I was heading back home from Yangjae today and was sitting on a bench, waiting for the subway at Seonbawai Station (near Seoul Racecourse Park). The headlights of the train came closer, and I quickly got up to throw away my Coke Zero can before getting on. I sat down and looked for my phone to see what time it was, making sure I’d get home plenty of time before my class in the afternoon. Looked through my purse, through the bigger tote I was carrying, and patted myself down… no phone. Ok, it had to be somewhere. I rummaged through my things again. No phone. I started to get concerned. This time, I took everything out of my bag and touch every item before returning it into the bigger bag. No phone. I couldn’t have lost it, could I? I’ve never lost a phone. I would never just set it down. Ok, it must have fallen out of my pocket when I got up from the bench. That’s the only explaination. ARGH!
I got off at the next stop, which was three stops away from Seonbawi. I rode the train back to Seonbawi, hoping, hoping, hoping, it would still be on the bench. I asked the ticket seller if anyone brought a phone to her - nope. I went back to the bench where I was sitting at and looked around. There was a man sitting there and I asked him if he saw my phone - nope. I walked around perplexed, looking into the garbage can that still contained my empty Coke Zero can. Nothing. The old man called me over and offers to let me use his cell phone to call my phone. I called, but the phone has been turned off. Hmmm.
I quickly accepted the fact that I lost my cell phone. Life’s too short to dwell. I didn’t feel angry, distraught, lost, or countless other feelings some cell phone junkies might have. It’s gone… oh well. I’ll live. At least I didn’t lose my wallet, iPod, or planner/journal there were in my bag. More than anything, I felt annoyed at having to go cancel my phone tomorrow and sign up for a new one. I also got to thinking… I don’t know anyone’s phone number by heart. Not even Raswan’s! I know it’s 010-something something, 6389.
At school, I called my phone several times, but it was still off. Maybe whoever picked up my phone took my T-Money card, which was attached to the phone, and threw the phone away? By the time I got home around 8:30pm, I was checking my email and saw one that said URGENT. A woman found my phone and called one of my contacts, and this person emailed me. I got the woman’s phone number and called Thomas through Skype. His Korean friend found out her address for me and I’m going to Gangnam tomorrow to pick up my phone! I’m assuming this woman didn’t make tons of long distance calls or chatted up phone sex operators on my won. So, I’m going to pick up a Starbuck’s gift card to give her, as a way of saying, “Thanks for not pocketing the 12,000 won T-Money card and throwing my phone away.”
Have you ever lost a cell phone? Was it a tramatic experience? What happened?
July 10th, 2008 at July 10, 2008 - 12:51 am
I left mine in a cab one time. I realized almost immediately that I’d done it and called it. Cab driver answered and came back to my place to drop it off. I didn’t have any money on me but I asked him to give me his card and tell me where he was based out of. I went down the next day and gave him $20 (it wasn’t far from where I worked, which helped.) He was pretty surprised to see me, but I wanted to make sure a good deed went rewarded.
July 10th, 2008 at July 10, 2008 - 11:51 am
Actually, I tossed my cell phone and never felt more liberated in my life. Wish I could have done it years ealier when I had a pager attached at the hip.
Naked DSL, mostly free calls, and penny a minute phone calls through Yahoo! Messenger when I have to call an actual phone have saved me a bundle over the past couple of years. The free video calling feature is pretty nifty too when talking to my young nephews from the other side of the planet.
My grandmother rented her old rotary dial phone for over 50 years from Ma Bell ($4.50 a month for a crappy behemouth) and also used a shared line with her neighbors. My cousins liked to scare me by telling me that ghosts liked to use the phone. Jerks.
AT&T kept billing her for this nonsense until 1988 when I came across her bill, ripped out her phone, and had my grandmother drive me to the AT&T office and laid into these monsters for taking advantage of an old women. Only my young age kept me from being arrested, but I did get her nice new model and better deal for not taking the story to the local paper. I now wish I had. There may have been many others being taken advantage of by these blood suckers.
I now worry a bit about these younger and younger kids who are texting demons. What kinds of finger, hand, and eye problems will develop over the years from these constant repeating motions?
I also wonder how many accidents happen to people who are oblivious to their surroundings and engrossed only in the all-encompassing importance of their latest call or text.
It shocks a lot of people when they find out that they can’t exactly call me unless I am online and don’t even own a phone of any type (especially students). But life is too short to be shackled and then paying through the nose for those shackles.
July 10th, 2008 at July 10, 2008 - 11:52 pm
I understand what you mean by the “shackles”. It seems ridiculous that most basic plans in the States average $40 a month, with a two year contract. I don’t want to be locked down with a commitment like that. When I go back, I think I’ll just get a pre-paid phone and buy credit as I go. Plus, I’ve been out of the States so long that I don’t know many people in my city anymore. Therefore, I won’t have a lot of people to call or message anyway. I’ll supplement that with Skype.
July 11th, 2008 at July 11, 2008 - 12:47 am
I had Skype for one day until I found out that they were charging me a connection fee for SkypeOut calls and those calls are double the price of Yahoo! Messenger Voice. Yeah, 1 cent versus 2.1 cents a minute isn’t going to break me, but I don’t like being ripped off if I can help it. I also didn’t like that they kept overriding my U.S. Skype webpage and switching it to the Korean one, so I had to switch over to my VPN to access the non Korean website. What a pain!
I am jumping for joy though, now that AT&T is providing naked DSL (without having to have a land line or bundling) starting at $20 a month. Of course, the government forced them to do this when they bought up Cingular. These prices are only good for two years though, and they first started back in November.
For $20 a month, that DSL connection is my TV via Slingbox and my brother’s satellite and cable dvrs, my Interntet, and my phone. Technology has really come a long way in just the last 20 years. I wonder what the next 20 or so will bring.
July 14th, 2008 at July 14, 2008 - 1:15 pm
I have been a fan of your blog for a while. Cheers to you.
Anyways, unlike you I’m the worst person with my possessions. I lost my bar phone the first time in the fall as I was running for the bus. It probably dropped out of pocket or whatever but I realized as fast as you did. I walked three blocks back and it was gone. Not only that, I called it from the 7/11 and it was already turned off. I went to work late that day.
The second time I lost my phone, I was at a coffee shop and left it on the milk table. I ran back from out the door in less than five seconds but it was gone. What really pissed me off was the snarky baristas who had no clue what I was talking about. I went to work and cancelled it. Then my brother got a call from my phone half an hour later - someone “found” my phone. He said that he found it on the ground just outside the coffeeshop. Yeah right. We picked it up after work that day, finding out that he made some calls on the phone and pic messages before he called me to return it. But let me tell you, at least you’re in a country that would likelier return it. In Canada, consider it gone. I lose alot of things, my phone was the first to be returned in all that time.
July 14th, 2008 at July 14, 2008 - 2:16 pm
Grace, I agree with you there. If I, or someone I know loses something in Korea, there’s a better chance of getting it back, than not.
When I went to pick up my phone from the lady, I tried to give her a give certificate to Starbucks as thanks. She absolutely refused it and was so nice.