The Apartment

When preparing to move to Korea, our biggest concern was the apartment. Would it be big or small? Would it be clean? Would it be safe? We had nothing to go by except what my employer told me. He said there were two apartment complexes the university rented from. The newer building was very nice and the older was not as nice. Of course, we were assigned to the older building. Instant panic ensued. Our minds began to run wild as we imagined studio apartments the size of a bedroom, cockroaches festering around and a toilet shoved into the corner of an open room.

As we walked down the hall to our apartment, we were both nervous and excited to finally relax after 18 hours of travel. We opened the door, held our breathe and finally sighed with relief to see a real apartment with rooms and doors. Admittedly it wasn't perfect. Our kitchen faucet leaked, our bathroom had layers of mildew and grime, the gas stove top worked but only if you held the knob down the entire time you were cooking, our bathroom floor flooded every time you ran the sink for longer than 30 seconds and to top it off, our heated flooring turned our apartment into a sauna even hours after being turned off.

At first we didn't want our families to know how bad it was. We knew they would worry if we told them the truth, so we played it off like, it's pretty good... Sorry guys, but we lied. It was bad. Really bad. I mean it. BAD. So, after a quick email to the people at the university, we found ourselves moving two floors higher to a cleaner, fully functioning and fully stocked apartment. The guy that lived in the apartment before us left us with a bunch of essential items: cooking pots and pans, two fans for the scorching summer days, a bathroom storage unit, bowls, plates and glasses, two umbrellas, a clothes maiden and 7 extra chairs. Also, our fridge and cupboards were stocked with spices, tea, pop and even burgers. We can safely say that everything he left us saved us probably $800.

Rather than posting pictures that vaguely show what our apartment actually looks like, we have decided to take you on a video tour. Click here to watch.

I actually really love our apartment. It is quaint and cozy and with every trip to Home Plus it gets more and more homey. Eventually we would love to add some more decorations like plants, fruit and vegetable shaped throw pillows (seriously) and pictures for our walls. It is completely different from what we are used to in Canada, but I think it is good for us. It takes us out of our comfort zones and challenges us to try something different. It may not seem like much, but for us, this is home.