Having my own apartment in Gumi, South Korea is like playing house on a large scale by myself. The people here are very nice and helpful, even with a klutz like me.
I arrived Sunday with Kristina which was fortunate because we became friends during orientation. The bus ride was three hours long to the minute. Apparently, punctuality is extremely important. The bus was to leave Seoul at 10:05am. We said goodbye to Leo and Aaron and boarded around 10:00. I was surprised to feel the bus begin to move at 10:05 on the second. We arrived in the sweltering heat to Gumi, S. Korea.
Gumi is nothing like Seoul. It's smaller, cleaner and brighter. The streets are clean and there are hills surrounding the town. Oddly, the mix of underdevelopment and high tech is evident here as well. There are trash bags on the street everyday waiting to be picked up and a few stores and houses look shabby. However, behind my school there is a huge Samsung tv billboard. Printed billboards aren't good enough for Koreans. They have state of the art water purifiers instead of water fountains, but they don't use ovens. Their washing machines would make Rosie the Robot green with envy, however, they don't use dryers. Go figure. In all, Gumi is a lovely city. It's small and homey, but modernity is all around you.
My apartment is actually really nice. It's pretty big as far as Korean apartments go. And everyone who visits is jealous of my couch. My kitchen is tiny, but my room and living room are huge.
In the time I've been here, I have climbed enough stairs to reach heaven. As well as billboards, Koreans don't believe in elevators. For them the number 4 is bad luck, as in China and Japan, so there's no 4th floor. My apartment number is 501 but it's on the fourth floor. Kristina's apartment is on the third floor of her building. Giovanni and Aby's apartment is on the second floor of my building. In Napoleon's famous words...
Luckyyyy.
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
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