Living Space

So I have been living in Korea for over two months now, and I know some of you would like to see where I live. It's not the nicest apartment in the world, but it works. This is my room. It looks tons better now that I have something on the widows and I was given a dresser and a bedspread. The bedspread is actually upside down since I like the blue and the top side is ugly. I'm pretty proud of my ~$14 window shades. They are bamboo mats so they block the light pretty well, and the strips of material are so I can roll them up to let light in. It's actually not completely my design, another teacher made similar ones for his wife.

This is the living room looking in from the front door. The dumpster-dove couch, a wobbly table, and my roommate's desk and junk. Our phone is on the floor beside the desk.

This is the same room looking from the other side to the front door. The floors aren't actually wood, they are just plastic sheets that lay over the cement stuff but they look nice.

This is the kitchen area. Yes, we have a stove and a microwave now!!! And the refrigerator is nice and big since it belonged to the former director. But don't let that oven-looking thing under the microwave fool you... it doesn't work and it's nasty. It's just there because it's too heavy for me to carry outside to the trash.

This is my roommate's room and the bathroom, respectively. Those are self-explanatory. Fortunately, we do have a bathtub and not just a showerhead on the wall, but Koreans don't use shower curtains.

It's not a bad place... we have hot water and we will have heat in the winter I believe. There are a couple things about apartments in Korea that annoy me though. It is almost impossible to get them clean, especially in an older place like mine. Because of the pollution, dirt and junk comes in through the windows and gets black stuff on the floors right after you clean them. And I'm not used to living around so many other people. The people above me have a baby, the people a few apartments over have a piano a small child practices on, and the people below us have a tv... and the people who own the building or something have no qualms about coming in to fix things and make themselves at home. Every day last week I came home to evidences people had been in my place... doors opened or closed, the toilet seat up and the light on, dirty dishrags in the cabinet between the spices and the rice, our paper towels gone, etc. grr. I would bother me more if I actually had anything at home worth stealing. I'm not actually home too much anyway. Well, goodbye, and I love you all!