no cellphone contact for four days. korea has a different mobile system, it turns out. globe could have lent out a phone and number for roamers but i didnt know that.
then, as always in most major hotels, wifi costs an arm and a leg. worse is that most wifi in establishments are also for sale. it seems that free wifi here is not an added come-on for patrons.
i thought to myself: four days shouldn't be so bad. a chance to actually be unwired. to forego virtual and be real. just like in the old days.
it wasn't going to be so bad. i was still able to filch at a nearby mcdo outlet. so ill do that evenings. so friends and family need not worry.
no cellphone contact was actually quite... relaxing. getting connected was something i could choose at my pleasure. so i was still updated, in the evenings. i was all in the 'here and now' - so zen. but wanting to chat with pc was more challenging. our schedules couldn't connect. and those DM tweets were arriving late somehow.
upon arriving in manila midnight, when the flight attendant signalled that it was ok to open cellphones, i opened mine. good grief. it had no battery. even when it was off during the entire time, somehow the battery drained. how do i contact my driver?
my colleague who travelled with me offered his phone. i texted the driver to fetch me. then my colleague left.
10 minutes of waiting. i looked for a phone booth. and luckily had some change left. i called the house. dad answered but couldn't hear me. grrr. then a nice janitor offered his cellphone, for a fee, of course. finally connected with my driver.
i woke him up! he was still at home, thinking that i was arriving tomorrow! getting really pissed! stupid driver!
took the airport cab home. finally at my gate. i was ringing the doorbell. for 10 minutes. Goodness! the help wouldn't respond! they couldn't f**king hear the stupid doorbell??? i couldn't call them on the landline to wake them up! Thank God one of them woke up and opened the gate.
i was fuming mad i couldnt sleep right off.
being unwired sounds great and even romantic. but reality-check for me. i just can't unilaterally decide to go unconnected. not since im still working and i havent become a hermit. not when i wasnt able to prime others about it.
the wires have chained me to this new life. for better or for worse.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
7 comments:
u dont have to curse just because the help or ur driver failed at their duties. it makes you sound like a bratt. just sayin...
-closetjay
even with work and all try not to be so dependent on the material stuff expecially the techie ones, just rely on yourself, desig your life as if you depend on no one hehe... de clogging is the key...
I think it is not about being wired or unconnected but about being patient. The celphones help us get services instantly which somehow also reduces our patience.
I thought I'll be reading some intimate jogging adveture with a cute-hunky korean...too bad.
A good case of Andropause, i presume?
hmmm am going to seoul next weekend. i don't remember having cellphone problems in seoul my last trip there. just like in japan, nowadays the gsm band works everywhere.
the iphone works in Seoul and Japan, just turn on your 3G.
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