Lots of Flipping -- the Bill, the Bird, and maybe the People... Sunday, October 24

I know my Korean isn't as high as I'd like it to be but I can confidently say that I do have a great handle on the language after all, with the exception of my tutoring, all my day-to-day interactions are done in Korean and all but a mere handful of my friends here only speak Korean. Having said this, it drives me bonkers when Koreans try to play the I-don't-understand-your-Korean card when I know they're lying through their teeth. Fair enough I suppose, I've used a similar card but that's only when people randomly approach me in the street for the sake of looking cool cause they're talking to a foreigner or when others try to talk to me when I'm driving Gotti. You'd be surprised how many people do this to me but anyways. Tonight it was the scooter shop guy who drove me bonkers by abusing his use of this card. Unless he had but half a brain cell left there was no way he could have not understood what I was saying, instead however, he kept on blurting out "what... what?" He totally milked his use of the card and I was going to have none of that.

It's Sunday, which means it's a red day in Korea but today the taxi driver's insurance broker and the scooter shop man haunted me via my phone. The insurance broker speaks Korean, the scooter repair man speaks Korean too, and yet between the two of them they totally misunderstood who was picking up the tab for Gotti. Next thing I know it I'm getting a text message telling me to swing by the shop at 4pm tomorrow with $300. So much for Gotti being ready for today, as promised, and so much for the insurance broker flipping the bill, as also promised.

"If I have to flip the bill then they can keep my scooter cause that's not what
we agreed to!" I told Mouse Doctor.
"They are so damn lucky Snickers is here!!!" he responded with. This apparently has been the phrase of the week actually. Everyone from Snickers' friends to my teammates and my in-laws have all quoted this very same idea.

Mouse Doctor will be going tomorrow to take care of the situation because them insisting I flip the bill is just flat out ridiculous. It is not what we agreed to -- I know that, they know that, and I know they know I know that, too. (Holy tongue twister there... hahaha) I really shouldn't let Mouse Doctor go alone, not because it's my scooter and my responsibility but because he's a bit of a trouble maker. Old Rock will probably go with him -- double trouble. Both those guys did hard time in the "big house" for the same situation that got Snickers booked and, just like Snickers, doing hard time didn't shake the bad boy out of them, instead it just forced them to disguise it better.

As much as I certainly appreciate all that Snickers' boys have done for me, especially with this accident, it is very frustrating to not be able to take care of all my business on my own. I know full well that my Korean telephone conversation was understandable because I recorded it and then played it back for one of my Korean friends. Prior to the phone conversation with the repair man I even went so far as to write down looked-up words and write a rough draft of the anticipated conversation. I'm not paranoid, that's not why I recorded the conversation, but this is my first time being in this kind of legal situation here in Korea and I picked up enough of a bad vibe at Friday's insurance broker meeting to know not to trust anyone not on my side.

This is all about sides and protecting what side you're on, I learned that. I learned that when the insurance broker was all in my face arguing with me. Moreover, he went from insisting I stay in the hospital one to two weeks to letting me sign out that day. I knew full well that they wouldn't be able to cover my salary for that period of time cause he even noted that taxi settlements are around the $800-$1000 mark and I make more than that in a week so two weeks would kill them. Throw in my hefty hospital bill, physio twice a day, the cost of repairing my scooter, and ya, the insurance broker wanted nothing more than to get rid of me as fast and as quietly as possible.

I may live in Korea and yes, I have lived here for over five and a half years, but I've never run into a situation like this were I would have had the chance to learn legal lingo. I now know more legal terms in Korean than I do in English but this is brutal. I trust Snickers' boys because they're his boys but boy is it ever frustrating to have to sign legal documents when I don't fully know what I am signing my name to.

So frustrating... so damn frustrating.

It's a good thing that I did all those chores and whatnot yesterday because today I wanted nothing to do with the outside world. I scored a free ticket and a free ride to the F1 that went down today in Mokpo, Korea but opted out on account that it was just one of those days. You know "those days" -- those days when you want to hear nothing more than the sound of your own thoughts and breathing.

QUESTION OF THE DAY...
Is ignorance really bliss?

QUOTE OF THE DAY...
Stupid is forever, ignorance can be fixed.
-- Don Wood