My little home

I've been asked to show you around my little room, so here it is. It's a pretty standard room for foreign teachers, with an ensuite shower room and a kitchen along one wall. Small, but enough for me. I also have a balcony which adds on a metre, and I do just fine when people come over :)

So if you were to knock on my door - the last one of three on the second floor of the right wing of Jupiter Block - you'd open the door to my welcoming call and see the view in the photo on the left. Before the fridge is a built in double closet, not deep enough to hang a jacket straight. On the right is my bathroom. This part is just wide enough for me to stretch my arms out to the sides and brush the walls with my fingertips.

The light is horrible, because there's a fluorescent strip light directly overhead - but it's ok, because you can now move further in to where Dad's Kenyan kikoi is doing duty as a lightshade, improving the atmosphere enormously.

Walk down between my computer desk and bed to stand at the sliding door, and look back towards the entrance.









I hope your eyes were first drawn to the beautiful pink lotus lantern hanging from the ceiling, because it's one of the most valuable things in this room! :)

My TV is also pretty important for late night viewing. I seek out Korean chat shows; I try to guess why the big man is laughing hysterically at the pretty girl who's singing, while 15 people of various ages sit in tiers behind her nodding sagely and saying what appear to be deep and meaningful things, or otherwise laughing with the big man, and computer generated words ("BANG!" "CRASH!") fill any empty screen space. It's great fun. I wish they'd subtitle it. My other favourite is a soap drama set in early 20th century Korea - except that every now and then the main dandy turns up in a modern Porsche. Can't wait to learn some Korean...

























Now stand at the end of my bed. Casting your eyes to the left, you'll see my workdesk where all the important day-to-day lesson prep and student report card writing goes on. Yeah, no, not really. 'Cause my job's great.

My favourite part here is the photo wall, which is slowly building up. I'm just waiting for a care package from Robyn, which will contain sticky-stuff, which has not as yet been invented in Korea. No, really.

On the right hand side of the room is my lovely bed, which is perfect for me after years of futons - it's about the same hardness as one. Many complaints from my poor colleagues who have to sit out evening activities because of bad backs from their hard beds. Actually, hang on a moment... I think there may be something going on there... The bed is a fold-out item with shelves - sticky-stuff may be too futuristic, but IKEA has certainly taken Korea by storm. My book collection is growing, as you can see - and there's a horribly tempting new-and-second-hand English bookshop Cait and I will be going to on Saturday in the foreigner sector in Seoul, so I'm sure there'll be a couple to add to it by that evening.

And that's about it! It's slowly becoming home, especially with all the people dropping in every 5 minutes for a cup of coffee and some gossip!

Now, I'm just off to have a chat with a coteacher about the Limbo class he had to spend sitting on a chair earlier this evening...