6th time's the charm

Did I say I was going to have success in picking up my check card today at the bank? Well, I guess that partly came true. I went to the bank, passport in hand, to pick it up. They gave it to me. I checked it out, because Jason picked his up yesterday and his said JasonKirscit instead of Jason Kirsch. I wasn't so surprised, then to see that mine said Lele instead of Lela. I asked the girl if that was ok. She was a little embarrassed and said that she would make a new one and call me next week when it's ready. It also doesn't work as a subway/bus card, which it was supposed to (they told me it would when I applied for it). So, when I go to pick up my card next week and ask about the transportation card thing, hopefully it really will be my last visit (visit number six just to get this stinkin' card made.) In Korea, as in many countries where you don't speak the same first language as the people you are dealing with, things tend to take longer. I guess I can just double the saying the third time's the charm - in Korea, for foreigners perhaps, it should be changed to the sixth time's the charm.

Here's a brief history of Lela conquering the check card retrieval process:
visit 1: I ask, in Korean, if I can get a check card. The girls behind the counter laugh and send me to someone else. He is not confident enough in his English to speak it directly, so he writes everything down first and then says it. (I'm not kidding.) No progress is made. He takes my phone number and I tell him I will come back later.
visit 2: I come back, with a few new rehearsed Korean phrases under my belt, and get an application for the card. They want to see my passport. I don't have it on me, so I decide to get help from a friend with the Korean application form and bring my passport back later.
visit 3: I am armed with my passport and a filled out application. Jason goes with me and thinks this is a piece of cake, because he gets an application filled out on his first try. Ha!
visit 4: I get a call the next day saying something about a PIN number. We both go back, give them a PIN number, get a small present for having to come back because they forgot to ask us the day before.
visit 5: I receive the check card with a misspelled first name. They tell me that they will make a new one and call me. I find out later that the transportation card feature doesn't work.

I told my friend Okja about this tonight. (She's my Korean tutor, also.) She said, "Well, Jesus wants you to just keep showing His love to those bank tellers!" Amen.