Home sweet home!

This blog will be about our apartment, The Sharp, which has been our home sweet home for the past seven months, and is much more homey than the dorm, where we lived for the past two years.  This apartment is in phase 2, the second of four groups of apartments.  If you look closely, our place is on the eighth floor, which is the floor above the light rose color band, and we are on the right in the jut out. 

I was trying to drive and take some pictures of the entrance.  This is a little convenience store that is in front of our building.  They sell everything, diapers, soju, fruit, snacks, pretty much whatever you need, they have.  The best part is that they don't price gouge; what you would pay at a regular store is what you pay here.  

This is our security guards, but in truth, information is a better name.  One day I was locked out of the building because my code didn't work and so they just buzzed me in, no ID check, no verification, just, sure, you look honest...

Our place does not have any key, just a code.  

It is like a quiz every day, what is the code?  I think I know...

When you come in, there is a mudroom with lots of shoe shelves.  Everyone takes their shoes off here, even repairmen.  It is nice, because the floors stay cleaner.  In Korea, western style furniture is becoming more common, but many homes stillhave low tables and pillows to sit on the floor.  Many people, including our students, sleep on pads on the floor, and so it makes sense to keep the floor as clean as possilbe.  

This is our living room, with couch, chairs, puzzle on the floor, and a view of the mountains around our school.  That big unit in the corner is the A/C.  Our place has floor heat in each room.  

This is a picture of our "oven", which does convection, toast, and microwave,  because it does so many things i am never sure if I am doing the right thing... Am I microwaving or convecting?  Is 20 minutes too much?  Who knows... It's all one big crap shoot any hoot... 

This is the inside of the oven.  The pans that I brought from the US barely fit, so it spins 1/4 of a spin and then reverses...  Unless I am using the Pizzaria Uno pan that came with it.  

Here is the washing machine/ dryer combo machine.  Actually, living here is like living IN Ikea, it is all so compact and neat.  

Here are the setting buttons for the dryer.  You can select from all of these buttons OR you can push the second from the bottom button on the right and get just what you need... Dry.

The inside of our fridge.   Not sure if this is photo worthy, but, you might be curious...

Our sink, no dishwasher, but above the sink is a handy...

dish dryer.  Which we have never used.  And don't know how to use.  I would rather have a dishwasher.  

Our bathroom with fancy toilet.  It is fancy because it has a special function(s), which are embarrasing to admit.  Like spray, blowdry, seatheat... You get the idea...

And the tub, with none of those functions.  It does have a built in headrest, though. 

This is a wall panel that shows all of the rooms in the house.  The little flames mean that the heat is on in those rooms. 

This is the light switch.  Which also controls the outlets, to prevent wasting vampireelectricity by keeping stuff running, even when it is off.

The view of the mountains. 

This is the roof of the little shop in front of our house.  In the summer it is a full blown garden, but now it is resting.

Chinese snickers.  

And lastly, the ingredients for our dinner tonight: pasta, pesto, french bread.  Ahhhh, home sweet home... 

Skate Link

I am trying something new, NEW, with this post.  I don't know if you have an iphone, or an ipad, or some other smart device, but man, those guys, (or really, one guy with an idea and lots of underpaid Chinese  kids) have created some pretty amazing devices.  Once you have a phone that is also a computer, and a camera, and a GPS, and also a phone, well, it is really hard to sit at a regular computer, and hook up a camera that is just a camera, and then wait... WAIT... For like, EVER, for the pictures to download, or whatever they do.  So this post, the first in a long time, is done completely on mobile smart devices, by a mobile, um... Well, me.  So we'll see how it goes, and go from there.  

So, let's go!  In Korean there is a letter that looks like a digital 2, picture it, and it makes the L/R sound. It is an almost french sounding, trilling sound, and it explains a lot about why asians sometimes are stereotyped as not being able to pronounce the "R" sound (as in "flied lice").  Well, that doesn't work out great for us... All of our first names have an L or an R sound.  Also, I have heard that in Korean language, the digital 2 letter makes the R sound at the beginning of a word, but the L sound in the middle of a word, so... GaLy, Riane, RiLy, BUT... Loan.  I guess the worst would be my dad, LoRand.  Maybe we don't have it so bad.  Anyway, the phonics lesson is just to explain the sign above.  

We went inline roller blading last weekend at an indoor rink about 10 minutes from our house.  

The place was not very busy, but about every half hour there were groups of about 10 kids that would come out for lessons.

  

Here is Pooks, getting suited up.  The price for three skaters, rentals, and helmets, unlimited from noon to five?  About 8 bucks.  

Whenever you hit a roller rink, it is like flashing back in time.  Hello, 80's!

One compliment I would like to give to Korea is that if they don't know how to do something, Koreans take lessons!   Kids of all ages (meaning adults, too) were mastering the fine art of rollerblading.  

Here are some students practicing the speed turn.

And us... Barely remaining upright...

Watch this!

Look out, here comes Galy!

Watch my speed!

I had to take a picture of this guys jeans!  Yes, those are zippers on his cheeks!  There was also a guy with a flock of seagulls sides shaved, top ponytail, hair-do but he kept giving me suspicious looks as I tried to take his picture.  

That's it for this post... What do you think of the smart version?