Life Changes

Our living arrangement has been quite the change for us. For the first five months of our marriage we lived in an adorable apartment in Congress Park – it was a lavish home compared to our standards now. Thanks to our very generous wedding gifts, we practically had every kitchen gadget imaginable. Our meals were cooked using the best non-stick pots and pans available. We enjoyed our food using our beautiful dishes and pristine flatware and no drink touched our lips unless it was poured into the appropriate glass. Once every scrap of food was rinsed away down the handy garbage disposal, the dishes were nicely placed in the brand-new, silent-mode dishwasher. My, how things have changed.



If you read our first post you would know that our "honeymoon suite" was very bare when we first arrived in Seoul. Well, it’s been five months and not much is changed. We still have only the one pan and one knife, which were given to us by Mr. Kim. We’ve upgraded and now have one fork. We eat mostly using chopsticks and spoons (we are high class and have four of each). We have one non-stick pot and one very not non-stick pot. Two glass plates, four plastic plates, four bowls, two mugs, and five 5oz plastic cups sit in our cabinet. The only gadget in this household is our trusty “magic bullet” – it comes in extremely handy. There is no oven, no microwave, and only two gas burners. All, the few that we have, dishes are washed by hand and any and all food scraps are saved and later deposited in the Seoul-mandated food recycle bins. This limits our cooking options but we’ve become experts in using what we do have. It was interesting getting used to not having an oven or a microwave or even a toaster but it is completely and easily doable and we are actually really enjoying it. We eat nearly every meal at home and living without the Western commodities has quickly become second nature.

Although we feel the change mostly in the kitchen, all household areas are different. Our giant (queen sized) bed takes up one quarter of our apartment leaving little to no room for much furniture besides our small two-person table, eternally black, poor quality TV, and a three-drawer dresser/cardboard TV stand. However, we are very pleased with our newly acquired matching nightstands – by nightstands we mean orange cushioned stools abandoned near the dumpster (nothing a little Windex can’t fix, right?).



We’ve mentioned that we have our own washing machine (hooray!). This is extremely important, especially since laundry day is about every other day due to the unbearable humidity causing abundant amounts of sweat shocking our dry-climate-adapted bodies. We do not have a dryer, which isn’t an issue except for those 80% humidity days when it takes 72 hours for anything to dry and the line takes over our already tiny living space.



This semi-minimalist way of life has fortunately suited us well and is teaching us a lot. We’ve really been focusing on escaping the material “necessities” some cultures say we “need”. Don’t get us wrong, we look forward to the day we get to re-open all of our nicely packed wedding gifts that are awaiting our return stateside, but we are embracing this lifestyle and discovering the many values it continually teaches us.

"You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forever more." Psalm 16:11