JOURNAL: The River Styx

I am back in Korea, and all I can say is that this time around will require a HUGE adjustment. I am now living in Hwaseong City, which has the peculiar distinction of being the home of Korea's only known serial killer (never captured). It also has the largest amount of farmland in Gyonggi province. Pity I didn't know this before I signed on for a year.

I am now a professor at a univeristy just outside of Suwon. When I interviewed for the position, I took a taxi. I did note that we were getting a bit in the country, but not far enough away from Suwon for me to get overly alarmed at the time. I was informed that my accomodations were a twenty minute bus ride away from the university; I assumed that this meant I would be living in the city, as there were no apparent apartment complexes near the universty. Instead, I got the small village of Byeong-jeom.

After a relaxing and pampering flight in on Singapore Airlines, I hopped a taxi to the address given to me. As we got further and further away from civilization, I really became nervous. The taxi driver called my contact twice to get directions. We came through a rather short strip of a rural downtown, with neon lights proclaiming PC Bongs, "Saxy bar," and kim bap shops. We passed by the double barber poles and strip joints, whereupon the town ended. We went down a small, narrow, one way road, and the driver pulled off into a parking lot. There was a small apartment complex, and the driver said, with a smirk, "Shangri-la officetel."

The property wasn't much to look at; trash overflowed from the dumpster area (the building is being renovated), and there were no lights. The driver assisted me with my luggage, and we went into the apartment marked 501. It was a shithole.

Half of the wall-covering, a mysterious thick gray felt substance, was off the wall. The place clearly had never been cleaned; the white kitchen area was grimy with soot and grease, and the refrigerator smelled like rotten meat. My bare feet become black from the floor, and there was no bedding on the bed. Still, the furniture was new, including a dinette, new mattress, and a fabulous orange vinyl couch! My contact person arrived, and did a double take when he saw the mess. He very kindly took me shopping for bedding, dishes, cleaning supplies, etc. I then returned and fell into an exhausted sleep.

I was startled awake by pounding on the door. Two workmen insisted on coming in. It appears that the ugly wall felt was new; they had come to finish the job. I let them in, and they went to work. Actually, I didn't sleep well anyway because:

a)The Korail/subway line runs right past my bathroom window
b) The building is right next to an overpass
c) We are in the direct flight path of the local Air Force base
d) There is a dog farm next door(not sure whether they are "eating dogs" or breeding dogs)

The workmen left, and I talked to my contact. He promised that someone would come in and clean. They did, sort of; the renovation mess was gone by the time I got back and the floor had apparently been swept. It took me two days to clean the kitchen; it is actually pretty decent under the grit.

I have been in the apartment for four days, and it does have its charm, in a shabby chic sort of way. There is not one straight line in the place; building codes are apparently non-existent out here. The baseboards and panelling are cheap particle board with veneer. The kitchen sink doors do not hang straight, which drives me nuts, but they close! The only thing that concerns me is that there are weak spots in the floor. They sag when I walk across them. The ondol pipes will prevent me from falling through the floor; even so, I have no intention of testing that theory. Because of the shoddy workmanship, I can see concrete at the edge of the wooden floor, which actually reassures me somewhat. The building itself appears to be solidly built; fighter jets regularly fly over, trains run next to it, and it doesn't shake or rattle as some buildings would.

When you look at the room as a whole, and don't look to closely at the workmanship, the design is actually rather charming. I think that the owner had good intentions, but chose economy over functionality.

NOTE: Back in Korea

I will be temporarily unavailable, but I will update my blog next week.

I am back in Korea, and I am getting settled just now.