Affordable Housing

In living the way we do, Alrica and I want to have time to explore all these myriad places we visit. So we try not to overwhelm ourselves with work. The trade-off is that one doesn't make as much money. That's fine, because we find that we can still do what we want to do on our budget. Alrica sometimes posts about the budget. Maybe she will again soon. But whether or not she does, here's a somewhat obvious fact: the cost of living of a place makes a big difference in how we can live.

When we are spending a month or more in someplace with a very low cost of living, like Vietnam or Thailand, rent is very affordable. And an inexpensive meal might run two dollars a person. And a slightly more expensive meal might run six dollars a person. And if we want to splurge, we can spend fifteen dollars a person.

South Korea is not in that category. While I would say the cost of living is less than in the United States, it's not way less. So we have to make some accommodations to fit the budget. And that includes in our accommodations.

Much of the population of Seoul lives in high-rise buildings. This is reasonably new. In fact, almost all of Seoul is reasonably new. Understand that after the Korean War, Seoul was in rubble. A few buildings survived, but not many. It had been the scene of three major battles during the war. This means most of the buildings are from 1950 or later. And much of the housing is from 1970 or later, including high-rises.

But not all of the residents Seoul lives in high rises. Including us. I am going to try to explain our neighborhood. We live in a market.

The central street of the Central Market. Only here on the street where I live!

That could be confusing if you are thinking of a grocery store. No, where we live is an entire neighborhood where the streets have stalls along side them. The center street which only allows pedestrians and motorcycles and bicycles even has stalls in the center of it. There are some shops built into the buildings on either side of the roads, but much of the business is at the sidewalk level, no need to pass through doors. Of course, there are buildings. And those buildings, while dedicated to commerce on the ground floor, often have residential space on the upper floors. These buildings tend to only be about two or three floors.

Our building is three floors. There is a textile shop at ground level. On the second floor are two apartments, one of which is ours. There are more apartments on the third floor.

In many ways, I love this space. It's surprisingly quiet given that we live above a market. And the location is fantastic. Not only is there great food all around us, but we are so close to several bus lines and metro lines, we can get anywhere. The heat comes from under the floor, and the temperature is quite comfortable. True, the windows give us views of the walls of the neighboring buildings, but they open and let in fresh air.

I admit, it is small. Let's say, it is efficient. And even with all its efficiency, it's straining the budget a bit. But we wanted to try living in Seoul, and we had come in underbudget in our last few locations, so we aren't worried about it.

View of the door and shoe rack

Allow me to describe the "efficiency" as I termed it. When you enter the front door, (there is no back door,) you are in the kitchen/laundry room. It's just like a hallway. Beside the door is a shoe rack (because you don't wear shoes indoors in Korea. Going forward, first you see places to place the garbage and recycling. Next is the refrigerator which says "Cooing" on the door. I don't know if this is meant to be cooling, but missing a letter l or if the refrigerator is making soft pigeon noises. I haven't heard any soft pigeon noises, so that's some evidence of a negative.

Kitchen view toward the washing machine

On top of the refrigerator is a microwave labeled "Cuckoo". We have a bird theme going on. Though, it's nice that some things are written in the Latin Alphabet. The dials for the microwave are in Korean. Same for the washing machine, but we'll get there.

The towel is hanging down from on top of the microwave. No towel rack.

Beyond the refrigerator is the counter, the cabinets, and the sink. Then at the end of the hall is the washing machine, though there is a curtain rod and drape one can pull to hide the washing machine, I suppose if one has company. I'm not sure where the company would go, but they don't have to see the washing machine. What a relief.

The washer is also labeled in Korean. When I translate some of the settings, I have "Dehydration" which I can set to "River" or "Middle" or "Approximately." I think my translation app is missing context. But I take it to be high, medium, and low.

On the left side of the hall are two doors, one to each of the two bedrooms. The bedroom farther from the front door is the larger of the two. Here there is a table which has to double as our dining room table and as our desk for working. So there is a lot of me moving my computer from table to bed and then from bed to table. The table is a small round one, and can only seat two people. So again, not sure what I would do if I had company. But that doesn't seem likely.

Bedroom, Dining Room, Office

The landlord has a lot of stuff in the room. There are pretty things and smelly things on the table. There is a television on a stand in one corner and at its base are books, boxes, and other small appliances. For a place with limited space, our landlord is already filling a lot of it.

I discovered (to say it nicely) what one of those small appliances is. It seems to be the Korean equivalent of an Amazon Echo, an Alexa. I learned this because I was meeting with a student and suddenly I heard a female voice speaking in Korean. It sounded just like the voice that Alexa has. But I had no idea what it was saying. I ignored it, because I was working with a student. All of a sudden, the television turned on. There is a cartoon on the screen which is also speaking Korean. I hqd to excuse myself from the meeting so I could turn off the TV. After my meeting, I found what I believe to be the Amazon Echo and held the power button until it turned blue. I think this means I turned it off, though maybe it suffocated. Either way, it hasn't spoken to me since.

I have no idea what I said during my meeting that was close enough to the Korean "Alexa" to get it started in the first place. So I have no way to test, for sure, that it won't happen again. If it does happen again, I will remove its power cord, but I am trying to be as non-disruptive as possible.

The other bedroom really has only room for the bed, a stool, and the door to the bathroom.

The "en suite" bedroom

The bathroom is the funniest part. First, it's a wet bath. What I mean is that there is no separate shower stall. The shower is on the wall and when you use it, the bathroom gets wet. The drain is in the bathroom floor. This is not new to us. We've seen that in many places in Africa and Asia. This one is a little bit different though. The faucet for the shower is the sink faucet. Many of you are used to the tub faucet having a tab you can pull up and that switches it to the shower. Same idea here, but it is the sink faucet which has a tab that you pull out and it switches to the shower. So you take your shower in front of the sink.

The sink faucet that redirects to the shower

The bathroom is under the stairs that go up to the third floor. At the sink and shower, you can stand normally. But the toilet is located at the far end, under the slope of the stairs. There is even a sign warning you to watch your head.

The sign on the sloped walls says "Watch your Head" (in English and Korean)

For all the men out there, you will understand what I am going to explain next. When you have to urinate, you have two choices. You can sit to pee, that works. But if you prefer standing, well, I have a song for you! I bet you can figure out what the melody is I have in mind.

Every limber Limbo boy
Has a skill he can employ.
Watch your head because of stairs.
So you're not caught unawares.
If you want to stand, that's fine.
Be prepared to bend your spine.
When the toilet's placed like this.
You must do the Limbo piss.

Another upside! It's rare that I come out of the bathroom not humming The Limbo Rock. And I am doing such good stretching exercises!