The Digs

I am not going to say the place is flawless, but I am definitely more impressed than I am disgusted with my new flat. First off, it is larger than my apartment in Montreal was, which is nice, and is in a fairly well-maintained new building. I’m on the top floor of a 3-story walk-up and am acutely aware that it was previously inhabited by another Canadian English teacher. In addition to the Canadian flag on the wall, there is an abundance of girly paraphernalia like lavender sheets, hand creams and body washes, and flowery and/or pink trinkets (such as pens, a telephone, etc.) scattered about. I really don’t mind these adornments and am taking the ‘it’s really funny to live in a place like this for a year’ stance on it.


In addition to a fully-functioning gas stove I was pleasantly surprised to note that there is actually a double bed for me to sleep on. It offers much better back support than any other mattress I have ever owned. This being a country of small-ish people and my apartment being free (to me) temporary accommodations, I had feared that my 200-lb, wide-shouldered frame would be forced to squeeze into a single mattress all year. Luckily, however, this uncomfortable nightmare seems to have been avoided.

There is a low Asian-style dinner table at which I can eat my few home-cooked meals, and sitting on the floor for said time is a pleasant experience indeed considering my place is equipped with ondol, or underfloor coil heating. This logical ground-up heating system warms the toesies in the chilly morning and will also undoubtedly act as an adequate substitute for a bed when I fail to make it there some intoxicated evening over the next few months.


Like nearly everything here, I am struck by the hilarious novelty of a lot of the furnishings in my place. As you can see, the pillow with which I was provided was either robbed from some Korean child’s cradle, is a cultural oddity I don’t get, or is otherwise simply a hilarious joke. I’m going with the latter. In addition to a flimsy paper mase on a chain that I won’t even bother asking about, the former tenant also left me some really great practical objects like a coat rack, hand towels, and speakers for my computer.

The view is also pretty decent. I am kind of close to a major road, which isn't great, but I do have a first-hand view of some nice clean basketball courts upon which some youts are always playing. It is right beneath a space-age looking building which I have assessed to be some sort of community centre or gym. There are low rolling mountains in the near distance which can be seen on clearer days from one window, and from the other I look out onto a row of new, pastel-coloured funky apartment high-rises. Each and every one of these I have seen from Seoul to Suji seems to bear an individual serial number branded in giant font across its exterior in case you happen to forget where you live.

One thing I am less keen on is my former tennant's choice of wallpaper. It looks as though she ripped apart one or two Korean-language manga books and taped them to the walls. At best, the walls could be classified as ‘busy’ when you first see them, and at worst they can sometimes be downright terrifying. My friends who have been here for a few months now and saw the place before my previous tenant put these posters up, however, claim that the walls are actually really disgusting in my apartment, so perhaps I am better off. Again, this oddity is totally liveable, but if I were spending any more time in my place than I plan to (read: little), I would likely undertake a redecoration of sorts.

Can't get to sleep? I wonder why.

If the manga was weird but doable, there are also objective downsides to the place. First of all, it smells distinctly like sewage. The smell emanates from all the drains (kitchen sink, bathroom sink, and bathroom drain) and can be diminished but never quite eliminated by keeping stoppers over these things when not in use. Each time I return to my place from work or errands my olfactory system gets an uppercut of gross, but luckily my nose adjusts shortly after returning and I don’t notice the reek. This will likely be much more of a problem when I want to start entertaining any sort of guest. I plan on doing a complete scrub-down of the place soon to see if that helps, but otherwise it looks like I may have feces-smelling accommodations for the next 12 months. C’est la vie.

Speaking of feces, another major drawback to my place is the bathroom. It is tiny but functional, but my main gripe is the shower. This is one of those “hose coming out of the sink so that you hold it in one hand while washing your body with the other” dealys so often seen in European flats. Come to think of it, it seems to be the non-North American international standard. While it’s still entirely functional, to be honest, I just don’t see the logic behind not having it affixed to the ceiling so you at least have a hand-free option, but perhaps this is my decadent, soon-to-hubristically-destroy-myself Western decadence coming through here. I was able to rig up a simplistic solution to this problem with some plastic dollar store hooks, elastic bands, and silicone sealant (dad would be proud). A problem I am yet to overcome, however, is the hot water issue. The thermostat is entirely in Korean, and even though I received a rough translation guide of it from the high-strung but kindly go-to guy at my school named ‘Scotty,’ I am still in the dark on how to ensure my showers aren’t hair-pullingly frustrating. The hot water starts out well enough, but soon after has a predictable pattern of turning scalding hot for a few seconds before the temperature drops off drastically and I am stuck washing myself in barely-hot-enough-but-not-entirely-unheated cool water. At first I thought I was just using too much hot water and expending the small tank (the decadent Western in me coming out again). But then I realised that this happens after only about 40 seconds of use, which is a small amount of hot water by any standard. Also, you can start the whole 40-second process again if you turn off the tap for about 30 seconds and try again. I think the problem might lie partially in the fact that the ondol uses the same water tank as the shower and there’s a fluctuating sharing system going on in the piping, but I am also thinking the thing might just be busted. Any suggestions? Again, this problem is liveable but not optimal by any stretch.

Comprehensively I’m entirely content with my place. The smell and water thing are kind of annoying, but I am definitely not complaining. If there is one thing I seem to have lucked out on with my apartment is the fact that I can actually stand up fully erect in my shower. Most of my friends who live in similar places have to duck throughout the duration of their bathing times since their bathroom ceilings are only about 5”10’ at the highest point. All things considered, I think I fared pretty well in the housing lottery. The other plastic lotto balls are still floating around in their respective giant plastic tanks of my experience here, but the winning numbers will likely be called later this month. Don’t touch that dial...