My Week in a Love Hotel

Last you heard, I was moving out of one hotel and into another where I would be staying until Wednesday when I would then move into my new apartment. Well, it’s definitely been an adventure. A lot has happened and I think I’m going to separate it into several posts rather than one big HUGE post.

The hotel I stayed in was an adventure in and of itself. I told you last week that the realtor didn’t speak English. Well, the same guy (Mr. Han, by name. Turns out he’s not actually the realtor… just some guy from the office that does legal work such as getting us our Alien Registration Cards. NO idea why he was the one acting as our realtor.) met me at the branch office on Wednesday to get me into a hotel. He found another staff member to translate for him. Her English was about as good as my Spanish. Not too shabby, but a lot of writing, repetition and pantomiming to cover what she couldn’t get across with vocabulary. I was rather confused by what she was trying to explain. This is finally what I got: I had to wait until 6pm to check in. Then I had to check out the next day by noon, but I could leave my bags at the front desk until 6pm when I could check back in. Also, hey! Only 40,000 won a night.

Dear Lord. They’re putting me up in a love hotel.

For those of you who don’t know what a love hotel is, well, I should think that the hours kept and the name “love hotel” would tip you off. Basically, a place for couples to meet discreetly. (Mom, think our last “trip” to Reno… that kind of place. Though a little nicer.) Complete with a free channel that I quickly learned to skip. Oh, and calling cards in the desk drawer. Careful with that.

On the bright side, it’s clean (I did a pen check on the sheets to see if they change them everyday… they do), has a water purifier machine in the room so I haven’t had to buy bottled water this week, good air conditioning, and has a tv with cable! I’ve spent much of my time watching NCIS reruns and random movies. Skip channel 90 though… awkward.

Yes, it’s safe. Doors double lock. The hotel is off a busy street so no skulky alleys to go through.

That being said, I’ve saved 100,000 won staying at the hotel and am going to be using said money to purchase all the furniture and other “stuff” from the guy currently living in my apartment. Sweet! No moving of furniture for him and no searching and buying of furniture for me! I’ll move in and I’ll have a bed (mattress), futon, coffee table, dresser, full size mirror, kitchen supplies, drying rack, and whatever else he decides to leave. I told him that I’d take care of whatever I want. For all that furniture and stuff at 100,000 won, I’ll figure out how to get rid of stuff I don’t want. That’s about $80. Nice, eh?

So, I’m really excited about the new apartment. I like the layout, which is a little different than Kendra’s; a little bigger, too. The only problem is that my mattress will be queen sized when all of the sheets I brought with me are full size. Well, crap. Now I have a bunch of full sized sheets with nothing to do with them. AND I have no queen sheets. Snap. I’ll have to figure that out by Wednesday.

Stay tuned for tales of my first time at a REAL Korean barbeque, my first work party, and a really fun church activity.