The New Apartment

Last week I took pictures of our surrounding, but I thought I'd give you a more detailed look at how we are camping living until our stuff gets here...

Door to our house.  You don't have keys, but slid up the panel above the handle and punch in your code.  One of the cool things here, until a kid hacks it... so I keep my door dead bolted when at home.  Not that it has happened near me but it has happened in other areas down the road.

View into the house from the entry.

Entry, basically where we take off our shoes.  Nice storage on the left to hold our shoes, and other "goodies."

Door does a lot at keeping the hot/cold air out.

View to the right, just after you enter.  Strange vanity just opposite of the bathroom...

"Clark's" bathroom.  He's very opinionated about this now that he is potty training.

"Our" room.  Basically where we are ALL sleeping.  Clark and I share the bed and Clint sleeps on a blue pad on the floor.

Closets and Clint's bed.

View from "Our" room.  Entry is to the left.

Clark's future bedroom.

Living room. The T.V. and entertainment center were already here along with the bed we sleep on, but the tables and lamps were got from housing.   Oh and our "Robot" in the corner.  That's our AC.

Broke down and bought camping chairs because we were sick of sitting on the floor.

Got the computer connected to the TV so we can watch movies from there other side of the room instead of right next to the computer.  Clark refuses to conform to the change.

View of the garden outside the living-room.

Kitchen/Dinning-room

So thankful for dishwashers!!!

Our tiny stove.  I am pretty sure that the Korean builders think we are giants because I can hardly reach the top shelves and the counters in this house all come up to my belly button.  I felt like standing on a stool to cook.  The stove top is above my belly button. 

Thanks Jack for sending me with a picture of the family.  :)

Laundry room and the bazilion trash cans we have to have here...

Nice mirror between Master Bedroom and Office.

Office.  Yes those are bars on the windows.  The US government requires that all off-post houses have some kind of security system for first floor apartments.  This is what is most common.  Clint did get told this weekend from the "Sheriff"(He has some Army rank/name but I can't remember what it was) of Camp Humphreys that Korea is a VERY safe place.  I need to ask him if we have to keep the bars closed at night or not.  I actually don't have them closed on most our windows right now because our windows are closed and locked.  But I have been using the bars when the windows are open at night.  A little piece of mind especially in the room Clark is sleeping in. One of those momma worries...

More storage cubbies in the "closet" of the office.

Master Bedroom That was the blue pad we were using to sleep on before we bought the chairs.

Bathroom.  I'm going to get a dark curtain to hang over the front sliding glass doors when we finally get our stuff because I'm sure not going to like Clint getting ready in there while I'm trying to sleep. 

Tried to get the remote for the toilet and the shower all in one.  The tub is actually really deep and nice to take a bath in. Plus since the floor has a drain, I don't stress about Clark spilling/spraying water everywhere.  Clark also thinks it's rather funny to steal the remote to the toilet and spray me.  Thank goodness it doesn't work once he leaves the bathroom!

Korean Specials

Last week Clark and I stumbled upon the Tong Bok Market while trying to find the Lotte Mart (Korean Target).  Here are some of the goodies I got.  The yellow wedge thing at the top of the picture is a kind of bread with the sweet beans.  The little balls are "mochi" but not the yummy Japanese Mochi,  made similarly only with the sweet beans inside instead of ice
cream.  Then the green and white things, we decided were meant to be cooked but when we did cook them the next day they were a little dried out and I believe got thrown out because thinking back, we didn't have them with dinner.

Finally found something that will help the "skitos" (what Clark calls them) stay away from Clint.  Hopefully he won't have to take a bath in bug replant every night.  We don't know if this works yet because it's been too hot and we've been keeping the house closed up.

Clark smiling because he was happy to be eating an apricot from the market.

Oh and if any of you were wondering, they do sell dog meat.  Saw 2 stands with poor little pups cooked or ready to be cooked...  :'(

Fancy Icecream

This ice cream cone was one of those differences between the US and here.  The wrapper was cut in three sections so that you could easily unwrap the section you wanted to eat and still keep your hands clean.  It even had this nice little plastic cone at the bottom to catch the melting chocolate.  Seems like American companies wouldn't spend the extra money on such amenities because it's all about getting the most money.  I was pleasantly surprised that the company of this cone had taken the time and money to ensure not only that my taste buds were satisfied but that my hands were kept clean also.

Another cultural difference we've been dealing with is how the garbage collection works.  We have to buy special "Korean Bags" for our regular trash and our food waste.  Food waste goes in these little 5L bags that are orange.  Then the other trash that can't be recycled goes in white bags that are either 20L, 50L, or 100L.  Then they have recycling for Plastic, Paper, Metal, and Glass.  The recycling you can use good old Hefty bags.  But here is the kicker.  The paperwork makes this big deal about making sure to properly tie up your bags and put them in the correct container so that animals won't get into them.  I even saw that you are only suppose to take the trash out between 8pm and 6am Monday through Friday.  Plus what's the point in separating your trash and food waste if it goes into the same bin?  Then to make matters worse, apparently we (our complex) pissed off the trash guys because they have overturned our trash bins.  I went out last week to find the trash bin upside down, so I made Clint come out and help me turn it back over so I could properly put my trash in the bin.  Trash guys came and turned the thing back upside down.  So now everyone just piles their trash on the ground next to our trash bins.  Other complexes just have a giant trash pile next to the road. 
I called my realtor and she said that the city pays for the trash service hence why we pay for the bags, which is fine with me.  She also said she would have our landlord call the city and complain.  Not sure if he hasn't already or why he hasn't done so by now because I see him several times a week working in the garden outside our place. 

We bought a navigation system and there is an Eco driving icon on it telling you how many times you accelerate and essentially how much pollution you are putting in the air by how you drive.  What's the point if the trash can't even be controlled?

I'll keep you informed on the trash situation.  :p

The new hood

Finally made it out to take pictures of our neighborhood.  Enjoy and don't freak out...realize that we live out in the boonies more or less, and that there is a lot of construction, but that bigger cities are close by.  :)

Main street in the "ville", our little downtown area.

Hope to find Clark a bike here soon!

Where we bought Handy Hooptie

Construction and cool park for Clark on the right, but not in the picture.  Sorry.

This guy is always on the corner selling watermelons.

Beginning of the street we live off of. Lots of construction still.

One of the many restaurants around that we never see people at.

Another one with 6 dogs tied up outside.  Probably don't have any guests because who wants to trust dogs that are tied up?

More stores and restaurants on the way home.

Almost there.

Our complex.

Our complex street.

That's our building on the left.

Handy Hooptie's back end.

Garden/farm across the street from us.

Driveway to main road.

This is the way we go to take Clint to work.

This is if we turn North

Now Northwest

This is the area Northwest of us.

Just trying to give you an idea of what some of the houses look like.

Cool big house.

"I just learned I can reach the window button!"  Wonder how long the window will still operate if we keep it unlocked?

The river to the Northwest of us.

Rice paddies

This is to the Northeast of us.

VERY tiny road we turned down and thankfully found a place to turn around.

rice paddy

You guessed it...more rice!

The side of someone's house.

This is the opposite side of town.  So South of our place. 

Our church building.  Went today.  Very awesome people. It's a Branch here, so only about 50 or so people present. Relief Society had 11 women including me!  Wow what a difference from CA!

Korean building beside church building.

Downtown area by our church.

My road again. Blogger keeps getting the best of me!

Apartments across from us.

Dairy to the North of us.  Hence the cow smell I keep getting wiffs of.

MOOOO

Back of the Dairy

Crossing the river.

Giant nursery.

Road next to river that Clint wants to ride his bike down.

Same road, just other direction.

RICE!

Rice

More rice

So far this little neighborhood has been nice.  Our street is a lot more dirty then other complexes, but we have a little playground and nice neighbors, well the one's I've met so far.  It's nice being so close to the base because Clint doesn't have a long drive and there are fun things to do on base,. Hopefully we will keep having great adventures over our stay here.  :)