On Tuesday I went to the Immigration Office to get my alien card, I took a cab alongside the lovely vice director of my school and we headed to a place, the name I have totally forgotten. The hour long taxi journey was interesting - we veered north to eventually go south and when you go north from Munsan you get closer to the North Korean border, thus you find yourselves driving down roads with army vans, packed full of Korean soldiers, as well as passing barracks, mountains etc etc etc. We made it to the immigration office and I sat down on a lovely seat and watched korean television whilst my vice director ran around trying to find what paperwork we had to fill in and then filling it in, every so often running over and asking me to write things in various boxes - name, passport number the usual malarkey. We then waited for our number to be called out, gave the dude the forms, my passport paid the fee and went back to the school. I still don't have my passport back or my Alien card. Its been a week. I am slightly nervous.
The Alien card is actually a small booklet (apparently) which allows me to live 'a korean life' whilst in Korea and I have to have alien registration in order to stay longer tha 3 months (the GB passport holders tourist allowance) The alien registration also allows me to get a bank account, mobile phone, internet connection and cable tv. My current lack of bank account, mobile phone and internet connection is utterley annoying. I actually have cable left over from my apartments previous owner, however the aerial cable is pretty much busted so the signal is low so the cable wont actually work. However soon, I will be able to sort all of this out and I will officially be an Alien in Korea. WOO HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
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