Goodbye Seoul, Apartment Delays, and Cleaning (lots and lots of cleaning)

I apologize for the delay but it’s been a very trying couple of days. I have some videos I took so I wouldn’t forget the details. Considering my three and half years of film school, you might expect something of a much higher quality…be warned, it’s my cracked iphone and tired/exhausted/delirious me, not creative, artsy me with a 5D.

So I already don’t really remember Tuesday, but I did go to Anyang for another hour of training with my Faculty Manager. My coworker from training was renewing his visa so he didn’t make it, so it was just me and my FM. It went ok, I guess, but I should have asked if I could sit in on a class, as I think that would have been more beneficial.

That night we had our last dinner in Gangnam, and had an early last night back at the hotel. I woke up pretty early to pack and had my korean-speaking friend call me a Taxi to be there at 1pm. I finished packing, checked out before noon, and set up a Korean bank account so I can get my Flight refund. My room mate took longer to set hers up, and was late checking out of the hotel, but we managed to grab some lunch together and say goodbye before I caught my cab and she hers.

The cab driver spoke a little English, but mostly it was just a pleasant, autumn-leaves-and mountains-filled drive to Anyang. It was only 20,000won, which was much cheaper than I had expected! The hotel had offered to call a black taxi, but those are pricey and would have cost me 50,000won. I first went into the wrong real estate office, but they walked me to the right one. And then my woes really began. It turned out that Chungdahm hadn’t paid the 5million won key money deposit, and so I couldn’t move in until that happened. Neither of the agents spoke more than a couple words of English, but thanks to google translate and a lot of patience, we found a way to communicate. I took a taxi to my branch, to make sure they were sorting it out, and found a korean-speaking teacher to help me set up my internet. She ran out of time, but she sent one of the part-time korean staff members with me to KT Olleh. He was a couple years older than me, but pretty quiet with his English. He was very helpful and by the time we parted ways, much more chatty (I definitely pointed out his Manchester United sweater, with a “Man U boo”, jokingly, and he quickly defended himself as a Liverpool fan, it was just a “gift” from a relative, haha) but I do wish I knew what I signed up for!

It was about 4:30 by the time I got back to the apartment office, 30 minutes past when they said I would be able to move in. But, unfortunately, the previous tenants were still moving out/wallpapering. They told me it would be two more hours. I had nothing to do, nowhere to go, so I just chilled with the non-English speaking Koreans. They made me tea, and we had some conversations via google translate. I don’t really know how to convey how I felt at this point. I just wanted to have my apartment. I wanted to be able to convey in my words the gratitude I felt towards the agent people for being so nice. When there was less than an hour before I could move in, they added an extra 30 mins-hour, so I headed to E-mart to buy some bedding. Oh yeah, I also found out that there was a lot broken in my apartment, including the floor heating…eeeks! It was cold! So I needed blankets and I also knew I’d have to clean. Haha, if I only knew how much. Well, E-mart, just across the street, was closed. So I had to trek to the other side of the city. I got the warmest comforter I could see, and picked up some Windex/kitchen cleaner/paper towels.

When I walked into my apartment, it was so much dirtier than I was prepared for, armed with my Windex spray.

You can’t tell, but it smells and is covered in grime. Home sweet home!

The floor was nasty, the mirrors/glass/wood all covered in filth. The fridge stank and the bathroom was nasty. Oh, and the toilet didn’t flush! I just closed the door and prayed that that was what they were fixing the next day. I wiped down an area for my yoga mat “bed” and made these videos:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sC3dc0Y_dnA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKSumDfseqU&feature=youtu.be

My “bed”…not very comfotable

When I woke up, the first thing I did was clean. Clean clean clean. I know how unexciting that is for all you readers, but it was an entire day of cleaning.  At 10am some maintenance guys came and fixed the toilet! Yay! And did some piping work and fixed a light that was out. Costs me a 100,ooowon a month, so I hope they come by whenever anything else breaks! Sometime mid afternoon I went to E-mart and got more cleaning supplies, like a swiffer-type thing, some scourers, a bath mat, some scissors, chopsticks, etc. Nothing too fancy, just some basics. And then I kept cleaning. I watched Legends of the Fall and listened to my music, as I still had no internet. Before the day was over, I had cleaned just about all the exterior parts of the apartment. My aim was so make it feel and look clean so I wouldn’t be overwhelmed with fear by the dirt every time I walked in. I was successful, I think, as when I came back from a trip to explore the nearby restaurants and bars, I was happy to walk into such a clean and pleasant smelling place. I have never been the type to eat alone at places, so I’ve been grabbing rice cakes and Ramon for dinner the past two nights. Maybe I’ll get up the guts to eat out alone…or maybe I’ll make lots of friends and never have to! Let’s hope it’s the latter.

Today I meant to go for a run, but with my Ramon and apple diet…I really wasn’t feeling it. Instead, I finished cleaning the window and frame (it was almost black before!) and tackled the fridge/freezer. The internet guy came! So excited! The only drawback is that it’s wired only, so I have to be plugged in, and can’t use my phone. Boo. When I have money, I may buy an internet router and use that. But after I have blinds and cups and plates and a clean bathroom, of course. It’s probably the fastest internet this computer has ever been involved with, although I haven’t yet streamed any videos. Netflix has not yet come to Korea, which is a major bummer. Another goal for when I have money is to set up my computer with a different IP address, so I can use it. It will just cost me another 10$/month, so not too bad. I’m struggling to stay up with all my US tv shows, though, especially as ABC doesn’t work over here either :( But I am up to date on the Walking Dead! Best episode of the season so far just happened (although I totally called it!), but I won’t spoil it for those of you who are not yet caught up.

After cleaning and, again, braving the gross bathroom for another shower, I headed to school. You have no idea how nice it was to hear English! No idea! I bravely asked my FM if I could watch a class instead of practicing, and he agreed that I’d get more out of it. I think I talked about all of that in my last video I made. But I did go to homeplus (ashamedly had to ask someone to point me in the right direction for the first time:/) and got a bed! Homeplus is definitely my preference (it’s Tesco’s…I’m English…hello?)

Again, all in this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSzP_TmAR1g&feature=youtu.be

My comfortable bed :)

And then… I went back to E-mart, and I meant to buy some essentials for my apartment and some food…but my hungry tummy took me straight to the huge food section in the second basement (yes, most large stores in Korea have multiple floors and escalators without stairs for the trolleys). I didn’t get nearly everything I need, as my basket was full before I got to the meat/fresh sections. But I got a lot of new foods! Rice and curry. Korean noodles. Korean pancakes. Soju. I allowed myself some Quesadilla and italian pasta ingredients, although they come at a high price here. As much as I love Korean food…I do miss Western food. You should have seen me walking around the food section, though! I never fall for the sample ladies in Costco…but since I didn’t know any of the foods, and was starving…I definitely fell for at least one! Oh, that’s another goal for when I have money…Costco! Yes, Korea has Costco!

My food hoard! Don’t know what I’ll eat any of it off of…but I have food!

Just made some quesadillas and mixed that red vinegar drink they left behind with my soju, and it’s pretty good! It’s almost 11pm, so maybe time to catch up on a few TV shows. I leave for Japan on Monday, so I really want to finish cleaning before I leave, and maybe even finish unpacking. I think I may go out tomorrow night with my hotel room mate, as I am craving human interaction! Thank you for reading and putting up with my lows and highs! It’s amazing how things you take for granted, such as a bed, familiar food, and just the sound of your own language, can make such a difference when you have been denied them!

A Hidden Marketplace, Girl’s Night, and a Lantern Festival

I didn’t investigate the singing Sunday morning, but I did attempt to figure out the washing machine and get some laundry done. All the buttons are in Korean so it wasn’t as simple as just picking cold/warm/hot. I used a guide they gave us in our apartment guide and so far, so good. I don’t think anything shrunk or anything. The annoying thing is that I’m a spoiled American with my reliance on dryers, and they don’t have them here. I’ll get some fabric softer and hope that helps, but for now, my clothes are a wee bit stiff.

That afternoon, my room mate and I went out to find some food, with both our groceries and funds running low, we were looking for a Korean marketplace where it was supposed to be cheaper to buy fruit. When we got to the station, the market appeared to be closed and undergoing construction, so we walked around a bit. We found a pretty dilapidated tiny park, and tried out the Korean exercise machines.

And then, we saw some old ladies with bags of fruit, and we thought, “hmmmmm, the market must be open!” But where? We went back to where we were and walked around where the market was supposed to be. We finally found an entrance, and some normal looking people walking into it. I say that because it didn’t look like a marketplace, it was more like a huge loading yard for mass distribution of lettuce and potatoes and the like, and it was a bit sketchy.

So much food!

Marketplace or perfect setting for a horror film…?

We eventually got confirmation from a Korean lady that there was, indeed, a market place. We finally saw fruit laid out in more reasonable quantities, and Koreans sitting by their wares. The fruit was all a lot cheaper, but the only problem was that you were expected to buy a ton of it. Oh, and we don’t speak any Korean, and only one dude in that entire place seemed to know any English. But my roommate purchased a million bananas, I managed to buy just one persimmon (which later burst because it was too ripe), and then the apple lady. Oh the apple lady. My room mate was asking her how much, I think, and the lady had about 20 apples in front of her. She said ten, and suddenly started bagging up ALLLLLL the apples. She was very determined, and there was nothing we could do to stop her. So we bought a million apples and bananas that we then had to drag home somehow!

I didn’t get a picture of all the ladies with their fruit on the ground, but here was just one aisle of fruit (there were so many more!)

Oh, and apparently Dragonfruit is a real fruit! My room mate got super excited to see one and paid 4,000won for one.

I definitely thought this was a made-up fruit!

We pressed deeper into the market and I smelled fish, and it was in a good, “I want seafood” kind of way. And then we found the fish market! If the fruit market had been at all overwhelming with the quantities and the insistent sellers, the fish market made it seem like nothing. Earlier in the day I had said I felt like going to an aquarium…and I suppose I got my wish. I have never seen so many fish in my life except maybe at the Boston Aquarium. Although, all of these fish and crabs and octopuses were all going to end up on someone’s plate. I even saw a man beat a fish to death right in front of us! It was quite traumatizing. They all wanted us to buy their fish, very badly. It didn’t seem to matter that we could only say hello and thank you as we shook our heads and tried to escape each seller. The funniest/scariest moment was when one guy with a lot of crab-like things, pulled one out of the tank and tried to get my room mate to touch it. I think he though we were scared of them, and wanted to make us like them enough to buy them. He literally took her hand out of her pocket and tried to make her touch the crab. We got out of there as quickly as possible, and the smell really started to get to me. We decided we didn’t feel like fish after all, and headed back with all our bananas and apples.

Rows and rows and rows of fish!

A few boys were throwing the feral cats fish.

Fish fish fish, smelly fish.

On our way home we visted a Daiso, a dollar store, and we got yoga mast for 5,000won to sleep on for the next couple weeks, and I picked up some moisturizer as my skin is not used to the cold. We got home and realized we still didn’t have anything to eat other than fruit, so we went out with another friend to find some dinner. She also wanted to find a winter jacket and something for her skin, so we popped down to the Gangum station, which is full of clothes and beauty stores. We ended up getting some Korean beauty masks for 1,000won and decided we needed a girls night. We got fast food, fries and fried shrimp, and headed back to the hotel. We also stopped into a couple stores outside of the station, and found so many adorable Korean things. It’s funny how doing something so simple as window shopping can make you feel human again, but we all felt much better after doing so. The masks were fun, and my skin feels so much better! But we looked quite scary:

Applying the masks.

Scary faces!

And then suddenly it was Monday already. I met my realtor in Anyang and looked at two of the apartments again. The smoky one hardly smelled like smoke anymore, but I realized how dilapidated it was, and how old the stove was. And what would I do with the extra room, really? I just didn’t like it, suddenly. So we took a look at the first apartment, and I knew I liked it so much better. It felt ten years newer and even though it doesn’t have any rooms, the shelves divide it well. It didn’t smell like their dogs or smoke, and even though they are apparently going to redo the wallpaper, it didn’t seem too bad to me. So I took that one, handed over 500,000won in cash (so scary and sketchy! no receipt or anything…I really hope things work out). It’s kind of ridiculous that I have to pay a realtor fee of 400,000won. I’ve never had to pay a realtor fee before, normally the apartments do that. Thankfully, she’s waiting until I move in to take the money, as I had to put down 500,000won to hold the apartment. I’ll get back 100,000won now, and she’ll take her 400,000. And I’ll sleep on a yoga mat until I get paid!

I went back to the hotel after that so I could save on eating out, although ramon really doesn’t do anything for me anymore. And then back to Anyang to meet my boss and see my branch. I really like it! Training was in an old building and our training room was so tiny. My branch is all brand new and has a nice vibe to it. My boss is awesome, and even having to cold mock a lesson I’d never seen before wasn’t stressful. I’m going back today a little early this time, in the hopes that I’ll see a few other teachers!

When I got back this time, I was ready to go to bed, but my friend messaged me about a lantern festival…so within twenty minutes we were out and getting on yet another train. So many trains that day. I’m going to have to refill my T-money card. The festival was pretty cool, and pretty, but quite small and oh so very cold, as we’ve hit freezing here in Seoul. We took some pictures, dived in a coffee shop to warm up, and headed back to the hotel.

Today I may be opening a bank account, and then back to Anyang for an hour of training with my boss. Wish me luck! I move in to my apartment tomorrow. And in a week, I’ll be in Japan. How weird is that?

First Day of Freedom: Anyang, Apartments, and Spontaneity

Saturday marked my first full day of stress-free freedom, and I was determined to enjoy it as much as possible. So determined, that I woke up at 5am! I am still so surprised by my new found love of the early morning hours. Today, I woke up at 8:30 and was disappointed that it was already so late. I think, perhaps, it’s that there is still so much to do, and there are simply not enough hours in the day to accomplish and explore everything.

Saturday I began by updating this guy, as I was three days behind, enjoyed a long, hot shower, and sorted through a lot of logistical stuff, researching and banking and the like. Around 11am, I met two friends in their room downstairs, and we headed off to Anyang, where I will be living for the next year. One of them had just received her Korean iphone 5, and I was very jealous. Any fear I have of getting lost will disappear once I get a phone. I may go ahead and order one today. They were both so nice, though, to come with me to help me pick out an apartment!

We were all hungry, so we walked around the Pyeongchon area a little bit to find food. It was a Saturday, and a lot of places were closed. But there are a lot of places to eat around there (also, a lot of bars!) so maybe during the week they are all open. The moment we noticed the mountains in the background, I knew I loved Anyang and would love living there. You can kind of see the mountain in the background of this picture:

Hook ’em from my new city of Anyang!

We found an open place, and I had some noodles and my friends had gimbap. The portion sizes are so huge here, and you can’t really take food home (the gimbap was easy to wrap up in foil though), so in the future, gimbap may be a smarter, and cheaper option.

The real estate office was easy to find, but they didn’t really seem to speak English, so thankfully my friend spoke Korean and helped translate. When I heard the prices of the apartments, the stress really started to hit me again. I had heard that in Anyang you could find places around $400, but all the places they have are around $650, not including the $100 maintenance fee and utilities. We looked at the first place, and the lady who lived there had so much stuff! But I was surprised, as it had dividers and I was expecting just a room, pretty much. Finally, after that place, we bumped into my real real estate agent with whom I had been talking to. She spoke English, thankfully! The second place was in the same building, but was completely empty, and cheaper that the first room, even though it was the exact same model. The other teacher from training was also there, and, out of all the rooms we looked at, we both picked that one as our favorite. The other units we looked at all had some kind of fault. My second favorite actually had a room with a sliding door, so I could have an actual bedroom and living room! That one was cheaper, but rank with a smoke smell. They promised the smell could be dealt with…but I don’t know if that’s possible. Other places were all pretty dirty or run down, had hideous wall paper, and were just a room, pretty much. Almost all of them had really nice views of the mountains, though, and I forgot to look in the first two.

So, which apartment? I’m not sure. The second one, hands down, except that I would have to fight my coworker for it, and I know he has quite a bit more money and could pay more. He has also been amazingly helpful, as he taught for a different school in Anyang for the past year, and I really don’t want to fight him for it. The good news is that I got my agent to haggle down the price of the first apartment, so I may just choose that one. I could probably get the smoking apartment price down a bit too, but as much as the lure of a room entices me, I don’t want to live in that smell. The other good news is that we don’t have to pay rent up front, just a small deposit until we move in, and then we get that back and pay the Realtor $250. My money will not come in till later next week, so this is a huge relief. Oh, and there is more good news! I knew we got a flight reimbursement, but what I did not know was that it would be the full million won (1,000$ minus taxes). I paid under $600, so yay free money! Well, I’m just calling it payment for all of this ridiculously unpaid training we’ve been doing. Today I will make up my mind about an apartment and tomorrow, secure one of them.

After looking around 7 places, I felt bad for my friends, but they were interested in seeing what other apartments looked like. One of them had an Aunt living in Anyang, and she invited us to hang out at her place and offered to take us out for some Chinese food for dinner. I was excited that finally things were happening spontaneously, and also that I would get to see a real Korean apartment, not just a cheap office-tel. Most Koreans live in apartments, houses are very rare, but the family apartments are bigger and nicer. We took a taxi to her Aunt’s place and it was really nice. She was really sweet, she’s an English teacher too, so she spoke English. I got to watch my first Korean TV, and she gave us some persimmons, the only fruit I’ve had here other than bananas. It was really hard to peel, but it was worth it and the best thing I’d tasted in days! We took a taxi to a Chinese restaurant and had some more authentic Chinese food (it was still Korean Chinese, but I bet that’s closer than American Chinese) which was good. Unfortunately, a lot of the starters and the desert had pineapple in it (I’m allergic), but the food was very tasty. The Aunt’s friend from church also showed up, she lived in the US for quite a while.

After dinner, they took us to an apartment building further out from our branch that was maybe $100 cheaper. It was all brand new and nice, but the apartment units were smaller than my college dorm room. Yes, furnished, which none of the other places were. But I really don’t think I can live shut up in a prison room for an entire year, and also be further away from my school and future friends and all the nightlife. For just a $100 difference, I do not think it’s worth it. I don’t need a TV or a bed frame, and I really don’t want to be cooped up and miserable. At least in the dorms you have a common room and lounge area. I would just have my bed and barely any other walking space. But still, something to consider, and so nice of the Korean ladies to help us out! It was a wonderful evening :) Today I am going to figure out my budget for the next two months, so I can make the right decision. Despite the stress of finding an apartment and figuring out how to pay for it, yesterday was a really fun and spontaneous day and I am happy :) I think there’s something going on outside here in Gangum, I can hear very loud singing…I may go investigate!