Gimme Shelter

Before getting back to the adventures of Chuseok (something I am not now undertaking as I have yet to figure out how to download the videos and photos from my phone), I guess I should catch up to the present. The last few days have been eventful, though in less of a "fun Chuseok" kind of way.

Once again we experienced the drawbacks of the language barrier which are more or less ever-present in all aspects of daily life here. I was made aware of a rather troublesome situation last Thursday, as the month of September ended and the process of finalizing a housing contract began. We had been living for the last month on a tentative "trial lease", where we could determine if we wanted to stay in our apartment or find another place. Whether it was in fact satisfaction with our digs or had just been too lazy or helpless in this Korean world to go out and find new lodging, we were now getting ready to commit to living in our place. Thus the night before I went in to pay the rent, we began unpacking our suitcases, which we had not yet done, being unsure up to that point if we would stay.

It came therefore as a bit of a shock when, upon discussing the term of the lease, it was mentioned quite casually that we would have thre months more to live, and then leave the apartment just in case the owner's friend came back to town around that time, needing a place to stay. I was shocked and indignant, wondering who the hell this mystery fellow was who was so important that the mere possibility of his return put us out on the street.

Well, it seems like this was always the plan, and that suspiciously curtious "trial lease" was given to us with the assumption that we had knowledge of the shorter lease term. We of course did not, and though the parties involved claim to have mentioned it to us, I do not doubt that it was simply not translated for us but rather incorrectly taken to be understood by all. Regardless, we were now in a bad situation, and rather than trying to find a 9 or 10 month lease later down the road, we felt it would be best to look for a place to move to by the end of the month... which was within 3 days.

Now, it's needless to say that finding housing in Korea is difficult, and I realized this, but I had no idea just how difficult it would be to actually both find and see a place. After finding a potential apartment for us, Alicia's co-teacher Soo took us out a neighborhood about 10 minutes from our current location. There we waited on a street corner until the man who owned the property showed up, an hour late. The space was larger, with actual multiple rooms, but it was unfurnished, and there was a bit of a mold problem- the wallpaper had fallen off from around one of the windows.

We spent the night debating, fretting, and generally in anguish about making this eleventh hour decision. We never really settled on one side, as each clearly had its advantages and drawbacks. It soon became irrelevant, however; calling Soo the next day to ask some questions about the property, we were informed that the place had in fact already rented out, an hour after we had seen it the day before. The family which had been living in the apartment before it had become available had moved out the day before we saw it. It was on the market for around 18 hours, and it wasn't even a great place. This supremely discouraged us in our house hunting endeavor.

We learned around this time that we may have put ourselves through an unnecessary ordeal, as the building owner changed his mind and allowed us a 12 month lease. So, here we will remain, it seems. We finally got rid of the nice, but not very functional, coffee table, as well as an oriental lamp, a dirty rug, and a large plant which has survived incredibly well despite being ignored for a month or two. So, less crap means more space, which hopefully means less stress. Alicia and I haven't killed each other yet, and it looks like we've made it through the roughest, most cluttered part of our time here.