Sometimes, going to the bank is okay.

I continue to be sick. It is evil. For the first time, I seriously considered calling in sick today. Lots of coffee has helped me get through the day, not to mention sudafed. Also, the great thing about being visibly sick is that your kids feel bad for you and behave themselves without asking. AND I had two kids come and give me candy. I love little kids.