Still, now we can eat at the student cafe (2-3$ for lunch), and get into the library, health center, fitness center, etc, plus get student discounts at other places off campus. Woo.
On Friday, I went to the immigration office to register for my Alien Registration Card (ARC). If you plan to stay in Korea for longer than 90 days, you're supposed to register within 90 days of arrival. After you get your ARC, you can buy a phone on contract, buy into health insurance ($35-45/mo), open a bank account, sign up for online IDs. It's interesting that Korea's equivalent of Google, Ticketmaster, anything with a forum, etc, require your Korean SSN...thus nothing is anonymous (there have actually been cases of online slander/libel prosecuted), and very few things are open to temporary foreigners.
Anyway, for others/the curious... the Immigration Office is located near Line 5's Omokgyo Station. From the station, if you come out Exit 7, walk ~100 meters, you'll see a bus stop (오목교역청학스포츠타운 - Omokgyo Station Sports Town). Take #6640 for 2 stops (to 목동중학교 - Mokdong Middle School). Across the road and to the left is the Immigration Office. For the ARC, I had to go into the Foreigner Services Division on the first floor. Take a number from the ticket machine in the middle of the room, and wait. There are 2 or 3 windows for ARC registration, so make sure you can see the screens if you can't understand the Korean numbers they're calling, cos they're not said in English too. For my ARC, as a student, I had to bring a certificate of enrollment (it cost me ~50 cents from the school office) and my passport (which they made a copy of and returned). There were plenty of application forms in the back, and plenty of time to fill it out while waiting, so don't worry about printing it out beforehand. They also don't take cash at the counter anymore, so I had to go to the Woori Bank on the 2nd floor (far to the left in the room at the top of the stairs... still not sure what the right half was, but it was a madhouse) and deposit the $9 into the ATM and bring the receipt back down to the lady at the counter (no new ticket required... just had to wait for some guy without all his paperwork to finish w/ her). The ATM was entirely in Korean, but luckily there were lots of English-speaking employees there to help. After giving her the receipt, she took my fingerprints, then printed out a paper saying to come back in 3 weeks -- on or after the 4th. Since there are 3 national holidays coming up (Election Day, Christmas Day, New Years Day), it's going to take a little longer than the 2 weeks I heard is the norm. Alas. To get back to the station, when you come out of the Immigration Office, go right, and take the diagonal crosswalk. Walk maybe 50 meters and there's a bus stop (양천공원 - Yangcheon Park). Take #6640 again for 3 stops, to 오목교역청학스포츠타운 (Omokgyo Station Sports Town). The subway Exit #6 is right there to the left.
Hopefully it's as easy to pick up the card as it was to drop it off. They offer a delivery service, but I'm still not sure if I can get mail at my address, so I just said I'd pick it up. There are several separate windows to pick up the ARC.. I don't even think you need to take a number... so it should be faster. Though, really, when I went at 10am on a Friday, there were only 6 people in front of me. I was in and out by 11:30 (the longest part was waiting for the guy that was helped after me to quit arguing with the lady at the counter so I could give her my ATM receipt).
Tomorrow is the first test in class. I'm not particularly nervous (yet). It's all been easy so far, but this is a speaking test... which is by far my worst skill (of reading, writing, speaking and listening). Ah well. The teacher said it's very rare for someone to not pass with the 70% cutoff. I'm pretty sure I won't be an exception. :)
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