Thursday, January 05, 2006

Final Days in Daegu

Back in Korea I really didn’t do all that much. I had returned for a grand cocktail party in Alex’s apartment where everyone got quite toasted. It was nothing compared to my last trip to Itaewon Pub Crew so I almost felt sober. I even wore my suit to the party, I got to know Young Mi and her friends. A good time was had by all.

I think I stayed in Daegu for about 5 days. I really can’t think of anything that I did. I went back to my old area. My pizza guy was so happy to see me. I saw one of my old workmates, well I don’t know if I can call her that. She doesn’t speak English and never spoke to me. Grace Teacher. I thought about going to see my replacement at my old apartment but decided against it since it would be kind of weird. Weird even to think of that really. I walked around downtown a bit but mostly just lazed around Alex’s apartment.

Of course, I waited until my last day in Daegu to do important things like close bank accounts. I didn’t want stacks of Korean money, although I could’ve felt like some kind of smooth criminal with so many bills. I’d love to get stacks of bills from the bank but since my bags were overloaded as they were I opted for a cheque. I assumed she’d give me an international bank draft but she gave me a cheque that couldn’t be used outside of Korea. I had to FedEx it back to Korea to have it wired to my bank in Canada. Idiocy really. I should’ve known it wasn’t wise when I didn’t see a single Roman letter on this little slip of paper but I thought I’d impress a bank teller with my foreign cheque. She didn’t seem impressed with it at all. They could’ve accepted it had it been Chinese or Japanese but Korean cheques were taboo for Canadian banks.

Alex treated me to a last meal in Daegu and then I got in a cab with a giant suitcase(35kg), a laptop case, a giant backpack (28kg), and a smaller backpack. All of them overloaded. The laptop case and smaller backpack were both really heavy but since Air Canada didn’t weigh them when I checked in I don’t know how much they weighed.

I got to Daegu station and managed to buy a ticket and get on a train to Seoul. It was my only real time on the KTX. It was technically my 3rd time but since you can’t see the countryside passing you by quickly there’s no point saying you were on a train going 300km/h. I was in Seoul an hour and a half later.

No comments: