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I know....I have lived here practically 10 months and this is the first time I am posting about it. So...I am a little behind. I realized I have never shared what "where I live" looks like. Often people ask what living conditions are...as you will see...we are not roughing it over here.
This is the view from our front door. To the left is a place to hang our coats, a place for water jugs, and a always a pile of shoes. You ALWAYS take your shoes off before going past our front entryway. Because this is common practice in Asian countries...I love that to the right we have this great shoe closet where we can put all our shoes. Despite the closet...there is always a collection on the floor.

Also to the right, you can see another section that goes off to the side. Well...that is the door to the bathroom Beka and I share. Perpendicular to the bathroom door is the door for Beka's room.

Also, on the wall to the right, you should see a light switch-looking thing. That is the light switch...only it is to the bathroom. In Korea, the light switch for the bathroom is always on the outside. This is fairly easy to get used to, but I STILL often hit it in order to turn on/off the living room lights.

This is my room! Not much to say...besides I love it. For a month or so I lived with Yogi Bear...you will see later...but I couldn't handle it.

On the far wall to the left you will see my first piece of Roadkill. If you don't know what Roadkill is...it is furniture that you find left outside on curbs or in front of your apartment...and you claim it as your own. I love this piece of furniture. This is a great piece of Roadkill. Not only did it give me three drawers, but a space to put all my pictures...I actually have more up now than I did then. Because our walls are concrete, it is harder to hang pictures on the wall. Therefore you really learn how to use shelves more than nails to make your place feel homey.

To the right is what in Korea we call "Oakjohns" aka a wardrobe. Closets are unusual in Korea, so we have Oakjohns. That is not how you spell it in Korean, but it is how we say the word.

This is our living room...taken just moments ago. That is my laptop on the coffee table. I am currently sitting on the couch with my laptop on my lap. On the love seat you can see piles of grading. Beka's book bag is on the couch in the left corner of the picture. Oh...all that bright light is coming in from outside. We do have a closed in porch that runs the length of our apartment.

Just another view from our living room. You can see how our dining room/kitchen area goes off to the right. The other doorway is our "study" or more accurately the random room that holds all our extra stuff. Laurie's room and bathroom are across from our extra room.

Here is a closer view of our dining room/kitchen area. There is a little more kitchen to the left that you cannot see...and to the right we have a laundry room.

Here is the view of our entire kitchen. The little trash can on the counter is where we have to put all of our "food trash". We do not have a garbage disposal...so all food must be set aside and goes into the food trash trash cans outside. In Korea, you separate everything. You can't really see it, but we don't have one trash can but three. One for paper, one for plastic, one for metal. On the widow sill we place any glass or Styrofoam that needs taken out. Trash day is Wednesday, so every Wednesday, we take out our separated trash.

Our laundry room. We have an American dryer and Korean washer...nothing too exciting here...but it is a blessing to have this room. Some teachers have their washers/dryers in the hallway, in the bathroom, in the living room...we have a room for ours. It's sort of nice.

This is a picture of our extra room. This was my bedroom at first, but I couldn't take Yogi. Yogi is on the border and it counts from 1 to 9. I was in the little kids room. Not to mention that it is hard to decorate and have things go with Yogi...particularly here in Korea. So I switched rooms. Both rooms are about the same size...the shape is just different.

If you don't know...by choice I am moving from this home into a new home in less than a month with a new roommate. Why would I bother to post all of these pictures if that is about to change? Basically, because this has been home my first year here in Korea. Beka, Laurie, and I have have learned how to live with each other, and though we have had our moments, it has been a blessing to get to know these girls and figure out life in Korea. Though I am looking forward to my new home, I will miss these girls and the home we have shared this first year.