Our Korean Apartments

Hello family and friends! Sorry it has taken so long to write another post but we have been busy settling in, meeting the other foreigners in the area (at least some of them - apparently Gwangju has a foreign population close to 20,000), and of course starting to teach. We promise to get a post up soon with more information about our first couple of weeks but for now here is a quick photo tour of Olivia's apartment.

Here is the entrance to the apartment. This is a small area where shoes must be removed before entering the living space. There is also a shoe closet here where visitors can place their shoes... or foreigners like us can store all of their extra belongings. 

Directly to the left of the entrance way is the bathroom. Unlike a traditional western bathroom, in Korea the shower and bathroom are one and the same. The shower head is attached to the faucet and the water flow is switched between the two with a small knob - as a result it is quite important to remember to switch the water back after a shower to avoid drenching yourself later when going to use the sink. 

Here is the living space, a single room with a bed, desk, and wardrobe. Some of the teachers at our school have larger apartments with a living room and a bedroom, but we were placed in the smaller/newer apartments. As a side note, all of the foreign teachers live within the same 3 buildings which are all within a 5-7 minute walk of school at the most. 

Again here is the bed, with bedding provided by the school, with the exception of western style sheets which we had to bring from home as they are not traditionally used in Korea. On the wall you can see the air conditioner (thank goodness we have ac with all of this heat/humidity we have been having recently) as well as a phone and a control panel for hot water and floor heating. The doors use keypads instead of keys (so convenient!) and have doorbells with intercom systems which are answered with this phone. 

The desk and TV, apparently with English movies and channels that we haven't explored yet.

Lastly, through the frosted doors you will find the kitchen and laundry area. 

It is rare to find a dryer in Korean apartments, so we have multiple drying racks instead. The pinkish/purple container in the bottom left is a rice cooker, another staple of Korean apartments.

Michelle's apartment looks almost exactly the same as we live in the same building only a floor apart. We hope to post soon with more details about school and our city when we have the time!