(name that movie quote and I'll be impressed)
I seem to be fighting the trash war in my kitchen and am finally seeing some progress. Tonight for about an hour I was tearing apart the collection of cardboard boxes that had accumulated from moving in. Normally, in America, I would have just flattened them (maybe) and put them out on the curb as is. Or dropped them off in the dumpster was in the apartment complex down the street from our house. But now, I’m a slave to regulations like I never have been before. I did get the pile completely ripped and cut up into a 30x30 pile that I taped together. Just for good measure I turned all the boxes inside-out so that no English text was visible. And I threw a Korean new paper on top as the final touch. All this to escape the possible fines or embarrassment of garbage being returned to you because you did it wrong. I bet people who live on base don’t have this problem.
I also found out (via the internet) that I can put our recyclables into clear plastic garbage bags! yay I know where to buy those, I can totally get those at the commissary. AND if I can get our landlord to get us one of those bio waste food bucket things we’ll only have to buy the over priced garbage bags. If only I knew where to buy them...
I know I seem obsessed with this, but really it’s the only thing I’m having a hard time adjusting to. We live in a big city. Check. We have to walk everywhere. Check. It’s actually cold here. Check. The food is different. Check. It’s very far away from friends and family. Check. I was expecting things to be a lot harder. Not that it’s easy, but Justin and I are just good at supporting each other. And after the dryer gets fixed there won’t really be anything wrong with the apartment.
Justin is working looooooooong hours for the next two weeks. He’s got a 12 hr night shift. But it takes about an hour to get to where he’s working (they’re busing them) so add 2 hours to his day. Plus he has to walk to where they bus them from. Add about 30-45 minutes both ways. So conservatively another hour. So that’s a total of 15 hours away from home every day. And when he does get home, the poor guy is so tired he pretty much goes right to bed. Sometimes he eats some food first, but not always. He then sleeps for maybe 6 hours, takes about an hour to get ready at the beginning of his day. That leaves very little us time. My schedule is completely messed up.
This new overtime is harder than I thought it would be. Probably because I wasn’t thinking it would be hard. If this was how our life was normally, there would be problems. I’m so thankful that it’s only two weeks.
I did venture out of the apartment on my own tonight. I didn’t really want anything we had to eat at home and I was curious about the near-by pizza place. It plays techno. It wasn’t a long walk, but I was slightly freaked, I have no idea why. Just my normal reclusive self being taken out of it’s comfort zone I guess. They thankfully had take out (a lot of places don't) so I order two small pizzas. Four cheese and Hawaiian. I get the pizzas home and open the four cheese first. There is honey and walnuts on the pizza. I am slightly confused, but eat the pizza anyway. Over all the pizza was fine, mostly American style, just not very good. Also extremely over priced. But now I know. And knowing is half the battle.
Also, I saw it snow this morning. It didn't stay on the ground, but for someone who has been in Texas for the last 20 years, it was beautiful.
Showing posts with label apartment. Show all posts
Showing posts with label apartment. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Americatown and dealing with Korea
We live only two blocks away from the main strip called the foreign district or Iteawon. It's shockingly quiet at the apartment considering our location. But we noticed something as we were walking to dinner the other night:
we live in Chinatown, if Chinatown was for Americans in another country.
Koreans come to the foreign district to shop and eat at places that have "American" style food, or also food from different parts of Europe. And all the stores are mid to high priced American brands like Nike, Tommy Hilfiger, Calvin Klein, etc. So if you've ever wondered what Chinatown feels like to a Chinese person, I can tell you. It's not recognizable as home at all. I didn't realize that Iteawon was trying to be American until Justin pointed it out. Now the Burger King, Outback Steak House, Baskin Robbins and Starbucks make sense.
We love our apartment. But there are a few things we're still figuring out. The floor heating is literally heated water moving in pipes under the floor boards and the heat comes up through the floor, there are no air vents or grates in the floor. It's really great, but it takes a few hours for a temperature change to register, so if you're cold now, it's gonna be a while. At least if it's too hot we can open the windows. On the plus side there's no such thing as a cold winter floor (if you do it right).
To go around some of the electrical issues, we just bought a Korean 220v toaster and microwave. They're pretty easy to use, they just have numbers. So at least nothing in the kitchen is going to blow up. Except maybe the leaking dishwasher.
The tap water tastes a little like sulphur, Justin says he doesn't notice, but we have those giant plastic water bottles delivered for our water cooler so it's okay.
Also Justin explained why it smells so, so bad outside occasionally, they don't have S pipes for the sewers so the smell comes up especially in the city.
In the apartment there is one whole bedroom we don't have anything in, we just keep that door closed. It was a little weird at first, but honestly, I forget it's there most of the time. It's such an opposite problem from what I usually have, too much space.
The whole confusing trash thing is basically the same as California (garbage, recycling, and bio/food waste) but you have to use special bags that are about the size of an American grocery store bag and we haven't found out where to buy them yet... My friend Ceci drove me to base with huge black trash bags full of our trash and boxes from all our new stuff. I felt like such an American stereotype.
This past Saturday night we had to fill my rolling suitcase and walk to base to do laundry in his barracks. The washer and dryer are Korean (the landlord didn't want to move them out, so we couldn't get American ones from the army) but we're pretty sure the dryer is broken. It's an electric condensing dryer so it works differently, but after four runs and it's inability to dry one damp kitchen towel, we're positive it's not us. At least we got our clothes and sheets washed on base though.
That may sound like a lot of things going wrong, but I really don't notice them much. Justin and I have never really had our own place together until now, and it's such an exciting thing to talk to him Not on a computer. So, I'm enjoying the adventure and I'm enjoying being with Justin. I just wish I could wash my clothes and throw things away without thinking too hard.
also, good news the Army exchanged our little love seat for a real three seater sofa! yay! small victories.
we live in Chinatown, if Chinatown was for Americans in another country.
Koreans come to the foreign district to shop and eat at places that have "American" style food, or also food from different parts of Europe. And all the stores are mid to high priced American brands like Nike, Tommy Hilfiger, Calvin Klein, etc. So if you've ever wondered what Chinatown feels like to a Chinese person, I can tell you. It's not recognizable as home at all. I didn't realize that Iteawon was trying to be American until Justin pointed it out. Now the Burger King, Outback Steak House, Baskin Robbins and Starbucks make sense.
We love our apartment. But there are a few things we're still figuring out. The floor heating is literally heated water moving in pipes under the floor boards and the heat comes up through the floor, there are no air vents or grates in the floor. It's really great, but it takes a few hours for a temperature change to register, so if you're cold now, it's gonna be a while. At least if it's too hot we can open the windows. On the plus side there's no such thing as a cold winter floor (if you do it right).
To go around some of the electrical issues, we just bought a Korean 220v toaster and microwave. They're pretty easy to use, they just have numbers. So at least nothing in the kitchen is going to blow up. Except maybe the leaking dishwasher.
The tap water tastes a little like sulphur, Justin says he doesn't notice, but we have those giant plastic water bottles delivered for our water cooler so it's okay.
Also Justin explained why it smells so, so bad outside occasionally, they don't have S pipes for the sewers so the smell comes up especially in the city.
In the apartment there is one whole bedroom we don't have anything in, we just keep that door closed. It was a little weird at first, but honestly, I forget it's there most of the time. It's such an opposite problem from what I usually have, too much space.
The whole confusing trash thing is basically the same as California (garbage, recycling, and bio/food waste) but you have to use special bags that are about the size of an American grocery store bag and we haven't found out where to buy them yet... My friend Ceci drove me to base with huge black trash bags full of our trash and boxes from all our new stuff. I felt like such an American stereotype.
This past Saturday night we had to fill my rolling suitcase and walk to base to do laundry in his barracks. The washer and dryer are Korean (the landlord didn't want to move them out, so we couldn't get American ones from the army) but we're pretty sure the dryer is broken. It's an electric condensing dryer so it works differently, but after four runs and it's inability to dry one damp kitchen towel, we're positive it's not us. At least we got our clothes and sheets washed on base though.
That may sound like a lot of things going wrong, but I really don't notice them much. Justin and I have never really had our own place together until now, and it's such an exciting thing to talk to him Not on a computer. So, I'm enjoying the adventure and I'm enjoying being with Justin. I just wish I could wash my clothes and throw things away without thinking too hard.
also, good news the Army exchanged our little love seat for a real three seater sofa! yay! small victories.
Friday, February 18, 2011
I don't count as a person
according to the army, I don't count as a person. when we were signing our lease and getting all the paper work done for Justin to live off base we were informed that he was UNaccompanied (b/c we chose non command sponsorship and I wasn't on any of his original orders). Besides being slightly insulted this wouldn't have mattered at all except it affects what furniture they gave to us. We have a full sized bed, a love seat, a small square kitchen table with two chairs, a desk and one chest of drawers. And a three bedroom apartment.
So let me back up, before I rant Too much let me just say, I love our place. It's probably one of the nicest places I've lived. Picture us in a large city, like New York... we have a three bedroom, two bathroom apartment with a small backyard and meticulously trimmed trees (each look like three bulb sitting on top of the other). We also have quick access (two street stair cases) to get to the main strip BUT without any traffic noise at all. The apartment itself is really nice too, probably one of the nicest I've seen anywhere in Asia. We love it. We love living in it. and we love living together.
So, we have a slightly larger than we need apartment. And too small furniture. That isn't so bad. The frustrating part was when we went to wash our new dishes. The dishwasher leaked. okay, fine, not such a problem. The landlord will look at it when they get back from Honk Kong. We go to wash our new sheets and towels. The first wash load didn't even dispense the soap, so it didn't wash. The second load we put the soap directly into the machine, they was you would in America. I'm waiting to that load to finish... And the dryer...it's apparently some kind of condensed heat dryer so it takes less energy but it takes longer to dry, okay fine... four cycles later our towels are still very damp.
At this point I'm frustrated, I didn't sleep too well in our rather small bed on our new sheets we didn't have a chance to wash with our too small comforter because all they had at the PX that wasn't zebra print was king sized. So I go to throw away the boxes that are empty from our new kitchen things. But I remember, oh wait, you can't just throw something away. No, you have to sort it and cram it into this tiny bag no bigger than a regular grocery bag. So I sort, and I rip up boxes and I finally get the recyclables into their bag (which is a little bigger thank goodness). The only reason I'm worried (besides the environment, but really, I think the earth will be okay if I throw away my banana peel with my dirty kleenex) is that they fine you like $50 a bag if you do it wrong. And I can't read the freaking directions on the bag so I have no idea. Our realtor said that a lot of G.I.s just put all their trash into those huge black garbage bags and carry their trash to base where you can just throw everything away in a giant dumpster. I miss America, but I am Not that American.
I've unpacked, and I really don't have much here. I have plenty of room on my closet bar and the built in drawers aren't over flowing. We haven't finished moving all of Justin's things over to our place yet. And we have a few more things to buy (and return, the cookie sheet we got, while standard size in the the US doesn't fit in the over here. At all. Not one way and not the other.I can't even make a dozen cookies).
This will be a very different kind of year, the city setting fooled me for a while into thinking I could get everything I needed or was used to. I won't really be lacking anything, but it will be a bit more challenging to get regular things done; like doing laundry or throwing trash away.
So let me back up, before I rant Too much let me just say, I love our place. It's probably one of the nicest places I've lived. Picture us in a large city, like New York... we have a three bedroom, two bathroom apartment with a small backyard and meticulously trimmed trees (each look like three bulb sitting on top of the other). We also have quick access (two street stair cases) to get to the main strip BUT without any traffic noise at all. The apartment itself is really nice too, probably one of the nicest I've seen anywhere in Asia. We love it. We love living in it. and we love living together.
So, we have a slightly larger than we need apartment. And too small furniture. That isn't so bad. The frustrating part was when we went to wash our new dishes. The dishwasher leaked. okay, fine, not such a problem. The landlord will look at it when they get back from Honk Kong. We go to wash our new sheets and towels. The first wash load didn't even dispense the soap, so it didn't wash. The second load we put the soap directly into the machine, they was you would in America. I'm waiting to that load to finish... And the dryer...it's apparently some kind of condensed heat dryer so it takes less energy but it takes longer to dry, okay fine... four cycles later our towels are still very damp.
At this point I'm frustrated, I didn't sleep too well in our rather small bed on our new sheets we didn't have a chance to wash with our too small comforter because all they had at the PX that wasn't zebra print was king sized. So I go to throw away the boxes that are empty from our new kitchen things. But I remember, oh wait, you can't just throw something away. No, you have to sort it and cram it into this tiny bag no bigger than a regular grocery bag. So I sort, and I rip up boxes and I finally get the recyclables into their bag (which is a little bigger thank goodness). The only reason I'm worried (besides the environment, but really, I think the earth will be okay if I throw away my banana peel with my dirty kleenex) is that they fine you like $50 a bag if you do it wrong. And I can't read the freaking directions on the bag so I have no idea. Our realtor said that a lot of G.I.s just put all their trash into those huge black garbage bags and carry their trash to base where you can just throw everything away in a giant dumpster. I miss America, but I am Not that American.
I've unpacked, and I really don't have much here. I have plenty of room on my closet bar and the built in drawers aren't over flowing. We haven't finished moving all of Justin's things over to our place yet. And we have a few more things to buy (and return, the cookie sheet we got, while standard size in the the US doesn't fit in the over here. At all. Not one way and not the other.I can't even make a dozen cookies).
This will be a very different kind of year, the city setting fooled me for a while into thinking I could get everything I needed or was used to. I won't really be lacking anything, but it will be a bit more challenging to get regular things done; like doing laundry or throwing trash away.
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