Errand Day!

or the day we thought we couldn't fly out of Korea!

We had lots and lots of running around to do today which was annoying but very satisfying in the end. Most importantly, we got our passports from the Indian Visa Application Centre so we can now fly to Mumbai tomorrow on schedule. Then, it was time to struggle with Korea Post trying to mail things home. Korean postal workers are crotchy old women and I am thoroughly not impressed! I managed to send home the airmail gifts and some surface odds and sodds that I was toting from Gwangju. All systems GO at this point.

Now for the drama. It was time to mail home my laptop. There are many FedEx Kinko's listed online but we weren't sure if they would handle our computers so we got the address for a place and walked that way. We walked all around the area and asked for help only to be told to continue walking. Then, we finally discovered that the one we were looking for was ON the US army base. Not cool. So, high-tail it to a PC bang (PC room) and then find another address, get in a cab, try for round two. On the way we saw a kinko's and got the nice cabbie to stop.

I was so flustered that I barely noticed Namdaemun all boarded up. Namdaemun is Korea's No.1 historical relic, an old gate that has stood in the midst of the bustling city. An old, disgruntled Korean man recently set fire to the monument which had most of the country in tears.

Back to Fed Ex...
It took a very long time to figure things out, especially since they said that our parents would have to go to the depots to sign for the computers so that they could clear customs. Total hassle all told. $110 later my computer got mailed in a small box with little padding. Fingers crossed, everyone.

I am STILL carrying around the painting that I brought back in my large backpack from Hong Kong because Korea doesn't seem to have poster tubes and no boxes are long enough for it. Language problems plus crotchy mail people make Cindy a sad girl.