Changes

Bulamsam in Her Fall Colors

Whoa! Stepping outside this morning I was greeted by a blast of cold air, the likes of which I had almost managed to forget about living in Louisiana for the past four years!

While this past weekend I played a soccer game in shorts and short sleeves, today I piled on a hooded sweat shirt and fleece over a long sleeve shirt before making the short trek to the post office down the street. Unless global warming brings a welcome heat wave through the area it seems like winter has arrived at last, in fact, the first snow fall is predicted for tomorrow. I'm keeping my fingers crossed! I figure as long as it's cold out, we might as well have snow. . .especially when I live a mere two minute walk from work!

To further demonstrate just how quickly the cold set in take a look at the picture below that I took out my window just yesterday. Waking up this morning I was surprised to see not single leaf remaining on what was, only yesterday, a brilliantly beautiful yellow tree! Alas, at least the devastation was being thoroughly enjoyed as I noticed a small boy kicking her fallen leaves into a small pile at the bottom of a slide to provide an all natural landing pad!

Wait, 'how is it,' you might ask, 'that you are able to see out your windows? Aren't they covered in hideous blue contact paper?' Well not anymore! I took a couple hours this past weekend to remove this eyesore from the bottom row of windows in my room which not only brightened the place but opened up a much larger and picturesque view than the one I had peeking out my thin sliding side windows!

While the majority of windows in Junggye, if not in Seoul, look out only to another high rise building with a not-so-distant neighbor staring back, I am lucky to have a bit more to look at. Luckily, out my window is a long boulevard that runs between two apartment buildings, neither of which obscures my distant view of a beautiful mountain with real live sky above it!

Now you must surely be asking yourself, 'well, if the view's so great, why didn't you ever get around to taking off the blue crap earlier?' Well if you'll remember, I used to sleep directly under these large picture windows and, as ugly as the contact paper was, it allowed me to sleep in a bit past sunrise each morning without being blinded in bed!

'Well why don't you sleep there anymore? You move in to the bathroom or something?' No silly, I finally moved my bed, with Nate's help (thanks), up to my loft, or 'bedroom.' While I was apprehensive about the move at first, I have grown quite accustomed to it already for a number of reasons.

First of all, now that winter has set in, my room is far from cozy at all times. However, as we all know, or at least were once aware of, heat rises, thus making my loft a much warmer place then my window side sleep station. Additionally, in my new bedroom I have two gentile incandescent lights next to my bed that are manipulable from both up- and down-stairs! This is good news for my reading in bed at night habit that had dwindled under a high florescent light that required leaving bed to turn off!

The low, low, ceiling on the loft isn't great but really why do you need to stand up in your bedroom anyways? I have more than enough head room to sit on my bed at least. . .so long as I don't bounce! I've whacked my dome against the bottom of the neighbors floor a couple of times already but I'm sure I'll grow out of it. . .hopefully! The only other issue is the steep and narrow staircase that I must tackle going to and fro my new bedroom! Luckily, I am not one that usually wakes up to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night as I don't trust myself handling the stairs in the daytime, let alone while I'm sleepy in the dark!

'Okay, okay, so you moved, big deal, now you have a big open room downstairs that's just as depressing as it was before except now you don't even have a bed to lie on.' Ah ha, now this is where you are wrong you Negative Nancy you! All these minor changes in my living arrangements were not coincidental but part of a well calculated grand scheme known as. . .getting a couch! Though I had thought about it since moving in, only last week did I actually take the big step and buy one for myself! Not sure why it took this long, might be commitment issues. . .I have had very tragic partings with every couch that I have ever bought or had given to me at this point!

Anyways, after continued inquiry as to how and where I go about getting one, I was consistently directed to a fantastic internet shopping haven known, electronically, as Gmarket.co.kr. From here I was able to select for myself a wonderful little seating apparatus that Cleo graciously ordered for me using her Gmarket account. I even gave her a small commission for helping me with the order! The delivery man was also happy to accept cash as he arrived only three days later at my door ready to drop off, set up and haul out the trash from my new, beautiful, couch!

I have wasted no time breaking it in and have already watched a couple partial movies on it while examining the prime location. Furthermore, I have tested it's sleepability by conking out for a pair of half hour naps on both Monday and Tuesday before heading off to school. Never have I felt so refreshed! I've yet to fold it out flat and really take it for a whirl but, why would I when I have a fantastic single bed upstairs that I always manage to partially roll out of! Oh yeah. . .maybe I will try sleeping on the new furniture some night!

Alas, my room is finally 'coming together' and is almost acceptable for actual living. I still need some sort of coffee table to kick my feet up on, eat off of (if I ever were to cook for myself, and prop up guitar books so I stop straining my neck looking at the floor. Who knows, I'll keep my eye out, worst comes to worse there's always Gmarket!

Oh yeah, I also managed to snag a little additional piece of furniture for my room from the hallway. 'Oh great, so now you're in to stealing other peoples' things, fantastic, just the way to show the world how gracious American's are.' Ugh, no, will you let me finish! A few weeks ago a family down the hall moved out, at first all their stuff was moved in to the hallway where it stayed for a day or two before the magic moving fairy came and collected it all. Since that day there have remained three articles of the move that seem to be either forgotten or discarded: a long plate of glass, a wooden board of equal size, and a small cabinet.

Clearly, I have been eyeing the cabinet ever since moving day and have not yet noticed it recognized by anyone else. After discussing the mater, briefly, with Nate yesterday, I decided to try out Korean squatter's rights. On my way back home I dragged my finger over the top of the cabinet simply inspecting it's finish. What I was greeted with was a handful of dust and grime! That sealed the deal for me! If no one cared enough to clean up the poor little cabinet then I would! I hauled it down the hall and in to my apartment, where, two blackened washcloths later, I shoved it under my existing flat plank desk! Though in doing so I lose the nice surface area on top of the cabinet, it's really pretty convenient to have a set of drawers next to my desk where I previously had nothing!

So, I will continue to fuss around rearranging until I'm comfortable, which, may never come. For example, I rearranged my room in New Orleans, what, a week or so before I check out for good?! Sometimes I just feel like shaking things up a bit! Not sure if there are any issues involved in that but I'd guess you could deduce something. . .anything to add Aunt Toni!?

Oh, and before I forget, as while we're on the topic of changes, I just thought it would be interesting to note that for the Level 3 Speaking lesson last week, the kids had to read a passage and answer questions about Tupac Shakur. Having an interest in the topic at hand, I managed to expand the passage into a brief lecture about the development of hip-hop and Tupac's role as an American icon. This of course I supplemented with relevant material. . .notably, a recording of the highly acclaimed Tupac song "Changes," which discusses a wide range of social, political, racial and economical issues. The kids didn't exactly get it, and no one really liked the song. . .but I sure had a fun time teaching it to them!

-It's time for us as a people to start makin' some changes.
Let's change the way we eat, let's change the way we live,
and let's change the way we treat each other.
You see the old way wasn't working
so it's on us to do what we gotta do, to survive.
And still I see no changes
Can't a brother get a little peace?
It's war on the streets & the war in the Middle East.
Instead of war on poverty they got a war on drugs so the police can bother me-

Tupac Shakur-"Changes"

Monday Monday!

Well Friday brought bad news followed by good news, and then more good news!

The day began ominously as Nate and I were playing Tekken in a back alley, yes we found a new machine where we live! While in the midst of a 5-0 streak on my part, the machine suddenly shut off at the sound of a large 'POP!' Looking down we noticed a puff of smoke rising up from what looked to be the wire powering the game, dangling in a wet gutter below. . .uh oh!

We stood up for fear of further explosions, both by the game and the shop owner, who we had to specifically request turn on the machines for us. . .which was of course met by laughter as we are both twice the size of this silly game! Peaking into the store that the games are adjacent to, we realized that the game must have blown a whole circuit as the inside of the once lit store was now dark! Oops. . .looks like my play was a bit too much for the game to handle! The sky had been growing darker and darker was we played so we took off to get ready for school and haven't been back since. . .it would be tragic if Tekken was out of commission permanently. . .tragic.

On top of the ominous beginning to the day, when I arrived at school Joseph informed me that the move I had believed would happen Friday would have to be postponed for another day. From what I was told, the previous resident had moved out and left the place in a disgusting mess! No worries, I assured Joseph that I could wait another day, so long as it meant moving into a clean place!

Friday classes were actually a breeze, in part because I wore jeans, which are ten times as comfortable as any pair of slacks, and in part due to the small class size. Remembering more kids in my last Friday's classes, I inquired as to where the present students' classmates were. They informed me that there was a school camping trip. . .well. . .leader trip. . . .or training trip. . .or something that I was reassured was 'not fun' after I commented on how exciting it would be to go camping with school. 'More like army. Boot camp,' they tole me, 'Not good!' Ohhhh okay. . .well maybe it's not that exciting. . .but hey, at least they don't have to come to Hogwan (meaning after school English academy)!!!

While in the midst of teaching my final class for the day, Anna Teacher relayed the information to me that Joseph was moving my things. I was a little confused at first as I thought she meant my school bag and books which are normally left in the Native room. Retiring to our little home away from home at the end of the class however I noticed that nothing of mine had been touched.

I went to the front office to ask Joseph what was up and he informed me that he had just moved my bed for me into my new place! Whoa, thanks a lot!! Joseph said that the workers had finished the cleaning and managed to put up new wallpaper too, oh how they pamper me! Nate and I waited around until 11pm for Joseph to finish up work. He then walked us up to Nate's place to grab my bags that I had packed before leaving for school.

We loaded up everything I had and headed downstairs Dootavill B, out the door, through a breezeway and up the elevator in Dootavill A to the fourth floor. In case your wondering, I'm currently in room A-412; take a right off the elevator and I should be the second door on your right! Feel free to stop in anytime!

Opening the door into my new 'permanent' residence I was a bit taken back at first. The new wallpaper that was put up has a crazy dark spackle pattern that reminds me of. . .well I'm not quite sure what. . .but not a home's interior! Furthermore, this wallpaper is literally everywhere except for the bathroom; floor to ceiling and even across the ceiling. . .to give it a really 'complete' feel, ha!

My Entrance and Kitchen

I am on the opposite side of the building from Nate's room so whereas he faces the street with flashing lights and crazy motorcycles, I have a slightly more peaceful view of a parkway between two other residential buildings. . .Parkview as Nate described it!

Closet and the Stairs to my Mezzanine

My Bed!

The Mezzanine (Where my bed should be, traditionally)

The only problem with this view is that I cannot see it! The windows in my apartment are fully covered in a bright blue contact paper, clearly put up by the previous resident to block the light. . .while it sounds nice in concept. . . when your 'curtains' are literally glued to the window, there's not much variation in what you see throughout the course of the day! I can open the small side windows to peak out but by no means do they offer a nice view.

The Blue Room

I will admit, the blue is rather nice in the morning as the room just turns an interesting shade of blue rather than being scorching hot from a direct sunlight hit. I just wish that I had the option of removing the shade once I was up and moving about!

Perhaps someday soon I will rip it off and try to put up some sort of less static shading. A few issues with doing so. . .1) The blue paper has a disgusting adhesive that absolutely refuses to come off with the paper itself 2) to fully remove it will take at least a weekend's worth of razor blade working, which I'm not sure if I'm willing to dedicate just yet 3) we spent hours yesterday at Lotte (Wal-) Mart and did not see anything in the way of drapes/curtains/blinds 4) they did have a fantastic array of brightly colored contact paper to cover your windows 5) some even have fancy patterns!

Desk and Television Courtesy of DYB!

After moving my stuff in Friday night there was no point to try and unpack anything as I had no hangers, nor energy, to put away my clothes with! So instead we retired to Joseph's apartment to celebrate moving in! Oops. . . I wonder how long it will take me to realize that committing to a weekend night with a Seoulite is committing until at least sunrise the next morning!

I finally made it out of Josephs apartment (in building B) around 7:00am to get some sleep. The sleep was short lived however as Joseph showed up at 11:00am, as promised. With him he brought two delivery men, a washing machine, counter top two-burner gas stove, and a refrigerator! I pretended to be awake while they installed everything and quickly fell back into bed the moment they left. . .which could not have been more than 20 min after they first arrived!

My Bathroom, Shower, and Washing Machine (bottom right corner)

The swiftness with which things are accomplished here is fascinating. Perhaps the best example is the large grocery store that opened up in the basement of Lotte Department store within a week of us arriving. Only slightly less impressive is the small shop downstairs Dootavill that was gutted entirely when we arrived on Tuesday yet up and running as a beauty products store by Saturday morning. . .of course they still had a worker installing light fixtures but the shop was open and running for sure!

Joseph hasn't yet taken the time to help explain the washing machines to us so we're entering Week 3 without having done laundry. . .This isn't a huge problem in terms of outerwear but. . .well. . .you know the rest!