Living in Korea – the first week

Greetings!

I'm living in an Officetel in Anseong, South Korea – see wikipedia's entry for Anseong if you're interested. As it was explained to me, an Officetel is a combination office / hotel, and what immediately popped into my head was a suite in some fancy hotel that I could use for an office by day and entertaining business guests in the evening. Boy was I wrong - this is neither an office nor a hotel. Think “Student studio apartment on a budget” and you'd be right on the mark. Now don't get me wrong, I'm very grateful for where I'm staying and I'd rather have my own studio apartment and not worry about leaving my socks on the floor for housekeeping to discover. It has everything I could want for the three months that I'll be here.

I've got a single bed to rest my head after a long day. The mattress is firm, the pillow is big, and I haven't had a bad nights sleep yet. I'm getting used to using a quilt covering the mattress and sleeping under a light blanket. Things are different here, they don't use bedsheets.

I've got a bathroom. It has a toilet, a place to hang the TP, a sink, a mirror, and a place for my toothbrush. It also has a hand shower attached to the faucet, and with the turn of a knob, the room zooms from a loo to a spacious shower. The entire room is sunken about an inch, sorry, 25mm from the living area and there's a drain in the floor, and as long as I'm careful not to shower the TP or my towel, life is wonderful. It's really easy to keep clean, too, I just hose down the whole room every morning when I'm done showering!

I've got a kitchen. Okay, a kitchenette. Actually, a galley would be more accurate. It has a nifty glass-top electric hotplate, an RV size fridge, and enough cabinet space to store cookware and service for the entire US pacific naval fleet. The sink, er, basin is almost large enough to bathe in, it probably takes up 40% of the counter space.

Under the counter is a washing machine, and after my co-worker translated the instructions for me it works just fine. I was reading the instruction book for this silly thing, actually I was looking at the pictures in the manual, and I mostly understood the gist of the icons: don't stack things on top, don't wash your sneekers, and my favorite, don't wash the cat. I mentioned this to my co-worker and he said it's an old Korean joke that if some American washes their cat then the manufacturer gets sued, so they print the warning.

Off the galley is a utility closet, very handy for storing my luggage, and it houses the boiler and A/C unit. On my first morning in Korea it took me a while to figure out how to get hot water – the boiler is controlled by a thermostat next to the front door and it only heats water for a while after pushing the 'on' button. It takes about five minutes to get scalding hot water, and I'm sure it saves a bunch of energy by not keeping water hot when it's not needed.

I don't know how the place is heated, but every day when I get home it's warm. I think it's radiant heat through the floor since I feel warm spots here and there, but I don't know how to turn it up or down. It's comfortable, so it's something I don't worry about.

My apartment is on the fourth floor but you won't find it by looking at the buttons in the elevator which are marked (1) (2) (3) (F) (5) (6). I'm told it's bad luck to have a fourth floor, since 'four' in Korean sounds like the word for 'death'.

I don't worry about getting out in case of fire, since I've got the Simple Descending Life Line to save me! I won't explain, see the picture... It's tempting try it but I'm not brave enough to jump out of a perfectly good apartment. Yet.

That's my apartment in Anseong. If I ever figure out what my address is, I'll email it to my family and friends to send care packages. (hint: great bear, jitter critter, peets...) Next blog: life in Anseong outside the apartment. Shopping is.... surreal.

Jerry.

Greetings from Korea! I'm writing this on Saturday morning off-line since I don't have internet access in my apartment yet.

The Flight:

I took off on Wednesday afternoon, the wheels leaving American soil at 2:15 in the afternoon on Singapore airlines flight SQ15 bound for Incheon airport. Leaving the US for the first time in my life, I felt anxious about what I would find in Korea. There's something unsettling about leaving my comfort zone for a culture, language, and environment completely different from what I've known all my life. I wasn't looking forward to being cooped up in an aluminum tube for fourteen hours either, I get restless on much shorter flights.

I must give credit to Singapore airlines: their in-flight entertainment is outstanding. I watched three movies, learned Korean number and played video games during most of the flight, all using the little LCD monitor and hand-held controller build in to the seat. I also did a little bit of reading during the flight to break up the monotony. The food service was good, too. I had chicken and baby red potatoes for lunch, and beef with rice for dinner. Snacks were served regularly, except when turbulence made navigating cabin hazardous.

If dogs could fly I'd fit right in along side them, with my head hanging out the window and my tongue flapping in the breeze. I always like to sit in a window seat, using my GPS to see if we're still in Kansas and watching the landscape roll by, but there wasn't much to see out the window this time, and I didn't turn on the GPS knowing we'd be over water most of the way. Most of the time there were clouds and ocean to be seen out the window, but I did get to see some of the Aleutian islands, and the sight was magnificent. On the display in-flight I watched our progress as we inched across the pacific

Landing in Incheon was uneventful, as was customs. My co-worker and I retrieved our luggage and we found the bus to take us to Anseong, where I will be living for the next few months. On the bus (affectionately called a limousine) I saw my first glimpse of Korean life: neon everywhere blazing in the night, lighting up gritty downtown street scenes, but looking at the people they all appeared contented and safe. In Anseong there were university students in their uniforms milling about, along with people in general out walking around the town.

What struck me most was how vertical everything is. I'm used to urban sprawl covering large pieces of land, but here the buildings seem very tall for their footprint. On a plot of land where I would expect a one- or two-floor single-family home, theres a six floor apartment building. It's pretty obvious the architecture isn't designed with earthquakes in mind, and I wonder if the buildings will fall over in a strong breeze.

That's enough for now. Next time: a touch of culture shock, moving in to my studio apartment.

Jerry

Safe and sound in Korea

Hey all,

I arrived safe and sound in Korea yesterday, or was it today? It's really weird, I took off from San Francisco on Wednesday afternoon, arrived in Korea, went to bed, and woke up on Friday morning. Where did Thursday go??

I don't have internet in my apartment yet, so this post is from my temporary desk at work. When I have the time and bandwidth, I'll put up some more pictures from the flight and first impressions of Korea.

Jerry

My last night in San Jose

The rent is paid, my roommate has money for utilities, my car will be parked at work and driven by my co-worker (until he joins me in Korea), the bags are packed, and tomorrow I'm off to Korea. As unusual as this trip is in my life, I'm sure it's routine for some people but the anxiety of my first trip overseas is unsettling. My mind is awash with thoughts of what I'm going to experience in the Land of the Morning Calm: the food, the language, the customs, the lifestyle -- everything will be totally new to me.

My phone has been buzzing out of my pocket all day with friends calling to wish me well in my travels, constant reminders of how much I'm going to miss the community of friends I've gathered in the short two years I've been living in San Jose. This evening my roommate and I cooked dinner together, and I think it's the little things like that I'll miss the most.

I know it's going to be difficult to sleep tonight, I have a million things running through my mind thinking about what I've forgotten to pack, but I can sleep on the flight.

Next post: South Korea.

Jerry.

Greetings from San Jose, California

Ack! I'm going where? Korea? Oh, okay... that's South Korea, Right? Oh good... I can handle that. You want me there how long? Three months? Maybe I heard you wrong, did you say three months? Oh, I guess this is going to be an adventure after all.

Keep checking back as this California native adjusts to life in Korea for a few months.

Jerry.

Here's a test photo from downtown Los Gatos. I'm new to this blog stuff, I'll be doing a lot of experimenting 'round here.

jb