internet service restored(??)

So the Daecheong KT guy texted me back late last night to say he'd give me a call in the morning. And he called early: around 7:45 a.m. We talked a bit; he asked me to prep (i.e., photocopy) certain documents, like my alien-registration card and my bank book. He said he'd be by around 10 or 11 a.m., but just to keep me on my toes, he arrived at 9:30 a.m., which was a nice subversion of the old "Korean time" stereotype. As with the rental office, there was a lot of paperwork to sign. I'm now on a year-long contract at around W22,500 a month, automatic renewal. If I do move later this year, there will be a small penalty for ending the contract early. I signed and signed and signed the papers—often two to three signatures per page as is standard with Korean contracts. I also promised I'd tell him a month in advance should I move out of here early.

The next step was actually turning my internet back on. The guy left to go to whatever mysterious office he has in the building. He called me to ask whether I was connected; I reported that I wasn't. I restarted the computer while he waited, then reported that I still wasn't connected. The guy came back up to my apartment with some equipment, and then began the weird dance of him fiddling with wiring at my desk and against the wall next to my desk (CAT-5 cable, I assume), testing connections, and muttering/singing to himself as he worked. When the connection still wasn't happening, the guy would leave my place for a few minutes and come back with more equipment. This included a stepladder, which may have been the most useful thing: the man opened a ceiling panel by my entrance door, muttered to himself about the damage caused by the repair guys who had accessed the panel before him, fiddled with some wiring in the crawlspace, went back to my computer, and—voilà. Everything now worked. Here's hoping the service doesn't crap out by tonight.

Otherwise, everything seems good for a year. If I do nothing—automatic renewal.