Our Korean Apartment

Shorty before we left Korea I videotaped our apartment mostly for myself to remember when the memories start to fade. I'm really glad that I did it and it gives you glimpse into our life in Korea. We had a wonderful apartment and being the only foreigners everyone knew us.

Sometimes You Do Need A Man

Curt (hubby) has been in Naju, South Korea since Monday and will return tonight (Wednesday). He has travelled pretty extensively for his job through most of our marriage. It really has made me pretty independent and able to fix most problems that would arise while he was gone. I always like to think I can do it myself but last night was a reminder that I DO NEED HIM!

It started with our television. I pushed the wrong button on the remote and this calculator showed up. I couldn't get rid of it and it wouldn't allow me to switch channels. I monkeyed with it off and on for about two hours when I finally pushed the correct random sequence of buttons which removed it. Of course, I don't know what that sequence was and I also don't know which button I pushed to begin with. It was pretty frustrating.


Wednesday is water delivery guy and we weren't quite through the water from the week before so I used a glass to finish emptying the bottle and removed it from the base. No problem. I then dragged over a full bottle and lifted it to the table which is right next to the water cooler. I've done this before so I knew I could manage. I lifted the bottle from the table, flipped it over so the neck of the bottle was facing down and oops! The bottle fell out of my hands and onto the floor. Water went everywhere.

I panicked and quickly picked up the wet bottle and flipped it into the hole in the top of the cooler. Water was spraying everywhere from cracks all over the bottle that I hadn't seen. So I freaked again and lifted it off the cooler which was no small feat. The cooler puts a hole into the bottle so I had to lift it off of that which made water spew from even more places. The bottle was still about 3/4 full and my adrenalin was kicking in.

The picture above shows one of the cracks.


I heaved the bottle off of the cooler and into our sink with the intention of letting all the water drain. But then I didn't hear any water dripping and saw that now the bottle was stuck to that center thing in our sink and it had virtually sealed the bottle.

So I had to lift the bottle off of this strainer thing (they are in all Korean kitchens) that was in our sink and wouldn't you know, it stuck to the bottle. So I had to tug and tug hard to remove not only the bottle but the stinking strainer. The strainer was so hard to remove from the bottle almost like it had suctioned itself to the bottle. But I pulled and was able to pry it off the bottle. Then I turned the bottle back upside down to drain.

I was covered with water and the floor was flooded. I got out a bunch of towels and mopped up the mess. Curt decided this was a good time to check on me and he got an earful. Poor guy. I felt better after I got out of my wet clothes.

I left this cracked bottle outside our apartment for the water delivery guy to pick up. We leave an empty bottle out every Wednesday and he replaces it with a full one. I tape 5000 won to the bottle (about $5.00 U.S.). This time he left two bottles. I wonder if he noticed the cracks, apparently so.

I miss my husband!

Be Careful Where You Walk!

I brought my camera with me on my walk to the bank today. It is also the same route I use to get to the grocery store. These pavers are covered with an artificial "moss" for lack of a better word. Many of them are disintegrating.

The yellow pavers are for the blind and they are really uncomfortable to walk on.

You need to keep your eye out when you walk. The sidewalk can have broken pavers.

I have not fallen outside yet but I have fallen in a few restrooms when we first arrived in Suwon. The bathrooms are called "wet" rooms meaning they have a drain in the floor which is used to clean the room. The entrance is raised so you have to step down into the restroom. It is also the same at our apartment. It took a few falls for me to catch on.

I've been under the weather for a few days. On Friday I had a visit from pest control and she sprayed the most horrible smelling stuff down our drains. I opened all the windows but it still stunk horribly. It gave me quite an upset stomach for a couple of days.

I was talking to my Korean language teacher about it on Monday and told him I was thinking of contacting building maintenance about discontinuing this service. He said that I shouldn't do that because all the bugs in the building will then come to my apartment. I looked at him and said, "Are you kidding?" He replied, "Not really." I guess I never thought of it like that. They sure have some smart bugs here in Korea.

Electricity - Part III

This is take out from a Chinese restaurant. All this came to $28.00 U.S.
All I know is the stuff on the right is sweet and sour pork. It was all quite
delicious. The food was on plastic and we were told when we finished to
just pile it all up and leave it outside our apartment with paper covering it.
The restaurant would be by the next day to pick it up.

Part of the reinforcements sent to wait for the air conditioner guy.

I'm loving the food too! But it was sooo humid in the apartment.
Do you notice I'm the only one sweating? Curt is too but he was
taking this picture.

How many Koreans does it take to fix an air conditioner? A LOT!

We were awaken yesterday morning at 2:00 a.m. by our power going out again! When the repairmen left the day before, I was assured everything was fixed, and everything did work until 2:00 a.m. Every time we turned on an air conditioner, it took out the power. So when Curt got to the office, he sent a very terse email to our relocation agency basically stating that this problem is entering our 6th day and if it wasn't fixed we were going to a hotel and looking for another apartment! He called me shortly after to say that someone from the agency was coming over from Seoul. They showed up in the early afternoon with the President of the company. Curt decided to come home too and his plant manager sent three people from the plant to help too.

Eventually, we ended up with a houseful of Koreans. Three from the relocation agency, three from my husband's work, the owner of the apartment, the real estate agent, the building manager, two building maintenance workers, and a guy from the company that installed the air conditioner. There got to be a lot of yelling (they call it being passionate) at one point. I'm not used to people talking loudly and angrily but it is common here. It actually turned out that when it started raining last Saturday, that shorted out a wire in the compressor which is hanging out of our bedroom window. But the building maintenance workers said that the building was fine, and the air conditioner repairmen said the unit was fine. I lost count how many times someone turned on the air conditioner with the results always being that our power went out. They didn't seem to believe this even after 4, 5, 10 times. It went for hours and hours into the night. Finally, at 9:00 p.m., they had done something that somehow fixed the problem. Although, everyone said nothing was wrong and that nothing was fixed, the air conditioning now works.

One of Curt's co-workers asked me a question that really caught me off guard. She asked, "Who is the most handsome man in this room?" I told her, "My husband, of course." She didn't like that answer and really wanted me to pick a Korean. I told her I couldn't do that and asked her the same questions. She said that she couldn't answer that question.

So then I asked her if Korean men ever wear wedding rings as I had rarely see them on men. She said that all the young married men do wear their wedding rings but when they get older, they stop. I asked why and she said that they wanted to appear unmarried. I didn't ask why! Curt still wears his wedding band so he hasn't taken up that Korean tradition (It's not a tradition, but I don't really know what to call it).

I also learned that Koreans DO NOT like cats. They consider them very bad luck so they are to be avoided at all costs. Good thing we left Louie at home with our son. It's really his cat anyway. They do have dogs and the dogs are trained to go on a disposible mat in their apartments.

Electricity - Part II

I woke up this morning to a second day of rain which we are finding kind of strange. No, not the rain but we were told that the rainy season ended the last day of July. During the month of July(the rainy season), it only rained parts of three days and that was it. The forecast is for 100% chance of rain until Friday when it is supposed to be partly cloudy with a return of the rain for Saturday and Sunday. Now this sounds like the rainy season. It's funny as I type this I'm listening to my IPod and what comes on but the Carpenters' "Rainy Days and Mondays." I have a ton of tunes from the 70's and I love listening to all those great songs.

Back to the electricity issue, I waited all morning for the air conditioner guy to come and he never did show. My Korean language instructor came for our lessons at 1:30 p.m. and as I buzzed him into the building, the electricity went out. Thank goodness he was here! He called the building management after I explained to him what had been going on. This time they sent up two guys and they did get the electricity back up again. They turned on the air conditioner and let it run for a few minutes. When they turned it off, there went the electricity. They managed to get it turned on again when the air conditioner repairman finally showed up. I guess 2:00 p.m. is considered morning here. He took apart the air conditioner as the two building repairmen sat cross legged on my living room floor watching him. I found it fascinating. There were conversations going back and forth in rapid Korean with my teacher chiming in once in a while. They wanted to know things like did I plug the air conditioner in another outlet(No). Did I touch any of the buttons inside the unit (I didn't even know they were there).

Finally, after over an hour, the air conditioner repairman said that there was nothing wrong with the air conditioner and the two building repairmen said there was nothing wrong with the apartment electricity. This was communicated to me through our relocation agency via the phone since my teacher had finished our lessons. Excuse me! So right now I'm thinking we are still going to have problems but who really knows. Maybe with all their dinking, it was fixed. I'll keep you posted. I did learn the most important Korean words. No, not kimchi, I learned to say in Korean "I don't know." My teacher thinks I will use that a lot. Yah think??!!!

Trouble in the Apartment

This piece of paper showed up on the wall between the two elevators in our apartment building. We had no idea what it said so we thought it was something important placed there by the management of the building. Curt finally took a picture of it and brought it to work to have his co-workers decipher it.

It turns out that it is a petition. They are complaining about the construction that is going on nearby. It states that the construction is causing too much dust and noise. The petition is to have the construction cease. Can they really get someone to stop a construction project? In the U.S., I can't imagine this getting anywhere. I'll keep everyone posted.

We are also having major electrical problems. The circuit breakers keep going out. The first time, we had to get someone from management to show us where the panel was. Duh, it was right behind the door but we never found it. So the electricity has been going off about four times a day, always when Curt is home. Ha!

Curt notified the agency helping with our relocation and they contacted the building management. They sent a guy up who knew absolutely no English and the only Korean I know is how to say "orange." We were well matched. So I called Curt at work and he had the gall to be in a meeting so he didn't pick up my calls (There were three.) So I emailed him and he responded right away. So I told him to call me immediately!!!! I had also called the relocation agency but I couldn't figure out how many numbers to dial. I did get through finally to their general number and the girl ended up disconnecting me.

Well, after about 10-15 minutes, I finally got a hold of Curt. I told him the repair guy is gesturing and I am gesturing back and I don't know what he wants me to do. So he grabbed a co-worker who interpreted that he wanted me to shut down the computer and turn things off. He was turning off the electricity. OK!

While he was working on the panel in our hallway, I stayed in the living room. I hear a girl yelling on the other side of our front door. He let her in and she walked around the apartment and left. I don't even know who she was or what she wanted.

The repair guy determined that we need a new main circuit breaker and that there is an electricity issue with one of the air conditioners (We have three). So we were told not to use that air conditioner which is our largest and that someone from the air conditioner company would be here tomorrow morning to fix it.

Ok, so the repair guy left and I thought everything was fine. NOT! I could turn the lights on but none of the outlets worked. Another call to Curt, (I know he has a real job) and he thought the guy forgot to flip on the circuits. So a flipped them all on and we have electricity.

Apartment Amenities

The big air conditioner in the living room.
They don't have central air in the apartments.
We have a smaller unit in our bedroom and
also my craftroom.

This control is on the toilet. This toilet
comes with a button for the bidet, a button
to wash your bottom, a button to warm the
water and another to warm the seat. You
can control the nozzle and also the water
pressure. There is also a temperature control
for the water and for the seat. Wow, I never
knew you needed more than toilet paper!

This is on the wall as you are sitting on
the toilet. It is a way to answer your phone
when you are busy with the bidet.

This is in our master bedroom. It is a

cosmetics refrigerator. I never knew
they should be refrigerated.

This is our kimchi refrigerator. It comes
with plastic tubs to put your kimchi in.

This is our intercom.

We are on the 10th floor. I was told that
in case of a fire, if I didn't want to wait for
rescue, I can attach a rope to this and out
the window I can go. I think I would wait
for the firemen.

This is our three locks on our front door.

My craftroom. I have a lot of work to do.

My worktable.

The floor of my craftroom.

My first house purchase. After failing many, many

times to make rice. I bought a rice cooker. I can't

read the instructions but I'm going to give it a try

tonight.

Moving into the Apartment - Korean Style

The moving truck with the attached crane. This shot
is looking down out of our apartment window.

The crane approaching our apartment.
They remove the window for easy access.

A look at the truck and crane from our
apartment.

A ground view.

Our apartment is on the 10th floor.

A view from down the street.

The truck with our boxes on it. It's been 60 days! I
can't wait to unpack.

Our couch arriving through the window.

Looking down from the apartment.

A co-worker of Curt's (hubby) with me

who came to help us out.

My Korean lunch at the local Home Plus. It is

bulgogi bibimbap. It only came to about $5.00 US.

The move to the apartment is finished. I am so glad to see our stuff. It has been a long time. It was really humid and we were sweating like crazy. The movers unpacked everything and now I just need to put everything where I want it to go. We did venture out into the neightborhood for dinner. I had seen a "Mexican" sign around the corner from our apartment and I've been missing mexican food. Of course, they knew no English but they did have signs and it was actually a chicken restaurant. We ordered fried chicken and a chicken with a coating on it which turned out to be a spicy, sweet and sour chicken. Delicious, but we misordered and ended up with enough food for four so we had leftovers for another meal. I still wonder why a chicken restaurant says "Mexican."

The bathroom

View in our apartment

The kitchen

The main windows