Seoulscapade » Living in “Apts”

Goodbye Seoul. Hello Ansan!

Stephen — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 14:11:25 +0000

Sigh, goodbye Bongchun-Dong. We moved out of our apartment above mid-October into a cheap place we bought in Ansan, south of Seoul. We needed somewhere cheaper and buying a place seem a much better move than renting again. I hate renting: you slave away at work for a landlord you’ve never met. It’s just throwing cash [...]

Sangdo Housing Corruption Uncovered

Stephen — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 23:35:04 +0000

Yesterday evening, under overcast skies, a meeting was held at the Sangdo construction site to discuss the state of things. It had been hastily called the day before. We got there around 5 pm and it went on until it after dark, with people arriving steadily. I told my wife before heading down there, not knowing [...]

Night Fair

Stephen — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 22:39:35 +0000

I’ve mentioned these roving apartment-complex fairs before. They setup for a day or two, featuring stalls with things for the kitchen and domestic life in general, plus a large range of specialty and food outlets. This one was more elaborate than the previous ones I’d seen. Among the extra goods on offer were wood carvings, as [...]

Talking Trash

Stephen — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 03:09:02 +0000

One of the things I love about Korea is the recycling ethic. It’s a small country with limited space, and Koreans don’t want landfills from end to end. Everything that can possible be recycled is recycled, included food. You are not supposed to throw away food in your trash. It has to be saved and then [...]

Got Some Fast Moves

Stephen — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 04:49:53 +0000

I’ve mentioned elsewhere my admiration for Korean practicality, and I might have even noted the way moving in and out of apartments is done with convenience in mind. Here they often use a large retractable conveyor system, or removal lift, on the back of a truck. These systems have telescopic sliding sections along which a base [...]

The Quiet Suicide

Stephen — Sat, 02 Jun 2007 06:41:30 +0000

The two favorite methods for committing suicide in Seoul, and probably throughout Korea, are hanging and tossing yourself out of an apartment building. The first method would appear to be the choice of celebrities. The second method probably scores highest as the one preferred by everyone else. This is partly because thousands upon thousands of [...]

Prugio Fair

Stephen — Sun, 29 Apr 2007 00:19:12 +0000

Recently after work, when rounding the corner to enter my apartment complex, I came across kind of “fair” setup close to our building. How fortuitous, I thought, because I knew that these kinds of fairs always had a stall full of bootleg movies, and I wanted a few more DVDs to watch while I do [...]

Prugio From Space

Stephen — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 12:22:02 +0000

I thought I’d take advantage of the brilliant map technology now available from Wikimapia to give an overview of some Seoul real estate. You can zoom in, zoom out and move the images around, if you want. At the centre bottom of the above image is Seoul National University, where I work. North of that [...]

Head in the Clouds

Stephen — Mon, 26 Feb 2007 13:16:07 +0000

The view above is what we now enjoy from our balcony at our new residence. And if you want to see a bit of what it’s like at night, there’s a picture below. It’s great having such a view, almost like living in a low flying aircraft. All the pictures below are of around the [...]

My New Rental

Stephen — Mon, 13 Dec 2004 21:38:18 +0000

After a year of living in a studio apartment of about 7 pyeong (or the equivalent of 7 x 3.3 sq ms; a pyeong, 3.3 sq ms, is the standard measurement used for Korean living spaces), enduring foreigner neighbours who had no concept of noise consideration, I was able to move into a two [...]