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NYC_Gal
Joined: 08 Dec 2009
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 Posted: Sat Jun 26, 2010 4:04 pm Post subject: Building Management Woes |
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My move is finally finished. I had new wallpaper put in yesterday, and had only one thing that needed to be done: the shades.
When I was shown this apartment, there were vertical blinds, so I was flabbergasted when I arrived and there were bare windows, with a lovely view into the building next to mine. This was a big no no. A single girl can't have people looking into her windows. These windows are huge!
Hanging a sheet was out of the question, because as I've stated in a different thread, the place was FILTHY, and I had to have a cleaner come the next day.
My friend translated for me, and the building manager/estate guy said that he'd call my school amin to see if they could temporarily move the old icky shades from my old place (that the person before me had put in and left because they were icky) to my new one, until they could get me new curtains. He did, and it was agreed upon.
So a week passed, and I asked my coteacher when the new ones would be arriving because the old ones didn't close all the way. I'd never really opened them in my old apartment because they let a lot of light through, but I had wanted to give some of my new plants a few inches of light before I left for the day and the cord had snapped. I hadn't pulled hard, and now they wouldn't close.
She called the admin and the woman told her that they'd already purchased new curtains�for my OLD apartment. The building guy told her that she had to REPLACE them! What utter BS! My coteacher even called my friend, who confirmed what I'd said, and told her that the building administrator had lied to the school.
I tried to get the cord fixed, but it turns out that the make of shade I'd had was very old and they didn't make that sized cord anymore, so I had to drop 100k on new ones.
When I move, I'm giving them to the friend who did all of the translating. I'm not cheap; I'm spiteful.
I also ordered a new bed, because the one that my school got me last year is crap. These public schools are so cheap! Normal people use proper mattresses�not these box-spring-but-called-mattress mattresses. I'd have been happier with a nice quality yo than this travesty of a bed. I figure if I'm going to be here for just under another year, I may as well be comfy.
But my apartment's almost done! Just waiting on that bed  |
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pangaea
Joined: 20 Dec 2007
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| Posted: Sat Jun 26, 2010 9:06 pm Post subject: |
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| That whole situation is crappy but I feel your pain about the bed. I can run my hands over my "mattress" and feel springs. I'm not sleeping well and I wake up in the morning feeling bruised. I have to find something to sleep on. Right now a blanket on the floor sounds better than my bed! |
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Senior
Joined: 31 Jan 2010
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| Posted: Sat Jun 26, 2010 9:31 pm Post subject: |
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| I wouldn't give your problems to a monkey on a rock. |
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AsiaESLbound
Joined: 07 Jan 2010
Location: Truck Stop Missouri
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| Posted: Sat Jun 26, 2010 10:05 pm Post subject: |
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| Senior wrote: |
| I wouldn't give your problems to a monkey on a rock. |
Did your job offer a soft bed of roses or do you feel like a monkey on a rok surrounded by too many other funky monkeys allowing you too little elbow room, room to hang your laundry, and adequate room to be conveniently organized? Living space, walking space, quiet restful sleep, healthy food, and privacy are at a premium for many funky monkeys. Some teacher apartments are very nice and some are awful so one complaining on here doesn't make sense to another who is very comfortable and couldn't see it any other way.
I heard 5 million won is allocated to set up public school teacher apartments, but probably 3 to 4.5 million of that is used on deposit key money with 500,000 to 1,000,000 to furnish it. My apartment has been used as a foreign teacher apartment for only 2 years, but the furnishings are much older so they probably got the cheapest used stuff. The fridge is tiny and loud, the washer doesn't actually wash clothes, the bed is hard, table is wobbly, but irreparable, dogs bark, toddlers playing sound like barbells being dropped on your ceiling, babies cry, people scream often, lack of fresh air, sewer odor issues, and there are plumbing problems due to botched substandard plumber work leading to neighbors wash water becoming my mess. I do need to move, but I would have to shell out 3 to 5 months savings and sign a 1 year contract and pay all this just for 7 months. Not practical to rent your own if you are not on marriage visa and planning to move on in less than a year.
So you can either spend your savings or you can rough it if you school is being too cheap and inconsiderate about it all. Heck, I can rough it, but a low quality of life does wear on you like a funk you so look forward to putting behind. I can be thankful I don't have it nearly as hard as my neighbors have it. Not even half as hard. They are eeking out a modest existence while trying to start a family. Many of them have to get up at 3, 4, or 5am for work. I'm probably the very last one out the door each morning as my 7am wake up time is most quiet, but the wee AM hours are too noisy. It's not appropriate to put foreign teachers in the cheapest digs.
OP, hope your new place is better than your old place. |
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Senior
Joined: 31 Jan 2010
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| Posted: Sat Jun 26, 2010 10:15 pm Post subject: |
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| AsiaESL, your accommodation, and therefore your job, sucks. Why don't you quit and find a new one, instead of complaining all the time? Really, if you stay in a bad situation, it is your own fault. You remind me of a battered wife. |
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Nester Noodlemon
Joined: 16 Jan 2009
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| Posted: Sun Jun 27, 2010 1:31 am Post subject: Re: Building Management Woes |
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| NYC_Gal wrote: |
My move is finally finished. I had new wallpaper put in yesterday, and had only one thing that needed to be done: the shades.
When I was shown this apartment, there were vertical blinds, so I was flabbergasted when I arrived and there were bare windows, with a lovely view into the building next to mine. This was a big no no. A single girl can't have people looking into her windows. These windows are huge!
Hanging a sheet was out of the question, because as I've stated in a different thread, the place was FILTHY, and I had to have a cleaner come the next day.
My friend translated for me, and the building manager/estate guy said that he'd call my school amin to see if they could temporarily move the old icky shades from my old place (that the person before me had put in and left because they were icky) to my new one, until they could get me new curtains. He did, and it was agreed upon.
So a week passed, and I asked my coteacher when the new ones would be arriving because the old ones didn't close all the way. I'd never really opened them in my old apartment because they let a lot of light through, but I had wanted to give some of my new plants a few inches of light before I left for the day and the cord had snapped. I hadn't pulled hard, and now they wouldn't close.
She called the admin and the woman told her that they'd already purchased new curtains�for my OLD apartment. The building guy told her that she had to REPLACE them! What utter BS! My coteacher even called my friend, who confirmed what I'd said, and told her that the building administrator had lied to the school.
I tried to get the cord fixed, but it turns out that the make of shade I'd had was very old and they didn't make that sized cord anymore, so I had to drop 100k on new ones.
When I move, I'm giving them to the friend who did all of the translating. I'm not cheap; I'm spiteful.
I also ordered a new bed, because the one that my school got me last year is crap. These public schools are so cheap! Normal people use proper mattresses�not these box-spring-but-called-mattress mattresses. I'd have been happier with a nice quality yo than this travesty of a bed. I figure if I'm going to be here for just under another year, I may as well be comfy.
But my apartment's almost done! Just waiting on that bed |
I thought you had a rich boyfriend who could take care of all of the problems of the little princess. |
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AsiaESLbound
Joined: 07 Jan 2010
Location: Truck Stop Missouri
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| Posted: Sun Jun 27, 2010 4:59 am Post subject: |
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| Senior wrote: |
| AsiaESL, your accommodation, and therefore your job, sucks. Why don't you quit and find a new one, instead of complaining all the time? Really, if you stay in a bad situation, it is your own fault. You remind me of a battered wife. |
You are right it's my choice to endure it. Quitting a job is easier said than done due to the visa facts you should already know about. I can't just quit or leave a public school job and expect to turn around to get a new visa approved. As mom always said, you have to endure doing things you don't want to do when it comes to jobs unless you have the money to just change it all to your likings. With that said, I'm quite very sure, I wouldn't get a letter of release and putting in a resignation would only make my life hell until I left. And then I'd be blacklisted from public school jobs and possibly through immigration. If I were going to quit, I'd do it to leave Korea for another job. In this market, if you have a job, you'd better keep it a while or finish what you started. Especially so if you aren't loaded at the bank and you have a job that pays you. This isn't the first time in life I've had to endure conditions I'd rather not. It's just getting old not being able to have a fairly decent place to live. It's too bad many people in upper positions are overly stingy and selfish anywhere you go for work. |
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NYC_Gal
Joined: 08 Dec 2009
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| Posted: Sun Jun 27, 2010 6:42 am Post subject: Re: Building Management Woes |
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| Nester Noodlemon wrote: |
| I thought you had a rich boyfriend who could take care of all of the problems of the little princess. |
Ah but that doesn't mean that I depend on him. I'm not broke, just annoyed. I've already ordered the new bed and have new shades. It's just nasty that the management ripped off my school. |
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NYC_Gal
Joined: 08 Dec 2009
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| Posted: Sun Jun 27, 2010 6:49 am Post subject: |
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Actually, my apartment is exactly the same as my old one, so I didn't have to figure out where to put my stuff, which made it much easier to unpack
Everything worked out, though I had to buy a few new things. I figure the bed'll be a present for the next teacher, and is a passive aggressive insult to the school. They probably won't realize that I'm saying that I have higher standards, and will think that they lucked out, but I still get to insult their provisions and for a few hundred get a decent new bed with a memory foam topper. The shades go to my friend who translated, though, when I leave 
My apartment had a 5 million won key money deposit, and it's really nice, now that it's been rewallpapered and scrubbed. The space is nice and it gets a lot of light. I just got peeved that the management scammed me/the school. My friend translated so was witness to what he told us, which was different from what he told my school over the phone later.
It's only a few hundred dollars. It's more the principle of the thing. I'm an adult, so I handled it. Then I vented on Dave's. |
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