I now have a rental contract (two, in fact)

Sign, print and sign, sign, print and sign, sign, sign, and sign again. American documents don't have nearly as many redundancies as Korean documents do, but I got through it. I had two rental contracts to sign at the rental office, in the presence of the lady who is apparently the landlady for my apartment (and for how many other apartments in this building?): one contract lasts through this coming June (because my company's contract has it paying utilities until the end of June), and the other is the "real" rental contract, which starts at the end of June. So: two contracts. The broker, in a moment of noblesse oblige, waived the signing fee for one of the two contracts (and jokingly told me not to tell anyone, but I'm telling you, Dear Reader), and I paid only a million won (out of W10,000,000) of my deposit today. I start paying rent on the 24th of this month; the amount went up (as HR warned me it would), so my monthly rent is W735,000. Fuckknuckles. Well, in dollars, that's only $508 at the current exchange rate, which is cheaper than the $634/month I paid for my studio in northern Virginia around 1999. And while I live in old-and-beat-up Gangnam, glitzy Gangnam is right down the street (not that I ever go there).

Payment for rent will always be on the 24th of the month. This month only, I will also have to pay the remaining W9 million of my deposit. Utilities are apparently a totally different animal; the utility bill will still come to me on the same bill form I get every month. Currently, I pay only an admin fee, but starting in June, the building will send me a bill for utilities, which amounts pretty much to just electricity (I don't think I've ever been billed for water anywhere I've lived). My electric bill for last month just came, and it was a staggering amount since I'm now pretty much home all day and in need of heat; having seen that amount and been chastened, I've turned my heat off and will survive until spring with warm clothing. I might also break out an old (and less power-consumptive) space heater that I haven't used in years; I have foot warmers that I can wear, but I'll have to buy another blanket to stay toasty at night. I might turn my ondol on for, say, an hour a day just to make sure the place doesn't freeze solid. But winter will be over soon, so heat shouldn't be a big worry. Here's hoping, meanwhile, that the space heater doesn't catch fire and burn me to death. All that time worrying about my heart would be wasted if I burned. But I still have enough body fat that I'm pretty sure I'd smell delicious as I cooked. City-raised Kevin, cooked in his own juices. Mmm.

So here's what the rent situation looks like:

Today: paid W334,000 brokerage fee plus W1 million of a W10 million deposit.

February 24: pay W9 million (rest of deposit) plus W735,000 for rent.

March 24: W735,000 rent.

April 24: W735,000 rent.

May 24: W735,000 rent.

June 24: W735,000 rent plus utilities (paid to the building, not my landlady). June is also when I switch from the first contract to the second contract.

And from June onward, it'll be like that. I'll do what I can to minimize my utility bills. Summer's gonna be a bitch, though, what with the need for A/C. Shit.

When I move out, either later this year or whenever, I'll get my W10 million deposit back.

And that's all she wrote. The signing process wasn't that confusing, especially since I've been through similar processes before, but it was tedious, what with all the signing, signing, and more signing. Why Koreans need to see three signatures on the same page is beyond me. Shinhan Bank does this to me as well every time I wire money to my US account. There's a real love and mania for bureaucracy in this country. Bunch of pencil-pushers. But I guess being a pencil-pusher is better than joining a gang or kicking off because of a fentanyl overdose.

Right—well, another obstacle down. Now, I need to hit the bank on Monday to register my new passport. Either that, or I'll give them my alien-registration card (F4 visa) this time. That might be easier. Tonight: get a new PCC number, then update my information on Amazon, iHerb, and Coupang. If I drank, I'd say that, right about now, I need a drink.

Busy Friday.