The bank machine that ate my card automatically destroyed it. So I called my bank in Seoul. The English call-center was closed, because it was after 5pm local time. So I called the general call center. When I asked if anyone present could speak English, I was told no. I proceeded to try to explain. I was hung up on. I am *so* changing banks when I get home. But for now, we’ll see if they’ll FedEx me a new card tonight. It’s possible, I suppose. I doubt it, but it is possible. At least I got some money from …

Well, let’s see if I can summarize my trip so far: Woori Bank cards are useless and screwy, and actually dealing with Woori Bank on the phone while overseas takes WAY too long. I think I’m going to focus on dealing with another bank when I get back to Korea. I saw a lot of old friends. Jean-Louis and Christine in Quebec City, and Astrid and Ann in Montreal, and Mike in Toronto. Seeing my old friends was good for me in a way I can’t explain in brief. I saw Annie and her new husband, Martin, and it was …

ga. rebuild is very slow so my fixed poll may not look fixed till tomorrow. ga.

I mentioned in the last post that the results of my last poll suggested that most voters (60%) wanted me to bring an assortment of winter survival gear and some French girls from Quebec to Korea when I return. You can see full results here. I can only assume the respondents are mainly lonely expat guys (or lesbians, of course… not to exclude those good ladies, I’m just extrapolating likely populations here) in Korea who aren’t as lucky as I am having Lime in my life. Sorry guys. No can do. Maybe I was taunting if you construed that as …

My last poll asked what I should bring back from Canada, and 6 out of ten votes were for the answer: A pair of snowshoes, a compass, a backpack, two rifles, and a snow tent. And some French girls from Quebec. I can only assume that the bulk of voters on this blog’s polls are lonely expat guys whom I shall not be able to help much. I have talked to about two French girls since I’ve arrived, one to ask the time and the other to tell her that she needn’t apologize for having bumped myfoot accidentally. (You can …

And an update on why I couldn’t access my Woori Bank account using my Hanvit Bank (now Woori Bank) International Debit Card. It’s not that there was a network problem, like when the Woori Bank network was down earlier this week. (Yes, my bank’s network actually goes down sometimes. This was the second time I can remember.) It’s not, as was suggested to me, that the card is actually not a debit card when used out of the country. (Which was a bizarre and scary suggestion.) It’s not that I’d overdrawn my funds, as I should still have a lot …

Yes, it’s travel chaos. Let’s see: The Woori Bank network seems to be down again, and it’s Saturday in Korea now. I wonder if I’ll reach anyone if I call this time. Two times in a week is pretty pitiful, if you ask me. Ah well, I have enough money to get by until sometime tomorrow, if necessary. Exchanging email with Lime is good, and I’m happy even though I miss her dreadfully. While buying a nice espresso pot (for a quarter of the price they cost in Korea, and in a size bigger than I can get there), I …

Here I go with another rushed entry. I’m meeting my parents in about twenty minutes in the Eaton Center, hopefully successfully. Yesterday we were supposed to meet, both went to the right place, but missed one another somehow. Quite frustrating, and I got a weird feeling they didn’t believe I was there though I was, the whole damned time they were waiting for me. Anyway, that’s not what I wanted to write about. What I wanted to write about was my sister’s wedding. It was just lovely. Not lovely in the way some people mean about weddings, where the weather …

My previous entry being titled WTF?!?!? I find this an appropriate title. Turns out the network for my bank was down all night and wasn’t fixed till this morning. I managed to get some money out but then was told I had insufficient funds to take out more than $300. Meanwhile, on the phone I’m told I have over $2000 in my account. Puzzling. Ah well, I have some money, I know it’s gettable, so there’s gonna be no last-minute rush flight home, no desperate rushing and freaked out problems. Best of all, I have the foreigners’ service center number, …

Yeah, so the bank card that worked perfectly find in India, at several bank machines no less, is not working at all, in any machines, in Toronto. I have no idea why, since it worked in both Thailand and in India, and I’m told it works in Australia too (I think). And I’d wager it works in Canada and the USA, officially. Anyway, I came to an Internet cafe which I know is staffed with Koreans, and when the English part of the Woori Bank webpage refused to load, I got some help finding the phone number of both the …