The Blog YOU Care About: November 2009

Jillian

It's safe to say that winter has officially started; I have a blotch of dry skin on each cheek and around the mouth. I moisturize and tone religiously but the cold weather apparently has other plans.

In a few a days, I will have been living in Korea for a month; and yes, I'm still trying hard to miss M'sia; my home country. It's truly not easy.

You see, what I'm about to write, is by far inefficiency and idiocy at its VERY BEST.

When it comes to official matters with the government, there are no shortcuts for us, regular M'sians. And I, having had to deal with every sort of idiot in a government office, know better than to wait till the last minute. Therefore, long before this move, I had had my paperwork taken cared of. So I thought.

A single page official letter (which I need) took no less than three weeks to process in M'sia, during which I was told that if I were to travel about 200 miles to the head office I could have the paperwork within 24 hours. I wasn't about to take that risk. They'd probably have ways to tell me to come back the next week anyway. In any case, I eventually obtained this piece of document; which I have now come to despise - you will see why shortly.

So there I was, thinking I had everything in order but then surprise surprise! When I got to the M'sian Embassy in Seoul, the officer in charge told me my official letter isn't at all official because it is missing A STAMP.

I know, our initial reaction was "Ok, no problem, we ARE afterall in a M'sian Embassy, they can stamp it too"

But we would be wrong, apparently, only that office in M'SIA has that stamp. So now, I am expected to fly back to Penang, get on a bus/plane then get to that other office in Kuala Lumpur to have my document stamped. Then get back on the plane back to Seoul to get my paperwork done.

I am shaking my head as I'm finishing this entry. How could anyone be so careless knowing that this piece of document; which is ONLY required overseas needs to be stamped to be officiated but then forgets to do it?! I cannot understand this!

I had decided that the following probably happened to the officer in charge (in M'sia) when he/she handled my paperwork:

Top 5 Habits Leading to Inefficiency

5) A friend called halfway through so he/she got distracted with idle chat, then oops, the clock ticked 4.45pm, packed his/her bags and left. Leaving the day's work behind

4) It was 20 mins before lunchtime, he/she was too hungry to even lift the rubber stamp

3) "I'll get this done tomorrow" - Guess what? He/she forgot!

2) "Damn it, where is that rubber stamp? Oh well, no one would notice it's missing anyway" - Someone DID! Idiot!

And...

1) "Oh, I was such a glutton at lunch...I guess I'll just have my tea break in 2 hours instead of 1 hour" then takes this as an excuse to watch some videos on youtube, or laugh at nonsensical emails forwarded by colleague(s).

I am not kidding. The above scenarios are very common for a M'sian government officer.

I am utterly disgusted.

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Life in Korea - A Beginning

Jillian

I'm still getting acquainted with my new surroundings here in Korea but there are quite a few very distinctive differences that I've observed so far.

I'm not about to sing praises for Korea yet based on my short stay here but these few observations are a far cry from what I've grown to live with.

For example, last Friday, Eric and I went to a bar downtown; a cozy little place named Sugar Joe's.

I'm sure I speak for everyone when I say Malaysians have grown accustomed to dirty public toilets. In fact, I've written about this before in one of my previous entries. As I've said before, in many public toilets in Malaysia, one has to pay to use them, but this does not necessarily mean that hygiene is taken into consideration. Sugar Joe's was the first bar I've been to here in Daegu, naturally, I was very impressed with the condition of the bathroom(s). There were no footprints on the toilet seat and of course there were amenities such as toilet paper - yes, Malaysians do not believe in putting toilet paper in public bathroom.

(Note: In many public bathrooms, the toilet seat is removed due to this footprint phenomenon)

Why? Because most Malaysians are horrendously inconsiderate and a whole roll will disappear within three minutes.

The big surprise came when we hit the bars on Saturday night. But first, let me explain how a typical Saturday night out in a Malaysian bar/club is like. Generally, girls would avoid bringing a big purse to clubs due to pick pockets or simply for convenience sake as there is usually no space on the table(s) for it. Many (including myself) would carry a small clutch instead. Due to obvious constraints, one would not bring anything other than a few necessities. Then after a few drinks, we would head for the bathroom and discover that we would have to roll up our jeans, carefully balance the clutch between our knees, make sure our toes do not accidentally touch the wet floor (if we were wearing open toed shoes) and then realize that we do not have any tissue.

What to do then? Pee anyway.

Also, I might have failed to mention that more often than not, the floor would be covered in puke and all sorts of unimaginable grime. I'm so sick of the public toilets back home that I try very hard not to go in public at all - if I can.

Thus, you can imagine my delight when I found that not only the club bathroom has toilet paper, the floor was not covered in puke nor urine. And, as a bonus, they had soap! The joy of seeing soap in a club bathroom, this is almost an impossible sight in Malaysia. Often, one would see a soap dish/dispenser, but it would most definitely be empty. Yes, because it will be empty within ~~five~~ three minutes.

I'm trying not to sound like a country mouse here, but I cannot help it. I cannot understand how Malaysians cannot behave in a civilized manner. Not in every aspect just yet, but not squatting on the toilet seat could be a good place to start.

I do love Georgetown; where I grew up, I love being with my family and friends and most of all, I want to say I'm a proud Malaysian. But sadly, sometimes the latter isn't very easy.

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Sunrise

Jillian

I'm tempted to write about my new surroundings here in Korea, but first I suppose I need some sort of cheesy opening line about moving here.

Well, I don't have one. Not at the moment anyway.

But I did see the most spectacular horizon in the wee hours of morning during my flight here. I live in the city so I've rarely, probably never watched the sun rise before. So watching one from the sky really is something else.