Thursday, March 5, 2009

Our New Apt

So first off, the Beyonce kid was hilarious.
Anyways, we finally got out of our one room motel/hotel. We moved into our new place two days ago and we love it. It's brand new, just built with the smell of fresh paint. We have new appliances and a small balcony. It's on the third floor so not too high of a climb. The building is rather small only a total of eight units. So no need for an elevator.
Our door has a key less entry. There is a little keypad for a code. Once you punch in the code a little jingle plays and in you go. When you go through the front door the first thing you see is a built in shelving unit, for coats and shoes. Turning to the left there is a little step up and suddenly you're in the living room. Connected to the living room is the bathroom on left; the balcony straight ahead; the two bedrooms are on the right hand side next one another. And the kitchen is behind you connected with the living room in the same open space. The refrigerator is on the opposite side of the kitchen counter next to the balcony. The living space is rather small but a good size for Korean standards.
The bathroom consists of a toilet, a sink, a medicine cabinet, and a shower head attached on the wall over the sink. It's the size of most people's closet. The shower shares the same floor as the toilet with one drain in the middle. Let's just say the whole room gets wet when you take a shower.
Our bedrooms were provided with a bed we had to put together. Every time we sit on it, it feels like it's going to break. Also, it's extremely hard. Apparently Koreans like the feeling of sleeping on the floor but higher up. It might as well be a piece of wood propped up on cinder blocks. Our backs are slowly adjusting to the stiffness of the mattress. The bed is also the size of those race car beds for kids, except with an modern adult style headboard. When we first lied down I was like, Latanya move to your side, and she said she already was. We both cracked up. Michelle, Latanya's co-teacher told us we should buy another one and push them together. Seriously it's the size of a twin but smaller. Well maybe not smaller but at least the same size, and for two people, C'mon.
In the other room there is a small free standing closet, a desk and a chair. And that was it. There is no other furniture in the apartment. We were like, where is everything else? Michelle said we had to buy any other furniture. We said that couldn't be right. It was supposed to be fully furnished. So the next day I talked to my co-teacher and she said they would buy us some more furniture and she would talk to me about it today. So we were relieved to hear that. As of right now all of our suite cases are all over the place because we have no where to store our stuff.
The other night once we moved in we went to E-Mart, which is there version of Wal-Mart. But think of Wal-Mart on steroids. You could compare Juan Pierre vs. A-Rod, A-Rod being E-Mart(Perfect Example). E-Mart is like a Super Target, a Macy's and an Ikea all rolled into one. It's five stories with escalators that can hold your carts and it has anything you could ever need. We just needed to get a few supplies like a pan, silverware and a few groceries. E-Mart is only a five minute walk away, so it's very convenient.
Our neighborhood is really up and coming. We have dozens of restaurants on our street alone. There are also many bars. I can't wait to try the local brew, non lite anyway. There is also a movie theatre near the E-Mart as well as more restaurants and clothing stores. Our neighborhood has everything we need, food, clothes, entertainment and beer. What more could we ask for (Michael: I'll make sure to scope out all the good bars for you when you fly out).
A trip into Seoul isn't that long. Maybe 25 to 30 minutes. We have to get on a bus and take it to the Subway and from there it goes straight into the metropolis. Are city of Namyangju is pretty big too, its population is over 500,000.

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