I have resolved not to whine and bitch without mentioning something positive. Sometimes this means telling two stories, but I think today’s example fits both.

Man, delivery guys… I know their jobs are not so fun or easy, but sometimes, they just drive me crazy. The guy dropping off my box of Emart groceries called me so many times during class that although my phone was on silent mode, I finally had to pull out the battery.

When I called him after my class ended, to confirm that he’d delivered the box where it was supposed to go, he yelled at me for three minutes for not taking his  call. I explained I was in class, lecturing, and couldn’t take his call. He shouted at me more, till I said, “Hey! It’s not right, you talking to me that way! I was busy and couldn’t take your call! I was in the middle of class and can’t talk on the phone at that time!”

“But you speak Korean really well!” he shouted at me. I swear, I almost started laughing when I heard that.

“Thank you,” I shouted, “But I don’t really speak it well enough to suddenly use my phone  in the middle of my lecture, in front of all my students. I was teaching! Okay?”

“Well then you should send a text message!” he shouts, still mad but calming down, seeing the humor in the conversation.

“Fine, next time I will but I was so busy I couldn’t go to the bathroom! And it takes me five minutes to write a text message in Korean, you know!” (I was probably exaggerating, but in the middle of a lecture, a full minute of text message writing would feel like forever.)

“Send a text message next time! The box is in front of your door!”

“My door? In the apartment building, not the office building of the same name?”

“Yes!” he says.

“Okay, thanks!” I shout, and hang up.

Not so very bad, push come to shove, but it was pretty unpleasant. And now, I’m going to go talk to the office assistant who said she would put up a note on the door in question (in the office building, which has the same name as the rather building in which I live), but then simply didn’t. (Because  she thinks that all packages get handled by an office which in fact don’t handle the quick-service delivery packages.)

Actually, I think I’ll just write it myself and tape it on the door in question, since it seems to be occupied by students or something. Argh.