Next time, I'll just have the damn card mailed to me. I spent a fortune on cab fare both to and from Immigration. Nothing about today was difficult, but it was an expensive waste of time.
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New card. I've regained a few pounds since that pic, and the professional-photo place in my building's lobby, where the above photo was taken, is now gone. |
But the good thing is that I got my alien residence card—my F4 visa. So I no longer feel naked. I'd fasted on Monday and Tuesday, so I celebrated today with a Paris Baguette lunch of salad, a tuna-rye (not American rye*) sandwich, a "zero" pint of cookies-and-cream ice cream from the basement grocery, and a handful each of raisins (super-carby), dried blueberries (carby and expensive), and cashews (a little carby—one of the worst nuts for keto-heads). My blood sugar will be paying the price, as I'll doubtless see tomorrow morning.
Despite having eaten today, I'm going to take my meds tonight and try for another modest walk. It's time to start narrowing variables: was it the meds that helped most? Was it the fasting? Was it the later hour and cooler temps? I'll be curious to see the results. If the meds turn out to be the key factor, then I'll never slack off on them again. Tomorrow, I'll be back to fasting, but I won't take the meds until after the walk. Will that make a difference? What about changing the hour of the walk? We'll see.
Anyway, the bureaucratic nightmare is over for now. I have a new passport, a new driver's license, a new PNC Bank card, and now, at long last, an F4-visa card that will last me another three years. I'm glad, too, that my driver's license won't need anything done for eight years; I'll be around 63 or 64 when I need to renew it again, assuming I'm still among the quick. So today is kind of a slump-in-relief kind of day. I still need to do my Spanish lessons, though, and I've got plenty of material to be generating for all of my various shops/sites. And I need to start looking into Lulu.com again for publish-on-demand books. If Lulu works out, that'll be a much cheaper alternative for US-resident clientele than ordering hard-copy books from me in Korea. From Korea, shipping costs are insane. Oh, and I need to get cracking on apps. One app will be free: the grammar diagnostic test. Everything else will be paid.
More on all of this later.
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*What we call "rye bread" in America is shot through with cardamom seeds, and it's the seeds that give American rye its "rye" taste. But rye flour, to make just rye bread, doesn't have that funky rye taste all by itself. And this tuna-rye sandwich from Paris Baguette was coated in pumpkin seeds and whatnot; it tasted nothing like American rye. Maybe that's a good thing: I hated rye for years before my tastes changed, and I got used to cardamom. American rye is still not exactly my go-to bread, but it's hard to imagine a decent Reuben without it. Anyway, I liked the Korean rye's texture today. But the bread's gonna throw off my carb count.
Congrats on finally getting the card.
ReplyDeleteInteresting to note that it is not actually an "alien" resident card but an "overseas Korean" resident card. I didn't know that you got an entirely different card.
Hmmm. So I'm not an "alien" in the government's eyes? I thought "alien" status was tied to my being a citizen of another country, and besides, most expats I've been around refer to their own cards as "ARCs," i.e. alien residence cards, no matter what visa number is on them. Perhaps we're all just sloppy in our nomenclature.
DeleteI've put up photos of previous F4-visa cards; I think they, too, also say "overseas Korean"; I assume that's their translation of 동포, so the label on my card, 외국국적동포, must mean something like "foreign-national overseas Korean." But since the label still reads "foreign national" or of "foreign nationality," am I not an alien? I mean, yeah, I do see the English right there, literally saying "Overseas Korean Resident Card," which is interesting. I guess a lot depends on whether one reads that as "[Overseas Korean] Resident Card" or as "Overseas [Korean Resident Card]." What translation of "외국국적동포" do you think would eliminate ambiguity?
And I thought 동포 meant "of the same (동) Korean heritage" whereas 교포 meant "overseas Korean." Curiouser and curiouser.
I just looked at my own card and realized that it doesn't say "alien registration card," either. It actually says: "영주증 Permanent Resident Card." But I also have a 외국인등록번호 on mine, while looking closer at your card I see you have a 거소신고번호. Fascinating.
DeleteThis doesn't necessarily mean that you are not considered an "alien," though. That is the difference between 교포 and 동포. I know that people use the term 교포 fairly loosely in normal parlance, but the legal definition is a Korean citizen who resides abroad (at least, that's my understanding of it). 동포 refers to everyone of the same heritage, regardless of their citizenship or country of residence. So I agree that the translation of "overseas Korean" for 동포 is a bit odd. I'm not sure how else you would concisely translate 동포, though. (Incidentally, the first reading you mentioned makes the most sense; I think if they wanted to eliminate all ambiguity they should render it "Overseas-Korean Resident Card.")
Anyway, it is interesting that nowhere on your card does it say 외국인, even though 동포 does imply that.