Booty Call and Paranoia

No this post does not have anything worse than PG-13 content, fear not.

My poor wife has been plagued by paranoia as long as I have known her. If she is the least bit worried about her actions, she'll be sure to keep an eye glued over her shoulder.

For example one of my favorite paranoia memories...

Spring 2004 Lauren and I took a trip out to Santa Barbara for spring break to hang out in sunny California with Danika and Brandon. We were only freshmen in college and too young to purchase adult beverages. Through "good" fortune, I obtained an ID card of a six foot tall, blue-eyed male who could pass as me about one out of fifteen times. While the four of us sat in the car outside of a shady enough liquor store, Lauren looked this way and that, white as a ghost. The other three of us discussed what I should attempt to get.

Everytime someone walked by the car Lauren would try to act OVERLY casual by peering out the window, scratching her arm, or awkwardly bobbing her head to the music as she pleaded with us to turn around.

I finally got the courage and headed inside. While inside, Brandon decided to play Lauren a little bit.
"Wait, guys, I think that is an undercover cop over there." - Brandon
"WHAT!! Where?!?!" - Lauren
"Right there, look!" -Brandon

Lauren of course was now nervous as all get out. I was inside, probably about to get arrested. Everybody else would be charged with being an accomplice to the crime (or so the little voice in her head told her). Too panicked Lauren says "Yes, I think you are right. That guy has a badge. Guys, seriously, I just saw his badge!"

Fail, it was no cop. Just your average citizen. We left there with no run-ins with the law, thankfully.

Well, paranoia reared its ugly head again just the other day.

The gym in our building is in the basement along with part of the parking garage and the recycling/dumpster area. Next to recycling people drop off old furniture (where we found our lovely night stands). Whenever we go to the gym, we always head over there to take a look to see what people are throwing out.

Low and behold, this day there was a navy blue, leather couch. I could tell Lauren wanted it as we looked it over and contemplated rescuing it. However, I also saw that little jitter and look in her face that screams "oh my gosh, we are going to get caught". Mind you, we aren't stealing, but the paranoia remains. Finally we were able to get over her fear hurdle and loaded the couch into the elevator. We rode up as Lauren frantically looked at the numbers praying for no stops before floor six. Again, safe.

We made it all the way to our apartment with only one man giving us strange looks. All cleaned and set up, it is not a bad little couch.

11:30PM, the digital sounds of Fur Elise blast out through the doorbell. We look up to see who it is. (Seriously, the whole video camera doorbell thing is so awesome). There we see a Korean man with a serious face and hands on hip. We look at each other and then back to the screen (panic white sets across Lauren's face). Quietly we say surely he'll go away, after all it is almost midnight and we're both in bed. Not 12 seconds later he pushes the doorbell again. 5 seconds later, tries the handle.

In a matter of 30 seconds he rang the doorbell four times and tried the handle three. The impatience he showed was absurd! Lauren finally says "ugh, just go open it, I know they have cameras in the building, I'm sure he is coming to get the couch back! Ugh! What are we going to say!! I'm so embarrassed!!"

I can't do anything but laugh. Finally I get to and open the door. The guy takes a step forward like he is going to come in and looks up and sees this white guy standing there. Bewildered, he does some funny hand motions, first the touchdown type sign, then the giant arm "X", then bowed, and walked away.

Not sure what he was doing, or what he wanted. We can only guess a booty call...thankfully he wasn't coming for the couch...

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

Summer Vacay!

The first day of our much needed R&R vacation was a complete success. It started out with a 2+ hour catch up session with good friends (parents - Rick and Dee). We headed to Garak Market for our semimonthly visit and unfortunately got a little ripped off by a peach farmer, but it was worth it as they are very juicy and delicious. We then did some "spring" cleaning (as much as you can do for a 400sq ft apartment). Although we were tired, we set out to explore the southern part of our Gangnam neighborhood. We haven't really ventured to the area south of BIS (except for the occasional visit to a yummy wanna-be Mexican restaurant) and have been wanting to check it out for awhile now. Our subway station is slightly north of us so we don't visit the southern area very often. Well, we are so glad that we did. This afternoon/evening we stumbled upon a true gem. Christopher and I saw some trees about three kilometers away from our apartment and decided to attempt to quench our thirst for el natural and check it out. A very hidden doorway led to a beautiful hiking area right within our own neighborhood. After conquering the hike, despite our flip flops, we stumbled upon an outdoor, open air gym. It's complete with weights, stationary exercises, and a community of age 40+ Korean "hikers". We will definitely be returning. There's something about lifting weights while looking out over God's glorious vegetation vs sweating like pigs in the basement of a humid building with no refrigeration.

We know there have been some very exciting Summer Vacations for all of you, such as Florida feats, New England expeditions, Colorado quests, Indiana inquisitions, DC declarations, and Hawaii happenings (my hubs likes alliteration and makes me use it). We'd love to know the other vacations spots you're headed/or have headed to this summer...

Doorbell

Here is a little video we uploaded to show you the Korean doorbell we talked about in a previous post.

more apartment photos...

Continuation of apartment photos

Our new home

We had been told from a number of different people to not expect a grand welcoming in South Korea and anticipate a very small, probably dirty, studio apartment. We came in expecting the worst, but still hoping for the best.

After corresponding with Mr. Kim, our soon to be assistant principal, through broken English and Korean, he gave us and Pep Choi, our driver, directions to the new place. We illegally parked and the three of us lugged 6 heavy bags into the elevator quickly trying to avoid a parking ticket.

We reached our room, 624, and rang the charming doorbell (digital version of Beethoven’s fur Elise). Mr. Kim answered and ushered us in immediately giving us a hand with the bags. Once we put the bags on the floor Mr. Kim stared puzzled at Lauren and my feet. We looked at him; he looked longer at our feet. Finally Lauren and I realized we made the unknown (to us), fatal mistake of entering a room with our shoes on.

After removing our shoes, Mr. Kim was happy to show us the details of our fabulous new studio apartment. He had another name for it, “the honeymoon suite”. He was so proud of himself for picking out the floral bedspread to match the gorgeous wallpaper and aptly naming the room in honor of our recent wedding and marriage.

Mr. Kim was kind enough to clean the apartment for us and buy us a few essentials (bread, milk, and a frying pan among other things). We can’t thank him enough for it. All in all, the apartment is mostly what we expected.