got my new passport

Damn, that was quick. I wasn't expecting to hear anything until March (I'd sent my package out on January 20), but I got a call from the Ilyang Logis courier, who was in my building's lobby, telling me he had my new passport, and that the delivery would again cost W9,000. And like before, I checked my wallet and had only seven W1,000 bills, so when I got down to the lobby, I gave the guy a W10,000 bill and told him to keep the change.

The new passport's ID page (where three photo images are) is now a hard, plastic card the size of the other passport pages. Here are some photos of the "unboxing" of the passport (plus my old passport, which now has the requisite holes punched into it to render it invalid):

the courier envelope

My new passport's in the yellow envelope.

Here's the old passport, now hole-punched.

The cover of the new passport looks about the same.

I look like a Vietnamese refugee.

Note how the left "page" is unbendable plastic, and the right page is bendable paper.

So, now that I have my passport, I need to acquire a new PCC (customs-clearance) number for when I order international products via Coupang and iHerb. Amazon will need only the updated passport number, which is no longer digits only: now, it's alphanumeric.

And yes, I did sign the new passport after I took the above pictures.

I also need to book a late-March flight to the States so I can renew my US driver's license. I'll probably either stay in the States for 2-3 weeks to receive the renewed license myself or stay for just a week and have the license sent to my buddy Mike, who will send the new license to me here in Seoul (I will, of course, reimburse the postage).

I'll be going down to the real-estate office in less than an hour to sign my private rental contract and fork over my soul W10 million. It's been a busy Friday.