Our Very Own Apartment

Believe it or not, today actually marks our 1-year anniversary of teaching in Busan.  But, since we are on 13-month contracts, we can't yet celebrate our contract completion until next month.  However, I can tell you that we've been out of the USA for a total of 533 days, or about 17 1/2 months.  That's hard to believe!

Well, as I've said in an earlier post, this new contract period is bringing a lot of changes to me and Zach.  First, we will be changing schools.  We will no longer be teaching middle school boys.  We will, starting at the end of August, be teaching in elementary schools with both boys and girls.  We found out the names and locations of our schools earlier this week.  Zach will teach at Changjin Elementary School and I will teach at Samduk Elementary School.  Our schools are very close to each other.  In fact, we are only one subway stop away from each other!  We can commute together - at least in the mornings.

Another big change is that we are moving.  In fact, I signed our lease today and we can start moving tomorrow.  We technically don't have to be out of our current apartment until August 26th, so that gives us plenty of time to move.

You may be a bit curious as to how we went about finding an apartment, so I will try to explain it to you, briefly.  Some friends of ours actually moved into their own apartment this last February so they were able to give us some great advice.  One of them actually went with me to look at apartments.  To look at apartments, you don't need to make an appointment.  There are realtors on every corner, especially if there are many apartment buildings in the area.  We just popped our heads in and asked if they spoke English.  Most spoke enough where we could get buy.  We saw a total of 9 apartments on Tuesday.

To rent an apartment, you need a down payment or what they call key money.  The average amount for key money (at least in the buildings we looked at) is 5,000,000 Won (~$5,000.00).  The more key money you put down, the cheaper your rent is every month.  To secure the apartment you want, you need to put down the key money as soon as possible.

While looking at the 9 apartments, I took video so Zach could see them too.  I narrowed my favorites list to 3 apartments.  When Zach got off work, we looked at my favorites.  We chose our apartment the same day and transferred our key money the next day.  Today, I went in and signed the contract and paid for our first-month's rent.  Since we have Supper Club/celebrating birthdays/saying goodbyes tonight, we won't start moving until tomorrow (Saturday).

If you have any specific questions about the process of renting an apartment in Korea, just post it in the comments section or shoot me an e-mail.

Also, if you want our new address and I haven't already sent it to you, just ask!

My Favorite Street Food

My favorite street food is called Hoddeok.  You can read about it here.  But basically, it's a pancake with something sweet inside with any combination of brown sugar, honey, and cinnamon.  It's a popular street food in the winter because it's prepared hot right in front of you.  For me, not eating hoddeok in summer because it's hot is like saying I don't eat ice cream in winter because it cold.  Yeah, right!  At my favorite place to get hoddeok, it only costs 900 Won (~$0.90).  What a great snack - delicious and cheap!  Below is a quick 30 sec video of a street vendor making hoddeok.

Oh Happy Day!

Right after lunch, before 5th period started, a familiar voice came over the intercom.  The voice sounds a little something like this since I can't speak Korean.  (*see video)

The speaker didn't get to finish talking before screams of pure joy rang out in the halls.  Kids started to run down the halls giving each other high-fives.  It was chaos!  I thought school had been let out for the day.  (I could only be so lucky!)

I asked my co-teacher what all the fuss was about.  She told me that the air con (air conditioner) for the school had been turned on.  That's right!  It's July 9th and the air conditioner is being turned on for the first time this year.

"Has it been cool weather in Busan?" you might ask.  Hell no!  It's been HOT!!!  I can handle the temperature; it's the humidity I can't stand.  For those of you using Fahrenheit, it's been in the low to mid 80's.  That's 26-29 Celsius.  But, it's extremely sticky.  The classrooms get so hot during the day, especially if there is no wind.

And, though the classrooms may have the air conditioner on, my office does not have air conditioner.  So, I am stuck with the windows open and the fan on high.  Oh well.  I can do this!  Only 8 more days left in the semester.

Rainy Season

It's raining, it's pouring....

Do you notice a pattern?!  That's right, it's officially rainy season here in Korea.  The season will probably last until the end of July.  Yay for a month of rain!

This is the scene from my office window at school.  Since I face the side of the mountain, all I can see are trees.  I feel like I'm in the rainforest (though I have no first-hand experience)!  I'm sure the excitement of rain will wear off in a day or two (or even in a few hours), but right now, I LOVE the rain!

Laser Hair Removal

Zach and I will sometimes play that game.  You know the one.  "What would you do if you had  X amount of money?"  One thing I always say is that I would have hair removal done.  A friend of mine surprised me a couple weeks ago by telling me that she had laser hair removal done here in Busan.  I asked her for all the details and she was more than willing to share them with me.  Now, I will share them with you!

I went to a place called 애플 피부과 Apple Dermatology.

A great thing about this place is that you don't need an appointment; just show up!

Directions:

Take the subway to Sasang, the transfer station between the Green Line (Line 2) and the Purple Line (Busan Gimhae Light Rail Transit).  Go out of Exit 3 at Sasang.

Apple Dermatology is located in the Apple Outlet shopping center directly to the right of Exit 3.

This is taken from the top of Exit 3.

Turn right at this building.  ^^

Go through these doors and take the elevator to the 5th floor.

As soon as you get off the elevator, this will be right in front of you.

Once you get inside, the receptionist will ask you for your name, Alien Registration Card (ARC), and phone number.  The receptionist could speak enough English for me to give her everything she needed.  I sat in the waiting room for a full 2 minutes before going in to see the doctor.  The doctor spoke a good amount of English.  He asked me what I wanted.  That's when I said I wanted hair removed from my armpits.  He told me that I would have to do 5-10 sessions once per month depending on how well the treatment was working.  He also told me that the first time was only 10,000 Won (~10.00 USD).  I didn't ask him outright, but I'm pretty sure each treatment after that is 20,000 Won because that's how much my fried had to pay.  He then asked me if I wanted to get started today.  I told him yes!

I followed him into an ER type setup with curtains dividing beds.  I removed my shirt and put on gown that covered my top half.  He came back into the room and his assistant put cream on the area they were going to laser.  The actual laser took about 1 minute per armpit.  It wasn't really painful but slightly uncomfortable.  His assistant put more cream on and I was free to change back into my shirt.

FYI:  My friend started to notice some changes after 2 weeks.  I'm not sure what other areas they laser and how much they cost, but I would assume they do everything.

It was seriously as easy as that!  I will keep you updated on how things are going and if/when I start to notice any changes!

UPDATE 8/19/14:  I went to my last laser treatment today.  I did a total of 10 sessions.  (I slacked off during the winter months.)  I am so happy that I decided to do this because I notice a huge difference!  My first six sessions cost 10,000 Won and the last four cost 11,000 Won