Movin' on up

New Apartment
Originally uploaded by shelbs1988

One of the great benefits of being a teacher in Korea is that, in most cases, the schools provide your apartment in addition to your salary. But the thing about having free accommodations is you kind of just have to take what you’re given, which in my case meant a high-maintenance, dilapidated cubicle. I dealt with it as best I could (hey, it hasn’t been that long since my dorm-days), but when the school replaced my peeling wallpaper with glittery ladybugs and iridescent checkers and my antique boiler died, promptly subjecting me to two weeks of icy showers, I’d had enough.

Luckily, the foreign director at my school had also had enough – of my maintenance complaints, that is – and suggested I move into another teacher’s apartment after their contract ended. I obviously jumped at the opportunity, as really anything could be an improvement, and thus I find myself starting the New Year in a new and highly improved apartment. Not only is my new apartment closer to school and about three times bigger, but it has a separate kitchen, bedroom, and living room, meaning I actually have space to move and live in without having to use my bed as an all-purpose sitting-dining-working-sleeping-social space. I even have a couch that folds out into a bed! From now on everything from coming home from work to having friends over will be much more comfortable and enjoyable, not to mention more grown-up. Let's just say: I've upgraded and it feels glorious.