Korean Job Discussion Forums

thinker · Joined: 10 Feb 2003

This is a follow up to my other post. . .how is your CURRENT housing here in Korea, OR WHERE EVER YOU ARE Question

I HAD MY SHARE OF PROBLEMS FROM NO HOT WATER PRESSURE IN THE BEGINNING TO A LEAK IN THE ROOF AT THE END!
JUST CURIOUS ABOUT OTHERS HOUSING WOW'S AND WOE'S

thinker · Joined: 10 Feb 2003

SORRY FOR THE MULTIPLE POSTS, GUESS THE MODS CAN DELETE THE OTHER 2?

Bulsajo · Joined: 16 Jan 2003

Had an amazing apt. for my last 3&1/2 years in Korea- while it was still small (12 or 13 pyong), it was very clean and had ALL the amenities you could ask for:
Double bed with linens/bedding/pillows
Kitchen table and chairs (some apts. had a sofa, I went out and bought a cheap one)
Bathtub/shower, towels (had to go out and buy a shower bar and shower curtain)
Desk, chair, bookshelf
TV with cable, VCR, Portable Stereo, Alarm clock, wall clocks, desk lamp
Washing machine with clothes rack on the balcony
Microwave, toaster, rice cooker (No oven, brought a toaster-oven over with me because the Korean ones are crappy and overpriced)
plenty of Pots, dishes, cutlery (they even put fresh milk, juice, yogurt, bread, and fruit into the fridge when I first arrived)
humidifier, floor fan, A/C
wired for both 110 and 220 voltages
No room mates (well except for the better half) and it had about as good a view as you could hope to get in Seoul (it overlooked a riverside and on clear days I could see across Seoul to bukhansan, and had a great view anytime they shot off fireworks over the Han, at the Olympic stadium, or after some ball games at Chamsil stadium)

It pretty much made up for living in a cockroach (Edit: roach) infested, zero water pressure, drafty, dirty, unfurnished dump in a scummy part of Inchon for my first year.

BTM · Joined: 20 Jan 2003 Location: Back in the saddle.

32 pyung for my wife and I, new apartment building, 18th floor, very nice indeed.

Moving soon (the admin is starting to get pennypinching), but I got to choose the place, so it's OK (if the paperwork goes through). Little smaller (26 pyung, I think), in a brand-new villa, but beside a grape orchard, which will be pleasant in the summer.

princess · Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Location: soul of Asia

Why have I heard some foreigners say they feel LUCKY to live in a one room oficetel with no bathtub. The showers in Korea are not real showers either unless that is what you call a spray hose thingy. I think most Koreans don't have a clue about comfortable living. All the women in my family are so lucky because they married good providers,and they have never had to live in a shoebox dwelling that is the norm in Korea. Thanks to my good old psychology degree,this is how I get to live until I find a rich man.

Zandie · Joined: 14 Jan 2003 Location: Korea

I am happy for the women in your family. How happy they must be.

Good luck in finding a rich husband.

Sorry about the lack of bathtubs in Korea. However on behalf of the maligned bathrooms of Korea here are two points:
1. They are easy to clean.
2. A bath is not a good way to get clean - you are wallowing in your own dirt/dead skin/soap scum etc.

princess · Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Location: soul of Asia

But,a princess loves her body and loves to stew in her own filth. ESpecially after a long hard day of dealing with screaming brats with rich parents. They make me sick.

Homer · Guest

Princess...you need to return to la la land....you seem to be close to the edge here...near a blow out... Exclamation

Move to Monaco, flaunt yourself around and land some rich guy to provide for your every princessly needs.
Better yet, steal one of your sister's rich husband and his large house and bathroom.
Then again, you could become the kept misstress of some billionaire geezer.
There are many options for gold diggers out there, why limit yourself to living in a "shoebox" in a country that stresses you out and with students (you call them brats) that make you sick? Thats just self-inflicted pain Exclamation

As for the Bath comment Zandie...spoken like a true germ freak... Wink

Baths have been around for quite a while (try to Greeks and Romans) and are considered a decent way to clean yourself and to relax. Of course, if you stay in the tub until the water becomes cold then you will be "wallowing" in your own filth..ect...
Another alternative is to take a quick shower before your bath to "rinse" off and then jump in the tub.
Or better yet, hit the public baths, they are wonderful and rejuvinating.
Of course the shower-bath debate is a personnal choice and far be it from me to dispute your preferences... Cool

As for our appartment, its a nice, large place on the 12th floor of a new appartment building in Busan. The place is over 36 pyong (I think) and has all the appliances & comforts you could want. We do pay a little more (small deduction off my pay) but its well worthed. Of course we lucked out with my boss and he is treating me and my wife almost like family!
Other teachers at my school all get large, non-shared appartments.

Zandie · Joined: 14 Jan 2003 Location: Korea

Haha!!!!!!!

It's strange how people perceive each other when all they have to go on are a few hastily typed words. I admit that mostly anything the princess writes makes me cackle insanely like the witch I am. I'm glad people like her post though; it's what makes this forum so entertaining at times.

Germ freak??!!!???? I have never been called that before. Ta, ducks.

Actually, I love baths and yes I know of their long history. My father is English, so baths are part of my cultural inheritance. (Although I'm not a germ freak, I don't go in for the traditional English once-a-week bath occurrance - and when I say that, it means total cleaning absolutions for the week! My mum cured him of that one pretty fast). I'm lying in that last bit by the way. Luckily my Dad doesn't use the internet so I won't be disinherited - from the grand old stately home in Hammersmith.

However, I don't have a bath to get clean - it's to relax. (That's because I'm one of those people that sit there for 2 hours reading a book). To quote myself: "wallowing in (my) own dirt/dead skin/soapscum etc."

IconsFanatic · Joined: 19 Jan 2003

Tallgirl · Joined: 25 Jan 2003

Can anyone tell me how many square feet there are in one pyung?

Homer · Guest

sorry Zandie...didn't mean to insult you..the germ freak comment was most definitively out of place...that one got away from me!
You have my apologies Zandie.
And its cool you use baths to relax...some use them to clean and relax....
Geeez...2 hours....you must look like a prune by then!... Wink

thinker · Joined: 10 Feb 2003

I believe a pyong equals 1.75 sq meters, sorry don't know the conversion to feet sq.

as far as baths go they're alright once in a while especially if you're into any sports ie snowboarding where you can really hurt yourself, a nice hot bath is good to sooth sore muscles> > >

as for Korean shower rooms, i found that was the easiest thing to get used to, at first i thought of getting a shower curtain, but then got in the routine of the shower shoes> > >it's great, if you suddenly need to use the toilet, there it is reight at you feet! Laughing

Derrek · Joined: 15 Jan 2003

saw6436 · Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Location: Daejeon, ROK

1 pyung = 3.3 square meters or 37 square feet.