Korean Washing Machines and Finding an Apartment

The last few days have provided ample opportunities for adventures. Sunday we decided we needed to do some laundry. Funny thing about Korea... everything is in Korean. Yes, even washing machines. So what did we do in the face of such adversity? Why, ask Youtube, of course!!


So, I found a video on Youtube (I won't post it here... it's very boring unless you by chance need to figure out how to work a Korean washing machine) that a helpful girl posted about how to find settings for normal and such on a Korean washing machine. Ours was a little different, but we did find something that looked like unto settings similar to her "normal" settings. I don't know WHY, but it takes a lot longer for laundry to run in a Korean washing machine than I'm used to. This particular machine in our hotel room takes an hour and 36 minutes, to be exact. Apparently that's normal here.

Also, most people don't have dryers, so you need to air dry all your clothes. I'll need to get me a drying rack for my new apartment... luckily the hotel provides one for us here.
And THAT was our washing machine adventure on Sunday.

Monday was even more fun.

On Saturday, I set up a time to meet with So Young, a realtor recommended to us at the Chungdahm training center. We were to meet her at the Mokdong subway station, exit #2 at 11am on Monday. Great. So we left the hotel at 9:30am and got there with about 15 minutes to spare. While we waited, several others we met at training showed up to meet So Young as well. Ok... that works. The place we were waiting just happened to be outside of the building where we'll be working from now on.

At about 11:10, this guy came down with a Chungdahm name tag on and was asking for Jennifer. That's me. Ok, what? He starts telling me that I'm supposed to meet with Helen, the faculty manager right now. What? No, that's not until 4. His English wasn't too good so it was difficult to figure out what the heck he was getting at. So I go with him up to the office to meet with Helen and figure out what the heck is going on. We get up there and he talks on the phone in Korean for a few minutes and then gets off and tells me that I'm supposed to meet Helen at 2:30 about housing. What? No, I'm meeting with a realtor right now to go figure out housing. After a few minutes trying to figure out what he's trying to tell me, I ask if I can just speak to Helen.

I get her on the phone and she asks me what the heck I'm doing at the office at 11am? I'm thinking, "How in heck did you KNOW I was at the office at 11am?" I explain that we're meeting with So Young and she says, no, no, no. You're supposed to meet with the branch's realtor. Ok, well, why? She's explaining that I could go with So Young but her people know more blah blah blah. I tell her that everyone from training is downstairs waiting to meet with So Young and she was just quiet, trying to figure out what to do.

I was about to just say, forget it. I'm here and I'm meeting with So Young and I'll see you at 4 when everyone from downstairs comes up. One of the girls had called So Young because it was getting close to 11:30 and she hadn't shown up yet. So Young tells us that she won't be meeting with us because the branch has realtors.

...

Well, thanks. That would have been nice to know YESTERDAY before we spent over an hour trekking across Seoul to come see you at 11am.

I relate this all to Helen and she says to just stick around until 2:30 for a Reading workshop and then she'll talk with us at 4 about housing. Great.

So we walked around a bit and eventually found a place to buy Kimbop! I mentioned Kimbop the other day, right? Well, I got me one. Yum! This one had a bit more egg than the last one... but I picked nothing out!! Go me! :) Here's a picture for your viewing pleasure.


In the end, we were finally taken out with the realtors about 4:30. Come to find out, the cheapest places are right around the school. Yay! Unfortunately, there are only three apartments available around here and there are six of us looking for places. Greeeaaat. After that, we'd have to go to some other places that are up to a 25 minute subway commute and are more expensive. Kendra, Chris, and I grabbed the ones here. All in the same building and only about a ten minute walk from school. Sweet. Only problem was that only TWO were available to move into on Wednesday. The third will be available on September 1st. They wanted a Chungdahm teacher in it so much though that they offered to put that person up in a hotel until it's open. After a little squabbling, I agreed to be the one to take the hotel. With Chris translating (thank God he spoke some Korean! Our realtor did not speak English... good times), I got a week taken off the rent, a discount on top of that, and 360,000 won taken off my first month so that I can just pay for a hotel (I can go as cheap as I want... the realtor is going to help me find one tomorrow around the school that fits in that budget... not too hard). I'll save a few bucks but will have to move in next week. Oh well.

The apartment itself is TINY! A little hallway kitchen, tiny living room, and a loft for the bedroom area. Oh, and a bathroom. The shower is what I'm sure Mom will be freaking out about. Haha... man, I'm excited to see her reaction when I show pictures of it. :) It's enough for one person, though. Anyone else and it would get pretty tight.

I'll give an official tour once I actually move in. In the meantime, I'm going to get in touch with some teachers moving out in the area (particularly the one living in the one I'm going to be living in) and see if I can't get some furniture etc. to make it more livable once I move in. Should be fun.

Wow, feeling all grownup now. I got me an apartment and I'll even own my own FURNITURE.

It's the little things in life. :)