Seoul Hero

South Korea was good to me. In Canada, before I came to South Korea, I had a Master’s degree but nothing better than a McJob, a lot of depression, and no work prospects (largely the fault of my former religious beliefs and my choices in my undergraduate courses). In South Korea, I gained valuable work experience and job knowledge, met and married my wife, became a father and a dad, and became a happy man. I made friends there, too, (the best one being a close friend from graduate school, Ian), and developed a couple of hobbies that have brought me much pleasure.

Although I am not yet certain of my mid-term and long-term employment plans, I am confident that I am no longer in the same boat I was when I left Canada. At the same time, I am thrilled to be back, and I have a whole new appreciation for Canada.
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This is the final post of the Seoul Hero blog. You may keep up with me at Port Coquitlam Odysseus.

My money wire to South Korea was received by my wife’s family. At the same time, my last incoming wire went into my account over a week ago. That brings to the end my waiting for incoming wires.
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I found my alien registration card that I lost in Korea. It was stuck between some other cards in my wallet, and I was so flustered in the airport in Incheon that I went through the cards too quickly.
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Oxford University rejected my application for the M.Phil. program, and I did not apply to Birmingham, due to lack of funds.

I was hesitant to put this up here, but think it’s worth reporting to put up a post about a Korea-bound wire. A family crisis in Korea required me to send a large sum of my own money out. It’s a shame, because it comes out of my line of credit debt, although even with that, my line of credit debt has been greatly reduced from its former maximum and accompanying Visa balance. Moving was incredibly expensive, thanks in part to all my books.

Anyway, I hope that that wire goes through, and I hope that my last wire, the National Pension Service wire, comes in soon. I’m expecting it this week.

…and it’s lovely! Be sure to click on each of the thumbnails (!) in the current post on Burke Mountain and the Deboughville Slough, my favorite place on earth since childhood. Link: nathanbauman.com/odysseus.

My second last wire from Korea came today: my pension from my time at Sookdae. Sookdae uses a private pension that is a poor cousin of its hagwon counterpart. The jury still seems to be out on whether taxes should be charged to foreigners on their pensions: I was initially told I would not have taxes deducted, and then today I found out they were deducted.

I would antipicate only one or two more posts on this blog, now. The retrospective post will come after I receive payment from the National Pension Service. RBC Royal Bank phoned me today to tell me that someone is consistently changing my transit numbers even though I indicate on the form “transit number XXXXX DO NOT CHANGE.” Someone (probably at the Korea Exchange Bank of Canada) is changing it anyway, unfortunately. This causes the funds to be diverted into someone else’s bank account. The error arises from the fact that I originally opened up the account at a branch that was closer to my undergraduate university. In any case, I’m quite grateful to RBC for consistently finding my money quickly (except for that first time a long time ago, of course). Just one more to go, now.

No word yet on the pension from the National Pension Service, but I heard from Sookdae today regarding my pension from them. It seems the individual at the Shinhan Bank in charge of wiring refused to wire my funds without Sookdae providing my pin. There are a few different ways of looking at that, but Sookdae contacted me and I told them my pin. Hopefully the money can be wired quickly.

Perhaps thanks to the work of Telus, whom I emailed again last night, I can now see my website and connect to my email without the use of a proxy! Look for the new blog soon.