Korean Job Discussion Forums

[nicam]

My water gets shut off temporarily from time to time, but never my electricity. Has anyone experienced routine shutting off of electricity, like they do with the water?

I was only running my computer and air conditioner when it cut out at 11 p.m. last night and wasn't back on when I left for work this morning, so it shouldn't be a fuse. My neighbors in the building next door had a light on, so I don't think it's a blackout. I pay bills through my co-teacher, so...

WTF? I can't get a straight answer from any of my teachers and my landlady is constantly unreachable. What should I do if it isn't back on?

[travelingfool]

[nicam]

I have no idea about the payment. My handler takes care of that for me and I can't trust her. She can't EVER remember to tell me anything, like when we have off so I don't treck all the way to a locked and empty school, she "forgets" every little thing I ask her to help me with, etc.

But I'd think that my landlady would at least warn her if she was going to shut the power off on me.

I literally just had to throw away all the food in my cabinets due to a roach infestation and now I will have to toss everything in the fridge and sleep at a friend's house waaaaay out of the way from school. If this is the case I'm calling in "sick" tomorrow. ARRGH.

[stuck]

Did you check the fuse box? You should have one in your apartment. Sometimes the electricity in my apartment trips out and I just need to flip a switch in the fuse box to have it working again. It doesn't come back on automatically.

[nicam]

i live upstairs in a traditonal house and if there's a fuse box it's either downstairs in my landlady's place or in the neighbor's across the hall. So lame. I looked out in the shared entranceway for one but didn't see anything.

[harlowethrombey]

[nicam]

Yeah, it's disgustingly infested. First I saw some big suckers, then 100s of babies. So foul. My landlady must just be a pig. I had this problem last summer, same exact thing (my school refused to pay for anything so i had to pay to exterminate myself) then I moved in with my boyfriend so I didn't care. Now he went home and I am back in the roach coach, and viola! They are everywhere.

I am going on a 3 week vacation home in early July (July 11th to August 3rd), then I am leaving at the end of August. It just seemed silly to move in this case, but I can't bare another day of this. Don't know what to do...

[nathanrutledge]

There should be a breaker box in your apartment, NOT outside of it. Sometimes they are hidden away. Mine happens to be behind a cabinet. Luckily, they cut a hole in the back of the cupboard to reach it...

Find out about your bill from your teacher. If you pay part of a shared bill, then you may not have a breaker box, but if that's the case, EVERYONE'S power would have gone out, unless of course it is just the breaker tripped.

1. IF you are paying ONLY for your apartment, you have a breaker box somewhere in the apartment. Find it.
2. IF you are paying into a shared bill, you may not have a local box, and you'll have to find out where in the building it is.

Did you check all of the outlets? Are the air conditioner and computer plugged into the same circuit? Just because two outlets are next to each other does not mean they are the same circuit!! So, check all the outlets, all the lights. If EVERYTHING is dead, it's probably more than a breaker.

[nicam]

EVERYTHING is dead. My air con and computer were plugged into seperate outlets on opposite sides of the room, and I checked every single socket in the place and nothing is working at all.

I'm almost 100% sure I'm paying seperately from the rest of the house as I've seen bills solely for my portion of the utilities, but I swear I looked everywhere for a breaker box and couldn't find one. It's a studio with a tiny seperate kitchen, so there aren't many places it can hide...

As I suspected I haven't heard back from my co-teacher and don't expect to any time soon. Oi vey.

[Chambertin]

Where are you?

I want to make sure to stay far far away from that area.
Sorry I have no advice, but my god thats a crappy living / working situation.

[nicam]

Ha Chambertin, Geoje. It sucks here. ^^^

I actually chose this apartment because it is nice looking and has character unlike those boxy, souless square studios. I liked the idea of living in a traditional house rather than one of those ubiquitous towers, and the place is adorable with 6 wooden bay windows and French provincial style wallpaper. It's also not shaped like a box and curves with the windows. It has an outdoor rooftop patio I only have to share with one couple. The bathroom is new and has a window. I guess it's just older and quirkier than most buildings and the landlady is a dirty bird who doesn't exterminate and utterly unreliable to boot. It's a shame, really. Wish I would have known...

Honestly, my handler is a flake and the old principal made me pay to exterminate, but my schools have been wonderful to me otherwise, so I don't want to totally freak just yet.

[Misera]

Something might be tripping the circuit breaker.. I had a problem with the gas box in February or March where it would cut off my electricity. It wasn't constant either.. the first time it happened, the floor heating had already been on for a while and everything just shut off. I couldn't get the switch to stick to on until I turned off the ondol controller. Next day it worked fine.. then the next it shut off when I tried the ondol again.. day after it shut off if I turned the faucet to anywhere past the middle even with the ondol controller off (then i found out there was no need to turn the ondol controller's water setting on at all to have hot water lol). But anyway, something in the gas box was broken and had to be changed. After it was fixed, everything was fine again.

[moosehead]

[the ireland]

[nicam]

Well, the power came back on last night. I was all packed up and ready to go on strike and to a friend's house, and BAM! No idea what the whole thing was about.

^^^ funny the ireland, I had been living in that same Duksan with my boyfriend up until last week when he returned to England. It is pretty nice, and we were in a 2 bedroom on the top floor overlooking the river. I was bummed when I had to return to my own apartment. There are very few foreigners who actually like it here. The ones who do tend to be older, and/or own cars. There are also A LOT of Christian foreigners who I assume like it here because they stay for a really long time, but they don't associate with the rest of us at all whatsoever. The foreigners here are really awesome. That, along with my boyfriend and his Duksan apartment, is what kept me from ditching this hick town long, long ago.

Moosehead, I don't take any crap. Not usually, anyway. I made a fuss about the roaches last season and threatened to leave, and they still did nothing, so I paid the $40 myself and sucked it up. Not because I'm a pushover, but because I really liked my boyfriend. Lame, I know. Honestly, if it wasn't for him I absolutely would have been OUT of here in the 6th month. No doubt!